CAIRO - There's a local proverb, which says eat to please yourself but wear what would please others. However, such a saying, which was once observed by a large segment of society a few decades ago, seems to have no basis these days. The proverb is actually contested in the light of today's controversy in Europe and in some parts of the Islamic and Arab world, particularly where wearing the niqab (a full-face veil) is concerned and how far this has to do with individual freedom. The ban, which France has of late imposed on wearing the niqab, has triggered arguments on issues related to manifestations of religious identity, personal freedom, cross-culture differences, women's oppression and most specifically lack of communication. Back in 2006, Jack Straw, British Labour Party veteran, was perhaps one of the first persons to openly oppose the niqab not on ethnic or religious grounds but because he considered that it prevented human communication. In Syria, some l200 niqab-wearing teachers have been banned from teaching and reassigned to administrative jobs. Here in Egypt there is no societal consensus over the niqab, although Al- Azhar clerics have been inclined to describe it as a 'privilege' but not a 'must'. The decision issued last year by the Minister of Higher Education preventing eaching staff and students from wearing the niqab on campus was actually taken to court. Although a Higher Constitutional Court verdict came down in favour of the niqab-wearing claimant, the ruling was interpreted as an individual case, that is, it is not binding for all students who veil their faces. However, Mona el-Bashir, a teaching staff member at Mansoura University Faculty of Commerce, established a precedent when she sat wearing the niqab before a panel of university professors who were to examine her doctorate dissertation. El-Bashir defied university decorum, which dictates public identification of the examinee by the examining panel. El-Bashir, who has been wearing the niqab since 2000, refused to reveal her face during the discussion, although she did respond eventually to a request to remove the veil for a few seconds for the purpose of identification. El-Bashir has been granted her degree but she is waiting for the decision of the university legal committee to see whether she will be allowed to teach in her face-veil. Although ready to defend her right to wear what she deems appropriate, el-Bashir told the local Musawwar magazine recently that she would not hesitate to resign if she would be denied a teaching career. She staunchly believes that her facial expression is not part of the pedagogical process, although her professors are not at all convinced of her claim, considering that teaching is a two-way interactive process. To el-Bashir, students are mere recipients, especially in her field of specialisation, which has to do with figures and statistics. She blatantly put it that the niqab makes the students focus on the scientific material within hand rather than on her clothes or figure. El-Bashir regrets that Egyptian universities have not abided by a recent Administrative Court ruling that entitled a number of women professors the right to lecture in classes. The case of the first face-veiled doctorate student has caused a stir in the corridors of Mansoura University. According to Dean of the Faculty of Commerce Abdel-Qader Mohamed, Mona has not been yet appointed and her status is to be initially determined by her department council, and then the university council. Professor Abdel-Qader admits that the niqab is spreading fast among the young generation of university teaching staff. Figures say that face-veiled women, who are covered from head to toe, account for around six per cent of girl students in Mansoura University and about ten per cent of female teaching staff in Mansoura Faculty of Commerce. The Minister of Education Hani Helal asked for the file of Mona el-Bashir, when he was informed that she had passed her doctorate examination while refusing to take off the face veil. Helal's stand, which actually reflects an official position regarding this issue, is quite clear. He believes that the lack of eye-to-eye contact cutting across the mechanism of direct dialogue and interaction between student and teacher dictate a ban on niqab inside but not outside lecture rooms.
