CAIRO: An Egyptian school teacher received a six-month suspended jail sentence yesterday 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 niqab - a veil that also covers her face - 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. 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 Mursi to the presidency in June.
Palestinian activist gets 4 months in prison
JERUSALEM:Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi was sentenced by an Israeli military court yesterday to four months in prison for his part in a demonstration last month, activists said. Tamimi, who reached a plea bargain with the prosecution, was also slapped with a 5,000 shekel ($1,283/¤1,003) fine. He was arrested on October 24 during a flash mob demonstration against Israeli occupation, in an Israeli-owned supermarket adjacent to Geva Binyamin settlement, north of Jerusalem.
Iran to participate in nuke-free conference
BRUSSELS: Iran, accused by the West of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, said yesterday it would take part in a proposed international conference in December on creating a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. “The Islamic Republic of Iran now finally has decided to participate at the conference in Finland, in Helsinki, in December on a Middle East (nuclear) free zone,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Brussels.Agencies
