CAIRO: Intellectuals and activists denounced Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdy Zaqzuq for expelling an employee from a meeting for refusing to remove her niqab (the full face cover). The religious counselor was asked by a Zaqzuq aide to remove her face veil before Zaqzuq s speech opening a training session Tuesday for religious advisors and prayer leaders or leave the hall, reported the Al-Masry Al-Youm. I totally reject the niqab, said the minister afterwards. No religious counselor needs to wear it since it is not required by Islamic law. How can a religious counselor belonging to the ministry teach Muslims about the principals of their religion when they are wearing a niqab? he asked, adding that imams needed to renew their religious discourse and avoid peripheral matters like the veil. Many of the imams present condemned the minister s comments, according to the newspaper. Gamal Eid, human rights activist and executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said the minister's action was not a surprise. The minister is a government employee who carries out government s directives, Eid said. Eid condemned the action which he totally regards as a violation of human rights. I do not think that such behavior will end any time soon as I can see no moves to respect human rights in Egypt, he added. Gamal El Banna, Islamic thinker, described the minster's attitude, as unpleasant "especially coming from a responsible man and, away from the religious argument about the face cover, no employee should be expelled from a meeting. El Banna said that decency and good manners have always been the Islamic way and the gentlemanly way in dealing with people. As for the face veil itself, El Banna totally disagrees with it and considers it a shame on women who wear it . and any woman who adopts it must have been brainwashed. The face veil from my point of view kills the personality of the woman wearing it and is an obstacle towards communicating with her, he added. Diaa Rashwan, Head of Comparative Politics Unit at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and editor-in-chief of The World of Islamic Movement Directory, asked in a previous interview with The Daily Star Egypt: Is the Egyptian woman's dress code an issue on our agenda nowadays? If we are to interfere how women should dress, he said, Then we are no longer a liberal democratic country, Rashwan added, who also indicated that the only Egyptian law pertaining to dress codes deals with morals and school uniforms. This anti-niqab action is not the first of its kind. A few months ago the University of Helwan banned students donning the full face veil from entering the university s hostel despite the fact that they agreed to show their faces to female guards for identity checks. While the Quran only requires women to dress modestly, many Muslim scholars insist women must cover their heads and even their faces. With Agencies
