CAIRO: The Ministry of Health recently submitted a draft law to the People’s Assembly (PA) that, if passed, would prohibit nurses from wearing the niqab (full face veil) while on the job.
However, the draft law will only be implemented on nurses working in public hospitals, who, according to figures of the Ministry of health total around 90,000, 9,630 of whom wear the niqab, the press reported.
Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo) told Daily News Egypt that even though this line of work requires nurses to show their faces to their patients, no one has the right to interfere in any woman’s choice of wardrobe, should she choose to wear the face veil.
Eid also told Daily News Egypt that in such cases, “any woman who wears the face veil should be willing to show her face whenever she is asked to for verification of identity.
Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly was previously part of a campaign launched against the face veil, that he believes creates a barrier between nurses and patients – which goes against the requirements of the job.
This is not the only line of work where the niqab is debated. Last October, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) overturned a decision by the Judges Club prohibiting women who wear it from entering the club.
Moreover, last year, the Minister of Religious Endowments, Hamdy Zaqzuq expelled a female employee from a meeting for refusing to remove her face veil.
While the Quran only requires women to dress modestly, most Muslim scholars agree that women must cover their heads while some believe they must cover their faces as well.
