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The Egyptians have just announced that wearing hijabs or niqabs (those black head-to-toe coverings that only have an opening for the wearer’s eyes) in schools is forbidden, though the wearing of coverings of the hair, as long as the face is fully visible, can continue. The hijab does not cover only the hair, but also much of the “surround” — parts of the chin, forehead, and cheeks — of the face’s oval. More on this welcome development can be found here: “Egypt imposes ban on hijab and niqab in schools, allows hair covers but they must not hide the student’s face,” OpIndia, September 12, 2023:
The Egyptian government has made a decision to restrict the wearing of the niqab (full-face veil) by girls in schools during the new academic year, which begins on September 30 this year. Reda Hegazy, Egypt’s Minister of Education, publicly announced the decision and described the new guidelines. Hair covers are permissible, according to Minister Hegazy, but they must not obscure the student’s face. Furthermore, unless approved by the Directorate of Education, no models or illustrations promoting the hair cover are permitted, he said.
Minister Hegazy also emphasized the responsibility of the guardian in the student’s decision. “It is crucial that the guardian is aware of and consents to their daughter’s decision to wear a hair cover, and this choice should be entirely voluntary, free from any external pressure or coercion,” the Minister said.
Should a girl want to wear a hair covering, even though it will continue to be allowed, the Minister of Education wants to make sure she has not been pressured to do so by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, hoping to have hair coverings warn in such a way that they become full-fledged hijabs. This new rule should be interpreted as part of the war that the El-Sisi regime is waging against the members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s another weapon to be used against members of the MB who, will, of course, continue to insist that their own womenfolk wear — if not the niqab — at the very least the hijab. And now their children can be expelled from school as a result. The Ministry is determined to turn back the clock in Egypt, to the 1950s when secularism was at its height, niqabs were never seen, and hijabs, too, were worn much less frequently on the streets of Cairo than they are today.
In fact, there is a wonderful excerpt from a speech by Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser in 1958, in which he mocks the Muslim Brotherhood for wanting to impose the wearing of the hijab — a truly preposterous idea, according to Nasser — and his audience applauds and laughs and yells out their own derisive comments about the Brotherhood and hijabs. Here it is.
Apart from Egypt, several countries like Austria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Canada, France, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan have imposed bans on the wearing of headscarves at schools and colleges.
Recently, in the year 2022, the Karnataka High Court in India also pronounced its verdict on wearing hijab in schools. The court upheld the ban and ruled that wearing of hijab is not an essential religious practice of the Islamic faith.
The hijab controversy in Karnataka gained traction in the first week of January last year when eight Muslim girls were denied entry to classes at a Udupi college as they wore hijabs. The college authorities had informed that the hijab was not a part of the uniform dress code mandated for the students.
There are many countries that have banned the hijab (and of course, it goes without saying, the niqab, chador, abaya), including such predominantly Muslim, but secularized, countries as Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Egypt is by far the most important Muslim country in the world. It is the most populous Arab country, with 100 million inhabitants. It is the site of the most important institution of Islamic teaching, Al Azhar University. If Egypt thinks that it can ban even the hijab and not violate the tenets of Islam, this can be pointed to as proof that the hijab is not essential to the proper practice of the faith. This is important both for other Muslim countries and for non-Muslim countries.
If, say, the UAE, were to decide to ban the wearing of the hijab in schools, there would be an immediate outcry from more conservative Muslims in the Emirates and around the Gulf. But the government can now readily point, with grim satisfaction, to the fact that “even our brotherly and neighborly Egypt, the center of Islamic thought,” whom no one could possibly declare to be “un-Islamic” in any way, “has banned the hijab in schools.”
The four major Sunni schools of thought (Hanafi, Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali) hold by consensus that it is obligatory for women to cover their hair. That is why the Egyptian government was careful not to ban the covering of the hair by pupils, but only of the kind of head covering that also surrounds the oval of the face.
There is, in fact, no Qur’an verse that mandates the wearing of the hijab. Qur’an 24:31 merely says this: “And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only what is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment except to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack desire, or children who know nothing of women’s nakedness. And do not let them stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn to Allah together, O believers, so that you may succeed.”
So a Muslim woman must modestly “lower her gaze,” and “be modest,” or as another translation has it, “guard her private parts” (which no woman, Muslim or Infidel, should need to be told), and not to “reveal their adornment.” This is not generally understood as requiring the concealment of the entire face, or even requiring that all but the reduced oval of her face which is all you see when the hijab is worn correctly be covered. And that uncovered face is what the Egyptian law insists be fully shown, without a scarf covering.
It’s not only Muslim states that want to ban the hijab that now have the powerful example of Egypt to appeal to, in the face of possible criticism, but of course some of the countries of Europe that have wanted, but until now not dared, to ban the hijab. France has already banned the hijab, not just in schools but in all public buildings, as part of its national policy of laicité that bans the wearing of outward religious symbols in schools, including the hijab, the abaya, the kippah, and crucifixes in schools. Just now, France has also banned the wearing of the abaya in its public schools. If Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Sweden, among other European states, now want to ban the hijab in schools, or in all public buildings, they can now point to the hijab ban by the most populous and influential Arab state, Egypt. Truly, a welcome step forward.
Notice the “adornment” can be revealed to “male attendants who lack desire.” That would be eunuchs lacking desire due to castration.
Or, can we say the homosexual men? or appropriate gender class that will not offend Islam. Ack, sorry never mind
a ruse by an appalling cult . regardless of what muslims say they will do , the opposite will remain . as the nightmare fairy tale koran says [ allah is the best of deceivers ] . the world will give a standing ovation to the reformers of islam which will have achieved the false idea of moderate murderers and rapists . islam is a cancer . aggressive treatment and early is how you fix the cancer if you have any hope of defeating it . unfortunately it is too late . the death of the patient is inevitable considering the lefts love affair with islam .
Look for demonstrations outside the Egyptian Embassy in London by the woke ”females who will call this Law islamowhatsitcalled…
If a religious people declare that their god created all things and made everything perfect they why cover a women’s hair or body but not that of a man.
If they declare god made man and woman perfect in all manner then why do such men decide that the Penis did not need a cover to prevent dirt etc and why do they think the Vagina is not prefect and so must alter it and both those parts of the human anatomy seem to be thought of as imperfect by people of two particular religions.
The contradiction in religion is always on display. so either their god is all perfect or man has to adjust it according to the dictates of man and not god…. Go figure…
In many of the Islamic countries women’s rights are suppressed, and they’re not as valued as men. Women should be able to show their faces and eyes and become a vibrant part of society, as well as have careers. and families. Covering the face covers the character and individualism of people, it covers up identity too. and bad for children to have to wear masks and not grow in fullness of who they are,, or want to be. Smart decision by Egypt.
Looks like the preparation for the future. Face recognization camera s …
If the Niden admin is anything like the Obama one, with heavy MB presence, America will be in the forefront against this move.
A face is an important social adaptation. It is a good move by Sisi, bringing Egypt back into the modern world where women matter too.
Remarks by Egypt’s education minister on whether school-age girls should or should not wear the hijab triggered confusion and initiated rumours that the government would ban the Islamic scarf in schools.
“Imposing the Islamic headscarf on primary level students by some people is unacceptable,” Egypt’s Minister of Education, Moheb El-Rafei, told TV host Wael El-Ebrashi during a TV interview on Saturday evening.
“They are just children, they have to move freely and carry out activities,” El-Rafei told TV host Wael El-Ebrashy on the private satellite channel Dream 2.
“Even God didn’t mandate [wearing] the hijab until a girl reaches the age of puberty,” El-Rafei said.
A number of websites and social media users interpreted the minister’s comments as a prelude to an official ban on school-age girls wearing the scarf.
Some Twitter users criticised the minister’s comments, asking him to focus on ‘improving education rather than focusing on girls’ wardrobes.
Others, who support a decision to ban the hijab, mused that the state is actually too weak to do so.
On Sunday, Hany Kamal, the education ministry’s spokesperson, clarified the minister’s statements.
Kamal said that the minister was only asked by host El-Ebrashy whether he thought that imposing the hijab on primary level students by some schools or some parents was actually acceptable.
Any news of a hijab ban is unfounded, Kamal said.
“There’s no such thing as a hijab ban, wearing the hijab or taking it off is a personal freedom,” Kamal told Ahram Online.
There is no law in Egypt that regulates dress codes or bans the hijab, Kamal added.
“I can’t force anyone to take the hijab off or put it on, this is something that would make me subject to legal accountability,” Kamal asserted.
https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/137975/Egypt/Politics-/Ban-on-hijab-in-Egyptian-schools-unfounded-rumours.aspx