Comments made by Farouk Hosni, the veteran minister of culture, created uproar in the Egyptian parliament when he qualified the Muslim headscarf as being regressive. Hosni made the remarks while talking to a journalist, stating that previous generations of Egyptian women did not wear the headscarf and went to university. Members of parliaments affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling National Democratic party joined forces in attacking the minister for his remarks and called on the minister to explain his comments in parliament. Hosni refused to come to parliament or to go to his office for a week until MP's apologize for their verbal attacks. Hosni ended up going to parliament and agreed that the ministry of culture would set up a committee for religious culture- it is not clear what will be the impact of this committee on the activities of the ministry of culture, many Egyptian intellectuals considered that such a committee is the cornerstone of theocratic regimes.