CAIRO: Egypt's minister of family and population lashed out on Thursday over the continued controversy surrounding the niqab – or complete veiling of the face by some Muslim women – saying that she is not a fan of the attire. Minister Moshira Khattab said that she “really does not love the niqab” and those women who adorn themselves with it, know this very well. “Whenever I go to any place where they [women wearing the niqab] are present, I find them sitting in the first row and gathered especially to sit in front of me,” the minister said in a statement to reporters. (see also “Egypt banning the niqab?”) Khattab added in her press statements that “the same talk these days about the niqab has been said before about the veil. It was before they started to say that the woman that does not wear the veil is committing a sin.” She added that “I bet that in 10 years time, they will start to say that the woman who is not wearing the niqab, is a sinner.” Controversy has surrounded the full veiling of women since Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi of Al-Azhar verbally attacked a young student at an all girls school who was wearing the niqab. “There is an organized plan behind the spread of the niqab in Egypt,” added Khattab. In her statement, Khattab announced that the ministry discovered that some notaries – religious clerics who sign marriage contracts – had married some 360 children for fees ranging between 2000 and 3000 Egyptian pounds ($375 – $550), which is a direct violation of government regulations. The minister argued that the veil represents the conservative trend and as a result, more young girls are being married away by their families and forced into subjugation. She explained that the responsibility of the ministry does not stop at reducing population growth alone, but that in terms of achieving what is known as the “quality of the population. The ministry is concerned with different aspects of families' lives.” Khattab also said that she has established a new department inside the ministry, known as the Management of Values, to help promote positive family values and to mobilize more people in achieving “good conduct in their lives.” She added that Egypt, as a state, has “failed in the eradication of illiteracy, because every illiterate just loves being so” and Egypt as a state should “move away from adult literacy and focus on fighting against young people's illiteracy who dropped out of school.” Statistics in Egypt report some 50 percent of the population cannot read, although this figure has been dropping in recent years as literacy programs continue to be bolstered. She called on civil society organizations to do more volunteer work in various social areas, noting that development is the best way for the advancement of this country. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
