Egyptian Islamic thinkers have condemned French Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie over comments she said on a recent television interview.

In the past few years, issues surrounding the niqab have escalated.

Europe is in the throes of an Islamophobic trend and gathering pace. The Swiss referendum coincides with the rise of far-right parties across Europe.

Hoda Ramzy, another student, was expelled from Al-Azhar Institute in Shoubra, today, for merely wearing a niqab.

Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and , the Muslim-majority country’s top religious authority, has vowed to ban the niqab (the veil which covers the entire face)