EgyptAir stewardesses begin wearing hijab

DHAKA: EgyptAir stewardesses who campaigned to wear the Muslim headscarf have begun donning the hijab for the first time since the national carrier was founded in 1932.

A company official said on Sunday, reports The Straits Times.

The first flight attendants dressed in the hijab, which mainstream clerics say is mandatory, worked on flights to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Under former president Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in an uprising early last year, the hijab was taboo for women in some state institutions such as state television and the national carrier.

After the election of the Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in June, however, women in television and EgyptAir campaigned for permission to wear the hijab, like most Muslim women in Egypt.

BDST: 2017 HRS, NOV 11, 2012
Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor