When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Egypt

Egyptian Court Lifts Ban On Veiled TV Hosts

Television presenters have mostly gone headscarf-free on Egypt’s state-run Channel 5. The fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime – and a weekend court ruling – may soon change that.

Headscarves appear frequently on Egypt's Channel 5, just not on the heads of presenters
Headscarves appear frequently on Egypt's Channel 5, just not on the heads of presenters

*NEWSBITES

For half a century, female presenters working for Egypt's state-run Channel 5 were expected to leave their headscarves at home. That could soon change.

On Sunday, a court in Alexandria challenged the decades-old policy, arguing that the headscarf is a symbol of decency, and that banning women from wearing it violates their personal freedom. More specifically, the ruling overturns a decision made in 2008 by then Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, who banned Channel 5 presenter Lamiyaa al-Amir from appearing on television in a headscarf.

Egypt's state TV is the oldest state-run television in the Middle East. At the time of its establishment in 1960, no female presenters wore headscarves. As time went on, the headscarf became much more common among Muslim women. Still, state TV refused to let presenters wear it, prompting complaints from religious and conservative forces, who used the ban to attack the regime of former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, who fell from power a year ago.

The rare case of a veiled presenter was in the early 1990s with Kariman Hamza. She fought a legal battle against former Information Minister Safwat al-Sherif, who was in charge of national TV from 1982 to 2004.

Read the full article at Al-Masry Al-Youm

Photo – YouTube

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest