The prosecution in Dar as-Salam, south of Cairo, is investigating the case filed by the father of the 15-tear-old Coptic girl Lydia Rady Ayoub against a woman in niqab, full face Islamic veil, who cut Lydia’s hair. This is not the first such case; women in niqab have been known to cut the hair of other women who wear their hair uncovered.
Lydia, a student at Ahmed Zewail Preparatory School in Dar as-Salam, was a few days ago among a number of girls crowding at the school gate to enter, when she says she felt some strange metal body push at her back. She turned quickly and found a woman in niqab directly behind her. Frightened, Lydia hurried to her classroom, only to discover that part of her long hair had been cut. She complained to the headmaster, and her father insisted they report the incident to the police. Eyewitnesses recognised the niqabbed woman to be the mother of another student at school.
Currently, the prosecution is questioning all those involved.