Finding Egypt's Lost Culture: December 2008

JRMC 270

Final Paper

Egyptian Youth Indetity Crisis

Presented to: Dr. Rasha Abdullah

Presented by:

Amina Abdel Meguid

Aya Talaat

Eman El Ghandour

Sara Romany

Yousra Shalaby

Yasmine Dinana

Egyptian Youth: Identity Crisis

This blog will be discussing the Egyptian youth identity crisis. We will discuss different aspects of this crisis and some of the causes behind it. This blog will include an insight on the Egyptian identity through history; an insight on our identity portrayed in fashion. Moreover we will discuss the role of the media and the education systems in causing this crisis and finally we will discuss the outcome of this crisis and where our youth are today.

· History

According to Jankowski's book, Eric Hobsbawm said “national identification and what it is believed to imply, can change and shift in time, even in the course of quite short periods” (Jankowski). This greatly implies to Egypt, where with each new era, concepts and identities change.

To start with, the Egyptian Nile Valley is one of the oldest cultures in the world. Starting from 3100 B.C up to almost 332 B.C, Egypt was ruled by the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. Nearly from that time until 1952, foreign occupations and foreign leaders have ruled Egypt. Alexander the Great had first taken Egypt under his empire. Then came the Romans who ruled Egypt from 30 B.C to 640 A.D. Christianity became the empire's official religion. In 640, Amr Ibn el As conquered Egypt. That was the beginning of the Islamic era in Egypt. Salah adEin and the Turks then entered Egypt starting the Mamluks period. In 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Mamluks. In 1801, the British allies with the Turks, drove the French out. They stayed in Egypt until 1952 ("A TimeLine of Ancient Egypt").

From the historic events stated above, one can see that Egypt has passed through many different civilizations throughout its history; pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic civilizations. Egypt has been a target for foreign occupation. Each civilization comes with different traditions, beliefs, religion and culture. Up until 1952, there was never mentioned the Arab nationalism or Egyptian identity, simply because Egypt was never ruled by an Egyptian leader. Do Egyptians identify themselves as Egyptian, Arabs, or Muslims?

The 1952 revolution took place. For the first time, the Egyptians ruled themselves. The Nasser's era started with totally new notion. Concepts like Arabism and nationalism were never introduced to the Egyptians before. Nasser's used words like "Arab Egypt", "member of greater Arab entity" in his speeches (Jankowski). He used different media to reach the Arab World and to unify them. Most Arab countries listened to Nasser's pan-Arab messages through the Egyptian radio stations (Abdulla). Nasser tried to help other Arab countries gain their independence.

After Nasser's death, Mohamed Anwar El Sadat became the president of Egypt. After 1973 war, Sadat made a peace treaty with Israel, called the "Egypt-Israeli Peace Agreement of 1979". Arab countries, especially Palestine thought Egypt was betraying them. As a result, Egypt became segregated from the Arab world, and many Arab countries boycotted Egypt ("Palestine Facts"). After 1973, Egypt as a country became the priority for most Egyptians, unlike what Nasser's regime called for.

As professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: "The question of identity continues to be debated today with many Egyptians perhaps falling somewhere in the middle, considering themselves Egyptian first but finding Egyptian and Arab identities linked and not necessarily incompatible. Others identify themselves mainly on the basis of their religion" ("Egypt"). In other words, Egyptian do not identify themselves as part of the Arab world, they feel they have special culture, heritage and independency.

· Egyptian Identity from 1973 Until Today.

In this part of our paper the most important elements discussed is, number one, how has the Egyptian identity changed from 1973 during Sadat’ s time until 2008 Mubarak, and the fact that the most important change that has happened recently was the emergence of the religious identity as an issue of conflict between Egyptians, so is it I’m Muslim/Christian, I’m Egyptian/Arab, I’m a Copt or is it the mixture of all of the above with the background of several colonial eras that made the Egyptian identity such a complicated mix of cultures and identities.

Let us first set it straight and identify what is an identity, for a human being who lives in a global modern society there are three major spheres of identity, the personal more self-assessment identity, the social identity, and finally the ethnic identity (Childsafety) these spheres along with his history and surrounding form what he sees of himself and the way he wants others to see him. These are the main ways and not the only ways that a person usually identifies himself.

For Egyptians the most important aspect has always been the country however this has changed over the past 60 years. According to the BBC website during the Nasserite era Egyptians were brought to think of themselves as Arabs. Moreover according to the BBC Nasser was planning for this he used the media, he played with the Suez canal nationalism this might have been for reasons of self interest yet it could also be for reasons of national security that Egyptians were brought to think of themselves as Arabs, so during this era it was I am an Arab or I leave the country coz I do not believe in this. Then came President Sadat and this was a bit of a change still e stood strong behind the fact that we are a Muslim country however he neglected the Arab part and wasn’t so much into Arab Nationalism as Naser, and he focused more on Egypt as a sole unit alone with no other interest at heart but Egypt, so during this era it was I am an Egyptian period. Then came Presdient Hosny Mubarak, with his ideology of peace keeping and maintaining social harmony, he wanted to make Egypt the big brother in the Arab world and some how rebuild some of the relations that Sadat has broken yet he still did not want to go through the hassle of Arab Nationalism that had died already.

In our current Era, Mubarak’s era the situation is a bit different starting with the 1980s and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, moving on to the 1990’s into terrorism and ending with the Wahhabi influence, the Christian abroad movement and the Baha’i issue of the 2000’s. The reason this is relevant is that in the middle of all of this the average Egyptian exists, he is influenced by all of this and that’s what creates his identity his core, through education, and social interaction a person realizes that these issues are not political or only among the elite these issues are the outburst of social discourses and an indicator of an identity crisis that the Egyptian society is going through. Islamic fundamentalism in the 1980’s and the re-rise of the Muslim brotherhood along with other extremist drove away people from Islam and the Islamic identity. According to Roger Hardey an Islamic analyst for the BBC, the Brotherhood then started campaigning for a new Islamic state rather than the secular state, though then Islam was the state’s religion yet they campaigned for the application of Islamic laws (Shari’a) even more. With this revival the Egyptian Islamist came back strong and terrorist started taking Islam as a shield of their actions that they started targeting tourists, such as the attacks in Luxor and all the attacks that took place in the 1990’s under the name f Islam. The government then had only two ways to deal with these problems, one is to stop terrorism by attacking and fighting aggressively the most violent Islamic groups, the groups who emerged in the 1980's and lead campaigns of violence, attacks, assassinations and terrorism directed at everyone from government ministers, foreign tourists and Copts. The other way was the control of public chaos as they have also tried to appease those who are offended by secular ideologies by banning some books, films movies and so forth. These two acts formed two different identities then, the ones that resulted in what happened in the 2000’s, on one hand you have the poor vulnerable community where extremists then hided, calling for their freedom and publicizing for their ideologies, and using these vulnerable communities as soldiers, and on the other hand you have the high elitist society that oppose terrorism and either are holding on to their basic religious beliefs or are just practicing what they want to practice and living in peace. This was the beginning of the crack and crisis when in the same community you have people that identify themselves different than the group (Fishere) you start creating separate communities within the same community that evolves into different blocks attacking each other then you end up having a mess, and could evolve into a war.

Then came the current movement of Islam that started in 2000 with the emergance of Amr Khaled, who according to Al Ahram weekly, is a “Pied Piper”. According to Tarek Atia, in his interview with the preacher, Amr khaled is leading young generations of elite Egyptian youth to a road that they do not know where would it take them. According to the International Herld Tribune, Amr Khaled is the face of Conservative Islam, that young Muslims follows him due to his stylish non-Azhar look, and his use of simple Egyptian words these things is what made him close to the Egyptian youth and made it easy for him to affect them. The era of Amr Khaled, is the era where the distinction between muslims and non-muslims was evident and clear, for the first time you’d walk in the streets and see people having the cross or the quraan very obvious in the cars, for the first time you’d find the majority of people either wearing hijab or wearing a cross, each one got rid of their Egyptian identity and is now looking for something more prominent something that would differentiate between him and the other, and people started creating identities to the other. According to Dr. Fishere, political science professor at the American University in Cairo, the moment people start identifying the “other” and politicians use this identities for their own good, this is when racial violence and civil fights start. This has already happened in Egypt in the past 5 years, the Alexandria incident was the most prominent one, according to the BBC website three people were killed in this riot that included more than 5000 person. To conclude, I think the increase of the hijabis definitely a good thing, but if it is done for the right reasons not because it is a trend not because it is a way for young Egyptians to feed their social images, and the same goes for the cross, not because Madonna wears it we do.

The most depressing thing to hear is a someone telling you, “I am not Egyptian, I am Coptic,” we all are Copts we all are Egyptians, and your religion is for you it is just a choice and not an identification. This is the truth, the Egyptian community, according to Roger Hardy is going down this identity crisis slope pretty fast and will soon be suffering from violence and terrorism as never before, we’ll be exporting terrorism and violence and attracting fundamentalist movements.

· Egyptian Fashion

TRADITIONAL COSTUMES AND JEWELRY OF EGYPT

Egypt is the result of coupling of different dynasties, empires, religions and culture. From the Ancient Egyptian era of the Pharaohs, to the Ptolemaic, Roman, Byzantine, Coptic, Fatimid..etc. to our mixture of bits of all these cultures , globalized culture of today. Every culture comes with its affiliates. A significant player in a culture is the dress code. Dress codes reveal a lot about a culture to an outsider, as well as to the person who belongs to this culture. Seeing a woman wearing a Sari, one would presume she is Indian with shallow knowledge of Indian culture. An Indian would interpret what she is wearing from colors, accessories and the way she wears her Sari and infer things about her background, her social status, her wealth and marital status. Pharaohs wore linen, due to Egypt’s warm climate and sunny nature. Women wore long linen dresses, while men wore kilts, throughout dynasties their length differed, made out of linen and sometimes wore a cloth piece on their shoulders. Of course based on social status and wealth, the quality of linen would differ. The finest was the semi-transparent soft linen. Jewelry in ancient Egypt was crucial to the culture, not only for fashion purposes and beauty, but because it carried religious meaning for protecting its wearers. Thus, all classes wore jewelry. The Rich wore precious stones and fancy materials, while the poor who could not afford that just wore affordable pieces such as amulets with symbols that would protect them or harvest them good luck. The appearance of the hair was very important, thus both men and women wore wigs made out of human hair. They would shave their heads and wear the wigs. For women, wigs would have longer braided hair and men would have shorter haired wigs.

Moving thousands of years forward, we come to the end of the 19^th century. Shahira Mehrez, former Islamic History Professor at Helwan University is a researcher, promoter and collector of Egyptian crafts. For almost forty years, she has been collecting Egyptian traditional costumes and jewelry from all over Egypt. Asked about the nature the Egyptian dress, she said, that Linen production in Egypt has survived through Ancient Egyptian times up to the end of the 19^th century. Linen is mostly worn in the countryside, whereas fabrics in urban centers are different, due to the influences and exposure to different cultures and trends. She added, that traditions are mainly preserved in rural areas, where the dress code stems from the Ottoman empire, and not from the ancient Egyptian era. To understand the nature of the dress, we have to look first at the Ottoman dress for women. The Ottoman dress starting the 16^th and 17^th century looked the following for Muslim women: a woman walking on the street would wear a long mantle, underneath which they would wear skirts that reached to the floor, also with a veil on their heads and the yashmak, a white cloth that covered them from head to chin and went again from chin to head(The Costumes Of Ottoman Women Ottoman Woman's Dress in 16th century). It’s stated that non-Muslim women such as Greeks, Armenians and Jews wore different costumes, by law. These costumes differed, but their base was of a long coat, baggy pants, a long chemise underneath and a head-dress. Sometimes a decorated belt would be around the waist (Costumes Of Ottoman Women Ottoman Woman's Dress in 16th century).

According to the Anthropological Book “Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians” by Arab world scholar Edward Lane William, published in 1836, Muslim men wore the Turkish dress. It consists of loose linen pants that reach beyond the knee or continue farther to the ankles. They wear a full sleeve linen shirt, on top of which they wear a sleeveless vest known as ‘Sudayree’ in cool climate. Over both comes the Kaftan, a long sleeve mantle-like piece, which is usually has striped pattern of silk and cotton. In winter, men would cover themselves with a Abaya, a wide coat-like woolen piece. Men in the teaching positions would wear a similar thing called ‘Gibbeh’, however it was not very commonly worn(Lane). Regarding the head, men wore a turban. A turban is made of the following : a white small cap fitted on the head, above which a Tarbush, a bucket shaped red hat with silk strings coming down one of its sides, and a white Kashmir scarf. Men that are known to be descendents of the Prophet Mohammad nay wear a green Turban. After the tarbush was worn, the Kashmir scarf was whirled around it(Lane). Copts wore the same outfits, however their turban colors were dark blue, black or grey. They wore darker colors also. In urban areas, they wanted to distinguish themselves from the Muslims so they stuck to wearing darker colors. In the villages and countryside, they wore white Turbans. Nowadays, we see men in the urban areas, wearing jeans and shirts. However, in the countryside, whereas some may be found wearing pants and shirts, the Galabeya, a long one piece dress for men, that covers till the ankles, but can be shorter according to preference and season. In the countryside today the Fallahin, or the farmers, wear the Serwal, which is the loosely fitted drawers, the linen shirt and the Sudayree while working the fields. The Tarbush has disappeared nowadays. Only in television drama or in touristic areas can it be sold or demonstrated. Youth now wear the European and American fashion. A jeans-generation is the situation nowadays.

Coming to women’s clothing, Lane also distinguished between Muslim women and Coptic or Jewish. Muslim women wear a wide shirt, similar to that of the men, a colored cotton or silk piece of scarf is tied around their waists. They wear wider pants than men, called the ‘Shintiyan’. A Yelek, resembling the Kaftan of the men is worn, or a ‘Anter’ee’ , like a Yelek, however, not reaching to the ground. The head covering was a crucial thing. Women also wore a Takkiyah, the small tight fitted cap or a Tarbush. Around them would be two kerchiefs that formed a Turban. Going out of the house, a woman has to wear what is called a ‘Tayzeerah’ , which is like the Abaya, covering their figures. It was usually made from bright colored rose, pink or violet silk, covering the hair. The face covering , called the ‘Burka’ was a white muslin cloth covering beneath the eyes, going down to the feet. They than cover the faces with a ‘habarah’, another piece that covers the face, except the eyes, over the ‘Burka’. Married ladies wear a black one, while bachelorettes wore a white one. In Upper Egypt this costume is unlikely to be found. Instead, women there cover themselves and their faces with a big brown woolen stuff(Lane). Coptic women wore similar garments and had black Burkas, however young unmarried women would wear the white Burkas like the Muslim girls (Lane).

Mehrez explained in a speech that she had in Isfahan Iran in the Conference entitled “Arts and crafts in the Muslim world” organized by Islamic Chamber Research and Information Center about the Egyptian Traditional Costumes. She said that in the early 2oth century, there were nine places in Egypt that characterized the traditional costume with its different forms. The areas are : Nubia, Upper Egypt, the Nile Delta, the Oases of Khargah, Dakhlah, Bahareyyah and Siwah, North Sinai and the southern littoral of the Red Sea. Patterns and styles change and differ from region to region, and also in different parts of a region. According to events and festivities the natures of the dresses change, such as bridal costumes. Mehrez, states that she has seen ”the dying out of folkloric traditions.” She distinguishes between three types of communities in regard to their relation to their costume heritage:

“ 1) Communities that have abandoned traditional costumes long enough for the recollection of their existence to be obliterated from living memory. 2) Communities that are not wearing any more traditional dresses, but still remember what they look like, though they are incapable of reproducing it. 3)Communities were some of the older people still wear the costume, and are capable of reproducing it. “

Mehrez works in the revival of Egyptian heritage wherever possible. She has her own establishment called “Shahira Mehrez, Friends and Teachers”. She sells authentic Egyptian costumes, from patterns she gathered over many years from different areas of Egypt. She says that many costumes on sale now in touristic areas were created with “ the artifacts deviated from the archetype and were bastardized to satisfy tourist fantasy”.

Azza Fahmy is a prominent, internationally recognized Egyptian Jewelry Designer. Her book “Enchanted Jewelry of Egypt: The Traditional Art and Craft” is about Egypt’s jewelry. She states that according to the World Gold Council, Egypt consumed 120 tons of Gold annually according to the year 2001, out of which 70% is produced to fit the taste of peasants and the Sha’bi class. The Sha’bi class is the class that is considered poor, below the middle class. Those classes represent Egypt’s population majority. She states that these classes like to wear jewelry to keep up with the richer classes. The patterns in their jewelry has the most detailed and interesting patterns (Fahmy). These classes prefer not to use beads or stones, as they like to keep their pieces’ weight pure, so if they would sell it, the jeweler would not decrease the price because of finding other particles on the metal. Egyptian jewelry in general consists of pendants, earrings, anklets, bracelets, rings and amulets. In some areas, there are hair ornaments and nose rings, too. There are several motives in Egyptian jewelry. Of them are the crescent, the fish, the palm tree and the pigeons. Each part of Egypt is characterized by its own jewelry style and patterns(Fahmy).

The middle and upper classes of Egypt have acquired the European taste in Jewelry and designer patterns such as the ones from BULGARI and Cartier..etc. Nowadays, however the Egyptian styles and jewelry with Arabic calligraphy is becoming fashionable.

Media Effect

The media industry over the past few years has progressed in a huge way. It shifted from just printed media to more advanced ones as internet that connects the whole world together, DVD, and TV. According to Marshall McLuhan, he stated that “the medium is more important than the message”. This indicated how the way of sending the message could be more important than the content of the message itself.

It decreased the gap between various societies, introduced new cultures, and made it easier to share ideas and thoughts with people no matter how far the distance is between them. However, sometimes decreasing this gap could have disadvantages such as affecting other cultures negatively rather than benefiting and learning from them.

Concern the Arab world; the western media mostly influences it. The West or in particular the United States of American are usually viewed by Arabs as the best developed country, it leads the way in all fields successfully such as in food(McDonald’s), visual entertainment(Hollywood) and Drinks (Pepsi and Coca Cola)in addition to being viewed as economically stable (Sinclair,2004).Moreover, this perspective of the idealism of the United States reached the Middle East through the media either by the Hollywood movies that are spread all over the world and could be considered the easiest way for introducing the western culture, or by the internet which is another quick easy source for communication between cultures. Consequently, the Arab culture seeks this so-called idealism and tries to develop with their culture by imitating the western cultures in simple ways. It started by the open market strategy and the globalization where there is an open trading gate between countries that helped all western brands to be available in the Arab world.

Since 1980s, the western media began invading the Arab world and its effects began to appear mainly on the Arab youth. The media presents some economic affluence, somehow free sexual behaviors and nontraditional roles for women (Davis,p1). Moreover, this is what created the identity confusion in the youth’s lives. They are taught certain norms and traditions while on the other hand the western media presents to them stuff that are somehow not matching with what they are used to. Adolescence and early adulthood are main stages for building identities and beliefs. So if the adolescences in this phase are exposed to some sort of confusion between their real practical life and culture that they are living in and between the materials presented by the western media, then it could cause a serious problem.

Narrowing it down to one country of the Arab world which is Egypt, western media has affected the Egyptian youth negatively in certain traits and addressed their brains with verifications about certain topics. The exposure of Egyptian youth to the western media made it associated with the increasing of risk factors of smoking between adolescence. A recent study researched the association between exposure and accessibility to Western media, positive beliefs about smoking, and smoking behavior of Egyptian adolescence. However, a positive relation was found between male Egyptian adolescence smokers and western media influence (Johnson,2007)

It is clear then that, the media in general a direct quick source that affects societies. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Its main advantage is that it helped in eliminating the distances between countries all over the world by introducing one culture to the other. However, it also causes conflicts between ones self-identity specially if they are exposed to a media that is different from their culture and were they try imitating it believing that it will help them develop.

· Educational Systems

An increasing number of Egyptian youth are proud to announce that they know nothing about their mother tongue ‘Arabic’ language. The more you speak a perfect foreign language and if you have to speak in Arabic, you Americanize it, the higher socially and educationally you re looked upon.

Salah Montaser, in his latest Ahram op-ed column, addressed this issue. He is talking about how the Arabs, not just the Egyptians, are loosing their identity and their mother language by being Americanized. Even the Ads in the streets are written in English, even the Arab families among themselves are talking in English. He explains that he has nothing against the English language and he encourages people to communicate using it, but not to the extend of forgetting our own language for it.

The increasing number of International schools established in Egypt is the main reason behind this identity loss. Most of these schools do not teach Arabic or religion and have nothing to do with the culture of the country they are established in.

Apart from the international schools graduates, the Arabic syllabus in the national schools is very repelling to most of the students. Very boring comprehension and literature topics, combined with the difficulty of the language, created and incurable hatred towards the Arabic language.

It is ironic to know that Egyptians are known for their quick apprehension of foreign languages even if they do not know how to read or write them. It is a pity that although we have this gift we are the worst to talk in our own language.

The Egyptian culture is slowly fading away in our society. Through the new satellite channels, the internet and the process of globalization, the Egyptian youth is slowly and determainly extracting themselves from the culture and beliefs they are meant to believe in.

We are being dominated by more westernized and stronger cultures, while through out our history we were the nations that were dominating the other cultures; scientifically, historically and academically.

What has become of us? We became a distorted image of the west. We chose to wear like them, and to act like what we see in the American and western movies. We chose to put aside our traditions and live their lives. We were always saying that we are better because we study their history, know their literature, excel in their language and they know nothing about us. Wrong we forgot ourselves while we were trying to study them and lost our identity.

We should wake up before its too late and say ‘Ana ba3raf akalem 3araby we loghat thania keteer’ I can talk in Arabic and many other languages.

· The Outcome of this crisis on our Egyptian Youth

The Egyptian youth seems to have a serious identity crisis. Everyday we observe their contradictory behavior on the streets everywhere. Our youth seems to be facing a huge problem; they can no longer find their own identity their own set of principles, they are torn between other cultures they are exposed to everyday, and as a result they no longer have a sense of what is right and what is wrong. Egyptian youth are not being exposed to other cultures only through the media, but the education system today also subjects us to different cultures. Since Egyptian schools offer a wide range of educational systems like the American system, British system, French system, German system, and last but not least the Egyptian system. How should our youth be expected to create their own identity when they are subjected to all these different cultures?

We can observe this sense of loss in many aspects of the Egyptian youth today, from their outfits to their social behavior. If you go around the streets of Cairo you will observe that most of our young women are wearing ‘higab’ (head cover), most of them will also be wearing skinny jeans and very tight shirts. You can also observe girls with head cover who are getting intimate with their boyfriend in a public garden or by Korneish el Niel (river side in Cairo). I am not pointing a finger at young women who chose to wear a head cover, but it is just to point out how our youth are torn between cultures. Another example for this phenomenon can be seen at our university, the American University in Cairo. Here you will find a couple making out in one corner at the library and you will also find a prayer room with a couple of students praying. For me as a young woman living in this society, the absence of our own set of norms and principles is becoming really frustrating; I really don’t know what to do in most of the situations, what is right and what is wrong. Even in the simplest everyday things it has become confusing, like seeing a friend that I haven’t seen for a while, some of my friends will kiss and hug me others won’t even shake hands with me because of their believes.

According to Dr. Said Sadek, an Arab History Professor at the American university in Cairo “The media exposes us to many different cultures, not just American and European cultures but also Saudi and Wahabi cultures.” He adds that the outcome of being exposed to all these different cultures is that “we can no longer find our own identity, our youth don’t know which set of principles to follow, they are torn between what they are exposed to everyday, the demands of our society and their personal needs.”

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