Egypt‘s Ministry of Education has banned the wearing of full-face veils in public and public schools, a decision that sparked debate on social networks in the country. Yesterday, the government published the new decree on school uniforms, which bans primary and secondary school pupils from “covering their faces.”
The decree states that the headscarf is “optional”, depending on “the wishes of the pupil, without pressure or coercion from anyone other than the legal guardian, who must be informed of this choice”.
While the majority of Egyptian women wear the headscarf, the niqab remains in the minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim country.
At the end of 2015, Cairo University, one of Egypt’s oldest and most prestigious universities, banned its female lecturers from wearing the niqab, a decision upheld in 2020 by a Cairo administrative Court.
Source: AFRICANEWS
