How do you explain the fact that the number of headscarf wearers in Egypt has risen so steeply?
Abdel-Fattah:There are many factors at work here as well. For one thing, there is the politicization of religion and the attempt to bring certain ways of thinking to bear on the private realm. Headscarf wearers are by no means always religiously motivated. The headscarf was once a kind of protective social shield in the fight against poverty and pennilessness waged by the middle and lower-class workers and farmers. In the 1970s, therefore, a female medical student from the countryside would wear a veil since she didn’t have the money to get her hair done at a salon or to buy chic clothing. Now we are witnessing a brand new phenomenon. The headscarf is changing into a kind of social armor for decent girls from poor backgrounds, both in the country and in the cities; it is becoming a religious mask. How else to deal with the corruption in Egypt? Corruption prevails in the services sector, and practically all other sectors of life as well, and everyone admits it, even the ruling class. So
