MORE “DONTS” FOR EGYPTIAN GIRLS

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1949, Page 3

MORE “DONTS” FOR EGYPTIAN GIRLS

(By a Reuter Correspondent in Cairo) Ahmed Mursy Badr Bey, the Egyptian Minister of Education, has added another item to his long list of “don’ts” to Egyptian girls. To maintain the dignity of educational institutions, women teachers and school girls have been forbidden to use cosmetics and ordered to wear long-sleeved, ankle length dresses as from the beginning of the next school year.

An order to this effect has been sent by the Minister to headmistresses of Government girls’ schools throughout the country.

Badr Bey recently banned Egyptian girl students from going abroad because two girls studying in Switzerland got married without the consent of their families.

He abolished ballet dancing from girls’ schools because, in his opinion, it does not fit in with Egyptian customs, and banned bathing beauty contests in government pools. The Minister’s decision raised a storm in the Egyptian press and women in all walks of life protested. During a visit to the Secondary Girls’ School, Badr Bey agreed to be photographed with the mistresses, and asked them not to believe that he was at war with the fair sex.