May 2005  Volume # 26  Issue 05

Subscribe | About et | Jobs/Freelance | Sections  | Back Issues  | News Letter

Search

Back to current Issue    Home    First Draft    Newsreel    The Watch    The View    Faces    Cover Story    Feature    ET Guide    Subscribe    Advertising    About et    Jobs/Freelance    Contact Us    2004      2005      2006      2007      2008      2009    First Draft  NewsReel  The Watch  The View  Faces  Cover Story  Feature  et Guide   July   August   September   October   November   December   January   February   March   April   May   June   July   August   September   October   November   December    January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December    January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December    January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December    January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December

Home | Inside this issue    Feature A Living Legend by Lamia Hassan For nearly seven decades, 'Felfel' has been the face of Cafe Riche    Feature A Bid For Survival by Azza Khattab As the cosmopolitan upper crust cleared out during the mid-twentieth century, auctions were the entertainment of the day. Now, the relics of the nation’s royal era are increasingly harder to find, and despite a rising interest in antiques among the younger generation and nouveau riche, auctioneers fear their own era may be coming to an end.    Feature Behind the Scenes by Sherif Awad    Feature Hot Dog Dreams by Ali El-Bahnasawy Two Egyptian immigrants share one food cart on the streets of New York City, but their expectations of the American dream are vastly different    Feature Losing the waydown memory lane by Passant Rabie Invisible, insidious and incurable, Alzheimer’s disease not only wreaks havoc on the brains of its victims, but also on the lives of their caregivers. Experts predict the disease will become more prevalent as life expectancies and the population of elderly people increase, but families of patients say the national healthcare system is ill-equipped to help them.    Feature ANDJUSTICE FOR ALL by Azza Khattab Justice is supposed to be blind, not deaf. Last month, protests over the State Council’s decision to postpone the appointment of women to its bench echoed throughout the country. In a symbolic trial, protesters judged the judges, saying the nation’s top jurists might run their courtrooms efficiently and write coherent judgments, but they fail to apply to their own branch of state the principle that is the foundation of jurisprudence: The notion that all human beings are equal before the law.    Feature The Key to Debt's Cage by Azza Khattab Author and journalist Nawal Mostafa rewrote the stories of 12 women in prison to give them the happy endings she thought they deserved. In their daily struggles to meet their families’ basic needs, these women had proven easy prey to debt: For sums most of us would consider trivial, they were slammed behind bars, leaving behind broken homes and abandoned children. They were resigned to their fate until one day Mostafa rekindled hopes of freedom by suggesting their debts could be settled. Mostafa, founder of the project Prisoners of Poverty, describes it not only as a life- and family-saver, but as the epitome of social responsibility.    Feature You Missed a Spot by Nadine El Sayed With demand for foreign nannies and household workers on the rise, the legalities of hiring domestic help from abroad are daunting — and often ignored    Feature    A Wild Christmas by Tiffany Vora Depart from holiday tradition with a luxury African safari    Feature    Education through Animation by Sherif Awad Japanese comic book creator Go Nagai sees potential in aspiring local artists during Arab tour    Feature    Feline Fads by John Prosser Once a Pharaonic manifestation, Egyptian Maus are getting more love overseas than they are at home    Feature    Sorting through the Aftermath by Sherif Awad As curator of the twenty-fifth Alexandria Biennale, Mohamed Abou El Naga hopes to rekindle the art festival’s original spirit    Feature    Startup 101 by Karim Abdullah So you want to be an entrepreneur?    Feature The Interpreter by Azza Khattab Controversial with the state and the Islamist opposition alike, talkshow host and celebrated children’s author Kariman Hamza is the first woman to earn Al-Azhar’s seal of approval on an interpretation of the Holy Qur’an    Feature Welcome to Finland by Dina Basiony While Egyptians in some European countries face racism, Islamophobia and isolation, those in Finland enjoy a warm welcome    Feature Inside Damietta’s Furniture Workshops by Mackenzie Berg An age-old craft continues to thrive    Feature Into the Mainstream by Passant Rabie After decades of virtually no access to education, children with special needs are getting a shot at the regular school system    Feature    Conquering the World by Passant Rabie When it comes to the game of squash, Egypt has no shortage of talented and successful players    Feature    From Dusk’Til Dawn by Sherif Awad What has been cooking for Ramadan 2009?    Feature    Leading Roles by Lamia Hassan An insight to some of the unsung heroes behind this summer’s local movies    Feature Egypt’s Greatest Pipeline by Bill Key Today, the medieval Borg El-Sakkiyat is just another landmark, but in its day, it was the heart of the capital’s aqueduct system, Magra Al-Uyun    Feature Color Me Indian by Ethar El-Katatney The Indian community thrives in Egypt, thanks to our cultural affinities and the Indian worldview of tolerance for religious and social diversity    Feature What's In a Name by Azza Khattab Should it matter that one of the most popular TV serials about the Prophet Muhammad was written by a Copt? Should writers bow before Al-Azhar or the Church before tackling a script with a religious theme? Welcome to the new politics of religious identity in the entertainment industry, where the biggest muzzle on creative freedom may come from viewers themselves.    Feature Collective Punishment by Written and photographed by Jeff Neumann    Feature Dangerous Blood by Ethar El-Katatney Millions of Egyptians live with the Hepatitis C virus and don’t know it. Blood donation centers know it, but not all of them will tell you you’re sick.    Feature    Books, Bloggers and a Stomp at the Opera by May El Khishen The year’s roundup of art and entertainment    Feature    Don’t Say It Can’t Get Worse by Lindsey Parietti Record inflation, bread riots and the crash of the domestic stock market are just a handful of the reasons why the economy is our Story of the Year    Feature    Our Cups Runneth Over by Passant Rabie Al-Ahly and the national team brought world-class football back to Egypt, while Ramy Ashour made squash history    Feature    Pyramids and Hostages by Ali El Bahnasawy An alcohol ban at the Grand Hyatt, a Pyramids makeover, and a kidnapping on the Sudanese border has made 2008 an eventful year for tourism    Feature    Symbolic Victories by Ethar El-Katatney A series of landmark court cases has given religious minorities more rights than ever, but the wheels of the legal process turn slowly    Feature    Taking Heat by Dina Basiony Is it ever a good time to be in politics? Not this year, it seems    Feature    War of the Words by Kholoud Khalifa The region passes a chilling broadcast media charter and Ibrahim Eissa gets an unexpected ‘get out of jail free’ card    Feature    Year in Pictures by Erika Sherk Region in Review    Feature Hajj by May Kaddah A guide to the spiritual and secular journey    Feature A Scottish Effendi by Jason Thompson In 1987, author and historian Jason Thompson introduced readers of then Cairo Today to Scotsman Donald Thomson, better known in his adopted homeland as Osman Effendi. Two decades later, Thompson revisits Osman with a more complete, vibrant look at the life of the former slave who rose to gentility in Mohamed Ali Pasha’s Egypt.    Feature Dancing With Controversy by Erika Sherk Modern dance is moving to center stage, despite those who condemn it as a sin    Feature    Behind the Scenes An exclusive peek on the sets of two soon-to-air Ramadan serials    Feature Déja View by Sherif Awad    Feature Guts and Glory by Hossam Zaater and Hoda Omran With more than 150 medals to their names, Paralympians have a success record unrivaled by any other national team. Yet while other sports stars become household names, society doesn’t even encourage disabled athletes to leave the house    Feature Ladies at the Forefront by Asma Alsharif Egypt’s female Olympians, competing in the international games since 1984, still face challenges beyond crossing the finish line    Feature The Last of the Lepers by Ethar El-Katatney Egypt’s leper community is benefiting from better treatment and improved facilities in recent years despite continued isolation and widespread misperception about the disease    Feature Déjà Vu in Beirut by Alasdair Soussi Lebanon’s current political crisis is eerily reminiscent of the crisis of 1958, just without the US Marines    Feature A Celebration of Life and Art by Manal el-Jesri Hamed el-Oweidy was a world-renowned artist, top book designer, political activist — and husband to Egypt Today Senior Writer Manal el-Jesri. A promise to write about him turned into a love affair and a 12-year marriage. She never did get around to writing that story until now for    Feature No Home Away from Home by Nadine El Sayed As borders begin to close, Iraq’s refugee community is reaching a new crisis point    Feature Second Exodus by Sarah Mishkin    Feature Chicago by Farouk Abdel Wahab An exclusive excerpt from the AUC Press edition of the best-selling novel by Alaa Al-Aswany    Feature Muslim vs.American? by Ethar El-Katatney It may be tempting to lump everyone on one side of the fence or the other, but what about those who can lay claim to both?    Feature Around the world in 30 days by Farzina Alam and Megan Detrie Egypt Today brings together people from all over the globe to talk about Ramadan and what the Holy Month means in their home countries    Feature Extreme Differences by Nadine El Sayed From the devoutly religious to the seriously hedonistic, Egyptian youth are moving away from the middle. The winner is extremism, in all its forms.    Feature Live From Baghdad by Phil Sands Earlier this year, British journalist Phil Sands was embedded for almost a month with the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Baghdad. In this exclusive extract from his diary, he recounts a week of confusion, kidnappings, bombings and boredom, providing a critical look at life on the ground from the occupier’s point of view.    Feature Do You See Me? by Nadine El Sayed Hundreds lost their homes when a shantytown in Sayeda Zeinab burned to the ground in late March. Nearly a month later, the state has relocated many residents to new homes, but dozens have fallen through the cracks. Complicating their plight are outsiders running confidence schemes or moving in to pass as residents in bids to win free apartments of their own.    Feature TheTaliban’sBack by Chris Sands in Kandahar With violence escalating in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, ordinary Afghanis frustrated by daily casualties and indignities are now helping the Islamists.    Feature As Good As It Gets? by Fayza Hassan Around the world, 50 percent of everyone getting it on is dissatisfied with his or her sex life, according to results of the Global Better Sex Survey recently unveiled at the Cairo meeting of the International Society for Sexual Medicine.But while many Egyptian men are perfectly willing to discuss what they expect from their sex lives, far fewer seem ready to admit that their wives have an equal right to sexual satisfaction.And almost as few women are speaking up.    Feature The Other Sideof the Fence by LINC students Sixteen American students spent July in Egypt, exploring the nation and living with Egyptian host families. How did it go? The results speak for themselves.    Feature The Errors of a Pope by Abd Allah bin Bayyah, Muhammad Bouti, et al. Did you know that the term “Holy War” doesn’t exist in the mainstream Muslim vocabulary? That there’s nothing wrong with saying there’s “nothing new” in Islam? That for a Muslim to kill unjustly, it is as if he or she has slain the entire world? Thirty-eight leading Muslim religious scholars and leaders representing all eight Islamic schools of thought and jurisprudence aren’t certain Pope Benedict XVI does. In response to his incendiary September speech, the 38 have sent the pontiff an open letter addressing his claims with clear, calculated logic. As the global “clash of civilizations” continues, their letter is required reading for Muslims and Christians alike.    Feature THOSE WERE THE DAYS by Fayza Hassan The discovery of a rare diary of a teenage girl living in Suez in the 1920s offers an untarnished glimpse into the lives of middle-class foreign families who left    Feature The Fourth Faith? by Noha El-Hennawy They pray, fast, have their own holy book and prophet, but have yet to gain the acceptance of any of the three major monotheistic religions — much less get formal recognition on official documents. Who are the Baha'i?    Feature Sit up, Get Ready, Row! by Kristina Roic Although Egyptians have been rowing for some 7,000 years, the sport has exploded in popularity only in the past decade or so.    Feature This Means War by Associated Press Photographs With so much ink having been spilled over the ever-escalating Israeli-Lebanese conflict, we cut back on the commentary and let the pictures speak for themselves.    Feature Tales From the Underground by Manal el-Jesri The women’s compartment of the Metro is more than a transportation choice: It has evolved into a community complete with its own market and sheikhas.    Feature Bright Lights, Big Festival by Sherif Awad Our resident film critic’s notebook from the fifty-ninth Festival de Cannes includes a look at Sherif Arafa’s much-anticipated Halim.    Feature Fishing for Life by Kristina Roic Spend a day on the water with the families who work, eat and sleep on the River Nile    Feature When Ignorance Kills by Manal el-Jesri Despite new treatment methods that have seen survival rates skyrocket, ignorance sees more Egyptian women die of breast cancer every year than in car accidents. Meet a new breed of activist working to change attitudes toward breast self-exams and screening.    Feature Spread the Word by Abdalla F. Hassan After decades of globe-trotting, Denys Johnson-Davies has earned his place as the world’s most recognized name in Arabic literary translation and is now engaged in one of his most ambitious tasks yet: translating the Holy Qur’an    Feature The Wall by Cache Seel With Israelis set to go to the polls later this month and now-incapacitated Prime Minister Ariel Sharon having played the disengagement card, Staff Writer Cache Seel traveled to the West Bank and Jerusalem for a look at how the Israeli-built ‘separation barrier’ is carving out a new political reality    Feature Flashbacks by Viviana Mazza From the birth of photography in Egypt to the rise of the digital camera, we look back at the lives of great homegrown artists who have made photography not just their profession, but their passion    Feature    Behind the Wire by Noha El-Hennawy Suspected of ties to the Taliban regime and Al-Qaeda, Sami El-Laithi spent more than three years in America’s Guantanamo Bay detention facility before finally being declared a non-combatant. A media celebrity of sorts since returning to Egypt, his case has put the spotlight on at least two other Egyptians still in US custody. It’s an open question whether anyone — including the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the best lawyers in America — can help resolve their cases.    Feature    Shooting the Rapids by Richard Hoath From Kampala’s chaotic streets to the Nile’s angry rapids, our Nature Notes diarist discovers Uganda’s hidden delights    Feature    Top dollar by Hadia Mostafa Affluent consumers are reaching for their wallets as international retail giants from Beymen to Benetton, Levis to Esprit open their doors in Egypt, flooding the market with everything from their own labels to Prada and Fendi. Welcome to the retail revolution in the Arab world’s largest consumer market.    Feature    Extreme Makeover by Fayza Hassan From the word ‘Go,’ critics and history buffs alike have waged a loud campaign against the restoration of the Ibn Tulun Mosque. Now that the work has been officially unveiled, will history lovers boycott the celebrated monument altogether simply to condemn the misguided care it received?    Feature    Field Day by Noha El-Hennawy On the eve of one of most hotly contested parliamentary races in the nation’s history, both the ruling party and the opposition, fielding some 5000 candidates between them, already have their eyes on the prize: The constitutional amendments President Hosni Mubarak has said he will direct the next Parliament to debate    Feature The Visionary by Noha El-Hennawy From Johns Hopkins to President Mubarak’s first-ever presidential election campaign, Mohamed Kamal has been a man on the rise. Meet one of the NDP’s brightest young stars.    Feature    Whose Victory? by Cache Seel Last month, Iraqis voted to adopt a controversial new constitution. Its backers say it will form the basis of a strong, independent nation. Critics say the “Yes” vote sowed the seeds of civil war. In the first of his dispatches from Iraq, Staff Writer Cache Seel looks at how the referendum unfolded in the multi-ethnic North.    Feature    Mohammed Ali by Fayza Hassan Two centuries after Mohammed Ali’s meteoric rise to power, we delve into the testimony of his contemporaries and descendants to take the measure of the man the world came to know as the Father of Modern Egypt    Feature    Mostafa Ismail by Manal el-Jesri    Feature    Rebuilding the Rubble by Motasem A. Dalloul Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, Egyptian troops are back on the border, and the Palestinian Authority claims it is in control. Ahead of hotly anticipated parliamentary elections, can the Authority satisfy its people’s calls for land restitution and rebuilding — and armed groups’ demands for a seat at the table — all while the West and Israel look on? Motasem A. Dalloul reports from Gaza.    Feature    The Imam of Quraa by Manal el-Jesri Once, Sheikh Mostafa Ismail’s recitation of the Qur’an was enough to stop anyone in their tracks. Today, on the centenary of his birth, his followers are struggling to keep alive his tradition of melodic recitation. Will religious conservatives relegate an Egyptian tradition to the dustbin of history?    Feature Ahram! Akhbar Gomhuria! by Noha El-Hennawy Does the recent shake-up at the nation’s leading state-owned newspapers and magazines really signal the start of a new age in Egyptian media? Top editors at the three biggest publishing houses are adamant that it does — and show a surprising interest in tackling problems on the fiscal side of business.    Feature The Comedians by Noha El-Hennawy Whether captured by camera, on stage, by brushstroke or pen, it’s art ... and you’d better believe it’s funny.    Feature    The Baron’s Grand Experiment by Azza Khattab A look back at the history of Heliopolis    Feature    The House the Baron Built Between fact and fiction, urban legend and confirmed report, there have always been stories about the Palace and the visionary who created it. We go on a walking tour of Heliopolis’ magnificent Baron Palace in search of answers.    Feature    The Visionary by Rania Al Malky The Baron-General Edouard Louis Joseph Empain, founder of Heliopolis    Feature    Then and Now by Noha Mohammed Heliopolis’ veteran shopkeepers look back on how the area became what it is today    Feature A Proper Burial by Fayza Hassan More than 200 years after they arrive in Egypt with Nelsons’s fleet, 28 men, one woman and a child are finally given funeral rites at an Alexandria military cemetery.    Feature Fact or Fiction Alaa El-Aswany thought he had it made when his Omaret Yacoubian rocketed to the top of the Arab world’s bestseller list. But as a star-studded cast wrapped up the film adaptation of the dentist-turned-novelist’s book last month, residents of the real-life building in which the story is set filed libel suits against the author and production company, saying Omaret Yacoubian is a thinly veiled roman à clef. Publisher, producer, screenwriter and author all deny the charges.Who’s right? That’s the multi-million-pound question    Feature Out of Focus by Rania Al Malky Egypt was once a top center for astronomical research, but a lack of funding has crippled the nation’s premier research facility in Qattameya. Can anything be done to save the facility before scientists descend on Egypt in 2006 to study a total eclipse of the sun?    Feature (Window) Shop Till You Drop by Noha El-Hennawy Cairo is sprouting new malls, and they’re crammed with people, but how many of them are actually shopping?    Feature Supernova by Rania Al Malky A look back at the illustrious life of a giant cinematic figure whose image will forever be marked on the silver screen. Ahmed Zaki will give audiences the final farewell gift when the biopic Halim comes out later this year    Feature Where the Streets Have No Name by Rania Al Malky In a country with a culture as rich and eclectic as Egypt’s, street names are laden with history and stories but who decides which story is the one to tell? Do we efface history when we change street names because a high-power whim or connection decrees it?    Feature Could you be a social entrepreneur?    Feature Death of a GIANT by Sami Moubayed Rafiq Al-Hariri rebuilt Lebanon from the ashes of civil war, only to be assassinated last month while gearing up for another run for the prime minister’s office.    Feature Enduring Strife: Political Assassinations in Lebanon    Feature Time for a Change by Aida Nasr Ashoka, a non-governmental organization, gives new hope to ambitious social entrepreneurs with big plans to realize    Feature SYNDICATE SYNDROMES by Manal el-Jesri Does the government’s new plan to put a lid on in-fighting and partisan politics in the nation’s professional syndicates fit the bill? Or is it a blatant attempt to undermine democracy, as Nasserist and Muslim Brotherhood union leaders claim?    Feature THE YOUNG MAJORITY by Danna Farhang Twenty-five years after its birth, the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing one of the greatest internal challenges to its legitimacy and permanence: With one of the youngest populations in the world, the generation that came after Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution is coming of age in a climate that bears little relation to the events of 1979. High unemployment, increasing social problems and unprecedented access to the outside world are pushing Iran down a path of instability and fundamental discontent.    Feature Cairo’s Hammams    Feature FULL STEAM AHEAD by Rania Al Malky A Turkish bath aficionado’s struggle to acquire and restore one of Alexandria’s crumbling and forgotten public baths    Feature Hammams: History, Function and Experience    Feature Death in the Sinai by Noha El-Hennawy On October 7th, terrorists killed at least 34 in coordinated attacks on Israeli tourist destinations in Taba, Nuweiba and Ras Shitan. Interior Ministry investigators quickly closed the case on the first Islamist violence to hit Egypt in seven years, but what will it mean for relations with Israel?    Feature The Night Commuters by Cache Seel In northern Uganda, kidnapped children made vicious soldiers are still bearing the brunt of an 18-year-old civil war. Can anything be done to re-intergrate them into the society they have brutalized?    Feature Why Are We Running This Story? by by Ingrid Wassmann Because even as cancer rates climb, the nation continues to spend more than LE 6 billion on tobacco products each year. From the ahwa baladi to five-star hotels, shisha is more popular than ever.    Feature Far and Away by Cam McGrath Muslims in Sri Lanka recall exiled Egyptian revolutionary Ahmed Orabi, who 120 years ago affirmed their identity and helped lay the foundation of their political presence    Feature The Third Pillar by Hadia Mostafa In a society grown callous to the lot of the poor, how many of us are actually giving zakat? Are we doing so the right way? And can we trust governments or Islamic funds to manage the alms we give? A look at the debate over how zakat is used and whether giving it should become a matter of secular law. PLUS: Sheikh Khaled El-Guindy's zakat FAQ.    Feature The Zaqat FAQ by Hadia Mostafa Sheikh Khaled El-Guindy answers your most common questions about zakat    Feature Who should receive zakat? by Hadia Mostafa The eight categories the Holy Qur'an says are eligible to receive include...    Feature Brain Drain by Yasmin Moll Egypt's diaspora doesn't yet equal that of the Irish, but it's moving in the same direction    Feature Not Worth The Shot? by Manal el-Jesri As the cost of the only FDA-approved medication to fight hepatitis C virus rises farther out of the average patients reach, quacks and swindlers are cashing in on victims suffering. Meanwhile, some are wondering: Just how effective is HCV treatment anyway?    Feature Return of the Native by Yasmin Moll Many long to emigrate in the hope of finding better opportunities elsewhere. Today, there are approximately one million Egyptians living abroad. Of these permanent migrants, a handful are slowly trickling back to their homeland. With their passports as a safety net, these successful young entrepreneurs are not afraid to give Egypt a chance. What brought them back and how long will they stay?    Feature Telling A from B from C A primer on the different strains of hepatitis virus    Feature A Question for Kofi by Cache Seel In the wake of an ethnic cleansing campaign, time is quickly running out for the thousands of Sudanese refugees who have braved the treacherous journey from their destroyed villages in Darfur to the border with Chad. And they wonder: Why didnt the United Nations step in?    Feature A River Runs Through It by Hadia Mostafa With the threat of a major food and water shortage looming large, rapidly diminishing water sources will be one of the most critical challenges facing the nation in the coming decades.    Feature    Something in the Water by Hadia Mostafa Egypt has more than a water shortage to deal with: It has a looming pollution problem on its hands, too.    Feature    Waste Not, Want Not by Hadia Mostafa The Alexandria Water Authority has transformed itself into the nations only profitable water board    Feature 72 Hours in Rafah by Staff The Carnage of Operation Rainbow in Photos    Feature First Past the Post by Abdalla F. Hassan Can the Muslim Brotherhood meet the three conditions everyone seems to agree it must accept to become a legitimate political force?Or will a Brotherhood splinter group become the nations first Muslim Democratic Party?    Feature Genocide by Public Policy? by Sam Bahour and Michael Dahan An Israeli and a Palestinian ask the unspeakable    Feature    The Splinter Group by Abdalla F. Hassan Originally made up of refugees from Al-Ikhwan, Al-Wasat looks to beat big brother to the punch in its quest for political legitimacy    Feature When is it enough? by Alex Ionides From Block J refugee camp,a man pleads for peace    Feature    And the results are by Cam McGrath Exclusive Egypt Today test results show 5% methanol in many locally made spirits    Feature Paradise Lost by Yasmin Moll Forty years after the great resettlement to make way for the High Dam, some of Egypts Nubians are asking for justice and a return to the shores of Lake Nasser near their ancestral homeland. Others just want to move on with life. Its the story of a paradise lost    Feature    Still crazy after all these years by Cam McGrath The Arab origins of alcohol    Feature    The Art of Distillation by Cam McGrath How the pros make booze -- and why moonshine can make you blind    Feature The Art of Flight by Davin A. Hutchins Caught in a web of violence and poverty, yet still unable to return home, the 3 million Sudanese refugees living in Egypt are keeping a close eye on peace talks as both the government of Sudan and rebels seem to near a final deal.    Feature The Phantom Menace by Cam McGrath Bootleggers are spilling deadly methanol-laced alcohol onto the market. Go inside the world of a deadly killer that keeps showing up at bars, rowdy soirées and baladi weddings.    Feature Frailty’s Not Her Name Declaring “In the past 15 years, theaters have just been cabarets,so where will good actors shine?” stage icon Samiha Ayyoub speaks out    Feature WHEN I WASA KID by Réhab El-Bakry Amid calls for increasing reform in the Middle East, the government, NGOs and aid agencies are tackling child labor from a new perspective, trying to balance kids’ rights to simply be kids with their right to economic security

Egypt Today  is the leading current affairs magazine in Egypt and the Middle East  and the oldest English-language publication of its kind in the nation  Egypt Today "The Magazine Of Egypt" ©2004-2007 IBA-media