Cairo campus veil ban struck down

[Sinbad]

A court in Egypt has ruled that the American University of Cairo cannot ban women from wearing the niqab - the full Islamic face covering - on campus.
The ruling comes after a lengthy legal battle between the university and a female student, who was told she had to remove the niqab for security reasons.

Supporters of the niqab greeted the ruling as a victory for freedom.

But officials at the university have said it indicates a drift towards Islamic extremism.

'Religious values'

A committee of the High Administrative Court upheld a 2001 court ruling that the university could not ban Iman al-Zainy from wearing the niqab as it was a matter of personal and religious freedom under law.

The American University (AUC) said some of the principles in the court's ruling appeared to support its position and it was discussing this with lawyers.

It said it had sought the ban out of security concerns.

"While the American University in Cairo has a policy prohibiting face covering as an issue of personal safety and security, it also recognises the need for respect for the religious values and convictions of our students," the AUC said.

The ruling does let the university place some restrictions on the niqab, court sources told Reuters news agency. Female students could be required to show their faces to security guards at university entrances.

Ms Zainy, who was a doctoral student at the Islamic Al-Azhar University, sued the AUC in 2001 after it banned her from entering its library wearing the niqab.

Hossam Bahgat, one of Ms Zainy's lawyers, told Reuters news agency the ruling was a victory for "women's autonomy over their body and dress code".

"The court said in the strongest of terms that it is up to women to decide about their clothing, and that women should not be discriminated against because of the clothes that they choose to wear," he said.

AUC students are allowed to wear the hijab, a headscarf which covers a woman's hair but leaves the face visible.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6737993.stm

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Im not a fan of iqab, to be honest, I dont even like hijab.

But I think that women should dress how they want, they can dress in Burqa as well as in hot panths.

All islamic nations except for Iran seems to be anti islam. wearing niqab leads to islamic extremism? I would say preventing it would do it.

[HBot 5000]

All islamic nations except for Iran seems to be anti islam. wearing niqab leads to islamic extremism? I would say preventing it would do it.

A lecture from an agnostic now their's a first :rollseyes

All islmaic nations follow Islam but differ in the way they apply the different laws, e.g KSA & Duabi.

Iran does not represent the Islamic nation because their particular brand of Islam is shiaism (pfff) which perturbes the message of Islam and destroyes it. Infact i am always hesitant to call them an islamic nation. Head on down to the sects forum and have a little read on the differences between shiah's and mainstream Islam. You might learn something.

I am all for giving people the correct consensus on why women and men should cover up and then letting them choose. Wearing the niqab does not lead to any sort of terrorism (when did you last see a nun taking part in terrorism for the decent clothes they wear) and anyone that suggests otherwise is doing nothing but echoing the anti-islmaic rhetoric which is so prominent in our society - unfortunately +o(

:thumbs_up