Location of Syria in a Middle-East Map
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria has banned the face-covering Islamic veil from the country’s universities, as similar moves in Europe spark cries of discrimination against Muslims.
The Education Ministry issued the ban Sunday, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. The ban affects public and private universities and aims to protect Syria’s secular identity, he said.
Sunday’s ban does not affect the headscarf, which many Syrian women wear.
The niqab is not widespread in Syria, although it has become more common recently — a move 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 told The Associated Press on Monday.
The niqab “contradicts university ethics,” he added.
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 niqab, perhaps the most visible hallmark of strict, conservative Islam. European countries including France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands are considering similar bans on the grounds that the veils are degrading to women. Opponents say such bans violate freedom of religion and will stigmatize all Muslims.
Source: Muslim Matters Website
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Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, what are we going to do about this?
1 MUSLIM NATION 
Assalaamu ‘Alaikum Ayyuhal Ikhwaan
There is a famous Urdu couplet about the reflexive nature of Islam.
Islam ki fitrat main qudrat nain lachak rakhi hay
utna hi yeh ubhray ga jitna kay dubaa do gay
Allaah has bestowed Islam with an intrinsic reflexiveness
The more it is repressed,the more it tends towards ascendancy
Niqab is a symbol of the proliferation of the knowledge of Tafseer,Hadeeth and Fiqh.My zoologist mother and most of women in my family wear Niqab.The magnitude of opposition is a measure of the proportion by which Islamic Resurgence is becoming the greatest global spiritual force of the face of this planet. We are witnessing a most dramatic phenomenon in Islamic history.
We should percieve these steps as the milestones of the success of Da’wah ilAllaah(Inviting Towards Allaah) which will continue to persistently captivate human hearts, InshaaAllaah.The human spirit will ultimately fall completely under the spell of Islam,InshaaAllaah. No worldly temptation is then able to break this spell. This spell will continue to draw humanity to the fold.The Dajjaalian spell of Godless liberalism is destined by Allaah to break.
Keep doing Da’wah ilAllaah for Aakhirah by pen and tongue on daily basis till the day we leave this Dunyaa, and weep in front of Allaah at night for Du’aa. Da’wah ilAllaah and Du’aa are complimentary.There were such a Nabi as Rasool sall Allaahu ‘alaihi wasallam along whom there was not even a single follower. But, was that failure. Unlike elections, the success is Aakhirah is determined by our persistence and Istiqaamah in Da’wah ilAllaah like Nooh ‘alaihis salaam.
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