Art, Nightlife and Marriage in Cairo, Egypt

As it turns out, there's quite a lot to do in Cairo at night, but I'd mostly been laying low in the apartment. That being said, however, I was surprised to find many an underground publication circulating all throughout the city. Some are rags, that have very low production value. Others are glossy and professionally done. The vast majority are somewhere in between. The Egyptian government tends to dictate what goes into the newspapers around here, so that even BIG stories will get little if any play in the official papers such as al-Ahram, or al-Akhbar, or other mainstream newspapers and they always favor "High" culture. The popular cultural outlets; music, art galleries, dance clubs, poetry readings, etc. all happen in hastily-arranged places - not that there's anything dangerous about going, you just know that these places are only as permanent as the private money funding them.

Case in point, I went to this nice little tea shop where the very-well educated proprietor had a poster on a wall facing in toward the cafe, but which can't be seen by the police (or the secret police). It was an abstract painting with the word "Townhouse" as well as a date range printed on it. My friend and I asked about it, and the proprietor said that it was an "art gallery" that was going to be open for about a week, maybe more. We were discussing it when a man strolled by nonchalantly, and - taking some invisible cue - a young boy of about ten or so took the seat in front of the poster, and drank some tea. When the man was gone, the boy moved back to his spot under the fans, next to the radio. I looked quizzical at Ahmed, the owner, but it was my friend who told me "He's secret police, and everyone knows it." I'd said that I probably would not go to this gallery, but Ahmed assured us that there was nothing dangerous, and that there would definitely be some secret police at the opening - as well as some regular police - and that it was just a kind of game that the Egyptians play with the secret police; "Why make their job easy?" he said.

As for Ahmed, I neglected to say that he is getting married next year (Insha Allah, Arabic for "God willing"), and that he and his fiancee are saving up to purchase different things for the apartment that he is desperately searching for. Though Ahmed owns this tea shop with his brother, he still lives at home (he's in his mid-twenties) and in order to get his fiancée's family to go along with the wedding, he has to prove he can, and will, take care of her. He has to find a nice apartment (it would be better if he could own a house, but...), furnish it with the best things he can (she will purchase kitchen appliances, dishes, and so forth for daily use). Only then can he be assured that her family will not back out of the deal, or at least pressure her to drop him for some up-and-coming business man or engineer who will work in the Gulf region and make tons of money. It is shameful to her family, to his family, to her, and to him if he can not adequately support his new wife - if, for whatever reason, she were to divorce him, she would go back to living with her family and would be shunned socially (think 1950's America, only more so). Many Egyptian middle-class people, like Ahmed, wind up working two jobs or doing whatever they can to make ends meet. Sometimes - usually - the woman works too, until she has a child, then she is pressured to take care of the kids and abandon the job. But women are not powerless in marriage; when a man brings money into the house, it is the house's money (which the wife usually administers, but not always) BUT if the wife brings money into the house, it is HER money to do with what she likes (though, to be fair, she will pay bills out of her own pocket, if the need is there).

Also, though you see women here, and elsewhere in the Middle East, wearing the scarf (called a "hijaab"), do NOT mistake them for being "oppressed" and to suggest such a thing to an Egyptian woman is grounds for a huge fight. They are every bit as educated and politically active as their Western counterparts - and some do not wear the hijaab even though they are Muslim - and are well represented in every field including medicine, engineering, computer science, teaching, and so forth. Most of the reason for wearing it - I'm told - arose out of the post-9/11 reaction in the United States to Muslims, when Mosques were burned or vandalized, or when stories of women who wore the hijaab had them yanked off emerged (the equivalent of ripping the blouse off of a woman at home). In reaction, there was a huge movement in the Muslim world to wear the hijaab in solidarity to their sisters of the faith. Though they can be very religious, and wear it our of deference to their faith, usually they are no more zealous in their religion than the average Christian in the US. For example, every one of my Muslim professors at the American University in Cairo (an American-funded University) wears a hijaab, and they are friendly, genial, and unfailingly kind to everyone they meet.