Can a personal opinion end a two-decade tenure as minister of culture? Nevine El-Aref investigates the controversy threatening to engulf Minister of Culture is no stranger to criticism. His 20 years in office have been dogged by criticism, and he has frequently been at odds with the top officials, MPs, Islamist politicians and left-wing oppositional intellectuals. But when, last Thursday, Hosni told the independent daily Al-Masri Al-Youm that the ever-growing number of women wearing the headscarf in Egypt is a sign of regression he found himself in the focus of perhaps the fiercest campaign against him yet. Hosni was quoted by Al-Masri Al-Youm as saying "our mothers went to universities and work places without the headscarf... Women with uncovered hair are like roses." Religion today, he continued, focuses on appearance, before arguing that Egypt would not progress as long as its people depended on "three-pence religious fatwas". MPs from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) bloc were quick off the mark, demanding Hosni be sacked. Hamdi Hassan, MB spokesman in parliament, tabled an urgent question to the prime minister asking for an immediate apology. Hosni's statements, he said, were an insult to Muslim women and to Egypt's two most senior Islam clerics, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti, both of whom emphasise the need for women to wear headscarves. Hosni's words were met with indignation from Muslim clerics across the Arab world. In a statement aired on Saturday by Al-Majd TV, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti described Hosni's statements as directly contradicting the Qur'an and Sunna. Sheikh Youssef El-Qaradawi, head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, said the minister's remarks had sent shock waves across the Islamic nation, and criticised Hosni for "pro-Western thoughts". The headscarf, he said, "ordained by God and obligatory for all Muslim women", has been worn in Egypt for 13 centuries now, and the rise in the number of women wearing it is part of an "Islamic awakening". "I did not argue whether the headscarf was obligatory for all Muslim women or not, I was only expressing my personal opinion," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly. He said that he had not intended to offend any woman covering her hair and that to the contrary he has always respected individual choice. "Hundreds of women wearing the headscarf are employed in the ministry and they have never complained from any discrimination," he commented. "I smell a conspiracy behind the current fuss," Hosni added. The remarks that had sparked the outrage came, he said, in what he had assumed was a friendly, off the record conversation, and had been blown completely out of proportion in order to foment a major politico-religious controversy. Hosni says he had no intention to offend either Muslim women or clerics, and that he was expressing his personal views and taste regarding dress and not talking about Islam. Hosni's critics, though, seem to be growing in number by the day, and include not only the Muslim Brothers, who have long complained of his tenure as minister, but many National Democratic Party (NDP) MPs and even Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Surour. On Monday 50 NDP MPs joined the Muslim Brotherhood bloc in calling for confidence to be withdrawn from the minister. They signed a petition demanding Hosni appear before a joint meeting of the parliamentary committees responsible for religious affairs and culture to explain his statements. Surour appeared to agree with the petitioners, saying the minister should be held accountable for his statements and that, as a member of cabinet, he was not entitled to express personal opinions in the manner in which he did. "Whoever wants to express personal views in contradiction with his official duties should first free himself from the responsibility of his post," Surour told parliament. Minister for Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Moufid Shehab promised MPs that Hosni would appear before the two committees, after which the Assembly can decide on the appropriate measures to take. He pointed out that Hosni's statements did not express the government directives. Presidential Chief of Staff Zakaria Azmi also criticised the minister in parliament, saying "we cannot allow anyone to insult Islam... The culture minister should not have talked about religious matters," while veteran NDP politician and MP Kamal El-Shazli said Hosni owed an apology to all Egyptians. On Tuesday Al-Azhar University students took to the streets of Madinat Nasr in Cairo, shouting anti-Hosni slogans and carrying banners demanding his resignation. Matters seem to be escalating rapidly: yesterday, Egyptian newspapers carried a statement by Hosni announcing that such was the hostility fanned by the controversy, he could no longer step outside his house. "I will not go anywhere, neither to parliament nor to office, until something is done to amend the harm done to my reputation by the Assembly," Hosni told the Weekly. He pointed out that his great respect for Islam has been demonstrated by deed over the last 20 years, and that as minister of culture he has overseen the restoration of more than 300 mosques and 100 other Islamic monuments. Meanwhile, a group of 250 intellectuals and artists, including filmmaker Youssef Chahine, novelists Youssef El-Qaeed and Iqbal Baraka, historian Younan Labib Rizq and critic Gaber Asfour, have issued a strongly worded statement condemning what they called "the atmosphere of cultural terror" prevailing in Egypt. Religion is being exploited for political ends, they said, claiming that an unholy alliance now existed between the state and the extremists. They attributed the rise in religious conservatism in Egypt to the spread of Wahabi ideas that began to be imported into Egypt in the 1970s as a result of Egyptian workers migration to the oil-rich Gulf states. This latest controversy -- triggered by Hosni's remark about women with uncovered hair being like roses -- highlights the contradictions within the ruling elite over the Islamisation of all aspects of civil life. Some observers argue that, as in Turkey, Pakistan, and even Jordan, Egypt is witnessing a division of labour between this elite and the Islamists, the deal being that the former monopolise economic and foreign policy in exchange for the latter holding sway over domestic policy deemed to have a "moral", for which read religious, component.
