LUXOR, Egypt — An Egyptian school teacher received a six-month suspended jail sentence Tuesday for cutting the hair of two 12-year-old girl pupils who were not wearing Islamic headscarves, a judicial source said. Iman Abu Bakr Kilany, a science teacher who herself wears a full-length veil, said last month she had been removed from the school in the southern town of Luxor after complaints by relatives of the girls — the only two in her class who did not wear headscarves. She said she was being moved to an administrative job and docked one month's salary. The court also fined the teacher $8. The woman told a local newspaper she had not imagined that cutting “two centimeters (one inch) of hair” to be a serious crime. “I was joking with (the two girls) when one pupil took out a pair of scissors and said I should go through with my threat. I did it to preserve my authority,” she added, saying she had worn the veil for five years. Egyptian human rights groups and women's organizations condemned the incident as an example of hard-liners trying to impose their values on others since Islamists took power in Egypt. Many Egyptian women wear the headscarf, but the country's Islamic scholars generally say it should be done out of free choice. That view is shared by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled Mohamed Morsi to the presidency in June. Kilany said last month she had asked all her girl students to put on the headscarf because it was required for girls older than 10 — a view disputed by many Muslims. While Morsi and his administration have repeatedly said they will not seek to impose strict Islamic codes of behavior, the rise to prominence of an array of Islamist groups has alarmed more secular-minded Egyptians and the sizable Christian minority. In one headline-grabbing incident, a young man out with his fiancée was stabbed to death by three zealots in Suez in July. The killers were sentenced to 15 years in jail. — Agencies
