Egypt imposes new restrictions on women traveling to Turkey

Females are now also required to get a security clearance before traveling to Turkey.Egypt's airport authorities banned on Friday eight women from travelling to Turkey for not having the required security clearances, Cairo airport security director said. 

The passengers have not been allowed to board planes and were asked to get permits from passports authority, Tarek Fathy, the airport security director, told Ahram Online.

In December 2014, the interior ministry mandated that Egyptian males aged between 18 and 40 years old who wish to travel to Turkey, Iraq or Libya need to receive security approval from passport control authorities.

The measure, now effectively applied to females as well, aims to control the flow of jihadists to the Islamic State militant group that controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The Turkish border is one of the easiest places for fighters to cross into northern Syria.

Relations between Egypt and Turkey soured in 2013 after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi -- a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- and the subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group.