In a predominantly Muslim society, as many as 90% of women in Egypt have adopted a form of veiling. A majority of Egyptian women cover at least their hair with the hijab, which is a head covering that is worn by Muslim women. Although the phenomenon of wearing the niqāb, a veil which covers the face is not as common, the niqab in Egypt has become more prevalent. While a few women in Egypt wear a black niqab along with a billowing black abaya as seen in countries such as Saudi Arabia, many choose to wear different colors of the niqab or manipulate the hijab to cover their face. Regardless, the growing trend of munaqqabat, or women who wear the niqab, has alarmed the authorities. They have begun to see this dress as a security threat, because it hides the face, and because it is perceived as a political statement, a rejection of the state in favor of a strict Islamic system.
Controversies over the niqāb appear to have emerged in Egypt's recent history. Particularly, a highly emotional response from Egyptian society occurred on October 8, 2009, when Egypt's top Islamic school and the world's leading school of Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University, banned the wearing of the niqāb in all-female classrooms and dormitories of all its affiliate schools and educational institutes. However, the niqāb has had a long and contentious history in Egyptian society. The meaning of the niqāb worn by upper class Egyptian women at the turn of the century is different from what is worn by women today.
The niqāb during the early 20th century In the early 20th century, the niqāb was not a practice confined to Muslims, but was worn by both Muslim and Christian elite women. This urban phenomenon originated in Istanbul and was part of the harem tradition, in which concubines and freeborn women of the Egyptian elite were secluded in harems that were guarded by eunuchs. During this time, wearing a face veil was described as "a national Egyptian dress for upper-class women" and it was called al-habara.El Guindi (1999). p. 180. It consisted of a full-length skirt, a head cover, and al-burqu’, which was the face-cover from below the eyes down to the chest.
Although these hareem women are the most visible class of women in chronicles of nineteenth century Egypt, they actually constituted no more than 2 percent of Egypt's five million female population in the late eighteenth century. Although they were numerically insignificant, the elite women's secluded lifestyle was considered the ideal and was envied by lower classes of women.Having to attend to their work in the villages and the city, it was impossible to inhibit their movement with seclusion or cover their faces like the elite women.
Discourses on the veil during the nationalist movement The debate about the position of Egyptian women and veil erupted at the turn of the 20th century. In the midst of the Egyptian nationalism movement, the status of Egyptian women was examined by foreigners and Egyptians alike to argue whether Egypt was sufficiently advanced to rule itself without British occupation. Western-educated Egyptians and other leading figures of Egypt's national movement consequently were forced to reexamine the practices of veiling, seclusion of women, arranged marriages, polygamy, and divorce.
Male nationalists' stance on the burqu' For elite male nationalists as for the colonisers, the veil and segregation symbolised the backwardness and inferiority of Islamic society. Qasim Amin (1863–1908), a Western-educated Egyptian lawyer and jurist, was one of the founders of the Egyptian nationalist movement and was one of the main figures in the turn-of-the-century debate on women and society. Dubbed as the "Liberator of Egyptian women", he caused intense debate when his book The Liberation of Women (Tahrir Al Mar’a) was published in 1899. This book is widely considered the beginning of the battle of the veil that agitated the Arab press.
In his book, Amin argued for Muslim society to abandon its inherent backwardness and follow the Western path to success. Changing customs regarding women were key to bringing about the desired cultural transformation in Egyptian society. In particular, the veil was considered "a huge barrier between women and their elevation, and consequently a barrier between the nation and its advancement". He describes the women in the harem as having "no role in public life, no role in religious life, no feelings of patriotism, and no feelings". Arguing that "as the socioeconomic status of women rises, their ignorance increases" Amin glorified the peasant woman who led an economically active and unveiled life in comparison to the secluded upper-class woman. For, "although ignorant, the peasant woman has accumulated such a wealth of knowledge through their work and business dealings that if educated would undoubtedly surpass her hareem sister in every respect"
Upper-class women's discussion on the burqu' As early as the 1870s and 1880s, before organized feminism in Egypt developed, Egyptian women also were publishing their writings and were engaged in public speaking. Unlike its position in men's "feminist" discourse, the veil was not central to women's organized feminism at that time.
Reacting to the writings of European-influenced Egyptian men who advocated the lifting of the veil for women, Malak Hifni Nasif (1886–1918), an Egyptian Muslim feminist saw a nuanced "male domination being enacted in and through the then contemporary discourse of the veil" and opposed mandatory unveiling. Hoda Shaarawi (1879–1947), a pioneer Egyptian feminist and nationalist, who was married to Ali Shaarawi, a leading political activist, is described in her memoirs as one of the last upper-class Egyptian women to live in the segregated life of the harem. She would be one of the women who would finally bring about the end of this structure. Even though Hoda Shaarawi went to the emerging women's literary salons where Western and Egyptian elite women held debates about practices such as veiling, she opted to remain in a separate segregated room at these receptions and refused to attend mixed parties. At these salons, Western women attacked the niqab when "Egyptian women could camouflage disreputable deeds behind a mask but, because the actions of European women were visible, their behavior was better".
Thus, when she declared the beginning of an organized feminist struggle called the Egyptian Feminist Union, Shaarawi noted that Egyptian women were calling for restoring their lost rights and reclaiming their national heritage, and not imitating the West. In her speech at the feminist meeting in Rome, Shaarawi specified the face-veil (burqu') and not the hijab as a barrier to women's advancement. She unveiled ceremonially in a public political feminist act in May 1923 upon returning from the International Women Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome—an act of far-reaching significance.
According to Margot Badran, the editor and translator of Hoda Shaarawi's memoir, Harem Years, this act signaled the end of the harem system in Egypt and the start of the elite women entering the public sphere. This would start a movement among upper-class women to abandon the burqu' and move around the city without the cover. Not only would women like Shaarawi remove themselves from the seclusion of their harem worlds, but fully joined their nationalist husbands in the male-led Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against British occupation.
In 1925, the EFU founded a French-language magazine L'Egyptienne, which discussed unveiling in the Middle East. Eventually, face covering waned in Egypt, and by the late 1930s it was gone. Instead, middle and upper-class women wore versions of Western dress both on the streets and at home. It was not until the Islamic revival of the 1970s and an introduction of more modest dress that the hijab and less commonly, the niqab, reasserted themselves.
The niqāb and the rise of the Islamist movement in Egypt The relationship between the Egyptian government, the strengthening Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Azhar—regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and Sharia—affected the reaction to the conservative symbol of the niqāb. Gamal Abdel Nasser, (1918–1970) was the Second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. Through Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Nasser gave secularism a new lease on life when the old regime's version was foundering. After the attempted assassination of Nasser in 1954 by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Nasser abolished the Brotherhood and imprisoned and punished thousands of its members. The Brotherhood was dissolved and most of its leaders fled to other Arab countries. In 1961, Nasser made traditional religious institutions, such as the division of Religious Endowments and the Islamic University of al-Azhar parts of the state bureaucracy. Since then, the Egyptian government has established a variety of governing bodies to oversee mosque activities, bringing them under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Many attribute the rise of the Islamist movement in Egypt to the many Egyptians who became disenchanted by Gamal Abdel Nasser's secular regime and its failed Arab nationalist movement.
In response to Egypt's catastrophic loss to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and the seeming failure of secularism, there also was a push to return to Egypt's Islamic identity. This Islamist movement especially resonated with the younger generation, university graduates and young professionals, who began to dress differently in public from the majority of urban rising middle and even upper-class Egyptians, who since the 1930s had worn Western clothing.El Guindi (1999). p. 132.
The rise of Islamist movement in universities After Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat (1918–1981) established his political legitimacy by countering the left. He strategically attempted to make peace with the Islamists, gradually releasing imprisoned members of the Muslim Brotherhood and did not obstruct the Islamist's takeover of university student unions. Especially after the disillusionment brought by the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Islamists steadily increased their influences and popularity in universities such as Cairo University. For uprooted students from the provinces with dim job prospects, the Islamist groups on campus offered a sense of community, ran study sessions, clubs dedicated to religious activities to counter the recreational and social clubs, and practical help with common problems. They also offered women protection from male harassment in the packed buses and lecture halls by arranging mini-van services and separate seating in class. Those who joined the religious movement were called mitdayyinin (pl. form), which was used to refer to women and men who adopted a new appearance different from the norm of most urban Egyptians and behaved conservatively in public. They reached this state of religiousness by iqtina''' (conviction) and were in general not coerced to join. While jellabiyas and long beards were symbols of assertive male Islamists on campus, women's dress was the most obvious and charged symbol of the Islamist movement. In the mid-seventies, the rising Islamist phenomenon was visible in Egyptian streets and universities through women's dress.
The Contemporary Veiling Movement A contemporary veiling movement was apparent when women whose upbringing was not religious started wearing various forms of a veil: a hijab, al-khimar, which is a head covering that covers the hair and falls down over the chest and back. Some added the niqāb and the most conservative would wear gloves and opaque socks to cover the hands and feet.