CAIRO — Controversy sticks to school dress codes like static cling.​

Cairo University President Gaber Nassar issued a decision Sept. 29 prohibiting veiled faculty and assistants from teaching. Nassar said students have complained that the veil keeps instructors from communicating effectively and that the decision was made in the public's interest. Veiled teachers are prohibited from lecturing, giving theoretical and practical lessons, or attending laboratory sessions and practical training.

The decision sparked a wave of controversy. Supporters of the ban include the fledgling Egyptian Secular Party, which called Oct. 6 for a law doing away with the niqab in Egypt. Opponents such as the Salafist Dawa in Alexandria, the religious authority of the Nour Party, reject the decision as a “violation of the constitution and the law and discrimination against a certain category for its religious doctrine.”

In this context, Nassar said in a Sept. 30 press statement, “The university administration has received reports from certain deans concerning a problem in communication between students and veiled faculty members, since facial expression is essential to the educational process, and the decision violates neither Sharia nor the constitution.”