CAIRO: Egypt's Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayed Tantawy banned Thursday the full face veil (niqab) inside women-only classrooms and dormitories at Al-Azhar institutions. In a press conference Thursday, Tantawy said that niqab will be banned inside women-only classrooms and hostels. Students will be allowed to wear the face veil in the public areas of Azhar's education academies, schools and universities, according to Tantawy. Meanwhile, Minister of Higher Education Hani Helal told a local news program Friday morning that niqab will be banned inside women's dormitories in all public universities for security reasons. However, the minister said that he will not "prevent female students from wearing the niqab inside the different public universities or classes, provided that they agree to show their faces to male security guards. He added that there is no law that obliges universities to hire female security guards. According to Helal, the decision to ban niqab inside the dorms came after media reports of men accessing the premises disguised as face-veiled women, causing problems to female students in previous years. Helal added that his decision was sent to all universities' presidents. "I took this decision to protect my dear students who are my responsibility, Helal said, calling on universities' presidents to implement the decision without troubling face veiled students. Both Helal and Tantawy said that their decisions were based on the principle that women who wish to wear the niqab do so because they do not wish to be seen by men, so there is no need for women to cover their faces inside classrooms and dorms restricted to females, calling this "an extremist action that is rejected by the Islamic Sharia. They both also agreed that the decision is mean to fight the spread of niqab among women. A Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday against niqab, giving authorities and institutions the right to ban it. The case was filed by a number of Cairo University students who don the niqab. On Wednesday morning a few face-veiled students protested in front of Cairo University's dorms after they were not allowed to enter.
