CAIRO: The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) recently overturned a decision by the Judges Club prohibiting women who wear the full face veil (niqab) from entering the club, according to Hafez Abou Saeda, director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). Abou Saeda told Daily News Egypt that this has always been the SAC's stance on decisions to ban the women wearing the niqab from entering public institutions, universities or ministries. Last year, the same court ruled in favor of students at the American University in Cairo who wore the niqab and sued the university when they were not allowed to enter, said Abou Saeda, who finds such rules illogical and discriminatory. We must make a distinction between security procedures and personal freedom, said Abou Saeda. "Women in niqab should be allowed to enter all places but can be asked to show their faces to security guards. There is a tendency to make decisions that restrict human rights, he continued, the easiest solution for the government is to stop and forbid. Around six months ago, the Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdy Zaqzuq expelled an employee from a meeting for refusing to remove her niqab during a meeting. The religious counselor was asked by a Zaqzuq aide to either remove her face veil before Zaqzuq s keynote speech at a training session for religious advisors and prayer leaders, or leave the hall. I totally reject the niqab, the minister later told the press. 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. Last year 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. According to some interpretations, the Quran only requires women to dress modestly, but many Muslim scholars insist women must cover their heads and a few say they must cover their faces.
