http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php The thoughts of Samia Serageldin. en 2010-09-10T20:24:09 ramy@thecairohouse.com hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=234&c=1 2010-08-21T10:18:56 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General The controversy over the construction of the Park 51 Islamic Center brings back painful memories. For three hours on the morning of 9/11, I did not know if my son was one of the victims; he worked for one of the banks in the World Trade Center buildings and on ... So it is particularly painful to hear, nearly a decade after 9/11, virulent voices raised to exclude Americans of Muslim faith from sharing in their country's history, including its traumas; to exclude them from participating fully in the rights and privileges of American citizens, including religious freedom. It's as if Muslim Americans- regardless of their condemnation of the attacks and their disassociating Islam from the atrocity committed falsely in its name- are nevertheless held collectively responsible for the act of a score of hateful fanatics.
Another painful memory revived: I had planned my annual Fall party, scheduled weeks ahead, for what turned out to be the Saturday before 9/11. I worried that any signs of entertaining would be misinterpreted by the neighbors as ghastly insensitivity at the very least; I wrote about that incident in the short story, "Muslims in the Cul-de-sac." This year, one of the two great feasts of the Muslim calendar will fall on September 11; it is a lunar calendar, and feast days fall on different dates every year. On this feast, Muslims traditionally celebrate the end of a month of fasting and cleansing of the soul. This year, though, the coincidence with September 11 means that Muslim Americans will justifiably be concerned that any signs of celebration are liable to be misinterpreted. They will be more aware than ever, in the context of the “mosque controversyâ€, that they are objects of suspicion and rejection by many of their neighbors.

]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=233&c=1 2010-08-11T05:35:42 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General Ramadan at the beach is a surreal state of mind. The beach resorts up and down Egypt's Mediterranean coasts suddenly acquire an end-of-season look about them in mid-August, as the majority of the vacation population evacuates back to Cairo. The glamorous young things in bikinis are gone, after one last ... With the reflux of thwarted vacationers back to steaming, miserable Cairo, new problems arise: a shortage of electricity and water as the returning millions of residents crank up air conditioning systems and fill their swimming pools and water the golf courses in the suburban compounds. The table conversation at the lavish iftar and sehour parties circles around the power cuts and water shortage and the potentially dire consequences of neglecting Egypt's Nile Valley policy, whence the country's lifeline of water is drawn from the African hinterlands of its neighbors to the south.
]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=232&c=1 2010-07-09T08:05:12 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General Egypt's "North Coast" beach resorts start 100 kilometres west of Alexandria and continue to 100 kilometres east of Matrouh. None is more removed from the realities of Egyptian life than the one where I am staying. At midnight, I run my errands wearing a strapless sun dress and a fuschia ... At the resort itself, I stroll along the beach in the early evening, "lunchtime" by resort schedules, and stop for mussels at the beach bar, "Andrea's on the Beach". The owner, a very tall, fair-haired Egyptian called Omar, personally vets everyone who comes in: no shirt, no shoes? No problem. Headscarf on women? No way. A glass of wine at the beach bar costs as much as a fifth of the salary of the suffragis or houseboys.
The houseboy I hired to help with the cleaning is a very young, soccer-mad Sudanese who asked me for a television set the minute he arrived, and when that was not forthcoming, took two paid days off work to watch the World Cup. He has kindly consented to resume his duties temporarily until the finals on Sunday.
Temperatures here are in the eighties, humidity still manageable, sea turquoise but waves high on this part of the coast, yellow flag flapping. Sitting on the beach brings on a kind of sun stupor, making it an effort to turn the pages of a book. This evening, I will probably have "lunch" at the grilled chicken restaurant- Andrea's off the beach- where delicious country bread is baked by peasant women who are hired as much to impart local color as for their excellent baking skills...
]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=231&c=1 2010-04-07T17:01:11 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General My radio interview with DG Martin airs today on "Who's Talking?" on WCHL 1360 at 6 pm, but I already listened to it online http://www.wchl1360.com/mp3/dgpodcast/WhosTalking040710.mp DG Martin, who also hosts NC Bookwatch on TV, and writes a regular newspaper column, is a former Green Beret, a Yale-trained lawyer, a politician, and ... DG Martin, who also hosts NC Bookwatch on TV, and writes a regular newspaper column, is a former Green Beret, a Yale-trained lawyer, a politician, and also a very sharp interviewer. He homed in immediately on the relevance of The Naqib's Daughter to the current situation in Iraq, and the lessons of Bonaparte's occupation of Egypt for the prospect of evacuation from that country. Interestingly, as an American white Southerner, he was struck by the fact that the Mamluke rulers of Egypt at the time of the French invasion were white slaves, who could be owned by darker-skinned people.]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=230&c=1 2010-04-01T16:21:39 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General Book reading April 1st at the Regulator Bookshop on 9th St in Durham at 7 pm. Hope it's an auspicious date and that i won't feel like an April fool! http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=229&c=1 2010-03-23T12:38:42 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General White and mauve clouds of pear blossom, bursts of yellow daffodils, riots of purple pansies, small cobalt-blue birds: I ride my bicycle with my head up looking into the tops of trees. My red camellia bush is in full bloom. Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina-r in ... ]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=228&c=1 2010-03-07T03:58:40 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General Visited the new campus of the American University in Cairo- or, more accurately, outside of Cairo- for the first time when I was invited to give a talk to a graduate Comp. Lit seminar. Spreading over several acres in the middle of the desert in New Cairo east of Heliopolis, ... In contrast, the Manial Palace, built early 1900's in the middle of Cairo, is a walled complex of shaded gardens and mature trees crowned by an over-the-top late-Mamluke style palace. Its vast gold-trimmed domed "Gold Hall" was the fitting setting for a book signing by Iran's Empress Farah Pahlavi, remarkably well-preserved. Also in attendance and equally well-preserved: Jihan Sadat and Omar Sharif.
]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=227&c=1 2010-02-24T11:55:34 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General A weird thing happened to me yesterday on my way to a ladies lunch at Le Pasha houseboat. I hailed one of the new white cabs- normally I can walk to the restaurant, but I was wearing heels and I was the host and didn't want to risk being late. ... Only then do I realize that I am a victim of a candid camera show, and that there was a camera behind the rear-view mirror, and that the boombox was an amplifier and recording machine. I told him I absolutely refused my permission to be on the show, and jumped out, leaving him his fare on the seat, although he kept protesting that he couldn't accept payment.
To the best of my recollection, I didn't say anything to the taxi driver that I wouldn't have said publicly, and friends reassure me that he can't air the "interview" without permission, but now there are twenty minutes of me on tape in someone's possession, and that tape will surely be shown to the "censors."
Moral of the story: never get into a taxi with a boombox in the front seat.
]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=226&c=1 2010-02-22T11:00:38 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General To begin with, you can't be a control freak about anything in Egypt, let alone a book event. Yes, it was lovely to walk into my local Shorouk bookstore cum Cilantro coffee-shop to find the place packed to the rafters with family and friends- that's the advantage of being a ... We sit down at the table, myself between the Senior Editor and the organizer, and I prepare to give my talk in English- I recognize almost everyone in the audience and they are all fluent English speakers- but am informed by the Senior Editor that perhaps I had best do it in Arabic, "for the television." He points to a microphone in front of me and a couple of camera men behind big tripods at the back of the room. The television program in question is "Ten PM", a very popular talk and news show.
I give my talk in Arabic, furiously trying to translate in my head a number of abstract concepts that I am used to using in English. Then I read part of "Muslims in the Cul-de-sac" from Love is Like Water, in English, of course.
It all goes well so far, and then the question and answer session begins. While my supporters smile encouragingly in the background, and two drop-dead glamorous friends of mine fascinate the bookstore employees, I attempt to field a couple of rather hostile questions from a former ambassador among others: "Criticism of Egypt's politics in my books reflects badly on the country in the eyes of foreign readers" (even if it does, I believe in keeping literature and political engagement separate); "The Napoleonic campaign to Egypt and Bush's war against Iraq can't be compared (they can, to compare is not to equate.)
And the television program? Well, I am told the segment might air anytime within the following week, depending on what else in the news pre-empts it, but of course Mohamed Baradei has just landed in Cairo Airport and there is nothing else in the news for a while!


]]> http://thecairohouse.com/blog/index.php?p=225&c=1 2010-02-19T05:16:51 samia (mailto:samia@thecairohouse.com) General I've done book readings in Egypt before, of course, but this is the first since the publication of The Cairo House in Arabic. So it poses a different set of questions: should I read from the Arabic version, or from the English? The Arabic version is not in my own ...