An ode to Egyptian beauty

(Disclaimer: This write up is a light hearted one, written with no malicious intent, if somebody finds it offending or sexist…I would like to apologize before hand.)

A thing of beauty is a joy forever……

Few days ago, the Urdu teacher at the Indian Culture Centre… light hearted and very friendly Dr. Abdul Majeed told me an incident about an Indian poet who came to India… and was so enchanted with the beauty of Egyptian girls, that he wrote a couplet… (Dr. Majeed has a vast repertoire of Indian Urdu poems and literature)

The translation of the couplet goes like this…. That I was given an apple to eat and a knife to cut the apple, and there sat an Egyptian girl in front of me….. And I was so enchanted by her beauty that instead of the apple, I cut my finger.

It set me thinking, and I wondered about writing a blog piece on the beauty of Egyptian Girls…

The area west of India, starting from say ….Pakistan till about Algeria is full of beautiful people…tall height, fair complexion and voluptuousness being their hallmark….. I have always maintained that the most beautiful girls in the world, if earmarked on the basis of nationality or ethnic background….will be either the Lebanese or the Iranians… more so, Lebanese…. Lebanese have an advantage….and that is of having a well organized beauty industry and fashion conciousness, translating into better grooming and presentability.

Egyptian girls are probably part of the same stock… Egypt had had the advantage of being a melting pot of many beautiful races…. The Pharaohs, the Romans and the Greeks, the Syrian and Iranians, the Turks…. And the people over here progressively absorbed the features of all these races…. To add to this- the degree of beauty awareness, fashion consciousness is fairly good in Egypt (even though accesses to the beautification methods are limited due to the poor financial condition)… add to this the fact that girls in Egypt have a fair amount of say in day to day life…. This sense of empowerment provides an extra edge to the sexuality of them all.

Feature wise, there are two distinct effects visible among the girls… one that is distinctly European… reflecting the Greco Roman past…pale skin, locked hairs, light coloured eyes and hairs, softer contours of face… more so among the Copt or Christian girls. (Copts of Egypt have very strict rules of marriage and no Copt is allowed to marry beyond his or her community… this has resulted in preservation of original Pharaonic and Greco-Roman features). The other being the Arab features… sharp features with well defined jaw line, distinctly feminine physiology, dark eyes and fair to brownish complexion… This is found more prominent among Muslims (a catch, actually Muslim girls in Egypt display a wide range of features…..from distinctly European to the distinctly Sub Saharan African….and therefore it is very difficult to categorize them in one broad group).

Initially, when you see an Egyptian girl on the road for the first time… your aesthetics senses are shaken…. For we are born and brought up seeing a particular image of women… one that is governed by the oft repeated jingle in the media… that a women should look this way, dress this way…and this is the in-thing and this is a big no no. But sooner or later you start getting accustomed to it.

One, Egyptian love to eat… and therefore the girls come across as much weightier than what media prescribes for beautiful body. But soon you realize that this means they are voluptuous and have more prominent feminine features…. Salute to them for not succumbing to the western media viz portrayal of beauty. Two, Egyptian girls believe in extensive makeup… bordering bizarre….apparently the attempt is to somehow look fairer, but also accentuate the prominent features of the face….especially the eyes and the jaw line… but yes once you get to accept it as normal… you will see that the make up is done in a away so as to accentuate what is beautiful and not create an artificial beauty. Three, they believe that when it come to accessories, more is better… one can see an Egyptian girl adorning all types of accessories… from usual to unusual… from fashionable to outlandish… after a while they start looking normal and beautiful. Four, they have a very unique sense of dressing up… that picks up from both the western fashion and from the traditions… the stress is to look great and desirable, without exposing… this means that the fashion are somehow redesigned to suit the Egyptian familial sensibilities. Five, smelling stale is a fashion crime…, Egyptians in general treat themselves with a more than liberal dab of perfume… stress being on oriental oil based perfumes (for a lasting effect) than those based on alcohol. Six, it is often considered by many that head wear for women is mandatory… and therefore most of the Muslim girls are seen wearing head wear…and yet they are wore in such a way that they are fashionable, chic and go with the entire costume worn for the day.

Having attuned oneself to the above pointers, when one takes another hard look at the girls in Cairo… one starts appreciating their beauty…

Cairo streets are full of happy, giggling and confident girls… beautiful and charming in their own way… living life with a dignity… making their own decisions… working, seeking financial independence in a society that is increasingly becoming lopsided in favor of the male…

This is an ode to the beauty of Egyptian girls… a word of respect… when I see them walking down the street….I wish I were young again… at least at heart…

Hahahahahahahaha