Veiled female news anchor marks wane of secular Egypt

[vaberella]

[link:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48884758/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/#.UETF9tZlSAo|Veiled female news anchor marks wane of secular Egypt
The democratic election of an Islamist president has put a new face on power]
By MAGGIE MICHAEL

CAIRO — Wearing a cream-colored headscarf and a dark suit, Fatma Nabil read the 12 o'clock news bulletin on Sunday and became Egypt's first female news presenter ever to appear on state television while wearing a veil.

Nabil and several other female news presenters scheduled to go on air mark the end of a ban on presenters wearing the Muslim head covering, a policy that state TV has enforced throughout the half century of its existence.

A large majority of Egyptian women cover their hair. But under the ousted secular-leaning President Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors, female TV employees who did so would be asked to take jobs away from the cameras. Some sued against the policy and won, but a Ministry of Information run by staunch regime loyalists would ignore the rulings.

The end result was that the faces on state TV mirrored those of the wives of the ruling elite, where the style was set by women like the well-coiffed First Lady Suzanne Mubarak.

Mubarak's overthrow in a 2011 uprising, and the subsequent election of Islamist Mohammed Morsi as president, put a new face on power. Morsi wears an Islamic beard, and the country's new First Lady Naglaa Mahmoud covers not just her hair but the entire upper half of her body, minus her face — a veiling style associated with the working class.

So Egypt Democratically elects a man who is more austere than his predecessor on the issues and the writer above claims secularism is waning. I take issue with this. Even if Mubarak pushed a more secular state, he basically made it illegal for women who want to wear the hijab illegal. These women were ostracized and put on the back burner. There is no proof or evidence that the original newscaster women who did not wear the hijab were totally removed. Just that this marks the first in history for women who want to wear their veil, to publicly wear it. I like this. I don't believe in the subjugation of women in anyway shape or form and women should be allowed to choose what they want to do and be allowed to obtain any position without recrimination.

[PCIntern]

1. Yeah, right...

I know where THIS is going...

[enlightenment]

2. Will you feel the same way if

this becomes less a choice than a de facto rule?

Choice is great - and presumably 70% of the women in Egypt choose to wear some form of head covering. That said, there were a number of female news presenters and only one has chosen to start wearing a head scarf. That suggests that there are female news presenters who are not interested in wearing head coverings.

For now, they appear to have that choice, and that's great - but what if the pressure shifts? Even if the head scarf does not become a requirement by law (since this is still state TV), what if the pressure to conform to this new 'freedom' intensifies? Will the women who choose not to wear head coverings be shunted behind the camera? Is that still okay? If so, why?

It would be nice to think that won't happen, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Choice is great and the Egyptian people have made a choice to elect a conservative, religious government. Fine . . . but there will be changes and not all of them are going to be good for women's equality, I suspect.

[vaberella]

3. I really don't know what you're on about.

Obviously my post is that I welcome that women who choose to wear the hijab are not persecuted for that choice in their career. Which they were previously. As such...I of course would not want women who do not choose to wear their hijab to be persecuted for not wearing it.

Don't read in my post than there is. I even clearly stated in my post I happy everyone has the same rights. I hope in future that it is retained and not changed because of policy.