Egyptian Lawmakers Want to Ban Muslim Women from Covering Their Faces
BY Lily Kuo: 08 March 2016
Egyptian lawmakers are pushing for a ban on the Niqab, a veil worn by women that covers most of one’s face, in what has become a fight over personal liberties and the government’s attempt to control religion in Egyptian society.
The pro-government Egypt Support Coalition, a group of lawmakers within parliament, told local media that it is drafting a bill to present to parliament that bars Muslim women from wearing the veil in public places or in state institutions. “We seek to spread moderate Islam,” Amna Nuseir, a member of the group told Gulf News. “The Niqab is not an Islamic duty.”
The Niqab, a symbol of rising Islamic conservatism to some, has been a source of tension for years. Authorities ruled that American University’s satellite campus in Cairo could not ban women from wearing the veil in 2007. But in 2009, Egypt’s oldest university, al-Azhar, banned women from wearing the Niqab in classrooms and dormitories. Other universities prohibited women from wearing the veil during exams on the grounds that it could facilitate cheating.
A recent ban on the Niqab at Cairo University was expanded this month to include female staff at the school’s teaching hospitals and medical departments. In October, university officials said female teachers were not allowed to wear the veil while lecturing. Upscale venues in Cairo have barred women wearing the Niqab from entering on security grounds, claiming that it obscures one’s identity.
France, and more recently Chad, as well as other countries have also banned the face-covering veil.
Critics say recent measures against the Niqab in Egypt are part of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s crackdown on potential supporters of the Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted when el-Sisi replaced former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. (El-Sisi has positioned himself as a secular leader, in contrast to the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi.)
Moves against the Niqab may also be part of the government’s campaign to influence how Islam is practiced in the country. Last year, El-Sisi called for Egypt’s need for a “religious revolution” to prevent the spread of extremism.
“When Sisi talks about religious reformation, he wants religion to sound sensible and relevant,” H.A. Hellyer, a fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, told Newsweek in February. “But he also wants it as much as possible to be a tool of the state.” qz.com/633632/egyptian-lawmakers-want-to-ban-muslim-women-from-covering-their-faces/
qz.com/633632/egyptian-lawmakers-want-to-ban-muslim-women-from-covering-their-faces/
Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Comes out In Support Of Women’s Protection Bill
March 8th, 2016
ISLAMABAD: As critics from religious groups and parties make headlines with their opposition to the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act 2016, one cleric has come forward to support the law instead.
Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) chairperson Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Ashrafi on Monday said those elements that used to call for banning girls’ education had no connection to Islam.
“These people are speaking in ignorance, but the women protection bill will assist in ending violence against women,” Mr Ashrafi said. “There is no point in the criticism by some scholars that this bill will distort the family system of the country”.
While speaking to a delegate of the PUC Women’s Wing and women seminary students on Monday, the liberal cleric said that instead of criticising almost all the reformist laws, ulema and the country’s religious leadership should come forward with progressive suggestions.
“I would call upon the clergy to play a responsible role for girls’ education, to help eradicate other social ills like dowry and so on from the country,” he said.
Mr Ashrafi said that since it was established, PUC has been making endeavours and raising its voice for women’s rights.
PUC is also one of the few religious councils that did not protest the execution of Mumtaz Qadri.
On the day of the execution, Mr Ashrafi said the “execution of Mumtaz Qadri [was the] implementation on laws of the state”, and it was the government’s responsibility to ensure the protection of its citizens and make sure the laws of the state are implemented.
He said that civilised society would be turned into ashes if killing and warfare was allowed on the grounds of emotion and affiliations.
Addressing women seminary students, the PUC chairperson said: “Islam does not allow men to resort to violence against women, and the teaching of Islam witness to the fact that Islam orders punishments for men who resort to torture against their daughters, wives and women of their homes.”
dawn.com/news/1244305
Categories: Egypt, The Muslim Times
The True Islzmic teaching is that Women do not need to cover their hair, hand and feet if you live in none desert country. But if you live in desert country, you have to cover the whole body to prevent sand to harm your hair, face, skin.
Islam in religion of logic, it is illogical if you do not cover your whole body if you live in desert…it is illogical if you cover your hair, face,hands and feet if you live in none desert country.
Most of Muslim Scholars around the world, including Muslim Ahmadiyah, have been deceived by ancient Muslim Scholars from Arab.
Was salam
READ MORE; I am American Muslim, I prove that my country is the true Islamic state.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1saUrjQZa_5efPgfjGFbJ8YJ-SHgTS0k2tqgOPUmhBEY/edit?usp=sharing
Allah bless America and its people.
I understand the motivation behind the above comment, but if covering the body was only to avoid harm from the sand then there is no such command in the Quran for the men. So the reason for the women to cover themselves is not sand in the desert, it is the strange men who can do far more harm. So I will suggest that you come up with a better explanation.
Totally agree CS! It is the mark of the chattel. The only circumstances under which I would find it acceptable would be if all Muslim men covered themselves.
Once again.
Hrmf.
There are sertain aspects that must be crystall clear, this goes to anyone out there Muslim or not, we are all different, all variables from the gift of our creatore, the light of life.
Nobdy, as in snowflakes, are alike, thank our heavenly father for that otherwise Il bore my self to death.
We arive in a world packed to the brim with other creatures, some like us, some not, some dont even belive, and some seek, all within the realms of sanity, and to then judge, to state your belife as superiour, without any backing of acts, is the eqvivalence of farting.
And with that I mean, the problem with religion is that I belive it lost the truth along the way.
Berried in dogmas and some obscure consensusses, grown forth by grumpy old farts with almoust an “religious” conviction of making people in that religion far of Life.
Happines and Joy, how came this fundamentals of life to become a Sin, I dont see it as a sin at all.
Our Creatore will eventually judge you, and in that judgement is this, have you loved life anouf to bathe with your children, shown them the life in the ocean, expanded their reality to new boundarys and beyound.
Anyone saying anything about that as been somehow NOT in line with what Our Creatore wants us to do and expirience, because joy and happines comes from love, play, child and be the child along.
And while you are there at the beatch, even I whom love women have an hard time, belive me, but to then attac the women, is to putt the blame on the effect, not the truth, about You/Me been the cause of it, to then agiate against this bathing is to me a greater sin, since it forbidds the onfoulding of love and life in an arena created for it and thats why children love it.
And, again, stupid doctrines, created from perverting the scriptures with obscuretys and deliberate falsifying the teachings of Life, is sevear, brothers and sisters, this goes deep into the scale, inwith our life one day will be judged by.
You reap, what you sew.
A true muslim, knows, life in prechious, and short, to drown that in an path, loaded with fear, and hate against life, is to path to death, of souls and body, in the end, forever.
And since we have to spoon feed some, il give you this to.
I judge you by this, how you treat your self, how you treat your nabours and family, how you treat your house and suroundings, is it clean, Il judge you how you treat animals, and how you handle our mother earth.
Where in this is there anything abut sex or gender, gay or not, we are all here for an reason, the truth is we dont know it, and certanly not the fait of others, since we are the children of our Creatore.
How then question the creatore for been incomplete, made some hickups in the “perfect divine machinery” some flaws, this is so wrong, I warn you, dont for the love of our creatore fall into this trapps of perseption, this are rules made by Man and not from our Creatore, the all knowing.
I never question that, and I woudnt for a second condem them, I may not like them nor what they do, but I respect them along with everything else, in this world, given to us to learn and grow.
Mercy wil be shown to those that them selfs have shown mercy, never forgett that.
And spread love, the ultimate force whom feeds our spirit and sends ripples to everything living near by, the light given to us by our Creatore.
Dont be a bore, and cett your self an shorts and some scuba equipm..
peace