Veiled TV presenters can now be seen on Egyptian state TV after the lifting of a decades-long ban which meant that women wearing head scarves were not allowed on air.
Fatma Nabil made her first appearance on the Channel 1 midday broadcast on Sunday, wearing a black suit and a cream-coloured scarf or hijab covering the hair and neck.
"Finally the revolution has reached" Egyptian media, Nabil told the Muslim Brotherhood's daily newspaper, Freedom and Justice.
Under the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, women wearing head scarves or the face veil were kept away from the camera and were forced to take up jobs off camera. But this has now changed following the revolution which saw the new Islamist government come to power.
The new Islamist Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsud told a private satellite channel on Saturday he could see no reason why a woman in hijab could not present the national news.
Unlike state TV, women presenters on privately owned channels were seen wearing head scarves and did not face any restrictions.
For a country where the majority of Egyptian women wear some sort of veil, either the hijab or the face veil, niqab, this new rule has brought in some relief.
"Now the standards have nothing to do with the veil, which is a personal choice, but are all about professional skills and intellect," Nabil said in an interview with Al Jazeera English.
In July this year, Egypt launched its first ever satellite channel, Maria TV, run and hosted by fully-veiled or niqabi presenters.
Nabil, however, objected to an anchorwoman wearing the niqab. “There would be no communication between the viewer and the broadcaster in that case,” she said in an interview with Egypt Independent.
However, some commentators have pointed to the new rules as an indication of the Muslim Brotherhood's attempts to encourage a heightened sense of Islam in society, with many fearing that the move represents a further extension of the Islamists' reach since the revolution.
Source: DCMF, AFP
