One of our readers is dismissive saying: “Egypt is poor and backward, with low educational standards, especially for women. Other Middle Eastern countries, including Gaza, are way ahead (ahead of us too but that’s not hard).”
Well, the unemployment rate in Egypt is a modest 7.06% in 2023 and streets in Cairo look thriving with happy people, but you be the judge.
Even in Egypt freedom of speech is controlled by the religious establishment , they have a blasphemy law.
Public statements deemed critical of Islam or Christianity can be tried under the country’s blasphemy law.
So someone like me who asks questions would not fit in well there. I have read many stay silent about their non belief in Islam in countries like this or else get chastised.
Geogre Carlin would not fit in I suspect lol
Judaism is protected too even though the country has almost no Jews..
Nice to see the streets of Cairo, with its 19th century buildings.
However I’m not sure it makes your point. The streets are filled with jolly young men, and a few not so jolly women. The dress code doesn’t appear to have changed since I was there: the women still wear a double headscarf. If it had been summer you would have seen women shrouded in black walking alongside men in white short sleeved shirts. Compare Iran, where theoretically hijab is compulsory but the scarf is usually worn on the back of the head, and a recent video indicated that some aren’t bothering at all now.
Egypt is the most conservative Muslim country I know. And until the 90s it had the highest rate of female genital mutilation in the world. Now second after Somalia: Islam meets sub-Saharan Africa (other Middle Eastern countries with fgm are Saudi and Yemen, who also have very conservative dress codes, and the Kurdish populations of Iran and Iraq).
What bothers me is that people seem to think Egypt is the most Western of Middle Eastern countries (if you can call it Middle Eastern), and can use it to reinforce their anti-Muslim prejudices – “even Egypt …”
“Egypt is the most conservative Muslim country I know.” — obviously you’ve not been to Saudi Arabia. See this post: https://waikanaewatch.org/2019/07/16/not-only-in-nz-muslim-hijabs-are-much-disliked-in-parts-of-egyptian-society/
“Even in Egypt ….” It suits the narrative to rebrand deeply conservative Egypt, which elected the Muslim Brotherhood to power, as somehow a bastion of tolerance and modernity.
No I haven’t been to Saudi Arabia, or Yemen, which looks very beautiful but I don’t like burqas.
However I have been to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, all multiple times, and also Uzbekistan. In all of these countries one almost never sees any form of face covering, ie burqa or niqab: if you do, it’s likely to be a Saudi tourist. I have never, ever seen a face veil of any description in Iran. In Egypt burqas are far more common, and one of the reasons I chose not to visit the oases in the desert is because I heard they were the standard attire for women.