Sharia Petticoat

Leaving Egypt so unexpectedly, left us with a very fast forward of the ten things we would like to see.

Friday we chose for the Souq al Goma’a, (Friday market). A great place for photography and if you, like me, want to see what is going on at the other side of Cairo - the rough side - definately have a look!

We set off in a taxi, with a very vague description ‘under Al-Tonssy flyover between the Southern Cemeteries and the Khalifa district’ –. I was very skeptic we would find it straight away. But our taxi driver understood right away where to go (he smiled and thought of course : ‘Hope YOU know were you are going’) and we got there in less than 15 minutes (driving from Maadi ).

Having read many things about this market, also called Souq Al-Harameya, ('Thieves Market'), we were prepared for it all; overcrowd, stolen goods, exotic animals (for sale), dirt& trash, pocket pickers, junk and poverty. And yes, it was all out there.

Arriving just after 9 am, it was already very overpopulated. At some point we ended up in this isle of men’s ‘fashion’ and we completely got stuck. Strangely enough, when all these men spotted me (as the only woman without veil and obviously foreign) they all parted smiling. Wow, I felt like Moses crossing the Red Sea! We passed beautiful old furniture, millions of antique phones, shoes, and tons of other stuff.

We were very excited to see Heineken for sale (during Ramadan, hurray!!) but a quick look on the expiration date on the bottom of a can made us change our minds.

We discovered there were many strange objects for sale. I found it incredible to see that people were making a business, selling heads of dolls, second hand soap, remote controls of televisions that are probably extinct now, and small pieces of just ANYTHING.

in the beginning I was kind of overwhelmed with the smell of garbage (I think 80% of the goods sold here come from garbage bags), and sight of poverty.

It makes you realize that there are millions here struggling to make a living. But after a while walking around, it is great to see people endless bargaining, friendly smiles and attempts to try sell you anything.

At some point we got a little bit in trouble taking pictures of a bar. There was an old lady who started shouting and made a big scene. Since foreigners are quite rare here, people notice everything you do and taking your camera out can make some people feel uncomfortable. Don’t forget many Islamic people have religious reasons to object having their picture taken, so always respect when people tell you to put away your camera.

We left after one and a half hour, because the crowd and the heat were getting a bit intense. But I would have liked to see more things. The food section and the animals for example. Although we didn’t really buy anything, except for some very large ‘antique’ handmade spikes, it was a great trip.