Egypt ban on face veil in schools sparks debate

Egypt’s Ministry of Education has banned the wearing of full-face veils in public and public schools, a decision that sparked debate on Tuesday on social networks in the country’s most populous Arab country.

On Monday, the government newspaper Akhbar al-Youm published the new decree on school uniforms, which bans primary and secondary school pupils from “covering their faces”.

The decree states that the headscarf is “optional”, depending on “the wishes of the pupil, without pressure or coercion from anyone other than the legal guardian, who must be informed of this choice”.

While the majority of Egyptian women wear the headscarf, the niqab remains in the minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country.