The billowing black robe known as a niqab is not widespread in Syria, although it has become more common recently, a development that has not gone unnoticed in a country governed by a secular, authoritarian regime.
“We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering,’’ the government official said yesterday.
The niqab “contradicts university ethics,’’ he added, saying the government was seeking to protect its secular identity.
He also confirmed that hundreds of primary school teachers who were wearing the niqab at government-run schools were transferred last month to administrative jobs.
Syria is the latest country to weigh in on the veil, perhaps the most visible hallmark of conservative Islam. The wearing of veils has spread in other secular-leaning Arab countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, as well, with Jordan’s government trying to discourage it by playing up reports of robbers who wear veils as masks.
Turkey also bans Muslim headscarves in universities, with many saying attempts to allow them in schools amount to an attack on modern Turkey’s secular laws.
European countries including France, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands are considering bans on the grounds that the veils are degrading to women.
France’s lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a ban on wearing burqa-style Islamic veils on July 13.
