A teacher of religious education was jailed Sunday for four days pending investigations for beating a primary student and cutting a lock of her hair as punishment for not wearing hijab, Youm7 reported.The principal of the school, located in Fayoum governorate south west of Cairo, was also suspended.
“He hit me on my fingers. So, it hurt me then, so I cried. Then he cut my hair, and put it on the desk,” Nora, the student, told ON TV Sunday.
She also said her teacher, Ali, hit her repeatedly on her head Thursday for not covering her hair; she promised him to come in with a head scarf on Sunday. Fridays and Saturdays mark the weekend in Egypt.
Nora’s mother, Taiseer Ewais, told the channel he hit her with a stick he had placed inside a hose, then wrapped in wire.
The fifth grader said Ali asked her colleagues for scissors, but he only found a box cutter. He cut a lock of her hair with her classmates laughing at her, she added.
Ewais explained that Ali had cut a lock from the bottom of her daughter’s braid.
Nora did not inform her mother of what happened to her; rather, she told her it happened to a classmate, asking if that would not let the hair to grow longer. After the mother answered with a no, Nora cried, according to Ewais.
“If [Ali] asked her uncle or me or anyone, or told her listen, do not attend my session without a scarf… she wears the scarf anyways in fear of him. I do not want to force her to wear a scarf, she [should only] wear it with real conviction. She is a small child,” Ewais told ON TV.
“He does not know anything about religion. Had he known anything about religion, he would not have done this… who gave him this entitlement?” she added.
Earlier in March, a teacher was referred to investigations for allegedly “forcing” male students to wear headscarves after they lost to a team of their female counterparts in a competition.
In 2012, a female teacher in Luxor, Upper Egypt, cut two locks of the hair of two primary students for not wearing hijab. She was investigated and her salary was deducted after her case became high-profile.
