Cairo | A
pro-government alliance of Egyptian lawmakers has unveiled a controversial plan
for drafting a law banning the niqab or the full-face veil in the predominantly
Muslim country.
The Egypt
Support Coalition, which claims to comprise some 250 members at the 595-strong
legislature, has said that the law will prohibit Muslim women from donning the
head-to-toe attire in state institutions and public places.
The bid comes
months after Egypt’s main public academic institution, Cairo University, barred
its female teachers from wearing the niqab inside lecture halls.
In January, a
court upheld the university’s ban.
Parliamentarians
in the Egypt Support Coalition, which is loyal to President Abdul Fattah Al
Sissi, have said the push for a ban on the niqab is pursued on religious and
security grounds.
“The niqab is
not an Islamic duty,” said Amna Nuseir, an MP in the alliance and a professor
of Islamic creed at the Islamic Al Azhar University.
“This costume is
part of Judaism and spread in the Arabian Peninsula before Islam,” she told
Gulf News.
“When Islam
came, it did not impose the niqab. Islam enjoins decent dressing,” she said,
citing verses from the Quran urging men and women to avoid ogling at each
other.
Nuseir is a
vociferous opponent of the niqab. “I have said for more than 20 years that the
niqab is not obligatory in Islam and have been harshly criticised for this
view.”
Nuseir added
that she will participate in drafting the relevant law before it is presented
to the legislature.
She is not
worried about facing fresh criticism. “I have been waiting for long years for
this bold law,” she said.
“We seek to
spread moderate Islam. Wearing the niqab in public has raised concerns in the
Egyptian streets in view of the hard circumstances the country is undergoing.”
Egypt has seen
an upsurge in militant attacks since the army’s 2013 overthrow of Islamist
president Mohammad Mursi.
Alaa Abdul
Moneim, a spokesman for the Egypt Support Coalition, defended the alliance’s
anti-niqab move.
“One has the
right to learn about the identity of the person sitting next to him or walking
in the street,” he said. “We are seeking to prohibit the appearance of masked
faces in public,” Abdul Moneim added in press remarks.
No specific date
has been set for presenting the draft to parliament. However, some voices have
already been raised balking at the suggested ban.
“What is bad about
seeing Islam and Judaism, which are two heavily religions, agree on wearing the
veil?” Abdul Moneim Fouad, a professor at Al Azhar University, said, implying
his backing for the full-face veil.
“Banning the
niqab will be a flagrant violation of personal freedom,” he told private
satellite station Al A’sema.
“Parliament has
to enact laws aimed at bringing morals back to the street and stop [people]
showing up in revealing dresses in public rather than banning the niqab.”
Source: Gulf News
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