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Damascus:
Contrary to what is being said on mainstream channels like the BBC
and Al Jazeera, and to what has been carried by the wires over the
last 48 hours, no law has been issued in Syria banning women wearing
the niqab (veil) from entering university campuses.
The report has yet to be denied by the Ministry of Higher Education
which raises speculation that there is some truth to the story. This
view fits in with the values of secularism and moderate Islam that
Syria has been preaching for decades.
All senior staff at Syria's private universities are currently on
summer vacation, making it difficult to confirm the report, yet
mid-level bureaucrats at one university confirmed that to date they
have received no written instructions regarding the niqab.
The rumour has created a buzz in the country and warmly received by
the moderate majority, but raising eyebrows in conservative circles.
'Transfers'
This report comes less than a month after the Education Ministry
transferred 1,200 teachers wearing the niqab from academic posts to
administrative positions at the Ministry of Local Administration.
The transfers were made in order to maintain the secularism of
Syrian education and to make sure that their radical views on
Islamic dress and conduct, which are seriously challenged by
mainstream theologians, are not passed on to schoolchildren.
This time, according to reports, the ban on students wearing the
niqab at the university was because the face veil "contradicts
academic values."
There is no official number for women wearing the niqab in Syria.
Although it is not said to be very high in Damascus, it is more
concentrated in the northern city of Aleppo.
Most moderates consider the niqab foreign to Syrian culture, which
is very different from the Audrey Hepburn-style isharb (headscarf)
worn by women for decades as a symbol of conservatism, or the modern
hijab.
Both forms cover the hair but not the face. At the University of
Kalamoon a handful of women wears the niqab, called munaqabat, but
all of them are non-Syrian while at Al Wadi University only one
student wore the niqab.
The story has sparked huge debates, with a vast majority in support
of such a law, and a minority — those affected by it — opposing it.
Wael Sawwah, a writer, said, "A woman should not be allowed to walk
publicly ‘naked' and likewise, she should not be allowed to walk
fully covered with the niqab."
Hussain, a conservative resident of Damascus whose entire family
wears the niqab, has a different argument. "They say that the niqab
is visual pollution and looks uncivilised. Who says that a woman
walking around ‘semi-naked' is not visual pollution as well? Who
says that not wearing the niqab is civilised, while wearing it is
not?"
On what he would do if a ban is introduced, he said, "I have to
either send my daughters to universities in Jordan or simply put,
not send them to university at all."
(Courtesy: Gulf News)
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Syria
bans full face veils at Universities
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