A muslim woman covering her face with a niqab.
Muslim women in Egypt are fighting to keep their full-face veils on. According to several reports this weekend, the full-face veil has Egypt concerned for two reasons: security and fundamentalism.
The full-face veil, also known as niqab or burqa, it’s increasingly gaining popularity in Egypt among young women because it makes them feel more pure and closer to God. But Egyptian authorities are viewing the niqab as too militant and as a sign that fundamentalism is spreading. Muslim clerics in the country have preferred women wear the veil that covers the hair only, the hijab.
In Cairo, at the Muslim al-Azhar University, there are reports that a ban on the niquab has passed. According to ABC News, the head of the school, Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi has said that the ban will apply at women-only dormitories and in classrooms only. In other reports, Tantawi has sited security as the main reason why the ban was approved. Authorities want to avoid impersonation since according to the Education Department, men have been caught snicking around wearing the burqa.
There are also concerns that fundamentalist forms of the religion are spreading. Authorities fear that a following of Salafism is growing. An article by the AFP on the subject explained what the sect is about:
“Salafism has much in common with the ideology of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, but most of its practitioners shun politics, putting the emphasis on spreading the puritan creed of emulating the practices and beliefs of early Muslims.”
According to the AFP, Egypt’s government has been on a “secular trend” for decades, yet it has seen an increasing number of attacks by fundamentalist over the years. The full-face veil is making authorities nervous even though analysts insist that the niqab is being worn for puritanical purposes only.
