Eight female presenters at Egypt’s state television have been ordered to go on a diet and lose weight or be taken off air.
The women were suspended for one month to slim down by the chair of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, Safaa Hegazy, a one time television presenter herself. Hegazy said she told the anchor women “that they can work in production during the period they need to lose weight.”
The decision has been criticized by the women who have publicly expressed their displeasure publicly according to Buzz Feed.
“This is moral assassination,” Khadija Khattab, one of the suspended anchors who has had two shows on state television, told Buzzfeed News. “I have worked here for more than 15 years and now suddenly those who hate me are publicly defaming me and my career.”
The move to pressure the women to lose weight has been called by women’s rights group as discriminatory.
“Some jobs might have a dress code or appearance conditions, but weight, according to my information, is not one of them at Egyptian state TV,” said Dalia El-Hamamsy, the executive manager of Women & Memory Forum, an NGO that works to promote fair perceptions of Arab women. “If this was among the official conditions for presenters, someone needs to reveal the state TV’s hiring guidelines.”
However, Hegazy has dismissed the allegations that the decision is sexist
“How can there be discrimination against women in an institution run by a woman?” she said to the AFP
She added that the women “are no longer how they were” when they were hired suggesting that they have gained weight.
There are those that have agreed with the decision to put the ladies on a diet
“How did they manage to appear on the screen all this while…. We are talking about jobs that first depend on how you look.” Said Radwa Shaaban, a director at the state television
