Cairo  - Egyptian students on Wednesday protested their exclusion from university dormitories because they wear the niqab, a veil that covers the full face.

The issue has come to the fore following a newspaper report quoting Sheikh Mohammed al-Tantawi, the head of Cairo's centuries-old al-Azhar University, as saying the niqab was "a tradition that has nothing to do with Islamic faith and obligations," and vowing to ban it from schools affiliated with al-Azhar.

Last week, Egyptian Minister of Higher Education Hani Hilal announced that female students had been ordered to remove the niqab upon entering the university dormitory as a means of preventing men from sneaking into the dormitory.

He said that 15 young men had been caught sneaking into female universities wearing the niqab as a disguise last year.

Egypt's Islamist opposition has rallied to oppose the ban. Wednesday's protest was organized by the student wing of the Labour Party, whose license has been suspended since May 2000.

"Banning the niqab in universities is part of the country's tendency toward the secularization of the state and the declared war on Islamic symbols," protest organizer Ahmed al-Kurdi told the German Press Agency dpa outside the gates of Cairo University on Wednesday.

The female students gathered to protest said that they had been expelled from student housing because they wear the niqab.

A dentistry student, who requested anonymity, said she believed the Ministry of Higher Education's stated reasons for excluding students who wear the niqab were a pretext.

"The security reasons given by the minister are not the real reasons," she told the German Press Agency dpa. "They are targeting the niqab."

She said she and her friends had begun living in the dormitories on Sunday, and that they had abided by the order to remove the niqab while in the dormitories, but that they were expelled later the same day.

Students protesting outside Cairo University said similar scenes had played out at Ain Shams University in Cairo, and at universities in the Egyptian towns of Tanta, Benha and Alexandria.

"We tried to meet with the head of Cairo University or the head of the dormitories department, or any official, but no one agreed to meet with us," said a medical student who also requested anonymity.

Many university students who come from rural villages to study in Egypt's cities choose to stay in university housing because it is inexpensive and close to the university.

Students pay an entrance fee of 230 Egyptian pounds (42 US dollars), followed by a monthly rent of 70 pounds (13 dollars).

Women in particular often choose university housing because it can be difficult for unmarried women to rent apartments in Cairo.  dpa