Harrowing Holiday

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The three days after Ramadan ends are called Eid Al-Fitr, which loosely translates as the Holiday of the Feast. I don’t know much about it other than it is basically the equivalent of contemporary western Christmas/Thanksgiving, where everyone buys a whole bunch of new clothes, visits relatives, and stuffs themselves with food for three days (after a month of fasting, I say go for it!)--and supposedly the city goes nuts with festivals (I wasn't here...wouldn't know...see my next blog). In Cairo, unfortunately, there was an incident that shattered the whole spirit (some of you may have heard about it on BBC News—if not, here is a link to the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/middle_east/6106500.stm): a group of rowdy boys coming out of a movie theatre attacked a bunch of girls waiting in line. They were tearing off their hijabs and trying to undress them—it was a huge sexual harassment scandal…especially because the police officers that witnessed it did absolutely nothing. As you can see from the last line in the article, the government is downplaying the incident and daring anyone to take a stand. Well, that’s exactly what we are going to do! Thursday the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights is organizing a ‘Stand against Sexual Harassment’ in front of the press syndicate. I am planning on going, although some of the organizers have tried to dissuade international students from attending—the International Students Office has always discouraged us from attending rallies/protests because we could be thrown out of the country… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see… (frankly, I am a lot more scared of being thrown in an Egyptian jail, not out of the country). Just the other day a friend and I were sitting in a restaurant one block from campus talking—as a few men walked by the big bay windows, stared at us like we were giant carrots, almost turning full circle and tripping over their own two feet—about what it is like to be a woman here. How it is so much easier to just stare at the ground when walking and not look at anything around you…it makes the cat-calls and the staring (though you can still FEEL the staring) seem slightly more removed and impersonal—but this just confirms your status as a second class citizen. Sick of not being able to look around at the buildings or the city that I only have 4 months to get to know as intimately as I can, I have started to—literally and figuratively—stand up and keep my eyes away from the trash-filled side-walks. Instead of letting their stares force my eyes lower and lower I have decided that this world is big enough for the both of our gazes! I walk with an almost snotty air—my head higher than it would be even at home—and gaze right past them, seemingly oblivious to or even bored with their stares, so they know what it is to feel miniscule and insignificant. Those who say ignoring them is the best policy are completely correct (though I won’t tell you what I said to a group of guys taking pictures of Jess and I across the metro tracks…a barrier which emboldened me, I admit), because they get a rise out of any emotion you show: nervouseness, bashfulness, discomfort, anger, etc. Just knowing the rage that a few annoying stares and cat calls can incite in me, my heart goes out to the girls who were attacked that first day of Eid. Egypt may not be Afghanistan under the Taliban, but if women can’t be secure walking down the streets or waiting in line for a movie without a male escort, it may as well be! And that’s why I think I will go on Thursday…

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