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Africa North
Women: Beware of Egypt
2012-06-12
By Michael J. Totten
...who knows what he's talking about, responding to this.
I recently gave a talk about the Arab Spring at a college in the Pacific Northwest and met a young female journalism student who said she was envious that I've been to Cairo. She considers herself something of an Egyptologist and can't wait to go there herself.

She was blissfully unaware of how badly women are treated in Egypt, including foreign women like herself. I've heard one extreme sexual harassment horror story after another from women I know who have visited Cairo. I don't personally know anyone who has been sexually assaulted in Egypt, but from my informal survey of female travelers there it appears the likelihood of a foreign woman experiencing extreme harassment approaches 100 percent.

I have no idea why this is such a huge problem in Egypt. It's not because Egypt is Arab or Muslim or Middle Eastern. Lebanon isn't like this. I understand Syria isn't either, though I'm less certain. My wife has been to Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Libya. She experienced minor sexual harassment in Tunisia and Libya, but it was the sort that was annoying rather than horrifying. She wants to revisit both countries despite it.

The stories I've heard from women in Egypt, however, involve harassment that is aggressive, physical, and sometimes terrifying. I will never take my wife to Egypt. Never. 
Perhaps I should have visited Mr. Wife when he was doing that factory start-up in Egypt back in 1987, when such things were not supposed to happen. But then the company would have seriously pressured him to take the assignment in Saudi Arabia, and I was not nearly tactful enough to survive that experience -- and I'm pretty sure being presented with a headless wife would have upset my sensitive mate, impacting his work efficiency.
Plus it would have sucked to be us, TW
Posted by:trailing wife

#5  Five camels?!

Hey throw in some date cakes and a donkey and its a deal.
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2012-06-12 17:12  

#4  I'd have countered with no more than five.

Five camels is a good price if she is appropriately plump and comely.
Posted by: SteveS   2012-06-12 14:43  

#3  Back in 74, I was in Spain with one of my tall long legged lady friends. We took the ferry from Barcelona to Algeciras. On the way, we met a couple that talked us into staying on the ferry and going across the straits to Tangier.

We got to Tangier and in the course of the first two hours we were there, I was offered $3,000 for my US Passport and $10,000 for the tall long legged lady friend, who like the teenaged daughter, had worn short shorts and a tank top.

I think we set a world record getting back to the dock and there I found a couple of kilos of Hashish taped to the underside of my Porsche.

Needless to say, Tangier is NOT on my list of places to visit EVER.

An American going anywhere in North Africa needs to watch their ass, even in the more civilized environs, it is dangerous.
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2012-06-12 09:53  

#2  "...blissfully unaware of how badly women are treated..."

so many, many others like her are blissfully unaware of Islamic reality
Posted by: lord garth   2012-06-12 07:58  

#1  Perhaps I should have visited Mr. Wife when he was doing that factory start-up in Egypt back in 1987, when such things were not supposed to happen.

Maybe, maybe not. I have a buddy who went there in 95 and got offered three camels for his underage daughter (who I understand thought it would be good to wear shorts that day). To his daughter's horror, he countered with ten. They took him seriously and walked away.

Knowing what a pain she usually is, I'd have countered with no more than five.
Posted by: gorb   2012-06-12 01:59  

00:00