The Seattle Times website reports today (July 19, 2010) that Syria has forbidden the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab -- the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes -- taking aim at a garment many see as political.
"We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering," a government official in Damascus said.
The order affects both public and private universities, and aims to protect Syria's secular identity.
The ban -- issued on July 18 by the Education Ministry -- does not affect the hijab, or headscarf, which is far more common in Syria than the niqab's billowing black robes.
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