Women and Tourists

Discovery #14: The metro in Cairo has both men's and women's cars

On Sunday (which is a weekday here), we were sent on a "metro experience" with the assignment to get four stops away from the center of town, eat lunch, find a bakery, and talk to people about soccer. 

The metro here is really cheap (about 20 cents for each ride) and actually quite nice. On each train, there are mens and womens cars. While the women are allowed on the mens cars, there are two womens cars in the middle of each train that are reserved solely for women (or young boys traveling with a guardian). Libby and I decided to ride on the women's car since we had heard it was much more comfortable and you didn't have to worry about being harassed or groped (unfortunately, both are huge problems in Cairo). 

After being in Cairo for 4 days, I was already feeling the strain of being in a male-dominated culture and having to keep my guard up whenever I'm on the street. As I may have mentioned before, touching between men and women is very inappropriate here. Women who are seen touching men (other than family members, fiancees or husbands) are seen as unrepresentable and promiscuous. In the Muslim faith (and also in this culture as a whole), it is the woman's job to make sure that she is respectable and marriageable. 

Some of the girls in my program were originally upset by the fact that there was a woman's car on the metro. It seemed to them that it was only furthering the patriarchical society. However, after several long discussion, I have come to realize that I see the woman's car on the metro as a move of respect for the women of Cairo and for their purity. In an overcrowded metro, unwanted touching is bound to occur. So, to preserve the well-kept purity of women (and also the men, who might find it sinful or nonreligious to touch a woman) there are separate cars. And honestly, I kind of see this move as a one-up for the women of Cairo since they have the option of riding in either car. 

Discovery #15: The women's car on the metro is my favorite place in Cairo so far.

In spite of all my philosophizing, I really enjoyed riding on the women's car. It was so nice to be able to let my guard down and not have to worry about averting the eyes of men or "compromising my purity" by accidentally bumping in to or making eye contact with a man. As I mentioned before, sexual harassment is a big problem in Cairo, so it was also nice to get away from all the cat calls and heckling.

And just as I was more relaxed in the women's car, so were the Egyptian women riding with me. They seemed more free to  come up and talk or at least giggle, wave or smile. On our train ride back, a girl about my age came up to Libby and I and asked us where were were from. She spoke a little bit of English and we had a short conversation about what she was studying and where she grew up. She asked us the same questions. Upon finding out that this was one of our first days in Egypt, she looked me in the eye and said "Welcome to Cairo, welcome to Egypt." 

I know I'm going to sound like a baby, but, at that moment, I probably could've cried. This young girl was so sincere and sweet...and she was the first person to sincerely welcome me Egypt. Others had shouted it on the street, but nobody (who didn't work for our program) had taken the time to honestly welcome me. And, after being here for four days, it was nice to be welcomed. 

Discovery #16: I hate feeling like a tourist.

So, I guess this isn't really a "new" discovery per say because I've known this for a while, but I definitely re-learned it yesterday. 

My group too the metro to the Cairo University stop and walked around. We actually never found the university, but we walked around a few blocks of the neighborhood. It definitely seemed poorer than the neighborhood where I live, Agouza. However, it was so quite and peaceful. School children waved and said hi but hardly anyone made cat calls at me or rude noises. We passed several bakeries and finally stopped at one for some delicious cookies and pastries. To be honest, I loved this neighborhood. I loved being in just a quite, residential area and walking around -- seeing what real life is like for people.

The down side of the area was that we didn't really find any sit-down restaurants. So, we headed back to Tahrir, the center of town. And man what a difference! There were many tourists and the streets and sidewalks were crowded. Though we found a DELICIOUS place to eat (koshary is my new favorite!! Noodles, lentils, rice, beef shwarma, chick peas, and a tomato sauce = heaven!), I really didn't like the area. After being there for about an hour, my whole group agreed. Everyone thought we were tourists (which, to be fair, we sortof are) and we didn't like it ;) I think what put us all over the edge was what happened about halfway through our trip.

Discovery #17: Egyptian shopkeepers and quite clever. 

When Seth, a guy in my group, threw away a soda can in an elevated trash can with no bottom, an English-speaking Egyptian man shared a good laugh with us on the sidewalk. He asked if we were looking for something in particular and we told him we wanted to find a tea shop where both men and women could sit (most tea shops here have an unspoken rule of "men only"). He told us he knew of a place and that he'd point us in the right direction. He assured us he'd take no money. 

Through some crafty wording and turns of the street corners, he led us to his perfume shop and insisted on showing us Egyptian hospitality. He took us to the upstairs room of his shop and brought us tea. His two sons also came up and began talking with us and explaining the different perfume essences they carried. Libby was interested in buying some so she brought samples for her. Before the tea even arrived, Libby was being careful coaxed into buying huge, expensive bottles of essence (which is what perfume is before they add alcohol). We began to haggle but it was one of the most interesting experiences of my life: as we haggled with one son, the other kept looking at me and mouthing "It's too much, don't give him that much money."  So we'd barter some more. 

I think we eventually got a good price but the experience was very bizarre. We later saw some of our colleagues on the street corner and found out that they had been suckered into the same perfume shop and were downstairs while we were up. Strangely enough, in the next 15 minutes we spent in Tahrir, 3 people offered to take us to a shop where we could buy perfume...this shopkeeper had some good salesmen on the street!

Discovery #18: MESPers are awesome :)

Last night, each staff member took a small group of students out to dinner. Brian Cassles led my group and over dinner we took turns telling each other about our families, studies, and why we came to the Middle East. There are some awesome people in this program, let me tell you! Dinner was great; we ate at a place called Spectra, which kind of like a TGIF or Chilis. 

After dinner, Julie (my roommate) and I went to the internet cafe to catch up with friends and send emails and such. All in all: great day. 

Unfortunately, I've already fallen behind in my blogging. So, Monday's stories will have to come at a later date.