Women’s Freedom of Dress Questioned in Egypt!

By Sally Shakkour

Controversial debate kicked off in Egypt on women's freedom after two contradictory incidents took place in the same week.

The first one was after a 19-year-old girl called Habiba Tarek went to her college's exam wearing a dress. Despite the fact that the dress was decent, the college’s academic staff slammed her clothes as unsuitable for university; one professor said: “did you forget to wear your pants?”.

A huge support campaign on social media was launched declaring support for Habibia saying she has the right to wear whatever she wants without being subjected to harassment.

Hashtags “#فتاة_الفستان ~ the girl with the dress and #حبيبة_طارق ~Habiba Tarek'' were released defending women’s right to wear whatever she wants whenever she wants.

Dr. Mahmoud Zaki, President of Tanta University, expressed his sadness over the incident adding that he has referred the case of a student harassed in the Faculty of Arts over her dress to the Public Prosecution for investigation.

Another incident came in contrast to Tanta's University one. Dina Hashim is an Egyptian girl who was banned from entering the pool in one of the hotels in Alexandria because she was wearing the Burkini.

Feminists and women’s right activists have denounced both incidents as repeated especially in Egypt; they also called for protecting women and females and to give them the choice of wearing whatever they found suitable wherever they want.