Headscarf row teacher set to appeal

An EGYPTIAN school teacher has been given a six-month suspended jail sentence for cutting the hair of two 12-year-old girl pupils who were not wearing Islamic headscarves.

Iman Abu Bakr Kilany, a science teacher who herself wears a niqab – a veil that covers her hair and her face – said last month she had been removed from the school in Luxor after complaints by relatives of the girls, who were the only two in her class who did not wear headscarves.

Egyptian human rights groups and women’s organisations condemned the incident as an example of hardline Muslims trying to impose their values on others since Islamists took power in Egypt.

Ms Kilany’s lawyer said the verdict was harsh and that she would appeal, according to the state news agency MENA.

Many Egyptian women wear the headscarf, but the country’s Islamic scholars generally say it should be done out of free choice. That view is shared by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled Mohamed Morsi to the presidency in June.

Ms Kilany said last month she had asked all her female students to put on the headscarf because it was required for girls older than ten – a view disputed by many Muslims.

The rise to prominence of an array of Islamist groups has alarmed secular-minded Egyptians and the Christian minority.