CAIRO - For the first time, Sherouq Nammer, a hijab-wearer, was barred entrance to one of the private beaches in the North Coast summer resort of Marina. "I come here every year; this is the first time this has happened to me. I was very embarrassed and disappointed when the security man told my uncle that my mother and I were not allowed to enter, because we were wearing headscarves," 27-year-old Sherouq told the Egyptian Mail in an astonished voice. "We tried to convince security to allow us to enter if we wore a sharai [swimsuit covering the whole body], but he told us only ordinary bikinis were allowed." Marina is famous for its stylish beaches and cafés that attract many upper-class visitors in the summer. Its different beaches are trying to offer something more open and trendy, different from other North Coast resorts. "My uncle's wife, who was also with us, wasn't wearing a headscarf," Sherouq continued, explaining that they like this particular beach, because of the variety of services it offers. Little did she imagine that she would be barred for wearing a headscarf. Hani Abdel-Karim, the owner of a tourist resort services company, says that preventing a woman from using a beach because she was wearing a headscarf is very 'strange'. "I know that some beaches barred entry to niqab wearers because of concerns over their identity," he adds. Abdel-Karim explains that managers of private beaches that offer high-class services like visitors who wear stylish bikinis; they in fact account for most of their customers. But he also believes that women wearing full-body swimsuits shouldn't be excluded. Other hijab-wearers like Hoda Ahmed say they've never had any problems. Hoda prefers public beaches to private ones, because people are more conservative on the public ones. "Beaches are open to different ideologies; on some a woman can wear a bikini, on others hijab-wearers or monaqabat [fully veiled women] can wear sharai. Some of the ultra-conservative monaqabat swim in their ordinary clothes." Although some beaches are only for females only, men often want to go there with their wives and children, so the idea doesn't work all the time. Some five-star hotels also stipulate the wearing of certain swimwear in and around the pool. More and more women are wearing headscarves these days and many of the headscarves are very trendy; a lot of girls don't find them a hindrance to swimming. Some hijab-wearers even wear bikinis on female-only beaches. In some military and police social clubs, niqab-wearers are banned. Should they instead be allowed to socialise in such places like other women? In Egypt, where most citizens are Muslims, there is no specific dress code for women, unlike in Saudi Arabia, where all women have to wear a black niqab, covering all their body and face. There are now fears in the tourist sector that, with political life dominated by the Brotherhood, bikinis will be banned in some tourist resorts. But there have been no reports of any changes having happened yet in local resorts, even those that attract more locals than foreigners.
