NEARLY all women in Egypt, whose population is 90% Muslim, wear a veil. Some prefer a hijab, which covers the hair only; others a niqab, which leaves only a slit for the eyes; but few appear in public unveiled. So it would seem foolish for any Egyptian business to exclude covered women. Yet that is exactly what some fancy restaurants, pools and beach resorts are doing.

A manager at the Lemon Tree, a restaurant with three outlets, says the owners “do not think it is appropriate” for veiled women after 8pm. A Kempinski hotel in Cairo bans veils in the bar. The Steigenberger Golf Resort in Gouna, a beach town, makes veiled women swim in a separate pool.

Muhajabat, as women who wear the headscarf are called in Arabic, are now naming and shaming places on a Facebook page called “Hijab Racism”. Some restaurants have rushed to clarify their policies. The only time we would turn anyone away is if we were full, wrote the owners of Lilly’s, a café in Zamalek, a posh part of Cairo.

The veil was rare in the Middle East’s cities and towns in the 1970s, but mass migration from the countryside—where it was often worn for traditional rather than religious reasons—made it more common. Several countries have attempted to regulate Muslim attire. Turkey banned traditional dress—for men—in the 1930s; the veil was later banned in public institutions. France and Belgium ban the full face covering. At the other end of the spectrum, in Saudi Arabia and Iran Islamic garb is compulsory for women.

Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s president, is a devout Muslim. But, like other Arab strongmen, he portrays himself as the alternative to Islamists. He has regulated mosque sermons and is changing school textbooks. Earlier this month his education minister said he would prefer primary school girls not to wear the hijab. (Tunisia’s president, Beji Caid Essebsi, wants to ban it.)

Mr Sisi doubtless thinks he is doing something popular. By some reckonings (there are no trustworthy statistics) Egyptian women started shedding the veil as a sign of resistance to the deeply unpopular Muslim Brotherhood, which ruled for just over a year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Yet citizens generally don’t like being told what to do. In 2013 Turkey’s ruling AKP party decided to loosen restrictions. In 2011 Syria reversed a year-old ban on the niqab in universities. Egypt’s government seems to be treading carefully. On August 3rd Khaled Abbas, the tourism minister, said the government will shut down establishments banning covered women. So far, though, he has done nothing.