Cairo Confessions: Girls and the Hell of Premarital Physical Intimacy in Egypt

For those who don’t know what “Cairo Confessions” is, it is a Facebook page that you send your message to anonymously and their team publishes it. No one knows who sent the message and the entire thing is confidential, people start to comment with their advice and that’s that.

Cool? No! I can’t exactly say that I am a loyal follower, but whenever I go through their posts, I have to find a girl or two confessing that they had some sort of physical intimacy with their partners, which is something that is pretty normal between couples.

Again, Cool? No! Those girls are practically living in hell, they get the feeling that they are too easy, that their partners are not going to pursue serious relationships with them (aka marriage) because they took what they want.

Given our traditions, social norms, religious backgrounds and also being Middle Easterners, physical intimacy is not something that is favorably viewed. Unless you get married, you have to keep your hands off of each other.

Girls are stressed and torn between what they should do and what their instincts are leading them to. As a matter of fact, I myself am not taking sides in this, not even slightly judging.

However, I believe that every girl out there should do what suits her best. If you feel like holding hands, kissing or making out, then it’s fine. Not to mention that to hell with your partner if he is going to dump you because he thinks you are cheap. If you don’t feel like getting intimate, then it’s perfectly fine as well, even if your partner thinks that you are too traditional.

The problem, however, escalates when people decide to give the worst comments in the history of comments. They warn these girls from what they do, tell them to immediately stop or they will have to face really bad consequences.

They do believe that their partners will have to leave them at some point, which scares me to be honest. Am I not getting the full picture?

Without sugarcoating the truth, I am living in a dark sport on planet Earth. There is no way out, I am going to be judged for whatever I do/ wear/ say, etc. Relationships are very complicated, not to mention relationships in Egypt. I detest the fact that girls are being tortured , to say the least, for being themselves, for living under the thumbs of their male partners because they are too afraid to be alone.

I just keep wondering, when will the world stop plotting against girls? When will they finally reach the conclusion that they are the only ones who have the right to do whatever they want to do with their bodies?

This piece was originally published on Medium.