Tonight I took noodles for dinner, like the ones I use to eat in my cozy apartment in Dokki, near the main street, tucked into my room with the AC always working. I think that was the last time I ate them... one year and a half without noodles, it's a record for me. And from this point, I created a thoughts chain that led me from the noodles until something curious that happened on my last visit to Cairo.
That day I had met a good friend I couldn't see often in my previous trips because of his absences from Cairo for military service. It's funny but wherever we go and whatever we do, at one point we need to pass by Tahrir Square, I think it is a tradition we are unaware but we always strive to meet.The fact is that I I had to leave soon, take a yellow cab and go to the Victory City (Nasr City, an area full of shops some away from old town), so we were enjoying the last time together, talking and taking pictures: they had been "watering" the grass and some puddles quite large had been formed, some of which looked like small lakes in the middle of the Square. As we pulled away from the pool, laughing, a girl covered with black niqab stopped us because she wanted to meet me, wanted to be my friend (?). Exactly, that was the face I weared, no one suddenly decides he/she wants to be your friend without knowing nothing at all about you. I must say I was flattered when she explained she had been watching me from few minutes ago, she liked me and thought I was very beautiful. I think I blushed at that point. So after a ten-minute talk standing on the sidewalk as three "puppets", we went to take a mango juice, while my new friend took me by the hand, led me among the crowded streets around the square and invite me to mango juice... such a delicious mango juice!
In the end, she gave me her phone number and I gave her mine and promised to call her the next time I come back to Cairo, a promise I pretend to keep.
The myth of "anti-Westernism" that sometimes surrounds the girls who wear niqab is broken with stories like this. While everyone is free to use their freedom in the way they consider appropiated (and no one has the right to push them away or prevent them about it), I must say that the humanity of this person who took the trouble to go beyond the cliches to know me because she simply "liked me", well deserved this post. If you ever read me... Thanks for your kindness... next time it's my turn to invite you for juice!
That day I had met a good friend I couldn't see often in my previous trips because of his absences from Cairo for military service. It's funny but wherever we go and whatever we do, at one point we need to pass by Tahrir Square, I think it is a tradition we are unaware but we always strive to meet.
The myth of "anti-Westernism" that sometimes surrounds the girls who wear niqab is broken with stories like this. While everyone is free to use their freedom in the way they consider appropiated (and no one has the right to push them away or prevent them about it), I must say that the humanity of this person who took the trouble to go beyond the cliches to know me because she simply "liked me", well deserved this post. If you ever read me... Thanks for your kindness... next time it's my turn to invite you for juice!
