Egyptian Author Salwa Bakr: Our Education System Has Been Dominated By Terrorist Groups; Sports, Arts Are Not In The Curricula, Little Girls Are Forced To Wear Hijabs – This Is A Breeding Ground for ISIS

Egyptian author Salwa Bakr said in a May 27, 2022 interview on Ten TV (Egypt) that the Egyptian education system has been dominated by "terrorist organizations" since the 1970s and that the "enlightened religious perspective" on her generation had been raised no longer exists. Bakr elaborated that Egyptian schools no longer teach sports, music, drawing, and dancing, and she said that little girls are forced to wear hijabs. In addition, she said that this prepares the "cultural and ideological ground" for ISIS terrorists.

Salwa Bakr: "Unfortunately, so far we have confronted terrorism only with the security forces. This is necessary and required, and we have been paying a steep price in the blood of our sons, the best among our youth. This confrontation is unavoidable. However, in my view, the cultural confrontation is the most important, because it starts with education.

"We need to remember that these terrorist organizations have dominated education in Egypt, one way or another, ever since Sadat gave them the green light in the 1970s. They have dominated education from preschool to university. Education is no longer secular. It has been painted with a backward religious hue.

"The enlightened religious perspective on which we were raised, at least in my generation, no longer exists the way it did in our schools. When you allow girls in middle school to be forced to wear the hijab — little girls are forced to wear the hijab — when you stop teaching sports, music, drawing, and dancing at school... By doing all these things, you prepare the cultural and ideological ground for a person who might grow up to be an ISIS terrorist."