CAIRO: A raging legal battle that lasted several years, ended with a court ruling that will allow women wearing the niqab (face veil) to enter the American University in Cairo (AUC) campus grounds and use its facilities.
The controversy over the niqab stems from contradictory Egyptian laws, one banning it for security purposes while the other sees it as an expression of religious freedom.
For the past six years the AUC administration has taken the position that the niqab disrupts liberal education.
One AUC student identifying herself only as Hope told The Daily Star Egypt that women wear the niqab because they want to.
The question really starts at whether or not the state or any institution can dictate what women are allowed to wear. Nobody has the right to forbid the niqab. If someone decides I cannot wear it, then I will feel suppressed and that isn t fair, she said.
Mira Johnstone, a Saudi graduate AUC student, who refuses any ruling pertaining to dress code at the University, told The Daily Star Egypt, At least Muslim women outside of the Middle East are free to practice their religion. I am not.
Some feminists oppose the law to ban the face veil in schools and institutions on the grounds that the ban will strengthen Islamism. But high-ranking Islamic clerics who strongly dispute this assertion, argue that banning the face veil is a direct attack on Islam.
Likewise, professors and others in the field of education are not allowed to use their position by way of imposing their beliefs and values on students.
An AUC professor who chose to remain anonymous told The Daily Star Egypt that Good teaching depends on a degree of non-verbal communication between teacher and student. Facial expression is an important element in this, and a visually impaired teacher or student confronts an obstacle here.
In a classroom setting, a teacher wonders if students are bored, puzzled, interested, enthusiastic, in disagreement, turned off, the professor explained. Is it time to move on, expand the point, slow down, speed up, take a break, or use a visual aid?
Part of what we express comes from the face, and part of what we respond to in others comes from the detection of quite subtle facial cues. Veil-wearing blocks out some of these signals, said the professor.
Nevertheless, working with students means coming to memorize some names and faces, remembering how particular students have contributed to discussion, and for a teacher, what their last essays were like, what strengths and weaknesses they have, what their likeable quirks of personality are, and so on.
But how do you link names and faces if there are no faces? It is then body shape and size, tone of voice, gestures, that have to be remembered – a more complex, laborious task, the AUC professor said. Of course if only one student wears the niqab, she will stand out and she will be remembered. But if several are? If they all are? said the professor.
In France, a political storm brewed when schoolgirls were banned not just from wearing the niqab, but from wearing the headscarf. Former British foreign secretary Jack Straw criticized the niqab, asking women in his constituency to consider removing it when they meet him. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has also said he believes that wearing it is a mark of separation in society.
In the Netherlands, the Dutch government has introduced a bill that would ban the niqab, also known as the burqa, which it says disrupts public order and safety. Turkey and Tunisia have also taken steps against all dress veils.
In Egypt, some human rights groups are defending the attire. The Sawasya Center for Human Rights in Cairo said in a statement that members of the Washington-backed Egyptian government were in violation of the country s own constitution, which mandates freedom of religious expression.
The Cairo-based center told The Daily Star Egypt that the government, in its struggle with the Islamists, has crossed the line between politics and religious, cultural life.
Other analysts say the attack on Islamic attire does not bode well for relations with Muslims, who already feel victimized by a series of verbal assaults on symbols of their faith in different parts of the world.
Some scholars argue that while the Quran exhorts women to be modest, it does not specifically require veils. According to the Weekly Standard, an American neoconservative magazine, many Muslim thinkers have confirmed this including outspoken scholar Gamal El-Banna.
Late 2006, Soad Saleh, Islamic law professor at Al-Azhar University, expressed her opinion on Dream TV concerning the niqab. When I see the niqab, it makes my skin crawl, she said, after which she received several death threats slandering her title as an Islamic Studies professor at Al- Azhar University.
Saleh told The Daily Star Egypt, People who argue that wearing the niqab is a choice that should be left to women are ignorant, for there are few places where the niqab is a free choice.
Wafaa Wali, an AUC Professor of English said, “As a teacher, I think it’s the women’s freedom of expression to decide if she wants to wear the niqab. But in AUC’s case, it’s the idea of a liberal education that is being compromised in a society that is becoming increasingly conservative.
Dr. Mahmoud Alam El Din, from the Ministry of Higher Education refused to comment on legal decisions made by the government.
“But as far as AUC is concerned, they are not a public institution so it does not belong to all citizens. AUC is a private university, giving it some leverage not to act accordingly to Egyptian legislation, he said.
