Some words on Egyptian women, while we're at it.

I've already talked about covering and headscarves a bit. A few more notes:

Headscarves are an important part of the outfit. Although there are some women who only wear black all the time, most ensure that their headscarves match each day's outfits. Many headscarves are sparkly, brightly patterned, etc. There are a million different ways to tie them. I picture an average Egyptian woman's headscarf closet being like an average American woman's shoe closet.

As for covering in general - the standard rule seems to be just that you can't have any skin showing. A lot of younger women wear skinny jeans, skintight shirts, shirts that would show a lot of cleavage if it weren't for the turtleneck thing underneath... Interesting that, at least for the average modern Egyptian Muslim woman, it's the skin itself that's the problem and not the shape of the body or anything.

Lest you think that being a Muslim woman in Egypt is all about covering, repressing, denying - that's not the case. Eman, one of my teachers at the language school, mentioned that she and her friends had been appalled when a guest on Oprah went on about how sexually repressed Egyptian women are. She also mentioned a number of benefits women have in Egypt - for example, their money is theirs to spend as they want. Men pretty much have to spend their money on their family. Women don't even have to use theirs to chip in for groceries. Not sure what the exact letter of the law is, but it sounds good to me!

Not that things are perfect for women there, of course - not that things are perfect for women anywhere, really.