THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY OCTOBER 6 2009
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NEWS
3A
RELIGION
Cleric to ban face veils for security
BY SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press
CAIRO — Egypt's top Islamic cleric is planning to ban students wearing the face veil from entering the schools of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's premier institute of learning, according to an independent daily Monday.
A security official also told The Associated Press that police had standing verbal orders to bar girls covered from head to toe from entering al-Azhar's institutions, including middle and high schools, as well as the doritories of several universities in Cairo.
The official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to the press, said the ban was for security reasons.
While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear the headscarf, only a few wear the niqab, which covers the face and is common in neighboring Saudi Arabia which practices the more conservative form of Wahhabi Islam. The trend seems to gaining ground in the Arab world's most populous country.
The moves appear to be part of a government campaign cracking down on increasingly overt manifestations of ultraconservative Islam in Egypt.
There is no uniform religious
opinion across the Muslim world
about whether a head scarf
— much less a face veil — is required.
The majority of Islamic scholars say the face veil is not required but is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began.
Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi's plans came to light when he told a middle school student in a class he was visiting earlier this week to take off her niqab.
Tantawi was inspecting al-Azhar's schools at the start of the academic year to check on measures in place to stem the spread
of swine flu, according to details of the visit published by the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Tantawi told the girl that the niqab "has nothing to do with Islam and is only a custom" and made her take it off.
He then announced he would soon issue an order banning girls from entering al-Azhar schools wearing the niqab.
"Niqab has nothing to do with Islam...I know about religion better than you and your parents," the cleric was quoted as telling the student.
Tantawi left Cairo late Sunday on a visit to Tajikistan and was not available for comments. Calls to his deputies went unanswered.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AGRICULTURE
Egyptian students wearing the face-covership well walk June 1 in Cairo, Egypt. The veil is a requirement for female adherents to Islam, but may soon be outlawed at educational institutions.
Personal farms are becoming new hobby
BY RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press
GEM, Ind. — Most evenings, Gary Mithoefer can be found at the end of a long gravel driveway off a busy highway, tending two garden plots filled with white sweet potatoes, squash, cabbages and a dozen other vegetables still thriving in early fall.
The 62-year-old, who gardens after his workday ends at his state highway job, is one of a growing number of Americans rolling up their sleeves and digging into the dirt to raise crops or livestock on a small scale.
The produce and meat raised by these small farms, sometimes called "hobby" or "lifestyle" farms, provides much of the food found at the nation's farmers' markets and roadside stands, said Maria 1. Marshall, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University.
Mithoeder, who sells whatever produce his family doesn't eat, freeze or can at a Saturday farmer's market, said he loves working outdoors with a nephew who helps him till, plant, weed and harvest plots covering about a half-acre just east of Indianapolis along U.S. 40, the famed National Road.
The Greenfield, Ind., resident recently sat in the fall sunshine near his fields vigorously washing buckets of cucumbers, squash, turnips and beets for the farmer's market as the air hummed with the din of cicadas and crickets.
Many of the farms raise specialized crops and practice organic or sustainable farming.
"We do it for the enjoyment," Mithoefe said as he scrubbed dirt from a cucumber.
"We make some on it — it doesn't lose money. We try to be reasonable with our prices and give the customer a good quality product for a reasonable price. Not much goes to waste."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent farm census shows that while the nation's largest farms keep getting larger, a growing number of small farms also are sprouting across the nation.
February's census report found that the number of farms under 50 acres soared nearly 15 percent between 2002 and 2007 to about 853,000 nationwide.
Nearly 300,000 new farms began production since the last census in 2002, and they tended to have fewer acres, lower sales and younger operators who also work off farm, said Ginger Harris, a demographer with National Agricultural Statistics Service, a branch of the USDA.
Farms under 10 acres grew even more, with their numbers rising about 30 percent to 232,000.
Although the census numbers show a growing interest in small farms, she said farmers weren't asked their motives for starting their farms or why farming isn't their primary occupation.