Egyptian TV reporter causes stir after taking son to work

Cairo: Holding a microphone in one hand and carrying her baby with the other, Egyptian TV reporter Lamia Hamdeen has caused a nationwide stir.

Lamia was photographed without her knowledge while carrying her 20-month-old son during recording of a street report for her private broadcaster. The photo went viral on the internet, drawing mixed reactions.

Critics condemned her behaviour as unprofessional. Proponents extolled her as a hero and a supermum.

“I am neither a wrongdoer nor a hero,” said Lamia, who works for private network ONTV. “I had to pick up my son who was sick that day from a nursery and at the same finish a report for my TV. I had no other choice but to take him during the recording in which he did not appear,” she told independent newspaper Al Watan.

“But I was surprised to see the photo posted on Facebook pages, subjecting me to sarcasm and satire. What wrong did I do? I could not neglect my son because of my work and vice versa,” she said.

“Female members of the European Parliament have the right to take their little children to the parliament as Licia Ronzulli has already done for four years,” Lamia added, referring to the Italian lawmaker famous for taking her daughter to work.

The incident has shed light on hardships facing working women in Egypt, where they account for around 23 per cent of the country’s labour force, according to official figures.

Lamia’s female colleagues have showered her with praise in the past two days. “I think if this photo had appeared in any other country, people there would have considered her an ideal mother,” celebrated Egyptian TV anchorwoman Eman Al Husiri said on her show on private broadcaster Al Mehwar.

Other TV presenters admitted to have taken their children to work. “For long, I dragged my daughter from one TV studio to the other. But I never felt that my job had been negatively affected,” said TV host Mona Salman.

“When the woman works and tries to succeed without neglecting her children, society does not give her respectable options. There are some people who intentionally try to find fault with the way she does her job,” Mona posted on her Facebook account.

Lamia’s employer said it would not take action against her.

“We take into consideration the pressure she is subjected to as a working mother,” ONTV chairman Shafiq Albert said in a statement.

The office of President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi contacted Lamia and praised her for being keen to do her job, semi-official newspaper Akhbar Al Youm reported on Saturday.

Al Sissi is expected to meet Lamia soon in a gesture of support, according to the paper.

On several occasions, the Egyptian leader has commended Egyptian women, who figured prominently in the 2013 street protests that preceded the army’s removal of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.

Days after taking office in June last year, Al Sissi — who led Mursi’s overthrow — was shown on official television visiting a woman in hospital after she had been sexually attacked in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in celebrations marking his inauguration.