CAIRO: The Administrative Court at the State Council supported the decision of three universities to ban female students wearing the niqab (face veil) from sitting for their final exams.
Presidents of Ain Shams, Cairo and Helwan Universities have barred 200 students wearing the niqab from taking the exams, which the court says is in line with universities’ rules and regulations, adding that it was for public welfare.
The court claimed that some students use the niqab to cheat, and so banning it in exams ensures equal opportunity to all students. The ruling does not aim to limit these women’s freedoms, the court added.
“This is a problem that has an extremely easy and obvious solution, but it’s the state that is complicating the matter,” said MP Sayed Askar, member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and member of the People’s Assembly religious affairs committee.
“Every university has female employees; so what they should do is place one at the entrance of the examination hall where she can check the students’ faces and compare them with an ID,” he explained.
“Why don’t they just do that and not escalate the matter to courts? The government wants to create a problem out of nothing. It’s as if we have taken care of all the problems in the country and it’s only the niqab that is left,” said Askar.
The court however says that checking the students’ identities does not solve the cheating problem. Once inside the hall, the court ruling states, these students might use other methods for cheatings since their bodies and faces are completely covered.
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According to the state news portal Egynews.net, female students filed cases saying that the decision to deny them from taking exams for wearing the niqab was unconstitutional and a violation of personal freedoms.
“The Constitutional Court is the only judicial body which can have a final say on this issue; as there have been numerous conflicting court orders on this subject,” said MP Aly El Labban, member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the education committee at the PA.
“And as there is no such thing in the constitution; we are certain this decision will be overruled,” he added.
Last January, an Egyptian court ordered a stay of a ban on the full face veil in female schools affiliated with the Islamic Al-Azhar University.
The administrative court’s decision came a week after it ruled, on grounds of constitutional liberties, against a ban by the education ministry on women wearing the niqab in university residences and examination halls.
At the time, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemned in a statement the decision banning students who wear the niqab from sitting for exams in public universities.
The EIPR said the ban’s declared objective of preventing cheating during exams could be achieved through less drastic measures. “State universities could have employed a wide variety of precautionary measures to ensure order during exams, as they had done in previous years,” said EIPR’s Executive Director Hossam Bahgat.
“Choosing the most excessive measure is a continuation of a policy which clearly penalizes students who wear the niqab for their beliefs.”
