A woman wearing the niqab, in Cairo, in 2013 (illustration image). - SANG-HOON / SIPAUSA / SIPA

An Egyptian court has ruled in favor of banning the wearing of the full veil by professors at the University of Cairo. The High Administrative Court on Saturday issued "a final court decision maintaining the ban on the wearing of the full veil among the teaching staff of the University of Cairo", decided in 2016 at first instance, Agence France-Presse told (AFP) Me Ahmed Mahran, who defended a group of 80 teachers who challenged the judgment. "All of the complainants' appeals have been dismissed (...) and we still do not have access, as of today, to the expected cases," he added.

Wearing the minority niqab in Egypt

While the majority of Egyptian women wear the veil, the niqab, the female full veil and attribute of ultra-conservative Islam, remains a minority in the country. In late 2015, former university president Gaber Nasser introduced a ban on niqab among teachers as a measure to improve interactions between teachers and students. "This is the only reason that has been put forward to justify this measure (...), while the ban has never affected female students," said Ahmed Mahran. The University of Cairo is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Egypt.

The establishment of this rule came two years after the removal of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who became president in 2014. The implementation of the measure responded "in reality to political motivations", estimated l counsel for the complainants.

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