Region | Egypt
Cairo worried over growing extremism
Conservatives up against government drive to check spread of puritan traditions
- By Heba Saleh, Financial Times
- Published: 00:00 October 30, 2009
- Image Credit: AP
- Egyptian women in niqab chat at the River Nile bank in Cairo. The spread of the niqab in Egypt has accompanied the rising popularity of a conservative but apolitical brand of Salafi Islam, experts say.
Cairo: Women enveloped in black from head to toe, their faces covered except for a narrow slit for their eyes, have become an increasingly familiar sight on Egyptian streets — much to the alarm of a government determined to fight the spread of extremism.
Most Egyptian women wear the hijab, or the Islamic headscarf that covers the hair and neck. But a growing minority is opting for the niqab, or face veil — a form of dress associated more with the puritan Salafi traditions of Saudi Arabia rather than with local standards of religious modesty.
The spread of the niqab in Egypt, experts say, has accompanied the rising popularity of a conservative but so far apolitical brand of Salafi Islam in the country. That is a trend that worries the government. Salafism provided the intellectual framework for Al Qaida, even if most traditional salafists steer away from politics, preferring instead to focus on issues of day-to-day morality.
Niqab row
Human-rights activists say Salafi men in Egypt are regularly detained for brief periods to be questioned about their beliefs and activities. But authorities have taken that a step further by moving against the niqab.
In recent weeks, they have banned its use in student dormitories and in the women-only classrooms at Al Azhar university.
Islamist lawyers responded by going to the courts to force Shaikh Mohammad Saeed Tantawi, the government-appointed rector of Al Azhar, to reverse the decision.
"This is an attack against personal freedom," said Abdul Moneim Abdul Maqsoud, a lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood, the outlawed group considered the largest opposition force in the country.
"Today they are prohibiting the niqab in women-only classrooms; tomorrow it will be outlawed in all educational institutions. Next they will target the headscarf. They just want to impose restrictions on religious people."
The Brotherhood does not encourage the use of the niqab, but many conservatives believe that if not a religious requirement, it is a "virtue" that should be permitted.
Conservatives and many liberals were outraged a few days before the ban was announced, when the press reported that Shaikh Tantawi had forced a schoolgirl to remove her face veil while visiting her classroom.
Asserting that the niqab was not an Islamic requirement, he said he would prohibit it at Al Azhar university and in the vast network of schools attached to it. The shaikh later appeared to back down by suggesting that Al Azhar's ban on the niqab would apply only to situations when female students were around other women.
It is not only Islamists who have been riled by the steps taken against women who cover their faces. Several liberals and human-rights activists have condemned what they see as discrimination against those who wear the niqab.
"Officials think they are promoting tolerance and moderation when in reality they are penalising students and their families based on their religious views," said Hussam Bahgat, who heads the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
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