Two women in full Islamic head coverings assaulted and forcefully cut the hair of a Christian woman on the metro Sunday, the third such reported incident in two months, raising fears of a growing vigilante movement to punish Egyptian women for not wearing the veil in public, the Egypt Independent reports. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the assaulters called the 28-year-old Christian woman an "infidel" and pushed her off the train, breaking her arm. The Christian woman reported the incident to police and filed a medical report to confirm the assault. Last week, a woman wearing the veil cut the hair of a 13-year-old Christian girl on the metro, and a teacher was also given a six-month suspended prison sentence for cutting the hair of two 12-year-old girls after they refused to cover their heads. Naguib Gabriel, director of EOHR, urged Egypt's interior minister to address the recurring attacks on unveiled women before it became a common practice. Opponents of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, say these incidents prove that Islamists are attempting to impose strict sharia laws under his rule.
