The relationship between the Egyptian government, the strengthening Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Azhar-regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and Sharia-affected the reaction to the conservative symbol of the niqāb.
In response to Egypt's catastrophic loss to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and the seeming failure of secularism, there also was a push to return to Egypt's Islamic identity.