A Coptic female student, Feryal Suriyal Habib, at Sheikh Fadl Secondary School in Beni-Mazar, Minya, in Upper Egypt,
WATANI International
26 September 2011
A Coptic female student, Feryal Suriyal Habib, at Sheikh Fadl Secondary School in Beni-Mazar, Minya, in Upper Egypt, was banned from entering her school for the eighth day in succession, on grounds that she was refusing to cover her head with a scarf as a veil or hijab. The school social worker would not let Habib in, and described her uncovered hair as immoral. When Habib’s father went to school to protest the decision to ban his daughter, a discussion ensued and the school administration filed a claim of libel and insult against Mr Habib. Mr Habib, on his part, filed a formal complaint to Beni-Mazar prosecution, in which he noted that the school was embracing an extremist line of conduct, and had overstepped its lawful prerogative in forcing a non-Muslim woman to observe an Islamic dress code.
Wagdy Halfa, Habib’s lawyer, said the school administration had warned the Christian students at the beginning of the school year that they should cover their hair with a hijab-like covering. The other Coptic girls complied, but Habib and her family saw the order as an infringement on personal freedom and refused to comply with what they considered to be a move of forced Islamisation.
Mr Halfa commented that the Islamist current is marching full speed ahead in schools. A similar incident, occurred in a girls’ school in Ayyat, Giza, last year but the Education Ministry took action against the school administration. “Coptic girls should not be forced to wear Islamic dress,” he said. “We wouldn’t like forced Islamisation to spread like a virus in other schools.”