17 November 2006
Islamic veil 'regressive,' says Egypt minister
Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni said in an interview published Thursday that the ever-growing number of women wearing the Islamic veil in his country marked a "regressive" trend
"There was an age when our mothers went to university and worked without the veil. It is in that spirit that we grew up. So why this regression?," he said in the independent Al Masri Al Yom daily.
"Each woman with her beautiful hair is like a flower, and should not be concealed from the view of others," he said, arguing: "Religion today focuses on appearances too much.
"A woman's true veil is the inner veil, not the visible one," Hosni went on, adding: "The relationship between God and a person does not hinge on the latter's sartorial decisions."
Most Muslim clerics consider wearing the veil a religious obligation.
Growing conservatism has seen the vast majority of women take up the veil in Egypt, formerly considered one of the most liberal societies in the Middle East.
"Egypt must go back to being beautiful and stop imitating other Arab countries, who once considered it [equal] to Europe," Hosni said
01:15 Posted in Egypt | Permalink | Comments (1) | 
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In Illinois, a Muslim policewoman was able to win her fight with the police department she works in, when they allowed her to wear the hijab while on duty after their initial refusal.
“The American Muslims welcome that the department has accepted to give the policewomen her religious freedom,” said Ibrahim Hoper, head of the media department in CAIR.
This case proves that that any conflicts that may appear in places where there are religious diversity can be solved if good intensions and the will to solve the problem exist, he added.
According to article 7 in the human rights law of 1964, it is illegal that business owners discriminate between their employees on the basis of their beliefs or religious activities.
The law also dictate that business owners should accept their employees religious practices if they are acceptable and are not a burden on the owner.
Many Muslim organizations in the U.S. have demanded at the beginning of the month of July that public and media pressure be imposed on the police department for its refusal to allow the policewomen to wear the hijab after she became a Muslim in January 2002.
Posted by: U.S. Muslim police woman Allowed To Wear Hijab While on Duty | 22 November 2006
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