It seems to me that the women are already wearing the Hijab off the job. What they are asking for is to wear the Hijab on the job. Which they apparently have a right to do according the the Egyption courts. So what do they have to lose if they win their rights to dress in a manner which they feel is necessary for their religion?

It seems like instead of speaking towards feminist issues, freedom of religion issues, you're putting your cultual biases forward, offering them as superior and then casting judgement on those women from that viewpoint. Your culture, your religion is not superior those.

"If they get what they're fighting for, what will they lose?"

If they get what they are fighting for, they gain equality with their male peerds. If they get what they are fighting for, they score a win for religious freedom. If they lose, they lose equal status, allow men to continue to dictate what they can and cannot do, how they can and cannot express themselves.

How can that be? This is happening in Egypt, not Iran. The hijab is not being imposed on these women. Walk through the streets of Cairo and you'll see a mix of how women are dressed. While your article is interesting, it is painfully wrought with your western bias that assumes a muslim woman can not find anything liberating from wearing hijab. Most of the women I know wearing hijab do so willingly and are empowered by it, both as Muslims and as women. I don't even wear hijab but feel compelled to address your misconception.

I understand that this is a government rule on a state-run network, which is a different than our own privately-run network setup, but how many of our news anchors are allowed to wear explicitly religious accessories while reporting the news? While Muslims make up the majority of the Egyptian population, Islam certainly isn't the only religion in town. And while Egypt is a democracy in name only, it is a secular government. Having hijab-wearing news anchoring on state TV would be tantamount to endorsing one religion over the others. Maybe they don't have those types of concerns over there, but before saying "who would it hurt" consider what the news would be like here if all the anchors looked like they had come straight from the 700 club, or if the anchors in Italy all wore habits.

Of course it could just be that the state-run TV station is like private stations and prefers their anchors with big hair to appeal to consumers.

This reminds in some ways of the pharmacist controversy about whether or not they would be forced to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill. Both jobs are pretty clearly defined, they're serving the entire public, and the morals of the people performing those jobs shouldn't override their responsibilities.

of you to write so disdainfuly, so patronizingly, of someone else's religious beliefs. I don't know anything about these women, but I'm going to assume (since they are news anchors) that they are smart, educated women who know their legal rights and happen to have strong religious views.

The really sad thing is that I bet you would be very supportive if they wanted to wear a cami and pushup-bra on air: you'd talk about how horrible it was that their totally natural body was being objectified and how sexist it was. You'd probably even through in a half-joke about how it's hot in Egypt.

The only choice a woman can make is to become more sexual in our society... can't you understand that the point of feminism is that women get to make our own choices?

However, I choose to believe that the veil stinks.

I have no problems with the hijab, although I don't like the forms of the veil that cover the face. In our culture, there are precedents for women wearing head coverings for religious purposes. Mennonite women and Catholic nuns don't feel they are losing something by wearing head coverings, nor do Jewish men. I don't like the idea of forcing women to cover themselves head to toe - but it's not my right to make that decision for other women.

The first question my students in Dubai asked me was "American women hate us because we wear scarves or veils?" I said "no no - we don't hate you. What we dislike is the idea that you are being forced to wear such clothing by fundamentalists like Taliban. If you are wearing by choice it is not a problem." Right? Attacking the clothing as a personal choice is not helping anyone. The problem is not the choice but the lack of choice imposed by religious extremists in some areas. But - do we get up in arms about Amish women choosing to wear 19th century style clothing in plain colors? Do we get up in arms because some Catholic women choose to wear a mantilla when they attend church?

If I worked day to day in the dry sunny climate of the region I'd be inclined to wear headcovering of some type. For the same reasons, I wear a sunhat when I garden or go walkies. The problem is the intersection between women choosing their garb and someone forcing them to dress a certain way. I do wonder what the dress code is for male newscasters and if the employers right to establish a dress code for safety and image is somewhat different than daily 'street dress'. The headcoverings I've seen can be very beautiful and artistic as well. They need not be black sacks. I tried to wear a blue silk scarf and discovered that they are a challenge to keep on the head without practice...

I think the point is that a U.S. news station would never a hire a nun if she insisted on wearing her religious outfit while reporting the news. In my mind it would be even less defensible for the talking head of an ostensibly secular government to ever wear religious garb. But the nun/habit issue doesn't really line up with the hijab issue, given that a nun in some sense is a position of authority, and I regret introducing that analogy.

Now I prepare to duck... how exactly is following a millennial old religious rule only for women, a rule which is followed by a large majority of your country's population, in any way a feminist choice? It seems to be the epitome of not making a choice.

I'm going to go off in a corner now to excoriate myself before the sky falls on me.