I attended Nile Group Festival in full again this week, opening, closing, weeknight parties, workshops and all. I will be writing a review of the event and everything on Gilded Serpent soon--it was a big week so it may take a little time! Great festival though, I love the teachers and the atmosphere of all the organizers, teachers, and their students being a big family. Wonderful stuff!
I'd like to share with you one experience I won't include in my recap for Gilded Serpent, because this is an especially vulnerable experience I had, but I want to share it here on the blog. It was very interesting to be sure.
I danced in the second dance party on Saturday night, which I've been semi-frantically trying to practice for the last couple of weeks. In a way it was supposed to be a sort of culmination of the technique I've been studying with Hallah for the last months, so I was hoping to pull everything together and do a great show for the five minutes I would be granted in between masses of other girls and their friends taping them. The open dance evenings are always set up so the girls with the CDs dance first and then the band, which usually ends up playing on into the not-so-early hours of the morning, so I was prepared to be up quite late.
After ranks of girls from around the world showcasing their hottest moves and costumes, I was beginning to get a bit hungry after the band finished setting up by about 1:30am. By 2:00 I went to change and found out the order of the dancers had been changed around and so we were all getting on the list again, first-come-first-serve. I waited around in costume, slowly crumpling with hunger and tiredness, as some people wimped out as time rolled on from 3:00 to 3:30, and those of us who were still to dance kept on our game faces and shimmied around to warm up.
It was around 4:00 when they called my name, and I waited through the first opening bars of Lissa Fakir. I tried to let myself fill up with energy to that special, tingly, brimming, performance-ready place before I slowly walked out and up on to the stage.
The stage lights combined with those from the video camera guys were blinding, which always seems to make me instinctively look down, but I did my best to not bow to the assault on my tired eyeballs and keep my head up and smiling as I began to move. It felt difficult, draggy, and something was not quite clicking. I couldn't get the reverberation in my locks that I had practiced over and over at home, and my floor patterns felt repetitive and uncreative. I did things I hadn't rehearsed, and left out moves I had really wanted to use. I felt small out there alone with the wooden stage reflecting the lights back at me so I could barely see Madame Friez and Abu Shebika smiling at me like they so graciously do at everyone, all night. In my loneliness I knew my posture was collapsing, I was breaking my back posture in a habit I've tried for years to get rid of it. I tried to bring my arms up, keep the light, airy feeling of the song, but I honestly can't remember whether I succeeded or not.
I looked at the band, hoping for some anchor, some encouragement, some feeling. I always try to "feel" the music as my inspiration and listen to what it says, but in this case I couldn't connect. I imagined, from seeing many other dancers in Egypt and their bands, that dancing with a real Egyptian band would feel powerful and uplifting and encouraging, almost like riding an avalanche with that amount of power behind you. Instead, we politely smiled at each other and I felt nothing but polite indifference and fatigue from playing for hours on end. Even though there were smiles, there was no connection, and I couldn't grab on to any performance personality of substance, besides kind of classically pretty and emotive.
I did not impress any one, and most definitely not myself. Suddenly it was over, and they were not playing me a drum solo, like they do for the best dancers, but simply playing me off.
I went and grabbed my camera from my friend, feeling horrified and let down about my performance, and brushed off the compliments people kindly offered. I knew I was capable of better dancing, I had rehearsed several times and done good work back at home and at Hallah's studio. I didn't understand what had went wrong, and felt helpless and discouraged. I changed and plopped down in the dressing room to ponder on a forgiving sofa.
I realized I was starving. It was after 4 am. I looked around at other dancers when I crept back into the hall, tired and haggard-looking but hanging in there for their chance at a dance with the band. We were all just doing our best, everyone wanted everyone else to do well, and it WAS hard to stay up that late and dance well on an empty stomach. I wanted to be hard on myself, and I think I was, but I ended up forgiving myeslf a little bit for not giving the most riveting performance. Let's be honest, I haven't been on stage actually since I came to Egypt a year ago, so I am unsurprisingly rusty outside of rehearsal.
I watched the video later, and I found my dancing to be not great, but decent and passable. Maybe that's enough for me for now, but I am still disappointed. However, it was humbling to be reminded that I'm not the hot shot yet, I'm a student and I'm supposed to be here to soak up all the learning I can. We're all on a dance journey, and right now I'm in a particular place where I can't dance on stage at the level I want, so I will keep working. Intellectually everything is there, which is at least a step. It's in my private rehearsals too, so that's another step. I understand how I want to be dancing, and my body is starting to absorb my new learning (its been a whole week of new learning!) but it hasn't become second-nature yet to the point where I can get up on stage that tired and hungry and just do it. This is the goal I think, accustom and teach the body a new way of doing things, so that no matter how crazy the circumstances it can move beautifully and naturally with the technique I've been working on.
The main thing I need is self-confidence, which has been a slippery subject for me. While Cairo has toughened me up in some ways, it's also made me realize how young I am, that 20 actually isn't that old really. Amusingly, the memory flashed up after my performance of how a close friend in his 30s did call me a fetus awhile back just before I left for Egypt. I still have a lot more living to go through though for sure, and a lot more experiences to have, so I don't get to magically jump the line and have tons of self-confidence and assurance about the world because I am still exploring who I am as a person and a dancer. That's fine, I've been trying to embrace that and half self-confidence while in motion on my exploration of myself, which is definitely a work in progress.
Well, Nile Group is over, and that was probably the most personally intense part of it, but the journey continues. After the show I rode home across town in a taxi with some Oum Kalthoum music playing. The sky began to lighten gradually over the bright, neon lights of Cairo, which pierce the darkness until all the club-goers are ready to have a smoke and head home. I sipped on some tea the driver offered me and tried to just relax and enjoy where I am, because what else is there to do when you find yourself in Cairo?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Cultural Moment of the Week
We have new sewing people at work now, specifically two young ladies in their 20s who are lovely and giggly but are learning quickly and doing good work. This week I found myself catching a microbus home with them a couple days in a row instead of staying to do my usual lesson with my teacher right after work. It's always pretty funny catching the microbus anyway, because the drivers can be pretty silly and its just an over all rather sloppy affair with the running and jumping on to the thing, trying to figure out where one is going, fighting over who will pay for the rest of us, etc. In this case though, between the two girls (who barely speak any English) and our main bilingual assistant is was a complete giggle-fest. At some point the point was raised that I studied Japanese back in the day for a few years and thus the interrogation in Arabic began about what "izzayak" (how are you?) is in Japanese, how you say "Sabah il Kheir" in Japanese, etc.
It was a total crack-up to be sitting on a microbus, bouncing and bumbling along, listening to overloud Egyptian music, while trying to translate Arabic into English into Japanese. Seeing the girls smiling and saying, "ohaiyogozaimasu" over and over again to try and get it perfect was pretty great though! Tomorrow I think I'll tell them that "yalla" is "ikimashou" in Japanese to impress them.
It was a total crack-up to be sitting on a microbus, bouncing and bumbling along, listening to overloud Egyptian music, while trying to translate Arabic into English into Japanese. Seeing the girls smiling and saying, "ohaiyogozaimasu" over and over again to try and get it perfect was pretty great though! Tomorrow I think I'll tell them that "yalla" is "ikimashou" in Japanese to impress them.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Summertime
...is still busy! And very hot!
I survived finals again, and this was actually one of the easier rounds of them, all things considered. Not that the material wasn't as hard, but the process was just somehow a lot less complicated than last semester. Most of my stuff was papers that were due the last day, so I wrapped all that up and then had one sit in before being done done done! I popped over to AUC to take lots of pictures for you all, but the weather was all gross and sandstormy so they look a bit nasty, but that's definitely not normally how it is. Will post separately a bit later!
Now I'm working full time doing costuming, which is including a bit of book-keeping, a bit of design, a bit of web design, and sales kind of. Hallah and I will be at the Nile Group festival in June vending, and yours truly will finally set foot on a stage for the first time in ages and ages. Now that I'm done with the semester I'm sliding back into a lovely "dance-all-the-time-more-more-more" schedule that I like to do. Last summer I was in Egypt being a lazy butt, but the summer before that I spent the whole thing tango dancing all night, all the time and dancing away the days which was awesome. Right now I'm trying to train hard and get back on the horse after the semester so I can be on stage later this month and not look like crap!
A trip to the beach is certainly in order soon, but probably not until after the festival, so for about three weeks. After that, I intend to take a nice long weekend and go out to Dahab.
Harassment
This week has been full of drama on various scales, and so today I was pretty annoyed when walking from my house to Gaby Shiba's nearby dance studio to book him for a private lesson. One poor young fellow picked the wrong day to follow a cute, little, unassuming foreign girl when I whipped around in response to his, "let me get to know you!" and let loose with a bilingual tounge-lashing of epic proportions.
I think he nearly peed himself while backing away, and I stormed off still cursing amid his "no, you don't get me!" half-hearted calls.
This is a saddenly common experience for pretty much every female in Cairo, although I think us foreigners get it a bit more because we seem more vulnerable or exotic or something. Every woman at the very least gets stared at, whether she is veiled or not. Most of us get comments that are in passing and easily ignored or responded to with a cold, no-nonsense glare. A lot of foreign women have said they've been followed, but nothing more aggressive. Some people have actually been touched, grabbed, pinched, or just generally abused. While the presidents wife may claim there is no problem of sexual harassment in Egypt, everyone knows that's a lie. On the one hand, it seems unlikely people will follow through violently on the harassment, but it still happens and makes simply walking down the street hard for a lot of women here.
The only good part about it is that the harassers tend to be pretty cowardly, so usually a strong, confident-looking woman is not targeted as much, and when women do get harassed, verbal confrontation usually scares the guy off. At least if it's a one on one interaction, but what worries every girl here is if they happen to get caught by a group of guys that won't back down. The problem is at a larger level of societal accepting and teaching of this kind of thing, to the extent that even little boys who don't understand sexuality know there is something funny or naughty about running after a grown woman and trying to grab her butt. The issue is being addressed by some women and men in Egypt and some organizations, but its hardly an extinct phenonminon. I heard recently about a girl from AUC who got a big group of women together and took to the street to harass the men, which sounded simply hilarious. Apparently some guys got totally confused, some were angry, some ignored them, and some even tried to talk them out of doing it.
I've read a couple interesting things on the subject from how to react verbally or physically, to how to dress, and the reasons behind why harassment happens. There's a few theories on the latter subject, such as the rising percentage of young people in the population (youth bulge), leading to less jobs, more economic frustration, and more young men unemployed and hanging around looking to prove their power over something. A related theory is that because marriage is so expensive, and people here must be married to be granted by society permission to be sexual beings, there is a waithood that happens before young people can be married and thus out of frustration men prey on women on the streets because it is the only way they can express themselves sexually. There's lots of ideas out there, which could help to unravel the problem, but most people are concerned with the day-to-day of getting around without being bothered.
It's simple to tell foreigners we should simply dress more conservatively, but what's the point when even women wearing hijab are not off-limits to this kind of thing? People told me to wear a scarf on my head when I came, that I would get treated with more respect, but there is nothing that screams, "I'm desperately trying to fit in but I'm so foreign!" as much as a head scarf that doesn't fit the fashion and style of everyone else's. That tactic only works in really touristy areas where you are then simply showing you are more respectful than other tourists. It's either wear hijab and wear it properly, or don't in most of Cairo. I remember in the AUC newspaper this semester a very small story of harassment of various girls from the community, veiled or not, in one area of town or another. I also remember in New Cairo driving back and forth on the AUC bus and closing the curtains of the bus when we passed a truck with 20 or so construction workers piled in the back, because they would scream and blow kisses and yell when they caught sight of a female face going by.
I don't know what to make of it for you readers, besides trying to get by on a harassment-free level on a day to day basis. The easiest way is to simply avoid the street--don't walk around more than necessary, take taxis, take the women's car in the Metro, but that seems like an unfair fix, doesn't it? On a last note I did read an article recently though that the women's car on the Metro is both a good and bad thing, in that it provides women a safe space from harassment, but also that it reinforces the need for them to be separated from men to ensure men's behavior. It reinforces the behavior, by making a women on the mixed car seem "out of place" and asking for attention, which in turn leads to strange power and gender relations.
Before I foray off into gender theory I had better stop, but if there is more anyone wants to know about harassment here don't hesitate to comment and ask. Stay tuned for AUC photos!
I survived finals again, and this was actually one of the easier rounds of them, all things considered. Not that the material wasn't as hard, but the process was just somehow a lot less complicated than last semester. Most of my stuff was papers that were due the last day, so I wrapped all that up and then had one sit in before being done done done! I popped over to AUC to take lots of pictures for you all, but the weather was all gross and sandstormy so they look a bit nasty, but that's definitely not normally how it is. Will post separately a bit later!
Now I'm working full time doing costuming, which is including a bit of book-keeping, a bit of design, a bit of web design, and sales kind of. Hallah and I will be at the Nile Group festival in June vending, and yours truly will finally set foot on a stage for the first time in ages and ages. Now that I'm done with the semester I'm sliding back into a lovely "dance-all-the-time-more-more-more" schedule that I like to do. Last summer I was in Egypt being a lazy butt, but the summer before that I spent the whole thing tango dancing all night, all the time and dancing away the days which was awesome. Right now I'm trying to train hard and get back on the horse after the semester so I can be on stage later this month and not look like crap!
A trip to the beach is certainly in order soon, but probably not until after the festival, so for about three weeks. After that, I intend to take a nice long weekend and go out to Dahab.
Harassment
This week has been full of drama on various scales, and so today I was pretty annoyed when walking from my house to Gaby Shiba's nearby dance studio to book him for a private lesson. One poor young fellow picked the wrong day to follow a cute, little, unassuming foreign girl when I whipped around in response to his, "let me get to know you!" and let loose with a bilingual tounge-lashing of epic proportions.
I think he nearly peed himself while backing away, and I stormed off still cursing amid his "no, you don't get me!" half-hearted calls.
This is a saddenly common experience for pretty much every female in Cairo, although I think us foreigners get it a bit more because we seem more vulnerable or exotic or something. Every woman at the very least gets stared at, whether she is veiled or not. Most of us get comments that are in passing and easily ignored or responded to with a cold, no-nonsense glare. A lot of foreign women have said they've been followed, but nothing more aggressive. Some people have actually been touched, grabbed, pinched, or just generally abused. While the presidents wife may claim there is no problem of sexual harassment in Egypt, everyone knows that's a lie. On the one hand, it seems unlikely people will follow through violently on the harassment, but it still happens and makes simply walking down the street hard for a lot of women here.
The only good part about it is that the harassers tend to be pretty cowardly, so usually a strong, confident-looking woman is not targeted as much, and when women do get harassed, verbal confrontation usually scares the guy off. At least if it's a one on one interaction, but what worries every girl here is if they happen to get caught by a group of guys that won't back down. The problem is at a larger level of societal accepting and teaching of this kind of thing, to the extent that even little boys who don't understand sexuality know there is something funny or naughty about running after a grown woman and trying to grab her butt. The issue is being addressed by some women and men in Egypt and some organizations, but its hardly an extinct phenonminon. I heard recently about a girl from AUC who got a big group of women together and took to the street to harass the men, which sounded simply hilarious. Apparently some guys got totally confused, some were angry, some ignored them, and some even tried to talk them out of doing it.
I've read a couple interesting things on the subject from how to react verbally or physically, to how to dress, and the reasons behind why harassment happens. There's a few theories on the latter subject, such as the rising percentage of young people in the population (youth bulge), leading to less jobs, more economic frustration, and more young men unemployed and hanging around looking to prove their power over something. A related theory is that because marriage is so expensive, and people here must be married to be granted by society permission to be sexual beings, there is a waithood that happens before young people can be married and thus out of frustration men prey on women on the streets because it is the only way they can express themselves sexually. There's lots of ideas out there, which could help to unravel the problem, but most people are concerned with the day-to-day of getting around without being bothered.
It's simple to tell foreigners we should simply dress more conservatively, but what's the point when even women wearing hijab are not off-limits to this kind of thing? People told me to wear a scarf on my head when I came, that I would get treated with more respect, but there is nothing that screams, "I'm desperately trying to fit in but I'm so foreign!" as much as a head scarf that doesn't fit the fashion and style of everyone else's. That tactic only works in really touristy areas where you are then simply showing you are more respectful than other tourists. It's either wear hijab and wear it properly, or don't in most of Cairo. I remember in the AUC newspaper this semester a very small story of harassment of various girls from the community, veiled or not, in one area of town or another. I also remember in New Cairo driving back and forth on the AUC bus and closing the curtains of the bus when we passed a truck with 20 or so construction workers piled in the back, because they would scream and blow kisses and yell when they caught sight of a female face going by.
I don't know what to make of it for you readers, besides trying to get by on a harassment-free level on a day to day basis. The easiest way is to simply avoid the street--don't walk around more than necessary, take taxis, take the women's car in the Metro, but that seems like an unfair fix, doesn't it? On a last note I did read an article recently though that the women's car on the Metro is both a good and bad thing, in that it provides women a safe space from harassment, but also that it reinforces the need for them to be separated from men to ensure men's behavior. It reinforces the behavior, by making a women on the mixed car seem "out of place" and asking for attention, which in turn leads to strange power and gender relations.
Before I foray off into gender theory I had better stop, but if there is more anyone wants to know about harassment here don't hesitate to comment and ask. Stay tuned for AUC photos!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Finals!
Another long silence again on the blog here I see. Finals are approaching and I've been caught in a deluge of papers and podcasts (the latter for Arabic class) in between being really ill. Earlier this week I got a nasty case of food poisoning AND we had a hot weather snap so I was puking my guts out in 100+ degree weather. Ok, yes I'm being a bit of a drama queen, but it sucked and it actually was that hot!
Now I seem to have recovered for the most part and am buckling down to do my finals, so bear with me in my distraction, and possibly read my entry from last semester about surviving finals: Ho, Ho, Ho Habbi. Yes I know, but it was December at the time and going home for Christmas was on my mind!
My last round of sickness was both the sickest I've been in years and definitely the most in Cairo, which has killed some of the novelty factor for me over here. I have never been so sick so often in my life as my time in Cairo, which sucks but the place is rough on the body. Or at least for us pink, squishy things that grew up in the mild and lovely Seattle! It's always been the case that I've been afraid to leave Egypt, as though if I blinked the memories might be erased in an instant. There is some truth in that the memories will fade with time and lack that certain emotional depth they once carried and felt so important at the time, but that's simply life and I'm starting to be able to look on the rather bright side of coming home. I wasn't anticipating a new level of adjustment a year into living here, but perhaps this is just the first phase of the adjust back to life in America.
What's starting to kill things for me in particular as well is the weather. I was raised in a MILD climate, people. I cannot take 100 degree weather all the time in any form except lying down in an air-conditioned box. Someone needs to tell this to the Egyptian summer weather! Winter is perfect, I haven't got a problem with it and being covered up isn't a big deal or uncomfortable during the winter, so dealing with social norms about dressing is never stressful. My only condolance is that on July 28 I will be flying back to lovely, mild Seattle for awhile to visit my parents before going back to California, because here in Cairo it will just be getting hotter and hotter.
Otherwise, life is going on as usual! I have an article coming out in Gilded Serpent soon about a teacher and friend here, Hallah Moustafa so stay tuned.
Now I seem to have recovered for the most part and am buckling down to do my finals, so bear with me in my distraction, and possibly read my entry from last semester about surviving finals: Ho, Ho, Ho Habbi. Yes I know, but it was December at the time and going home for Christmas was on my mind!
My last round of sickness was both the sickest I've been in years and definitely the most in Cairo, which has killed some of the novelty factor for me over here. I have never been so sick so often in my life as my time in Cairo, which sucks but the place is rough on the body. Or at least for us pink, squishy things that grew up in the mild and lovely Seattle! It's always been the case that I've been afraid to leave Egypt, as though if I blinked the memories might be erased in an instant. There is some truth in that the memories will fade with time and lack that certain emotional depth they once carried and felt so important at the time, but that's simply life and I'm starting to be able to look on the rather bright side of coming home. I wasn't anticipating a new level of adjustment a year into living here, but perhaps this is just the first phase of the adjust back to life in America.
What's starting to kill things for me in particular as well is the weather. I was raised in a MILD climate, people. I cannot take 100 degree weather all the time in any form except lying down in an air-conditioned box. Someone needs to tell this to the Egyptian summer weather! Winter is perfect, I haven't got a problem with it and being covered up isn't a big deal or uncomfortable during the winter, so dealing with social norms about dressing is never stressful. My only condolance is that on July 28 I will be flying back to lovely, mild Seattle for awhile to visit my parents before going back to California, because here in Cairo it will just be getting hotter and hotter.
Otherwise, life is going on as usual! I have an article coming out in Gilded Serpent soon about a teacher and friend here, Hallah Moustafa so stay tuned.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Egypt Fashion
A question I got asked quite a bit when I came home to the US this past winter was, "what do you wear in Egypt?" which is a completely different question from "what do people wear in Egypt?" but hints at that. I think it's time to answer both on the blog, so that people get to know something they're curious about, and people thinking to travel here get a better idea of how to blend in and dress appropriately.
On the Street in Cairo
-Locals:
Men: Doormen, some laborers, some small shop-owners will wear a garment like a long robe or shirt called a galabeya which falls to the feet with whatever shoes. Most Cairo guys on the street wear jeans (of the semi-not-total-ball-crushing variety) and a T-shirt or casual collared work shirt in either long or short sleeves or a full-on suit if going to work. Young men usually stick to jeans and a T-shirt with sneakers almost unanimously. If they're real local they LOVE their fake designer-wear. If you're wearing a suit you better have some pointy-ish black leather shoes with either squared off or truly pointy toes. Extra local points if they're dusty and turn up at the tips from a rigorous life. Shibshib is what we call the Egyptian version of flipflops and they are considered very casual wear, mainly worn around the house, so not many men wear these outside and barely any women except in the poorer areas as it's a bit like going out in your sweatpants in the US. Because of that you can sometimes see people going around in shibshib, but not if they're going much farther than down the street to the store.
Women *: Here there is a huge mix, which you can see if you ride the women's car on the Metro. Many young women wear hijab here, but they also dress in often very colorful, tight clothing. The tightness seems immodest, so I don't exactly understand it except as a way to somehow make the clothes fit in with "modern" western clothing more. Matching is very popular, down to the accessories, no matter what esoteric hue they might be, so you can often see young hijabii girls rocking an outfit in 2-3 colors around town in a very fashionable way to them, which I as a Westerner could never pull off. Colors are matched from the (often layered) headscarves, to bangles, to footwear. Long, A-line or trumpet skirts are popular here (but not to the exclusion of pants which are usually skinny jeans on the younger girls), including in denim, which I thought was cute enough to buy a couple. Older women usually will wear simple long pants or skirts and blouses or long casual dresses like the male galabeyas, but a bit more form-fitting. Oddly enough it's my impression that is a generation of older women present in Cairo that don't veil possibly because of the events during their lives when the veil was considered "backward" or restraining. Few women wear complete veils, but maybe 3/4ths cover their hear. During the winter many girls were wearing skirts at the knee with tights or pants under tucked into cute ankle or knee boots.
*Please note: The veiling issue is very complicated and women on an individual basis have many different opinions and feelings about their personal choices regarding to be veiled or not. There are many works of scholarship out there about what veiling means or doesn't mean, but I think the most important point is to try and understand what veiling means to the individual and react to it on an individual basis, not on the penalty of assigning group homogeneity. There's my two cents! Lots of info out there for people to check out!
-Foreigners:
Women: Women are pretty safe in most major areas wearing long jeans, pants, or a skirt which falls beneath the knees; and any shirt that has at least short-sleeves. Sleeveless is a no-go, or at least throw a scarf or shrug on over your shoulders. Anything that shows much cleavage is probably best left at home or to other areas to be discussing following this section. No short shorts. Ever. Sensible footwear is good as the streets can go back and forth from sidewalks to none, to an inch of sand, to rubble, to puddles. However, Cairo is a major city, so impractical, flashy footwear and short heels will make you blend in more.
I typically wear: I have a certain way of dressing that I consider a baseline of modesty to go on when in Cairo or traveling in Egypt in general. It's important to wear long pants or skirts, and keep your arms partially covered, so I usually wear jeans and a T-shirt with a 3/4 sleeve shrug over, cute ballet flats for around town, or short wooden heels if I'm going to school or getting around on my own. If someone is driving me, I will wear heels if I know for sure we won't be walking far or taking the subway.
Men: Foreign guys pretty much wear what Egyptian men wear, with the exception that shorts are probably best left at home if you want to blend in at all, and the foreigners are usually the ones wearing more baseball caps than Egyptian guys because the latter don't like to mess up their carefully gelled hair-dos.
Nightlife and Clubbing in Cairo
There is no distinction between foreigner/local wear at clubs in Cairo, because the kind of Cairenes who go out to clubs are usually pretty westernized, international, and not conservative. I think most of my Cairo friends are conservative enough to not go clubbing, or they keep it to mainly dance-themed things like Salsa nights which are a bit more fun and innocent in a way than a hip-hop club or a belly dance cabaret.
Women: Hiiiigh heels, skinny jeans, mini-skirts, skanky earthquake-inducing tops--pretty much the same as the US. You will probably never see a Hijab while out clubbing, or if you do the girl wearing it is probably not going to be flouncing around like she owns the place as the truly outrageous Cairo girls do. I have seen Hijabii women out salsa dancing though, but not much in hip hop clubs or some of the racier venues. Egyptian ladies certainly like to dress it up, and then some though. And hey, why not? Egyptian girls are gorgeous! Us foreigners just drag out one of the two clubbing tops we brought "on the off chance I would be on the Red Sea or something.." and jeans. The key to getting in and out without being ogled to death on the street? Shrugs, scarves, jackets, getting rides from a friend or jumping into a taxi promptly after exiting any building, and large purses in which to stash a change of clothes to switch into in the bathroom!
Guys: Um...not much new here, jeans and T-shirts. Big watches.
Weddings in Cairo:
Guys: Suits, many suits. I've seen shiny platinum-colored ones, but most are basic black or navy with a tie that goes with it nicely.
Ladies: Huuuge variety here. Weddings are a bit of a chance for people to let their hair down as they're just around family and friends usually, which shows in women's outfits. You can see sleeveless and strapless dresses here on non-hijabii women from the mid-thigh to full-length ballgowns. It's always good to bring a scarf or shrug though in case you get a bit self-conscious and for walking to/from the car. The hijabii ladies just throw on a mesh long-sleeved turtleneck undershirt and are good to go! The bride will usually wear the hugest cupcake dress she can manage while still being able to actually dance, with a slightly-less-huge veil. It's adorable in a "awww, I fantasized about that as a little girl!" way. Usually the sisters of the couple will be in full-on gowns hovering around offering tissues and carrying stuff for the bride, while the mothers of the couple stalk around in pant suits beaming and joking for some reason. I don't get the pantsuits, not the beaming and joking of course.
At AUC:
Boys (there are no men at AUC except professors): The foreign guys obviously wear whatever they would wear at their home college. Egyptian guys like their designer shades, their brightly-colored T-shirts over carefully worked abs and biceps of a size that makes them walk around with their arms always slightly bent, designer jeans, designer sneakers. Huge, expensive, imported watches. They can afford it because this is the most expensive college in Egypt. Even the more modest guys are usually a bit better dressed than in the US, sticking to smart short-sleeve, button-down shirts and designer glasses. There is definitely a uniquely AUC fashion trend that's hard to put your finger on until you come here. Oh, also Egyptian guys wouldn't be caught dead carrying more than one single notebook at a time, if that.
Girls: Again, the foreigner girls wear whatever they would at their home college. The Egyptian girls at AUC are usually decked out in a way that makes foreign male tongues wag and foreign females roll their eyes. There is a specific co-ed group called the "Guccis" that everyone refers to as the absolute consumer-whoreist group of students at AUC and who are the butt of every joke, but besides them the girls in AUC generally make me wish I: a) had Egyptian genes, b) a lot of money, c) could actually justify buying skinny jeans, d) had more time in the morning to look like something other than a colossal wreck e) a driver so I could wear whatever I wanted without worrying about the gauntlet of the open street. Skinny jeans are prevalent. Everyone carries large purses instead of backpacks. They can afford to get their hair "did" regularly and stuff waxed and plucked to perfection. They look fabulous, and that sucks because Egypt hates my skin and my body generally.
On the Red Sea:
The Red Sea is home to many major tourist towns, and I think they've pretty much seen it all. Women can wear bikinis on the beach or in the club (which is also on the beach), or a mini-skirt, or tank-top. No one cares enough to give you crap or really say much about it, although expect the Egyptian males around to give you "a look" in a certain way at times. Again, guys pretty much wear...yep, jeans and a T-shirt or a T-shirt and swim trunks on the beach or even in the club.
Alexandria:
I wouldn't say Alexandria is much more conservative than Cairo per-say, but I haven't spent much time there. There are certain beaches you can wear bikinis, but beware strong surf causing boob-escapage (seriously, been there). When in doubt, throw on a long T-shirt over your suit and you're good to go! I'm not even going to mention guys this time, too boring. Otherwise I would say just do as you do in Cairo, although somehow I got away with wearing a tank-top one night, but I was accompanied by an Egyptian guy friend.
On the Street in Cairo
-Locals:
Men: Doormen, some laborers, some small shop-owners will wear a garment like a long robe or shirt called a galabeya which falls to the feet with whatever shoes. Most Cairo guys on the street wear jeans (of the semi-not-total-ball-crushing variety) and a T-shirt or casual collared work shirt in either long or short sleeves or a full-on suit if going to work. Young men usually stick to jeans and a T-shirt with sneakers almost unanimously. If they're real local they LOVE their fake designer-wear. If you're wearing a suit you better have some pointy-ish black leather shoes with either squared off or truly pointy toes. Extra local points if they're dusty and turn up at the tips from a rigorous life. Shibshib is what we call the Egyptian version of flipflops and they are considered very casual wear, mainly worn around the house, so not many men wear these outside and barely any women except in the poorer areas as it's a bit like going out in your sweatpants in the US. Because of that you can sometimes see people going around in shibshib, but not if they're going much farther than down the street to the store.
Women *: Here there is a huge mix, which you can see if you ride the women's car on the Metro. Many young women wear hijab here, but they also dress in often very colorful, tight clothing. The tightness seems immodest, so I don't exactly understand it except as a way to somehow make the clothes fit in with "modern" western clothing more. Matching is very popular, down to the accessories, no matter what esoteric hue they might be, so you can often see young hijabii girls rocking an outfit in 2-3 colors around town in a very fashionable way to them, which I as a Westerner could never pull off. Colors are matched from the (often layered) headscarves, to bangles, to footwear. Long, A-line or trumpet skirts are popular here (but not to the exclusion of pants which are usually skinny jeans on the younger girls), including in denim, which I thought was cute enough to buy a couple. Older women usually will wear simple long pants or skirts and blouses or long casual dresses like the male galabeyas, but a bit more form-fitting. Oddly enough it's my impression that is a generation of older women present in Cairo that don't veil possibly because of the events during their lives when the veil was considered "backward" or restraining. Few women wear complete veils, but maybe 3/4ths cover their hear. During the winter many girls were wearing skirts at the knee with tights or pants under tucked into cute ankle or knee boots.
*Please note: The veiling issue is very complicated and women on an individual basis have many different opinions and feelings about their personal choices regarding to be veiled or not. There are many works of scholarship out there about what veiling means or doesn't mean, but I think the most important point is to try and understand what veiling means to the individual and react to it on an individual basis, not on the penalty of assigning group homogeneity. There's my two cents! Lots of info out there for people to check out!
-Foreigners:
Women: Women are pretty safe in most major areas wearing long jeans, pants, or a skirt which falls beneath the knees; and any shirt that has at least short-sleeves. Sleeveless is a no-go, or at least throw a scarf or shrug on over your shoulders. Anything that shows much cleavage is probably best left at home or to other areas to be discussing following this section. No short shorts. Ever. Sensible footwear is good as the streets can go back and forth from sidewalks to none, to an inch of sand, to rubble, to puddles. However, Cairo is a major city, so impractical, flashy footwear and short heels will make you blend in more.
I typically wear: I have a certain way of dressing that I consider a baseline of modesty to go on when in Cairo or traveling in Egypt in general. It's important to wear long pants or skirts, and keep your arms partially covered, so I usually wear jeans and a T-shirt with a 3/4 sleeve shrug over, cute ballet flats for around town, or short wooden heels if I'm going to school or getting around on my own. If someone is driving me, I will wear heels if I know for sure we won't be walking far or taking the subway.
Men: Foreign guys pretty much wear what Egyptian men wear, with the exception that shorts are probably best left at home if you want to blend in at all, and the foreigners are usually the ones wearing more baseball caps than Egyptian guys because the latter don't like to mess up their carefully gelled hair-dos.
Nightlife and Clubbing in Cairo
There is no distinction between foreigner/local wear at clubs in Cairo, because the kind of Cairenes who go out to clubs are usually pretty westernized, international, and not conservative. I think most of my Cairo friends are conservative enough to not go clubbing, or they keep it to mainly dance-themed things like Salsa nights which are a bit more fun and innocent in a way than a hip-hop club or a belly dance cabaret.
Women: Hiiiigh heels, skinny jeans, mini-skirts, skanky earthquake-inducing tops--pretty much the same as the US. You will probably never see a Hijab while out clubbing, or if you do the girl wearing it is probably not going to be flouncing around like she owns the place as the truly outrageous Cairo girls do. I have seen Hijabii women out salsa dancing though, but not much in hip hop clubs or some of the racier venues. Egyptian ladies certainly like to dress it up, and then some though. And hey, why not? Egyptian girls are gorgeous! Us foreigners just drag out one of the two clubbing tops we brought "on the off chance I would be on the Red Sea or something.." and jeans. The key to getting in and out without being ogled to death on the street? Shrugs, scarves, jackets, getting rides from a friend or jumping into a taxi promptly after exiting any building, and large purses in which to stash a change of clothes to switch into in the bathroom!
Guys: Um...not much new here, jeans and T-shirts. Big watches.
Weddings in Cairo:
Guys: Suits, many suits. I've seen shiny platinum-colored ones, but most are basic black or navy with a tie that goes with it nicely.
Ladies: Huuuge variety here. Weddings are a bit of a chance for people to let their hair down as they're just around family and friends usually, which shows in women's outfits. You can see sleeveless and strapless dresses here on non-hijabii women from the mid-thigh to full-length ballgowns. It's always good to bring a scarf or shrug though in case you get a bit self-conscious and for walking to/from the car. The hijabii ladies just throw on a mesh long-sleeved turtleneck undershirt and are good to go! The bride will usually wear the hugest cupcake dress she can manage while still being able to actually dance, with a slightly-less-huge veil. It's adorable in a "awww, I fantasized about that as a little girl!" way. Usually the sisters of the couple will be in full-on gowns hovering around offering tissues and carrying stuff for the bride, while the mothers of the couple stalk around in pant suits beaming and joking for some reason. I don't get the pantsuits, not the beaming and joking of course.
At AUC:
Boys (there are no men at AUC except professors): The foreign guys obviously wear whatever they would wear at their home college. Egyptian guys like their designer shades, their brightly-colored T-shirts over carefully worked abs and biceps of a size that makes them walk around with their arms always slightly bent, designer jeans, designer sneakers. Huge, expensive, imported watches. They can afford it because this is the most expensive college in Egypt. Even the more modest guys are usually a bit better dressed than in the US, sticking to smart short-sleeve, button-down shirts and designer glasses. There is definitely a uniquely AUC fashion trend that's hard to put your finger on until you come here. Oh, also Egyptian guys wouldn't be caught dead carrying more than one single notebook at a time, if that.
Girls: Again, the foreigner girls wear whatever they would at their home college. The Egyptian girls at AUC are usually decked out in a way that makes foreign male tongues wag and foreign females roll their eyes. There is a specific co-ed group called the "Guccis" that everyone refers to as the absolute consumer-whoreist group of students at AUC and who are the butt of every joke, but besides them the girls in AUC generally make me wish I: a) had Egyptian genes, b) a lot of money, c) could actually justify buying skinny jeans, d) had more time in the morning to look like something other than a colossal wreck e) a driver so I could wear whatever I wanted without worrying about the gauntlet of the open street. Skinny jeans are prevalent. Everyone carries large purses instead of backpacks. They can afford to get their hair "did" regularly and stuff waxed and plucked to perfection. They look fabulous, and that sucks because Egypt hates my skin and my body generally.
On the Red Sea:
The Red Sea is home to many major tourist towns, and I think they've pretty much seen it all. Women can wear bikinis on the beach or in the club (which is also on the beach), or a mini-skirt, or tank-top. No one cares enough to give you crap or really say much about it, although expect the Egyptian males around to give you "a look" in a certain way at times. Again, guys pretty much wear...yep, jeans and a T-shirt or a T-shirt and swim trunks on the beach or even in the club.
Alexandria:
I wouldn't say Alexandria is much more conservative than Cairo per-say, but I haven't spent much time there. There are certain beaches you can wear bikinis, but beware strong surf causing boob-escapage (seriously, been there). When in doubt, throw on a long T-shirt over your suit and you're good to go! I'm not even going to mention guys this time, too boring. Otherwise I would say just do as you do in Cairo, although somehow I got away with wearing a tank-top one night, but I was accompanied by an Egyptian guy friend.
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