Cairo, Egypt - The furor over the Egyptian culture minister's anti-veil remarks escalated Wednesday into a fully fledged crisis as a cross-party political campaign denounced by intellectuals gained momentum.
In parliament, angry MPs from Farouk Hosni's own National Democratic Party (NDP) now outnumbered those from the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been the first to chastise the minister for his criticism of the Islamic veil.
Some 800 students, mainly veiled women and supporters of the opposition Islamist movement, demonstrated in the Upper Egypt city of Minya to demand Hosni's immediate sacking.
More protests are planned across the country in the coming days.
In an interview published last week, Hosni said that he saw the ever-growing number of Muslim women wearing the veil in Egypt as a negative trend.
"There was an age when our mothers went to university and worked without the veil. It is in that spirit that we grew up. So why this regression?" he asked. "Each woman with her beautiful hair is like a flower, and should not be concealed from the view of others," Hosni added, arguing that "religion today focuses on appearances too much."
Farouk Hosni has held his portfolio for 19 years and is believed to be close to the first lady, Suzanne Mubarak, but his job appeared to be increasingly on the line as the ruling NDP rushed to condemn his comments.
"I will not move until I have been rehabilitated and my honor restored by the Assembly," the minister said Tuesday, refusing to go to parliament or his ministerial office.
Parliament speaker Fathi Sorour, another NDP heavyweight, hit back Wednesday, warning Hosni that he would "not be rehabilitated" unless he accepted to appear in parliament "to convince lawmakers."
Support for the beleaguered minister came from an unexpected source when some of Egypt's most prominent intellectuals - who have been critical of Hosni's actions as culture minister - denounced what they perceived as "cultural terrorism."
By Wednesday, some 500 intellectuals had signed a petition charging that the coalition between the Islamists and the regime against Hosni exemplified "the depth of the collusion between corruption and fundamentalism."
Among the signatories of the petition denouncing a "witch-hunt" against the culture minister are renowned filmmakers Youssef Chahine and Yusri Nasrallah.
Alaa Al Aswani, who wrote the best-selling novel Yacoubian Building, also defended Hosni in the name of freedom of expression.
"It is utter hypocrisy and it shows the convergence between the Islamists and this regime in an attempt to gag the Egyptian people and stop them from thinking," he said.
"I have reservations on Farouk Hosni ... but I completely defend him because it's his right to express his opinion," said George Ishak, the spokesman for the protest movement Kifaya.
But Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Youssef Al Qaradawi said that Hosni wanted women "to blindly imitate the Western civilization, which has indulged in bestial pleasures, sanctioned gay marriage, and condoned nudity."
Qaradawi, one of the most influential preachers in the Muslim world, added that women have an obligation to wear the hijab, or Islamic veil, quoted in the Gulf press.
Growing conservatism has seen a vast number of women take up the veil in Egypt, formerly one of the most liberal societies in the Middle East.
Observers attribute the phenomenon to a variety of reasons ranging from growing Islamism to social pressure and fashion.