Friend N˚1 Egypt: “You know in Alexandria we love Hash and everyone knows that the Moroccan Hash is the best. I always dream to go to Morocco to try it firsthand, and off course you have very very beautiful liberal girls (very liberal in Egypt mean Prostitute)”

Friend N˚2 Jordan: “You are very famous with the Couscous, the belly dancers, and you have a king like us but you kiss his hand!”

Friend N˚3 Syria: “Morocco is known for Magic craft, they say you have the best sheikhs ever who can solve anything. You have nice jewelry and lots of problems with the poor people of the Western Sahara”

Friend N˚4 Saudi Arabia: “You should educate your girls, they are all, I am sorry to say that, acting against God and against Islam and many of them are prostitutes. But I am fun of your traditional cloths and of your skills in Magic. How do you do that? Do you get any special education on Magic Craft?”

Friend N˚5 Palestine: “You sent us many Jews and frankly speaking and don’t take it personally, you are a country which support Zionism and you stand against the right of people to determine their fate in Western Sahara”

And it went on and on and on…

Nothing surprising about the reactions I received especially that I chose people who don’t know me very well and who ignore that I can get very irritated about the image of my country when it comes to exaggerated stereotypes. The truth is that I tried to stay very diplomatic all this years while explaining how much Morocco is an amazing country and that what they talk about are cultural aspects  of the Moroccan identity blablablabla. Today I decide not to be diplomatic anymore and to respond to what they accuse us of: 

I am a Prostitute

From my boyfriend who thinks I am constantly cheating on him, to all the taxi drivers who sexually harass me when they know I am Moroccan, to the police men in Jordan airport who refused that I enter the country because Morrocan females under 34 are considered public danger, to the men who come at night nock on my hotel door during civil society events hoping that I will open with a red underwear and invite them to come in. I say wake up and see the reality! 

Moroccan women are more honorable than many oriental manipulative little girls who practice superficial sex, anal sex to preserve their virginity and bay a Chinese spear virginity in case they lose it, and still they will act like virgin Mary “Achraf mini Echaraf Mafiich”. At least we are honest, we assume our bodies. If we choose to be virgin until marriage it is a free choice and if we choose to lose it we don’t find ourselves a corrupted gynecologist to sew it. We don’t hide behind tiny veils and wear the “Spanish” hijjab with a mini skirt, tight leggings and 5 kilos of makeup. When we choose to wear the veil it is in general by conviction and decent, and when we choose to show our golden bodies we show them proudly as a master piece.

Many people who make all this fuzz about Moroccan prostitutes, never met a Moroccan girl before in their lives and when they do they die out of frustration to date her of marry her. I toured very well in the Arab region to say that every country have its prostitutes and some countries even have neighborhoods full of prostitutes mostly local ones, not to mention the famous 5 km Al Haram Street with all the beautiful belly dancing shops.

I don’t want to be vulgar or to hurt anyone. I know that most Arab women in all Arab country are very brave, proud, beautiful, respectful mothers, sisters, daughters and friends. As I personally met many Moroccan prostitutes in the planes to Gulf countries seeking for jobs. So this is just warning to think about the stereotypes you have about us, and after all there are 17 million Moroccan women in the world, do you know them all?

I am a Witch

Not mentioning that no one in my family or direct friends in Morocco believe even in Magic Craft. I just want to say that most probably the people I meet in the Arab world know much more about the subject than my whole town. I have been asked many times by colleagues, friends and even by my hair dresser to bring them strange staff that I don’t know even how to pronounce!

During my whole international career, I heard rumors about me that I made a special spell on my boss to get promoted, that I wear a special magical square to attract men, and that I read a special prayer to make people obey me! The reality is that I have been bleeding without reason for two years, have been unlucky in love, and jumping from one job to another without reason… so if I know the way to cure all this I would have done it longue time ago, and even if I know it I will not because of my faith in God and in the fact that certain boundaries should not be crossed in metaphysics.

We do have schools to teach Magic Craft supported by the state like “Sidi Zouin”, we do have saints that are known to control humans and djins like “Bouya Omar”, we are still a land where miraculous healings happen and where people are very superstitious. Yet, this is nothing but the traces of the paganistic believes and Jewish mysticism before Islam. Magical symbols are living with us in our carpets, jewelry and furniture like in any important civilization. As the Egyptians are proud of their pyramids and hieroglyphs (which are magical by the way), we as well we try to keep some of our heritage alive.

I am a Drug Addict

No one can deny that Moroccan Hash is the best from the US to the Nederland and from Alexandria to Istanbul, nor that we are a mass producing country of this strong hallucinogen, but this doesn’t mean that we consume it with our mothers’ milk since birth, and that it is available everywhere on the closest Carrefour supermarket. 

What people ignore is that we are far more open minded about consuming alcohol than about consuming Hash, except from in some town in the north where the Chira Plant that produces Hashish is more or an ancestral agriculture like any other. 

My grandfather is 67 years old and he used to work in the police and he told me that he never saw hash in his life until 1976 when they arrested some drug dealers. At the same time in secondary school I saw myself some of my classmates eating a chocolate mixed with Hash called “Lma3joun”, but this doesn’t make it socially accepted or a normal product to use in everyday’s life.

I am Zionist

Yes we used to be a Jewish kingdom under Al Kahina until the arrival of Islam, Yes we had an important Ashkenazi and Sephardim Jews, Yes 20% of Israel’s Jews are Moroccans, but what does that really mean? All Arab countries had a Jewish community, people who were born and grow up in that country and didn’t knew any other until they chose to leave or were kicked out like dirty pigs. And just for your information out of 30 millions of the Moroccan population there is only 10.000 Moroccan Jews left. And we are very proud of our compatriots from the Jewish confession like other Arab countries are proud of their Christian compatriots (which we don’t have by the way).

A big confusion between being Jewish and being Zionist exist in the mind of Arabs with a sparkle of conspiration theory. Even if Moroccan Jews who choose to stay in Morocco are all against Zionism and many of them in official meetings declare supporting the Palestinian cause.

What is even more choking about this is the fact that we are labeled of a betrayal we didn’t even participate in! We don’t even have diplomatic relations with Israel, not like many Arab states who have Embassies and military and diplomatic representation. Most of the people in Egypt for example ignore that the fruits they are eating this Ramadan is made in Israel and the flowers they are offering on Valentine’s day are made in Israel.

I know we are geographically very far (it takes me halve ½ hour to go to Spain and 5 hours to come to Cairo), we are also emotionally far as I care more about the elections in France than I care about the successor of Hosni Mubarak, but still we have common history, common language. We watch your series during Iftar and you eat our couscous with sugar during Suhur. So why don’t we concentrate on the common and confess that we both were wrong. You didn’t make an effort to understand our culture, and we were too busy to impress the west that we forgot our Arab soul.

After the first month in Alex I start enjoying the charm of the place. It’s very difficult to explain, but I overcame the first impressions and started looking beyond images and stereotypes, beyond fear and prejudice, and beyond faces and eyes sometimes. Yet, I still can’t understand some contradictions I would like to share with you:

1.       Veiled Girls

She is wearing red tights with a tiny mini scurt with very tight red top and leather boots (which are commonly called in Vegas: the fuck me shoes). She is wearing professional make-up, in fact at least 10 kilos make up. You can see her sparkling earrings, and her colorful necklace, and can smell her sexy perfume from 10 meters at least. She is smiling in the arms of her lover while walking downtown. The only problem in this nice and attractive painting is the fact that this she who constitutes a big majority of the Egyptian females is VEILED!

I am a very open-minded person and I have nothing against veiled girls. I even have 3  amazing veiled Egyptian friends Amira sayrafi, Amira Sobeih, and Nada Radi, but I really It’s just that for me wearing the veil is a big decision and it shouldn’t be seen as a matter of fashion or of social norms. If a girl decides to go naked in the street it’s a personal choice which I respect if it’s out of conviction, same for veiled girls if they believe that covering their hair will save the Islamic Umah from its sexual frustration crisis, it’s totally a noble gesture, but I really hate the hypocritical way most of girls here wear the veil.

In my country we are not a big row model of social behavior and not less schizophrenic than the Egyptians, but still, the limits are clear with some exceptions of course:  the bitchies are bitchies, the stylish are stylish, the decent are decent, and the conservatives are conservatives! This issue really bothers me because I get sexually harassed every day in the street because I wear normal scurts and tops, whereas most of these girls are treated with respect!

2.       Underwear Shops

I used to come to Egypt a lot before settling, and I remember how I was fascinated by the amazing underwear shops during one of my first times in the country. I should confess that I admire the good Egyptian taste in the matter of underwear. One of every three shops in downtown is an underwear sop. The colors are perfect, the shapes are very sexy, from the more conventional red silk to the most wild leather sado-maso things.

My first week here, I’ve had to do a lot of shopping everywhere and so my two best friends were taking me to bay pillows, covers, USB internet, spoons … but whenever we were crossing an underwear shop they were turning red and avoiding to look at the exhibited pieces , even if they all confess having a favorite brand of underwear like all Egyptian men. Mostly Goya or Senza 

The real issue for me is that when I was seeing the pieces on the shops, for me it was more about esthetics, whereas my friends may see it as a sexual instrument. And I could tell you that I’ve seen extremely veiled women going in these shops to find the right cloth for their husbands, which prove that Egyptians of all ages and levels are having very interesting private lives!

3.       Money

So far, in all the countries I’ve visited there was small coins and money paper. Well, it’s much more complicated in Egypt! All the money here is in paper money even the ones that have no concrete value! You will always have the impression that your wallet is full of money even if it has 1 Euro, which is somehow psychologically very ensuring but …

4. Working on Sundays

I know that it’s very logical for most of the countries in the Arab region to have the week-end on Friday and Saturday, but for me, who come from a slightly Arabish country that decided very courageously to have European week-ends (Saturdays and Sundays), I feel very frustrated about going to work on Sunday. Sunday that used to be for me synonym of sleeping, relaxation and family lunches, became synonym of work, beginning of the week meetings, and stress. I even have to give up some words from my linguistic expressions like “Saturday Night” or “Lazy Sunday”, which is very confusing for me!

5. Breakfasts

Egyptian breakfast, composition: Foul with onions tomatoes and Tahina and olive oil, fried Falafel, boiled eggs, fried and cooked eggplants with tomato sauce which is called Misa’a3a, fresh onions salad and green leaves,  fried cheese with, chips in a sandwich … and the list varies and changes according to the tastes and budgets of each person. Comments on this: No Comment!

6. Sleeping

I always follow with some envy the biological watch of Egyptians, especially in terms of sleeping. I really think they are supernatural pharaohs in these terms. They  stay late until 3 pm usually, and wake up very early to go work, meet their friends and enjoy life after work, and then still can be operational every single day!

7. Driving

Before coming to Egypt, I’ve had to sell my car and to give up on mobility freedom, but I’ve had the hope that I would bay a little car in Egypt and be able to discover by myself the different faces of Egypt. Unfortunately, the traffic is a real mess, the people cross the street from everywhere, and you’d better not put yourself in a situation where you may have to deal with the system. I even experienced that when I was with some friends trying to go to a jazz concert. We took by mistake a one way street and the police men asked all of us to go to the police station and they took the car. The driver had to bribe the policeman not to put the iron bracelets on his hands, and he paid a huge amount of money after queuing from 9am to 7pm. After that I swore never trying to drive in this country!

8. Security Men

In the first flat I rented in Alex there was that very strange security men who were asking every person who visit me to write his or her name and ID number on a big black book he had. When I’ve asked him this he said proudly that he is a Moukhbir which means literally that he is a SPY! Somehow I feel that every security men is spying on the people, which makes me go paranoid sometimes!

9. Drinking

I will just tell you two facts about this particular issue: First, the best bar in Alex is called Sheikh Ali, which means in English the Muslim Spiritual Leader or Saint called Ali! Second, there is a big Coptic and Christian Greek community in Egypt and still alcohol is sold in a secret way and the whole drinking situation is very unfair towards the Egyptian Christians!

10. Me

I think I am an illogical contradictory creature as well, as it’s very strange that a person like me decides to settle in Egypt when I’ve had the choice to live anywhere else. I do not only live in this country but I also love it and can cope with the different very special other aspects of life, makes me one of the ten things that make Egypt so particular, because it’s true that the system seems illogical but I still assume and like living here!

I feel very lucky that I have friends who took me around the city and showed me the different nice places to hang out and to eat in the city. Tomorrow I am expecting a special guest from Germany : my wonderful friend Judith, and I was making a list about the places I could take her so I thought it would be nice to share it as well on this new blog I am writing on my life in Alex.

1.Dahab:  it’s an amazing restaurant infront of sporting club which makes Egyptian Fetir. My friend Bahz took me there the second day I came to Alex and he recommended having a Fetir with extra mushrooms and extra cheese. I really cannot describe the how delicious it was, or I may borrow the expression Bahz used to describe it: simply orgasmic! He also told me about his idea to open a Fetir fast-food all around the world and to franchise it. I totally agree!

2.Arouss El Bahr: it’s the Arabic word for mermaid. Alexandria is most of all famous for its fish and the best place to eat fresh fish especially calamari and shrimps is Arouss El Bahr. You have to take a small alley from the big mausoleum of El Abass and you will find all kinds of fish restaurants in this unexpected corner. The quality is great and the prices really affordable! If you want a fancy place try Fish Market.

3.Mohamed Ahmed: it’s the best place for Foul and Falafel in Alexandria. The Falafel are very crispy and the Foul very strong. If you eat it I guarantee that you’ll stay full the whole day, unless you are Alexandrian! For Foul and Falafel try Abou Awad as well.

4.Clay:  A very cozy and nice café in the Christian neighborhood that is famous for its cultural activities and the quality of people who sit in it. Another particularity of Clay, is that it’s a Pottery café as you can paint a piece and bay it if you wish from the nice lady that owns the place.

5.Atoujariya: It’s the headquarter for Alexandrian intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals. The leaders of the Alexandrian civil society all meet there to complain about the field, brainstorm for new projects, or gossip about other activists in the middle of the smells of Chicha, tea and coffee. Of course Atoujariya is not the perfect place to have an ice-mocha or a malteazers cappuccino, but it’s the best place to meet friends and feel relax in front of the Cornich. (by the way haythem kamel is living there)!

6.Swissra: Of course it’s not the real Switzerland, it’s a small shop with two tables and 8 chairs where my friends go after a big night in Atoujariya. You can have cheddar and eggs and sausages in white bread. Just amazing!

7.Jaad: The place when I’ve had the best Shawarma in town. It’s an Egyptian chain of fast-foods, but the best one is the one next to the bank where my friend Ahmed Esmat took me for a quick gossip-meal. We also order food during lunch time from there it’s efficient. I recommend the Kebda Eskandarani there as well.

8.Sheik Ali: it’s a very problematic name for a Bar. Sheik in Arabic is the name we call spiritual Muslim leaders and religious men but the place is a nice small marine Greek style bar downtown where you can have cool Stella beer and nice food. One of my friends told me that the British owner had to leave after the revolution and left the place to a young employee who was closing the bar on Fridays and going to pray, so people started making fun of him calling him Sheikh Ali. Of course it’s difficult to find a lot of drinking places in Alex except from some small pubs and the Greek bar in Ibrahimiya whish looks like a place to get drunk, the fancy Portuguese club for which you need a membership card (if you have a membership card please invite me to go), and the gay bar Elite! For the rest better order from Dinkies’ they will deliver all you may need home!

9.Mana: My favorite place for patisserie! I feel lucky to have one close to my house because they make amazing oriental biscuits and tasty chocolate! Many people prefer Halawiyat Masr or Trianon but for me nothing can match Mana!

10.Ezaabalaoui: I never tried it or let’s say I didn’t try it yet, but after reading Bahz’s article on the famous Makarouna and Kouchari place in Alexandria I will for sure convince one of my friends to take me even if they think that it’s a very popular and dirty place for a girl!

Mmmm I feel hungry after this!

Yesterday I went with my friend Corinne to the Supermarket to shop glossary and other stuff. It was a very rich intercultural learning activity for me. It’s amazing how much you can learn about a culture from its culinary habits! The Egyptians have a proverb which says “the road to a man’s heart is his stomach”. I would say in this case “the way to a culture’s understanding is its food!”

Alexandria has a huge Carrefour Supermarket on the entrance of the city, but in fact once I went there I noticed that it’s much more than a simple Supermarket! It’s in fact the new downtown of the city. Usually downtown used to be Safia Zaghloul street and Mahatat Erraml area, well, not anymore since the Carrefour opened as if you take any taxi now and tell him take me downtown he will take you to the supermarket! Once you enter Carrefour you will understand why this appellation; in fact on week-ends you will have the feeling that all Alexandria is there. People don’t need to bay anything to go there, they would just meet there for a coffee, a meal or walking with their kids.

I would like to share with you my impressions about the division of space inside the supermarket and how it reveals the Egyptian Culinary habits and the Egyptian culture. First, there is no bread section apart from the baskets of Egyptian bread on the entrance, maybe this can be explained by the fact that Egyptians prefer to bay hot bread every day from Tabour El Eich or the corner glossary shop, or maybe it’s due to the fact that they consume more rice than bread like all Asian countries. The last explanation maybe more plausible as I also noticed how the rice rows are huge to the point we got lost between the different brands of rice that were there. In Morocco and in Europe it’s very different, you will have a lot of bread types and less space for the rice. Second, the rows for milk yogurt and cheese were way smaller than ours and it was impossible to find a good Brie, Camembert or Rockford even if Carrefour is a French brand of supermarkets! This remind me of my friend Marwa when we were last time together in Paris, and how she hates the tasty nice cheese. Yet, the canned Foul, the Homouss, the Halawa, and the Tahina were everywhere you may look, that’s because it’s the main components of a good Egyptian breakfast I guess! Another very important thing is that alcohol is not sold on Supermarkets is Egypt even if it has a big Christian population, which is very strange somehow! Without speaking about the Condoms situation! In fact until recently the only way to have a condom was to go to the pharmacy, and now that is being sold in the supermarket it’s very embarrassing for people to go bay it, according to my friends, one must invent a whole strategy to go bay a condom in the supermarket without being noticed by anyone or feeling ashamed!

I also want to tell you about the ongoing Egyptian Valentine day! Corinne and I noticed that all the house furniture, cups, plates and everything has hearts or was decorated with hearts. First Corinne said it’s maybe celebrating Valentine’s Day before Valentine, but my friend Ahmed Esmat told us that Egyptians are eternal romantics and they love to express it in everything

Furthermore, in the Supermarket I discovered that amazing organic nature friendly brand called ISIS and I automatically felt in love with it! The quality and the packaging is great and the price is very good, so I thought here is a good move for living healthy and protecting the nature (they are not paying me to say this by the way)!

After 3 full hours in the Supermarket and deep thoughts about the Egyptian shopping habits and culinary preferences it was big time to focus on my own shopping before my friend Ahmed gets really mad at Corinne and I for being very slow and complains about being nicer with us that he is usually with his Mum while shopping!