Egyptian women launch campaign against veil-banning restaurants, beaches

There's been a social media outcry in Egypt after several veiled women took to Facebook to protest being denied entry to restaurants and beaches in the county.

The hashtag #against_hijab_racism and an Arabic one that translates to “you don’t have the right to prevent me” prompted hundreds of women to share their experiences with high-end Egyptian restaurants, resorts and beaches that prevent veiled women from entering.

In addition, the Facebook page "Hijab Racism" and the public Facebook group “Respect my Veil” were set up to spread the message and call for a boycott of establishments that are discriminating.

Sarah Taha, one of the first women to share her story, wrote that a restaurant in Egypt’s North Coast “refused to let us enter and the guy told us in complete impoliteness 'women wearing the hijab are not allowed, I can let you enter during the middle of the week but not on weekends and during Eid.'"

“This has become very provoking and demeaning, when will we respect each other?” Taha said, urging people to spread the word in the post that was shared over 12,000 times, inspiring others to come forward.

Dina El Sherbini wrote that security in a compound resort in Ain El-Sokhna “threatened to dump chlorine in the water to force veiled women who own property there to get out of the swimming pool.”

Sherbini added a video in the post, which has over 230,000 views, showing the resort’s security arguing with some owners over the issue, as she wrote in another post “this situation happened to me and I’m the one who shot the video, so no one told me about it.”

Another viral post by Dina Hassan listed a number of “veil-free zones,” as she sarcastically wrote “I’m very happy in my country and don’t feel any discrimination at all. What’s next, gas chambers? Society with an identity crisis.”

While the anger started over the religious discrimination, many commenters suggested that there was also an element of social class prejudice to the policies.

Some even believed that these establishments were not to blame as they were only imposing such policies to please their high-end customers who believe that veiled women represent a lower class and thus don't want to be associated with them.

While most of the women wrote that they were surprised to find themselves either prevented from entering a private beach or hotel swimming pool or asked to leave after they had already went in the water, Nihal Naga wrote on “Hijab Racism” that she knew she would be prevented from using the pool of a hotel in Ain El-Sokhna before going in.

"Everyone is free, there are foreigners who wear swimsuits that look like the penguin suit so they don't get sunburned. I hate the Islamic swimsuit but I am defending freedom," Twitter user Omiarazek wrote, to which @AhmedWagih replied "Can you go to the Opera in jeans?"

“When you’re checking in, they make you sign a notice that says so. Of course, not everyone reads these notices and they think it’s just a routine procedure and are surprised, but unfortunately we read the notice and signed it because we had come all the way from Alexandria,” Naga explained, suggesting that some of these hotels have their no-hijab policies outlined in writing.

Despite the outrage thousands of social media users expressed, some came to the defense of the hijab-free venues as they said that the issue was not one of discrimination but of a dress code policy that private establishments have the right to impose to maintain a certain atmosphere for their customers.

However, Egyptian Tourism Ministry spokesperson Rasha Azaizi said on Egyptian TV channel Al-Hayah last week that the ministry hadn't issued any statements imposing such policies, adding that all touristic establishments in the country are under the ministry’s control and that anyone who has a problem should file an official complaint.

"A place I opened with my money, I'm free to decide who enters and who doesn't. End of discussion," Twitter user canard_0 wrote.

While that may be a fair poin, considering the increase in tourists from the Gulf region, tourist establishments may find themselves discriminating themselves out of business with these prejudicial policies.