CAIRO: A young Coptic Egyptian girl was allowed back into school after having been allegedly barred from classes by the school's administration in Bani Mazar in Minya for not wearing the Islamic higab, or veil. The case had sparked outrage inside the Coptic Christian community, who said it was another attempt to “Islamicize the country.” Human rights activists said the Sheikh Gadl High School allowed Feriyal Habib to enter the school without the headscarf. Habib was allowed into the school, by orders of the school principal under pretenses that she “suffers a skin deses and her scalb cant tolerate covering,” said Saeid Abdel Massih, activist and head of the Egyptian Center for Development and Human Right. Abdel Massih said the school's decision to not allow any student into the school without the Islamic headscarf remains in place. The activist called on Minister of Education Ahmed Gamal el-Din Moussa to issue a statement to all schools around the country reminding them that the headscarf is a “voluntarily dress and not obligatory in Egyptian schools” and to open an investigation “in the case of preventing Habib from attending her classes because of such issue,” he told the Copts United website on Thursday. Although it is difficult to verify the reports, with school officials denying “discrimination” in short statements to Bikyamasr.com attempts to confirm the initial reports last week, Egyptian journalists and observers say they are not surprised by the reports. “In upper Egypt and in rural areas, this sort of thing has been often reported, but it is so difficult to get behind because the administration will simply deny the situation and the girls will return to school,” said one Egyptian freelance reporter, who asked not to be named as they often travel to the city to report from. Since the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, intermittent violence and antagonism between Coptic Christians, who make up some 10 percent of Egypt's population, and the Muslim majority have occurred, but for the most part civility has prevailed. Separate attacks against Copts this week, however, showed that the tense situation can erupt in violence. In Edfu, in southern Egypt, on Friday a group of Muslim men attacked a local church and reportedly set in on fire. They also allegedly vandalized nearby Coptic homes and shops. In Fayoum, an hour south of Cairo, a security guard was shot dead in a drive-by shooting on Thursday aimed at a Christian church. BM
