CAIRO: The Supreme Administrative Court on Saturday upheld a decision to ban the wearing of the niqab – the full covering except eyes – in examinations at universities. The court ruled that a university is authorized to ban the niqab during exams. Local reports stated that the decision to ban students wearing the niqab from entering the exam rooms was appealed by lawyer Nizar Ghorab, who was appealing on behalf of a group of fully veiled students from both Cairo and Ain Shams universities, however, the appeal was rejected on Saturday by the court, which ruled the ban of the niqab was acceptable. The ruling is supported by the Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Goma`a who said that the majority of Muslim religious scholars view the niqab as a “mere tradition and not a obligation (Fard) in Islam.” The court said on the sidelines of issuing its ruling that this does not contradict article 2 of the constitution, which states that the principles of the Islamic Sharia Law is a main source of legislation in Egypt. The court said that if the niqab is a form of personal freedom for Muslim women, this freedom “should not contradict security and educational circumstances that would require a female student to show her face, especially during the exams.” BM
