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“People Here Never Look at the Sky”: Diary of a Sinai Girl Living in Cairo

November 4, 2018
A starry night sky along the path of mount Sinai, Egypt.

  Seham Saeed is an Egyptian woman from Nuweiba, the eastern part of the Sinai Peninsula. She moved to Cairo to study at a private university as part of a scholarship program; she hopes to work, one day, at an international organization like the UN. In this piece, she reflects on the lifestyle shift she experienced coming to the city. “When I first moved here, I started to wear jeans for the first time in my life. This is something I would never do back home, no one would allow it; it’s not part of our tradition or culture, or something that our ancestors did. We take our traditions very seriously, so I only wear abayas there. My parents allowed me to wear jeans here because they are aware that Cairo is different, but that’s only because they understand my situation. Over here, you can also ask anyone in the street or passing by about directions or information, but this is not the case in Nuweiba. We are much more closed and withdrawn from society, and we are constantly told not talk to people who are not ‘like’ us or…


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