During a visit to a secondary school a few weeks ago, Egypt's highest Sunni authority came across a teenager wearing the full veil. Flabbergasted, he humiliated the girl, asking her "Why wear the niqab in a class full of girls?!" He then forced her to remove it.

"Wearing the niqab is a custom, not part of religion", explained Sheik Mohammed Tantawi, long-time dean of Egypt's prestigious and ancient al-Azhar University, founded in 969 and considered one of the world's number one references in the teaching of Islamic studies.

Tantawi hasn't wasted any time. He's strictly forbidden students, pupils and teachers from wearing the niqab in the al-Azhar university and its adjoining schools. And it's not unlikely that we'll see the decision followed by institutions throughout the country. Sheik Tantawi's decision comes just after the Minister for Higher Education banned students who wear the niqab from living in student halls.

Islamic opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood has seized upon the move to vehemently criticise the government. Since the beginning of the week, numerous demonstrations outside universities have been staged in protest.

In 2001, the American University in Cairo banned girls from wearing the niqab on campus for security reasons, but in 2007, the decision was overruled by the Supreme Court. Girls who wear the full veil were thereafter required to identify themselves to a female watchman before entering the campus.