Ain Shams University President Dr. Maged al-Dib stated during an open discussion with university students and faculty members Wednesday morning that the university has decided to ban niqab-wearing faculty members from teaching at the university and entering lectures. Educational activities require communication between the students and faculty, he said. The ban will take effect this school year. Accoring to al-Dib, niqab-wearing staff will be assigned to tasks that don't involve teaching, such as grading papers. Al-Dib warned of the growth of what he called "strange political currents" in the university, stressing to teachers that they must look after their students and guide them away from such currents. He asked them to run discussions with students participating in such trends to try to convince them to renounce their ideas in a friendly way. Al-Dib added, "You have to concentrate with the students on avoiding their involvement in such currents," explaining that the cultural activity of the university will include a number of events with major personalities, intellectuals and politicians in Egypt, with the goal of providing cultural enrichment for the students. University Vice President for Student Affairs Atef al-Ouloum responded by saying, "There are extremist and banned movements that can lead our students astray, but we make an exceptional effort to rally the students against this, because if we leave them alone, we will have to answer to God." In a related context, guards at the university Faculty of Law detained four students from the 6 April movement on Wednesday, including Manar Shukry, Magdy Abdel Rahman, Mustapha Fuad and Ahmed Sameer. The students were detained because they organized a student exhibition at the college as part of their political campaign. The campaign, which carries the slogan, "You Are The Solution," aims to raise awareness among fellow students of the group's seven demands for reform. Meanwhile, the university formed a committee of experts to prepare a file in order to compete for entry into international university rankings. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
