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I stayed with a large family on the outskirts of Cairo who had no running water, flies all over their food, trash in their irrigation canal, and a roof made out of palm leaves. It really reminded me of a nice club med resor
Yes,I live in cairo and this is a big problem.
Those poeple who live opn ther outskirts are the real egyptains,not the people who live in the city who are mostly of freign origin.
In egypt they call darker skinned egyptains such as myself asmar,which would usually mean tan,but in egypt it is kind of a demeaning title since in modern egypt as oposed to ancient egypt darker skinned people are look down upon. A lot of time poor egyptains ,which is what my family was,but they still managed to send me to college,but people still know I am a baladi.
Baladi refers to people who live in rual areas of egypt and usually they are the cotton farmers you might see in upper egypt and are quite different form the city dwellers.
There is a section of cairo in egypt called the baladi quarters where rual fellahin come in and sell their produce,but many people such as tourist are ignorant of this. One thing you will notice in cairo is the bill boards of people are sometimes painted lighter than they turaly are.
African americans usually have no problems,but sub saharan africans who come to cairo are usually looked down upon.
I don;t sahare this opinion,but pay close attention to who miss egypt was this year and you will see it was deifnatley not egyptains that look like me.
Skin bleeching is also a big problem in egypt.
Except for his curly black hair, with its hint of African negro
blood, he looked more Arabian than Egyptian; most of the
men in the village were shorter, more heavily built, and had strong
cheekbones, thick noses, and heavy jaws. Among their rugged faces,
Shahhat's stood out as singularly expressive."
The reader might conclude from such a description that Critchfield's
initial attraction to Shahhat was due to the fact that his features
were much less African than those of the majority of Upper Egyptians.
Ironically, that is the attitude of some inhabitants of northern
Egypt, who refuse to acknowledge Upper Egyptians as Arabs, and
consider darker skin to be a negative trait. Such prejudice is the
second challenge which faces Upper Egyptians, in addition to poverty:
racism.
Although I did take issue with the presumably inadvertent racial
implications of Critchfield's observations, Shahhat, an Egyptian is
an entertaining and vivid introduction to the richness and diversity
of rural Egyptian life.
Uzra Zeya is a program coordinator for the American Educational Trust
specializing in Islamic affairs.
Advise and Dissent and Shahhat, an Egyptian are available from the
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/598/li1.htm
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0390/9003045.htm
Also I diuslike when people call egyptains middle eastern,or even arabs,because the truth is we are african,but many of uis are ashamed to admit it.
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