{"id":39332,"date":"2019-05-11T21:22:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-11T21:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39332"},"modified":"2019-05-11T21:22:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-11T21:22:54","slug":"debate-rages-in-egypt-as-priest-tells-christian-women-to-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39332","title":{"rendered":"Debate rages in Egypt as priest tells Christian women to cover up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nCAIRO: \u201cWhy are women and girls coming to church if they\u2019re wearing revealing and inappropriate clothes?\u201d That was the message of the sermon delivered by Father Daoud Lamei whilst presiding over an Orthodox Easter mass, celebrated by the Coptic Christian community in Egypt.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI personally think any man, who agrees to his wife leaving her home in that way will be judged before God,\u201d Lamei added. \u201cAt least during Christmas, we don\u2019t have to worry because it is cold … We want it to be cold always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe priest\u2019s comments about revealing clothing have sparked a heated debate in the Coptic community. Some have criticized Lamei, while others supported his call for modesty in religious buildings.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHe is specifically attacking Christian women, not explaining the appropriate dress code and attitude for a church in general,\u201d said Maryan Youssef, a 19-year-old student. \u201cEgyptian Christians wear decent clothes, and if some are not dressed properly they should be given guidance, but there aren\u2019t that many.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHani Abdo, a religious teacher, said: \u201cI fully agree with Lamei. I am a Christian man, and feel uncomfortable when I see Christian girls wearing inappropriate clothes in church. They are harassed in the streets.\u201d He said: \u201cChristian girls must learn from nuns. The Church is a sacred house that must be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFather Luke Rady of the Church of Marmina in Assiut, said: \u201cWe trust in our daughters and in their commitment to proper clothing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nDr. Nabil William, a psychology teacher at the University of Assiut, said Christianity does not impose uniforms on anyone, but always calls for decency.<\/p>\n

\nFollowing Lamei\u2019s comments, an online campaign called \u201cCover Up\u201d was set up by Orthodox Copts, calling on women to wear more conservative clothes when in church. In addition, a group of worshippers at a church in Upper Egypt started a seperate online campaign urging young women to dress modestly, which was vehemently criticized by Facebook users for its conservative language.<\/p>\n

\nThese campaigns have raised fears among some Christian women that they will be subjected to harassment for their outfits, restrictions on their personal freedom or forced to wear a prescribed uniform.<\/p>\n

\nLamei\u2019s remarks were dubbed \u201cChristian Salafism\u201d by Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Ibrahim said such rhetoric hardened attitudes that would \u201cjustify harassment\u201d of women simply for their attire. \u201cThere is a crisis in clerical education, and many clergymen end up tying piety to modesty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO: \u201cWhy are women and girls coming to church if they\u2019re wearing revealing and inappropriate clothes?\u201d That was the message of the sermon delivered by Father Daoud Lamei whilst presiding over an Orthodox Easter mass, celebrated by the Coptic Christian community in Egypt. \u201cI personally think any man, who agrees to his wife leaving her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}