Cairo: A schoolteacher in Upper Egypt has cut the hair of two girls for attending her class without wearing the hijab (scarf).
The science teacher, who wears the niqab (full-face veil), said she had punished the sixth-grade girls for failing to heed her orders to put on the hijab in the classroom.
“I had to do this in order to preserve my authority in front of the pupils,” the teacher, who works in the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor, told the semi-official newspaper Al Ahram in remarks published in the early edition of Thursday.
“The ill-intentioned media has exaggerated the incident,” she added.
The paper said the teacher cut off nearly seven centimeters of each girl’s hair.
The teacher was probed over the act and local authorities said she had a month’s salary deducted from her pay.
The Education Ministry said wearing the hijab is not mandatory in Egypt, which has been hit by a wave of Islamism in recent years.
“This incident violates human rights, personal freedom and the sacredness of the body,” said the Women’s Enhancement and Development Association, a non-governmental group.
“Has the anti-women culture started to unfold to hit women whether they are children, young girls or old women,” it added.
Local rights groups have recently expressed worries that women’s freedoms and status in Egypt have been curtailed with the rise of Islamists in the predominantly Muslim country after a popular uprising toppled long-standing president Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago.
