The Egyptian Supreme Council for Media Regulation, the national body concerned with overseeing the media, is opening an investigation concerning TV presenter Radwa El-Sherbiny after she said on her show that women who wear the hijab are “better” than those who do not.

Hijab is a head covering that many Muslim women wear in public to conform to Islamic standards of modesty.

The council said that it received complaints about the remarks by El-Sherbini, which she made on her CBC Sofra program Heya w Bas.

El-Sherbini encouraged Muslim girls to continue wearing their veil even if they face peer pressure to take it off.

Last week, El-Sherbiny, who does not wear a hijab herself, responded to a question from one of her viewers, telling her to not give up on her hijab.

“To every [woman] who is the only veiled one among her group of friends, or [in her] family, or street, or work, never take off the hijab. You are 100,000 times better than I and non-hijabi women,” she said last week.

She added that “the devil inside [non-hijabi women] is more powerful than their faith and strength,” and that women who wear the hijab are “better” in the eyes of God.

El-Sherbiny later apologised, saying that she had gone too far with her comments and that she did not mean to offend non-hijabis.

“I meant to say that hijabi women have done their duty better than I and non-hijabi women,” she said, adding that this does not mean that non-Hijabi women are not good.

She concluded her one-minute apology by saying that women who wear the hijab and those who do not both have good and bad examples among them.

El-Sherbiny’s comments stirred controversy on Egyptian social media, with many attacking her for her remarks and others coming to her defence.