Gulf Arabs in Egypt

We were just sitting chatting with Mohammed the barber when I remembered that I saw him sitting with a Yemeni man the other day is new to the neighborhood. Mohammed told me that the man was here on vacation and was renting an apartment for a few weeks because it is cheaper than a room in a hotel.

Gulf Arabs come to vacation in Egypt quite often, and I have yet to hear an explanation of this phenomenon other than the one I am about to share. Mohammed told me that Gulf Arabs, especially the more convervative Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, come to Egypt to "go out with women." This means everything from just speaking to women to sleeping with them. In these countries, Mohammed explained, the women are all covered, most often wearing niqab. I wanted to question this stereoptype as I hear it often and I think it's generally useful to do so, so I asked Mohammed if he was sure that this was really the reason people from the Gulf come to Egypt. He said, "well yesterday when I was speaking with him he asked me the best place to fine women in Cairo, so yes, I am sure."

He added that to Gulf Arabs, Egypt is known as "أمريكا العرب." "The America of the Arabs."

The Same 20 Questions

If you were an American wandering the streets of Cairo these days, you might be asked the following questions upon meeting Egyptians:

1. Where are you from?
2. What is your religion?
3. What is your name?
4. What do you think of Obama?
5. What do you think of Israel?
6. What do you think of Bush?
7. What do you think about the invasion of Iraq?
8. Can you teach me English?

The Dry Cleaners

There are about 4 dry cleaners on our street. One of them, called Iran Clean (we live on the corner of Iran and Zahraa streets), usually gets our business. Every couple of months Iran Clean hires a new delivery boy, usually between the ages of 10 and 14. The kid working there now, who for the past few days has been wearing a blue Incredible Hulk hoodie, is very nice. He just brought my dry cleaning over, 2 shirts, which cost 7 Egyptian pounds ($1.27). I am not sure if I am paying khawaga (gringo) prices, but either way that is still pretty cheap. I had a ten dollar bill and gave it to him, and he said "I'll go get you change and come back." I told him to keep it. He was speechless. $0.54. I am a saint, I know.

Sexual Harassment in Egypt

I haven't written much about this but it is a problem that not only my classmates face on a daily basis because they are foreign and are therefore considered to be "loose" by many Egyptian men, but a problem that Egyptian women, veiled an not veiled, face as well. This is a landmark ruling in a country that has chosen to ignore, both on a legal/political and social level, a frankly disgusting and unacceptable phenomenon.

Egyptian Sexual Harasser Jailed

The BBC and Reuters reported a few months ago on polling that was done in which over two-thirds of Egyptian men admitted to sexual harassing women in the streets. This harassment is both verbal and physical.

Just to give you more of an idea, I'll share a few stories:

1. A girl on my program almost went home for good after she was constantly harassed near her home. In one incident a man grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her, and in another a man touched her crotch.
2. My roommate's girlfriend is constantly glared at, whistled at, and told things like "sexy, so sexy," often even while he is with her.
3. My professor told us that a few years ago she would find holes in her pants from men spraying hydrochloric acid out of syringes at her while she walked by them on the street. The men were eventually arrested and justified their actions by saying that my professor was inappropriately dressed in her slacks.
4. Someone spit in my classmate's face last week while she was boarding the metro.
5. An American-Egyptian classmate from 2006 told me a story about a security guard who chased her down the street and threatened to throw her in jail if she did not kiss him after he saw her hug a male classmate in the street.
6. In 2006 and more recently last month mobs of young men have physically harassed women in the street, groping them and ripping their clothes.

I could go on and on. The arrest and subsequent sentencing of the man in this case has caused an uproar in Egypt and will hopefully bring this issue to the forefront of the public sphere. One of the biggest problems regarding this phenomenon is the social taboo on Egyptian women dealing with anything sexual. It is a big deal that this woman actually reported that she was harassed because most of these things go unreported for fear of social repercussions.

For Foreign Students, AUC is Not What It Used to Be (2)

Thanks to The Daily News Egypt for also publishing my piece:

For Foreign Students, AUC is Not What it Used to Be

For Foreign Students, AUC is Not What It Used to Be

One of the reasons I haven't been posting enough is that I have been working on this (the other reason being I have a ton of schoolwork, which I know is not a good excuse). Thanks to Tim and Abu Shanab for helping me with the piece, and especially to the editor of the Middle East Times, Claude Salhani, for publishing it.

For Foreign Students, AUC is Not What it Used to Be

Drinking During Ramadan

Last night I went to one of my favorite rooftop bars in Doqqi and was carded when I ordered a beer. You have to prove you are not Egyptian in order to drink during Ramadan in Egypt. In fact, most restaurants/bars that usually serve alcohol are either not open or do not serve during the holiday. That also means that Egyptian Copts, who are Christian, cannot drink during Ramadan, even though there are no provisions against drinking in their religion.

Egyptian Efficiency

In case you were wondering, here's how you go about buying a pillow case in Egypt:

1. Walk over to your local government run general store.
2. Tell the salesman what color pillow case you want
3. Tell him that you don't want one with flowers on it, you just want a plain blue one
4. Sit tight while he writes out a full page ticket explaining that you are buying a plain, blue pillow case
5. Take the ticket over to the cashier two floors below and pay for your item with the exact change because they do not have any change in the store
6. Take your ticket to a different salesman who has put the pillow case in an over-sized bag for you.

A model of Egyptian efficiency, beautiful.

Beeping Horns and the New AUC Campus

I do like Cairo, but after being in Turkey for two weeks; one week in the Southern Aegean on the beach, and the second week in Istanbul, which is now one of my favorite cities, some of the things I got used to about living in Cairo have become more noticeable post-vacation. For example, the traffic. One could write a thesis paper on the traffic in Cairo, but lately, I have been slightly annoyed by a couple of things. First, people driving incredibly fast down side streets, such as the one on which I live, and on which children are playing soccer, old people are sitting and selling corn and mint, and on which I am walking. Second, and this is not anything new, is the beeping of horns. Every Egyptian beeps his or her horn every time they get in their vehicle, all the time, without exception. A beep of an Egyptian horn may signify a number of things:

1. "Hello! How are you?"
2. "Move!" (to a pedestrian)
3. "Move!" (to another vehicle)
4. "Look out! I am next to you!"
5. For celebrations (often weddings, the beeping which goes: "daaah daaah dah dah dah!")
5. "I am coming through an intersection but will not slow down" (so I am going to beep my horn instead)
6. "Do you need a taxi?" (especially if you look like you are a Westerner)
7. "That woman over there pleases me"

I am sure many of you have read this article about the noise in Cairo from the New York Times, and I cannot stress enough how true this is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/world/middleeast/14cairo.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=cairo&st=cse&oref=slogin

The beeping is really quite loud.

On another topic, we trekked down to the new AUC campus today, which was not too much of a trek actually, because the bus, which was comfortable and air conditioned, picked us up not too far from our apartment and it only took an hour each way. I was happy to say that the experience was much better than I thought it would be and I am more optimistic now about the move and the new campus in general. The campus is quite beautiful, modern with an Egyptian touch, though it still does not look to me like it will be ready by next week, but hey, I am not a professional contractor. The CASA offices, for example, are half plastered, and have construction materials all over the floors. The library looks like a comfortable place to study.

So far, there is a Jared's Bagels, a Cilantro, and a Cinnabon on campus. There will be some other restaurants, including a McDonald's. I am not sure I will get the same Egyptian experience at the new campus that I was getting eating at the 1 Egyptian pound a sandwich hole in the wall ful (baked beans) and taamiya (falafel) place near the old campus in downtown Cairo. Also, the campus also has a very "campusy" feel, which is weird for me not having been in school for a couple of years. The undergrads are young (not that I am that old, but there is a big difference between myself and 18 year olds) and we talked to some graduate students today, who also happened to be very young.

We are thinking of staying at school until late during the weeknights to maximize our studying time. If we go to school, then take a 1 hour bus home, then try to eat, work out, and then study, we won't get anything done because it will be 9 o'clock before we ever get started. I think if we can schedule ourselves well we will be able to make good use of the new facilities, if they ever actually open. However, a 2 hour commute, class, and studying is a long and tiring day, so we'll see.

Firecrackers During Ramadan

Cairo is nice during Ramadan; it is a little quieter and people are a bit more relaxed and wish each other a happy and healthy year "كل سنة وأنت طيب." The colorful lamps and lights make for a festive atmosphere along with the burning incense (which thankfully mitigates some of the usual smells), and little kids play with lots and lots of firecrackers. One thing I would ask though, is that before you throw your firecrackers on the ground (which, by the way, make really loud pops; they could easily be mistaken for gunfire) look and see if someone is walking on the sidewalk, like I was today, so the firecracker doesn't hit my leg and explode a foot away from me. Thanks.

Gym-talk

I had another interesting conversation in the Weider Gym today with the Captain and some of his friends. I had been trying to hide my water-drinking from them out of respect for the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan, which began last Monday, and during which Muslims fast during the day, among other things.

I asked the Captain and his friends how they are able to lift weights without drinking any water, and he responded by saying "because Islam is strong." "Good answer," I thought to myself. They then preceded to speak in Arabic (Egyptian dialect, or "amiyya" to be exact) which I am supposed to be able to understand, but since these guys are not the most educated of sorts their Arabic is hard to comprehend, especially when they are speaking fast, and not to me. I picked up that they were continuing their discussion of the topic and I heard "American" and "Israel" in the mix. I asked what they were discussing and one of them responded by asking "Why is America always with Israel (these are loose translations, mind you)?" I responded by saying (and yes this is not a direct answer) by saying that America is with Israel just like it is with the Palestinians and other Arabs (and yes, there is a difference, but you will see where I took it in a minute). I said that the US gives Israel money, yes, but it gives Palestinians and other Arab countries like Egypt plenty of money as well. And I did not even go into the Saudi thing.

The Captain's friend said that the Egyptian people do not see any of this money, and that they don't need it and don't want it. There wasn't much I can say to this because frankly, he was right. I asked him, "whose fault is it that Egyptians don't see any of this money? Isn't it because of the Egyptian government?" He responded yes, and because of America, too. Fair enough.

I asked the Captain that if the Israelis and Palestinians make an agreement that they both think is fair, would that be acceptable in his opinion? He pretty much said that the problem will never end and it will never be acceptable, and that Israel really has to go. I asked him why Israel has to go. He said "Do you like blood?" I responded "no," and he said "then Israel has to go." That doesn't make much sense to me.

The conversation continued with another gym goer who told me that one of the problems with Israel is that it was built on a Palestinian state. Yes, he used the term "dawla," so in my mind that means "state." I corrected by telling him that there has never been a Palestinian state and that the Palestinians historically considered themselves to be part of what was called "Greater Syria," which includes what is now Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories. For the record, this to me does not mean that Palestinians are not a unique people with a shared identity and do not deserve to have a state. However, Palestinian Arab nationalism is a relatively new concept and should not be treated as if it has been around since the beginning of time. So I understand his argument (and have heard it before and I think that it is a valid one,. Yes, there were Arab Palestinians living in what is now Israel and the Territories before Israel was created, and yes, there were more of them living there than there were Jews) but I reminded him that the UN did vote to create a State of Israel and a Palestinian state (which the Arabs, as a whole, rejected) and that although the situation was unfortunate for the Palestinians and should be reconciled in some way, no one is ever going to be 100% pleased.

I asked him who was in Egypt before the Muslims and the Arabs, and he said with a smile, "the Ancient Egyptians," and I added "and the Copts (who are still here and who have had some issues, to say the least, with the Muslim population. A movie called "Hassan and Marqos starring two of the most famous Egyptian actors, Omar Shariff and Adel Imam, talks about Christian-Muslim tensions in Egypt). After that, he turned around and said "who started this discussion anyway?" and walked away, which I thought was funny. Actually, he said literally in Arabic "who opened this topic?"

So there is me engaging with Egyptians on salient political issues.