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Following are excerpts from an interview with Sheik of Al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi on Egyptian TV, which aired on October 7, 2009.
Sheik Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi: With regards to the niqab, I always say that it is a custom, which has nothing to do with religious worship.
Interviewer: It has nothing to do with worship?
Sheik Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi: No, it is a custom. I grew up in a village, and so did you. When we were small, women would wear a niqab when they would walk from one house to another. It is a custom. Some of them did not even pray, or knew nothing about Islam. It has become a custom.
Interviewer: Yes.
Sheik Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi: Nevertheless, we see that the four imams...
Interviewer: The four imams and the jurisprudents in general...
Sheik Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi: They said that the face does not constitute awra [private parts that must be covered].
[...]
Interviewer:Do the people who lead society, including Sheik Al-Azhar and the Mufti, Ali Goma'a, have the right to tell a woman wearing the niqab not to be in public places, because she is hiding behind this niqab? Is it permissible to issue such a ruling?
Sheik Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi: I am only talking about classrooms. What I am saying is that a girl is welcome to wear her niqab outside her home. She is welcome to wear her niqab in the educational institute, and there is no problem if she wears her niqab in the courtyard in the morning. But when she enters the classroom, with her classmates and her teacher, who is like her mother, is there any need for the niqab?
[...]
In the specific case of an 11-year old girl, who is in a girls' school, and is taught by women only, and she is in a classroom, with nobody but girls with her – tell me, who is she wearing the niqab to hide from?
[...]
If somebody says that the niqab is a religious obligation, I cannot prevent him from saying this, but I can tell him that he is wrong.
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