I could feel their heavy-eyed stares whether I was entering my hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh, walking along the leafy streets of Maadi, or sitting in an air-conditioned metro cart in Cairo. “You’re not Egyptian!” almost every security guard or hotel staff member would comment. “Are you really Egyptian? Both parents? Where are you from?” random Egyptians would quip whenever I was in public. “No way! You’re lying!” would often be the response no matter what I said, even if it was in perfect ‘Egyptian Arabic’. As an Egyptian living abroad, visiting Egypt recently reminded me of what it was like growing up in the country. At sporting clubs, random people would come up to me and speak to me in English, fascinated that a “foreigner” was there. Amazement, then disappointment, would run across their face as I started speaking Arabic, explaining that I was in fact Egyptian. At tourist sites – ranging from the mosques that are dotted along the historic Khan El-Khalili market to the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum – security and staff would demand to see my national identity card or my passport to ‘prove’ I was … Continue reading Egypt’s Problem With Colour