Cairo: Egyptian actress Hanan Turk, who wore the hijab some years ago, has said she is quitting after concluding that acting contradicts the head dress. “I feel that acting, which runs counter to the hijab, has made my hijab an allure,” she said in a phone-in conversation with an entertainment show on a private Egyptian television state late Friday. “I’ve decided to resolve this conflict by retiring. I am completely satisfied with this decision,” she added. Several TV stations are currently showing Turk in “Sister Treez”, a soap opera tackling Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt. Turk, who started her career as a ballerina, plays the title role in the series, which she said would be her last work as an actress. She portrays twin sisters who were separated in childhood, with one raised as a Muslim and the other as a Copt. Stopping short of describing acting as un-Islamic, Turk said: “The way we handle things makes them legal or illegal from the Islamic perspective. I am not a theologian to say that art is un-Islamic.” Turk, 37, has starred in more than 20 films, including two directed by renowned Egyptian director Yousuf Chahin. In recent years, she has acted in several television dramas, in which she appeared wearing the hijab. Some years ago, she set up a coffee shop in a suburban Cairo area to serve veiled women only.
Several Egyptian actresses have recently retired and put on the hijab amid a wave of Islamism in the predominantly Muslim country.
