On Thursday, the Supreme Council of Al Azhar, which oversees Al Azhar institutions, agreed to bar female students and teachers wearing the niqab from entering girls-only classes and dormitories. The ban came a few days after Mohammad Saeed Tantawi, Egypt's top Muslim cleric, reproached a 12-year-old girl for donning the full-face veil at an Al Azhar school and said it is an un-Islamic costume.

The niqab is not obligatory as a part of everyday attire and has more to do with traditions than with Islam, Tantawi told Egyptian TV, arguing that there is no need for young girls to wear it inside classrooms.

His remarks triggered a wave of protests across the country and added to unease over a similar move to bar niqab-wearers from staying at Cairo University dormitories. Hundreds of angry Islamist students this week protested outside the university.

"As a citizen and a God-fearing Muslim, I have the full right to wear the niqab everywhere," said Soad Hassanein, a veiled university student. "Instead of flexing their muscles on us, the authorities should order female students wearing revealing clothes to be decently dressed," she told Gulf News.

Officials at Cairo University, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were security considerations behind the decision especially since it could be used as a disguise for terror acts.

Tantawi and Minister of Higher Education, Hani Helal, have both come in for stinging criticism for the move. Lawyer Nabih Al Wahash filed a complaint with Egypt's Chief Prosecutor against Tantawi and Helal. Meanwhile, Islamist lawmakers have demanded that both officials be sacked.

Islamist MP Mohammad Al Beltagui said the manner in which Tantawi had expressed his opposition to the niqab was offensive. Similarly, Helal's position against the niqab contradicted the right to personal freedom, Beltagui told Gulf News. The ban on the niqab has, nonetheless, drawn applause from some Muslim clerics.

Those wearing the niqab had misunderstood Islam, said Abdul Moati Bayoumi, a member of the Islamic Research Centre, an influential arm of Al Azhar.

Hafez Abu Saeda, a human rights activist, while admitting that wearing the niqab was a matter of personal freedom, said educational institutions had the right to verify the identity of their female students. Delinquent individuals could use the niqab as a disguise to illegally enter a dormitory or an examination hall to commit unlawful acts, he pointed out.

Cairo (AP) While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear headscarves, few wear the niqab.

Senior cleric Shaikh Mohammad Saeed Tantawi, who was appointed by the Egyptian government, first attacked the niqab on Sunday during a field visit to a middle school where he asked a student to remove her face veil, according to local media.

Al Azhar schools are segregated between men and women.

The cleric said on Thursday that his decision to impose a partial ban is based on a 1996 constitutional court ruling that granted education officials the right to regulate Islamic attire in schools. He said the goal was to "spread trust, harmony ... and the correct understanding of religion among girls."

The majority of scholars "say that the face of a woman is not a shame", he said.

Tantawi said Al Azhar does not oppose women wearing the niqab in Al Azhar school yards, even though local media had reported earlier in the week that he would impose a total ban.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian group, Jund Ansar Allah, posted a statement on the internet criticising Tantawi and calling on people to carry out attacks against the government.

The media arm of the group accused Tantawi of "declaring war on the niqab, and facilitating matters of vice" in a statement posted on its website, according to the Washington-based SITE intelligence group, which monitors militant messages.

Al Azhar oversees education in over 8,000 schools that offer basic and secondary education to over a million students. The schools mostly offer religious education and operate parallel to public schooling. Graduates can later enroll in Al Azhar University.

The UN Development Programme estimated in 2008 that Al Azhar schools absorb nearly 20 per cent of Egyptian students in basic and secondary education.

Security officials have said that verbal orders have also been issued to bar students covered from head to toe from entering dormitories at several other Cairo universities, which are overseen by the Higher Education Ministry.

Tantawi appeared to be attempting to walk a fine line by avoiding banning the niqab altogether from Al Azhar schools.

Previous government directives over the last two years to ban women preachers wearing the niqab from mosques and nurses from wearing the full-face veil in hospitals have not been fully enforced.