Egypt's leading religious authority and university has banned students wearing full-face veils, or niqab, from entering female-only classrooms and dormitories, media reports said Friday.
In an emergency meeting late Thursday, the Supreme Council of Al-Azhar decided to ban students and teachers from wearing the niqab inside dormitories, classrooms and examination halls, as long as supervisors are women, the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm reported.
Al-Azhar, a millenium-old university and mosque complex is widely regarded as one of the main seats of Islamic learning. "Al-Azhar isn't against the right of Muslim women to wear the full-face veil, but it is against wearing it in the wrong place," said Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi.
Tantawi vowed to ban the niqab in al-Azhar affiliated schools, after ordering a female student to remove her niqab when he was visiting a school last week, saying that "the niqab is a tradition that has nothing to do with Islamic faith and obligations."