Niqāb in Egypt
They have begun to see this dress as a security threat, because it hides the face, and because it is perceived as a political statement, a rejection of the state in favor of a strict Islamic system.
[4] Seclusion and veiling was a luxury that poorer families could not afford; so, Cairo's lower-class women could not cover their faces with the burqu.
[5] Having to attend to their work in the villages and the city, it was impossible to inhibit their movement with seclusion or cover their faces like the elite women.
Western-educated Egyptians and other leading figures of Egypt's national movement consequently were forced to reexamine the practices of veiling, seclusion of women, arranged marriages, polygamy, and divorce.
[11] For, "although ignorant, the peasant woman has accumulated such a wealth of knowledge through their work and business dealings that if educated would undoubtedly surpass her hareem sister in every respect"[12] As early as the 1870s and 1880s, before organized feminism in Egypt developed, Egyptian women also were publishing their writings and were engaged in public speaking.
Not only would women like Shaarawi remove themselves from the seclusion of their harem worlds, but fully joined their nationalist husbands in the male-led Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against British occupation.In 1925, the EFU founded a French-language magazine L'Egyptienne, which discussed unveiling in the Middle East.
[13] The relationship between the Egyptian government, the strengthening Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Azhar—regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and Sharia—affected the reaction to the conservative symbol of the niqāb.
This Islamist movement especially resonated with the younger generation, university graduates and young professionals, who began to dress differently in public from the majority of urban rising middle and even upper-class Egyptians, who since the 1930s had worn Western clothing.
[17] They also offered women protection from male harassment in the packed buses and lecture halls by arranging mini-van services and separate seating in class.
form), which was used to refer to women and men who adopted a new appearance different from the norm of most urban Egyptians and behaved conservatively in public.
[22] However, complaints by wealthy mothers about their daughters who wore Islamic garb depicts that this movement was not limited to the lower middle class.
[21] There were rumours of veiled women (and even men) taking examinations in others' places, but it was the symbol of the niqab and its political statement that seemed to disturb the regime.
[22] After incidents of extremist terrorism in Egypt, the Egyptian state under Hosni Mubarak increasingly instituted reforms to control Islamic practices and ensure that they take a state-endorsed form.
[27] (However, the sky-high inflation that resulted in Egypt after President Anwar Sadat opened the door to foreign investment and a more accurate Gulf following of Islam when many Egyptians migrated to oil-rich Arab states in search of employment.
The debate around the niqab reflects the greater war against the threat of violent extremism which has led to a broad government crackdown and massive arrests, not only of suspected extremists but moderate Islamists.
Finding schools and universities as primary sources of Islamic militancy, the government has designated education as an issue of "national security" and has initiated policies around the niqab to counter the threat of fundamentalism.
[33] After the Education Minister encountered criticism from differing ideological camps for interfering in the practices of individuals and schools, he rallied the support of strategic religious figures, including al-Azhar.
The Grand Mufti and Shaykh of al-Azhar, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, issued a fatwa stating that the niqāb is not a requirement in Islam.
[32] In 2000, a controversy around the niqāb erupted in the private American University in Cairo (AUC) when a student wished to be fully face-veiled—at the time unprecedented at the institution.
[34] The lower court ruled in favour of el-Zeini and obliged the university to allow students wearing a face veil on campus.
The Minister for Higher Education, Hani Hilal announced later that the niqāb would also not be allowed in women's dormitories in public universities for security reasons.
The decision, the minister said, followed fifteen incidents in which men had been caught attempting to enter dormitories disguised as women.
Even though this was not the first decision concerning the wearing of the niqāb, the fact that the order came from Egypt's highest seat of Islamic teaching provoked outcries from both conservatives and civil liberty campaigners.
To prevent further public outrage, the Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq directed that preachers at ministry mosques would not be allowed to mention the niqāb in their sermons.
Their leader argued that Tantawi was not entitled to make any decisions to limit the freedom of women to wear what they see as an expression of modesty, especially in the grounds of a religious institution.
[43] The Qatar based Islamic Scholar, Yusuf al Qaradawi while saying that the niqab is not a religious obligation respects those who believe it is and says that the state has no right to restrict women from adopting this type of dress.
The Administrative Judiciary Court allowed universities to ban female students who wear the niqāb from taking mid-year exams.
[52] On 27 January 2020, Egypt's High Administrative Court approved on Monday Cairo University's decision to ban its professors from wearing the niqab or face veil which was introduced in 2015.
[53][54][55][56] In November 2021, MP Farida al-Shoubashy announced that she plans to submit a draft law for discussion in the parliament, prohibiting and criminalizing the wearing of the niqab in Egypt.
[57] In 2018, Follow MP Ghada Agamy proposed a bill to the House of Representatives banning the wearing of niqab in public places.
