Cairo: Prosecutors in the province of Al Fayyoum, south of Cairo, have ordered a teacher jailed for four days pending further investigations allegedly for cutting the hair of a schoolgirl who was not wearing the headscarf, judicial sources said Monday.
Education authorities in the province also suspended the teacher and the head of his school after parents of the fifth-grade girl complained that the Islamic Studies teacher had struck her and used a cutter to remove locks of her hair to punish her for not donning the hijab headscarf.
“My daughter has been in poor psychological condition since the incident,” her mother told private broadcaster ONTV.
“The teacher did this to her inside the classroom amid laughter from other pupils. My daughter is still a child. She will not wear the hijab unless she is convinced.”
The Education Ministry has said wearing the hijab is not mandatory in schools.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, a self-declared devout Muslim, has repeatedly called for what he termed a ‘religious revolution’ against Islamist militancy in this mostly Muslim country.
In 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced a veiled teacher to six months in prison after charging her with using violence against two unveiled schoolgirls by cutting their hair.
