A teacher in Egypt has been sent behind bars for cutting the hair of a girl who was not wearing the headscarf.
The teacher will remain in jail for four days while an investigation into the incident is underway. “It happened in in the province of Al Fayyoum, south of Cairo, where a schoolgirl was ‘punished’ for not wearing the headscarf’,” said officials of the judiciary.
The matter came to the fore when the fifth-grader filed a complaint that her Islamic Studies teacher struck her and used a cutter to chop her hair off. As punitive measures, the teacher as well as the head of his school were suspended.
“My daughter has been in poor psychological condition since the incident, the teacher did this to her inside the classroom amid laughter from other pupils. My daughter is still a child. She will not wear the Hijab unless she is convinced,” said the girl’s mother.
Egypt’s education ministry has not made it mandatory for schoolgirls to wear the headscarf. Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, the Egyptian president has reiterated it continuously that a ‘religious revolution’ is needed to rid the Muslim-dominated country of militancy .
Three years ago, in 2012, an Egyptian court sent a veiled teacher to prison after she was found responsible of resorting to violence against two unveiled schoolgirls by cutting their hair.