Reply to Salonat

By Nehal Bassiouny

My Best Friend Nehal wrote this as a reply to my post: What Happens in the Salon Stays in the Salon. So I’m waiting for your comments on that one

“This is the first thing i write since forever:)It was inspired by my dear and oldest friend Dina El Maamoun:) i hope you like it or at least dont hate it too much:) your comments are welcome:)

First of all,you  must all know that this  is not based on any personal experience..i ve never been in a ‘salonat’ situation up till now(el7)..and I m sure it is hard at least at first..i also know that it would be especially hard for someone like me..i would be very shy and you just know how I get when I am shy and I don’t feel comfortable:)

Tied to the Water Wheel

The road to discovering one’s soul is rugged, probably because it is less travelled. We seem to move on with our lives and wake up one morning on a birthday perhaps and think “OMG! I got one year to do everything I wanted to do before I hit 25!” or it could be “I’m forty, too late!” I did the first one on my 24^th birthday but I definitely do NOT want to do the second. I’m pretty sure (since most of the people I know are under 40 so you, dear reader, are probably under 40 too) you do not want the second either.

The Gate of The Conqueror

We parked the car at the usual parking spot when we go to Al-Hossein area and Khan-El-Khalily. We walked up that street that would eventually take us to Al-Hossein but on the other side of the street. We weren’t going to Al-Hossein though as we usually do. And I actually had no idea where we were going! My friend decided to take me to a tour of old Cairo; a very brief tour unfortunately. But he decided we end it here, I had no idea where “here” was.

What Happens in the Salon Stays in the Salon

My mom keeps dropping the “Salonat” (arranged marriage) bomb on me ever since I broke off my previous engagement. At first the time intervals between each bombing would be a bit large; a couple of months. Lately, the intervals have been getting smaller and smaller, especially that a lot of her friends’ daughters seem to be getting hooked Salonat style.

A Tribute to My Best Friends (3)

Omar Nouh – Nou7y – Miro – Niazy Sameh

I’ve delayed this as much as I can since I can never really talk enough about Omar. I sat next to Omar on the same desk in the 2^nd grade. I’m a leftie and he’s right-handed and we always crashed our elbows together. I don’t know if it never occurred to us or if there was an actual reason validated by our 7 year old brains that made us not switch places so we wouldn’t crash our elbows together. Omar has always been annoying, that’s a fact I think everyone who ever knows him will tell you. But the fact is that in the 2^nd grade, he taught me to say “El7amdulellah” after sneezing, and that he was never annoyed by me when I called him daily to get the math homework.

Freedom Vs. Social Responsibility

“We’re free!” I’ve been hearing this, and saying it, for around 2 months now. It’s a statement that we, as Egyptians, are not familiar with. I’m not quite sure if we fully understand it either. We’re saying we’re free because we’re rid of a tyrant and trying to get rid of anything relating to that tyrant, even the history that gave that tyrant control (so we’re actually violating the right of the people to come for honest history). We’re using this freedom to attack, defend, and ridicule ideas and people. This is not freedom! So I ask: what is freedom?