CAIRO (Reuters) – Rokaya Mohamed, an elementary school teacher, would rather die than take off her face veil, or niqab, thrusting her to the forefront of a battle by government-backed clerics to limit Islamism in Egypt.
Egypt’s state-run religious establishment wants teachers like Mohamed to remove their veils in front of female students, sparking a backlash by Islamists who say women should be able to choose to cover their faces in line with their Islamic faith.
“I have put on the niqab because it is a Sunna (a tradition of the Muslim prophet Muhammad). It is something that brings me closer to religion and closer to the wives of the Prophet who used to wear it,” she said.
“I know what makes God and his prophet love me, and no sheikh is going to convince me otherwise. I would rather die than take it off, even inside class,” she added.
Egypt, the birthplace of al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, fought a low-level Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, has faced sporadic militant attacks targeting tourists since then, and is keen to quell Islamist opposition ahead of parliamentary elections next year and a 2011 presidential vote.
The spread of the niqab, associated with the strictest interpretations of Islam, is a potent reminder to the government of the political threat posed by any Islamist resurgence emanating from the Gulf, where many young Egyptians go to work.
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Spain Steps Into Battle With Itself on Abortion:
Gemma Botifoll, who decided to terminate her pregnancy after 34 weeks when she discovered her baby had a severe congenital disorder, said she was turned away from clinics in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville. Ms. Botifoll had to drive hundreds of miles to Reims, France, where she had an abortion in a public hospital. The Spanish health system paid for it.
“The Spanish doctors told me my son would not live for a year, that he would be blind, that his body would not grow, that he would be mentally disabled,” she said in a telephone interview. “But they said they could do nothing to help me.”
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Buried in the caption to one of the images in this nonsensical New York Times piece is the following statement:
Imams have issued fatwas against “Noor” fans, but few Gazans care.
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