Foreigner or Target?

Now, two days before, I had been asked if I felt like I might be in danger because I'm American. Normally, I would scoff at the question, but the person asking was also an American living in Cairo. She's the coordinator for study-abroad students from California, and the universities and parents wanted to know if their kids were in imminent danger.

Sadly, it is not an unreasonable question. What with kidnappings in Sinai and the state prosecuting foreign NGO workers, there have been enough international headlines to make the folks at home worry.

That said, none of us set out to test the safety question on Saturday, the first anniversary of former President Hosni Mubarak's ouster. We weren't even out looking for anniversary events or protests. We were out because it was a warm sunny day, and we had things to do and places to find.

My errand ended half-completed: After a 20-minute walk from the Sayeda Zeinab metro station, I found the shop across from the Ibn Tulun Mosque, but the shop was out of the wall hangings. So I decided meet up with my friends on their quest for Indonesian food.

I'm always a little nervous about taking a taxi to an area I haven't been to before. This is not because of any stories of taxi drivers trying to rob their passengers; it's more a fear that the driver has also never been to the area before and doesn't want to admit it. Then I get taken for a ride — a very long ride in lots of circles as the driver asks for directions from other people who don't know where my destination is.

I was in luck. When I said "the Taki factory," I got a flash of recognition across the driver's face. I was still no closer to knowing where this place was but it seemed this time I could trust him to get me there.

My friends, on the other hand, still did not know where this Indonesian restaurant was by the time I caught up with them. Why were we at the Taki factory in what turned out to be Abbaseya, you ask? Because it is near Al-Azhar University's dormitories, where many of the Asian students live. When you want to find authentic ethnic food, you ask the expatriates of that ethnicity.

I soon realized we were in Cairo's version of little Asia, with a healthy number of restaurants catering to the expat community. When we finally found the one we were looking for, it was mysteriously labeled "Restaurant Amrikani" in Arabic with a small sign in English, "Halal Asian Food." But of course.

I'm not sure what we were expecting. What we got was fried rice and a fish with very spicy sauce and a pink, hot, milky drink that tasted like super sweet bubble gum. Most of what was on the menu wasn't actually available. But hey, we found the Indonesian restaurant, and my American friend got to practice his rusty Indonesian. Mission accomplished.

So is it safe? Well, I was pretty much ignored in Sayeda Zeinab and the Abbaseya area — no suspicious looks, but no warm "welcome in Egypt" either. People were just going about their work and shopping. I didn't feel threatened as a foreigner, even in neighborhoods where I clearly don't belong.

The concern about our safety is real, but not because we're foreign — it’s rather an occupational hazard. My journalist colleagues covering protests are targeted for being journalists, and I've heard several accounts of foreigners with high-tech cameras being called Israeli spies by local residents.

Political activists are being targeted for being activists. Being foreign doesn't impress the neighbors, but it's not a prerequisite for antagonism. On February 2, 2011, just hours before the so-called Battle of the Camel, people in Attaba told me the protesters just four blocks away in Tahrir Square "were not Egyptians." For many people, that worldview hasn't changed much in the past year, and Egyptian protesters have told me they've been hassled for being “foreign.”

From the very beginning of the revolution, the feeling in the expatriate community has been, "This isn't about or against us. This is about Egyptians against their government."

The foreigners who left usually did so because of the uncertain security situation or because their employers ordered them out. Those who stayed told me their Egyptian neighbors seemed to appreciate that the foreigners had not abandoned the country.

Despite the international media’s obsession with the Americans being prosecuted in the NGO case, xenophobia is being used as a political tool against activities, not specific nationalities. It's a job hazard, one you have to take in stride if you are a journalist or an activist or an NGO worker while Egypt tries to navigate through this transition period. It's a lot like trying to get to someplace new in Cairo. You're never quite sure if the taxi knows how to get there or of what you'll find when you arrive. You just know whatever happens will be an adventure.