(Credit: YouTube, AP, screenshot)

Egyptian TV news anchor Fatma Nabil broke “decades of secular dress code” Sept. 2 by “wearing the hijab” on air, the Guardian reported.

According to the Guardian, which posted a video of Nabil’s broadcast on state TV, “during the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, state TV enforced a secular dress code on screen.”  As the Associated Press explained, any “female TV employees” who wore a “head covering” “would be asked to take jobs away from the cameras.”

Reuters reported that Nabil’s decision “stirs debate” and that previously the rules about wearing the veil “kept covered women out of the top job.”

See all our stories on Egyptian media ethics.