When I first went to Egypt, four years ago, there were many women wearing the HIGAB (headscarf), but not as many as I saw on my visit a month ago. This time there were more young girls,  school girls, and young woman with small children wearing them.

Even thought I had noticed it,  I did not  think more about it until one night while having dinner with Egyptian friends I mentioned it, and asked why this change. I was surprised by the reaction of the men in our group.

“Yes, and have you notices that while they are  putting on their HIGABS, their JEANS are becoming tighter and tighter. who do they think they are kidding?”  It was said with indignation, and even anger.

“Do they really think that modesty only applies to their head and not the rest of their body?”  another man commented

After that evening I looked again and saw that indeed the JEANS many girls wore left little to the imagination, making the “no touch”  policy in Egypt an even bigger challenge for the men.

More from Egypt soon

Brigitte