The Muslim Niqab – Custom Or Faith?

What is the difference between higab and niqab?  The higab is the headscarf that covers the hair.  The niqab on the other hand, covers the entire face, with slits for the eyes to see through.  It is said that 80% of Egypt’s women poplulation wears the higab.

But the Egyptian government is worried that increasing number of its women population are dressed in stark black, with faces veiled, and sometimes, with gloved hands. There is a fear that this represents a move towards Islamic fundamentalism. The practice is widely associated with more radical trends of Islam which wants to enforce Sharia law in Egypt.

Woman covered with niqab, with a child

Under the Egyptian constitution, Islam is the state religion and Islamic Sharia is the main source for legislation. So how to get around and stop this trend towards radical Islam?  Well, one way is to say that the niqab is un-Islamic.

Earlier this week, Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of the Islamic Al-Azhar University and Egypt’s top religious authority, told a female student to remove her niqab when he toured a high school funded by his institution. The Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom quoted him telling her that the niqab was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran. The ministry of religious endowments has meanwhile distributed booklets explaining that wearing a niqab is un-Islamic. Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi reported said that he intends to ban the niqab at the university.

The majority of mainstream Muslim scholars agree that a woman must cover her hair, but they also said that the niqab is unnecessary. But supporters of the niqab say wearing it brings women closer to God. Sheikh Ali Abu al-Hasan, the former head of the Fatwa Council at the Islamic Studies Institute (ISI) in Cairo, said although it was not required by Islam for women to cover their faces, Al-Azhar University should allow women to chose what they want to wear.

Sheikh Safwat Hijazi, a scholar and preacher, said: “Preventing a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime. Whoever says the niqab is a custom is not respectable.”

However, Abd ul-Moati Bayumi, a scholar in an al-Azhar affiliated research centre said: “We all agree that niqab is not a religious requirement. Taliban forces women to wear the niqab. The phenomena is spreading and it has to be confronted. The time has come.”

Think about it.  Who is right? Is the niqab un-Islamic as claimed by the ministry of religious endowments? Is Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi right in that the niqab was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran? Are the majority Muslim scholars right in agreeing that the niqub is unnecessary? Is Sheikh Safwat Hijazi right in saying that to prevent a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime?  If he is right, then how come Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese journalist was charged with a crime for wearing a pair of trousers in Sudan?  Did she not have a right to wear what she wants? Why all the disagreement and confusion over this issue of the niqab?

Earlier posts
Burkinis – Different Strokes In France And UK
Burka Not Welcome In France
Beauty Pagent – Saudi Style
Sudan Caning Case – Lubna Released, But What Next?
Woman’s Jeans – OK In Iran But Not In Sudan