this morning menna, one of my writers (the only one, actually) and i went to cover a social media workshop at a hotel on the other side of the city. i wasn't particularly happy about losing the time at work, because we're hoping to send this issue (our first) to the press by thursday and i still had two other articles to finish. but menna, who is 21 and a pretty inexperienced journalist, pushed me to come with her, saying that this was a learning experience, i'm her teacher, and while she'd be miserable alone, together she'd be confident. so after meeting in the office we hailed a cab to the fairmont heliopolis, a fancy hotel not far from the airport.
i was glad i went. in addition to the event organizer and the speaker, we were able to do an interview with the organizer's parent company, a digital media agency, that i can use for my other story. i talked with the people who were comfortable being interviewed in english and she spoke with a few others. we also made several useful contacts in the digital field, who tried to convince us that the future of advertising is online. the speaker even claimed that tv will soon cease to exist. our photographer was late and menna, annoyed, called him several times. finally he showed up explaining that his wife had just given birth. i don't know what "just" means to him but we decided to let it slide and congratulated him profusely on the baby.
i was glad i went. in addition to the event organizer and the speaker, we were able to do an interview with the organizer's parent company, a digital media agency, that i can use for my other story. i talked with the people who were comfortable being interviewed in english and she spoke with a few others. we also made several useful contacts in the digital field, who tried to convince us that the future of advertising is online. the speaker even claimed that tv will soon cease to exist. our photographer was late and menna, annoyed, called him several times. finally he showed up explaining that his wife had just given birth. i don't know what "just" means to him but we decided to let it slide and congratulated him profusely on the baby.
we were interviewing people during the breaks in the workshop and while we waited for the next break menna attended the workshop and i made an outline of the article and wrote the introduction. we also entertained ourselves by taking glamour shots in the bathroom. there was a table of bizarre but appetizing food for the attendees just across the room i was hanging around in, but i couldn't work up the nerve to check it out with all the staff hanging around. my hunger eventually got the better of me but as i stood up i realized they were already clearing it away. defeated, i resolved to stay until the next break so i could do the last interview, then hit up mcdonalds. my resolve paid off: when that lecture finished the organizer invited us to the hotel restaurant for lunch with the group. covering events is the way to go - i think the other attendees had paid $300 for the day!
it was also nice to get the chance to hang out with menna during the long cab ride. long by my standards - this girl spent four years taking a two hour bus ride (each way) to university. she's young, but really interesting and thoughtful. i'm always curious about their perspective on things in their lives that are so different from mine, but a lot of egyptian girls give really rote responses when talking about the veil or their family. menna said she started veiling when she was about 16, but spent a year thinking about it her first. her mother advised her to wait and think very seriously about if she was ready, because once you start wearing the veil, there's no going back - or at least not with a lot of explaining to do. it's not that people are disappointed about the veil, but it shows that you didn't think it through carefully or that your faith wasn't strong enough to see you through the decision. egyptians are always quick to defend women's choice in the matter, which kind of rings false to me because almost all of them do veil. i guess the choice is less 'if' and more 'when'. most egyptian muslims nowadays (as opposed to a couple of generations ago) follow the strain of islam that interprets the koran as saying that the veil is a requirement for women, unlike countries like lebanon, tunisia and turkey. menna stressed that it's about finding a balance between your outer and inner self: it's easy for women to come off as more pious by wearing the veil without actually being religious otherwise. there's also women who, while they think that women should veil, don't want to because it'd hurt their careers or is not what their friends are doing. menna also mentioned a friend of hers who desperately wants to veil, but her father is opposed to it. the friend says that she'll wait until she marries and then start veiling, because when she gets married, it'll be her - and her husband - who decide what is right.
i also asked menna if her parents were pushing her to get married yet. typically mothers start pestering their relatives and social circle about eligible men while their daughters are in college, and menna's mom is no exception. menna has already received a couple of offers that way, which her mother, grandmother and aunts pushed her to accept. apparently if she is too selective, she'll end up a forty year old spinster or a divorcee. her father, on the other hand, doesn't want her to get married so young, she says because she's the only daughter and he wants her to continue living with them for a few more years. she herself is still holding out for falling in love and then deciding to marry, instead of marrying and hoping for love to strike. she's pretty and her father drives a bmw, which should land her a lot of suitors, so hopefully she'll find a true love before she gives in to her mom's pressure.
it was also nice to get the chance to hang out with menna during the long cab ride. long by my standards - this girl spent four years taking a two hour bus ride (each way) to university. she's young, but really interesting and thoughtful. i'm always curious about their perspective on things in their lives that are so different from mine, but a lot of egyptian girls give really rote responses when talking about the veil or their family. menna said she started veiling when she was about 16, but spent a year thinking about it her first. her mother advised her to wait and think very seriously about if she was ready, because once you start wearing the veil, there's no going back - or at least not with a lot of explaining to do. it's not that people are disappointed about the veil, but it shows that you didn't think it through carefully or that your faith wasn't strong enough to see you through the decision. egyptians are always quick to defend women's choice in the matter, which kind of rings false to me because almost all of them do veil. i guess the choice is less 'if' and more 'when'. most egyptian muslims nowadays (as opposed to a couple of generations ago) follow the strain of islam that interprets the koran as saying that the veil is a requirement for women, unlike countries like lebanon, tunisia and turkey. menna stressed that it's about finding a balance between your outer and inner self: it's easy for women to come off as more pious by wearing the veil without actually being religious otherwise. there's also women who, while they think that women should veil, don't want to because it'd hurt their careers or is not what their friends are doing. menna also mentioned a friend of hers who desperately wants to veil, but her father is opposed to it. the friend says that she'll wait until she marries and then start veiling, because when she gets married, it'll be her - and her husband - who decide what is right.
i also asked menna if her parents were pushing her to get married yet. typically mothers start pestering their relatives and social circle about eligible men while their daughters are in college, and menna's mom is no exception. menna has already received a couple of offers that way, which her mother, grandmother and aunts pushed her to accept. apparently if she is too selective, she'll end up a forty year old spinster or a divorcee. her father, on the other hand, doesn't want her to get married so young, she says because she's the only daughter and he wants her to continue living with them for a few more years. she herself is still holding out for falling in love and then deciding to marry, instead of marrying and hoping for love to strike. she's pretty and her father drives a bmw, which should land her a lot of suitors, so hopefully she'll find a true love before she gives in to her mom's pressure.
oh, and in case anybody's wondering about my bowab's wives, i'm sorry (but not really) to report that i haven't seen the older one in over a week. i hope she's in bed, relaxing while her kids serve her cups of sugary tea. i saw the younger one a few days ago when i was on my way out to an interview. i was with our sales manager, and the wife grinned when she saw me and launched into an enthusiastic speech of which i understood very little. the manager, soha, turned to me and said mildly, "she likes you." well, i like her too.
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