I would like to comment on the wave of religiousness that has captured Egypt lately. If anyone has gone to Egypt recently they will have seen that more and more women are donning the Hijab and the Niqab, and more men are growing beards and going to pray at the mosque. While I have no objections to how anyone lives their life, I do have an objection to the way these people are acting. These people think that appearance is everything, and that by covering their face, or growing their beards they are going to heaven. However, the moral and ethical system in Egypt has completely broken down. People only appear religious, but all day long they fight with one another, harrass each other and generally just step all over each other. Women who are not covered are either told to cover up by strange men in the street, or they are harrassed sexually by the same men who were just in the mosque praying.  No one is taking the real values of Islam to heart. No one is kind to anyone else. No one smiles at anyone. No one forgives anyone for the slightest mistake. Everyone lies and cheats. Is this what Islam has come to? Is this what the Prophet has preached? I would like to see people getting along rather than people being covered from head to toe gossiping about each other (which is what most of those covered women do all day interestingly).The hijab, niqab, and the beard growing are all values foreign to Egypt. After 1919 and the emancipation of women in Egypt (think Huda Shaarawi) women in Egypt dressed as freely as they wanted to, and they never ever feared of walking down the street in a mini skirt and being harrassed. Now a women cannot walk down the street in a half sleeve shirt without being called all sorts of names. All this ideology came after the wave of migrant workers who went to the Gulf states and came home to Egypt with these values. Most of these workers are/were of the lower class, and they are/were taught that even if they are/were poor now, they will have everything they want in the after life if they cover up, grow beards, go to the mosque to pray etc.
However, after saying all of this, I still want to say I love Egypt. It is truly the greatest Arab country in my opinion and I am living for the day when it turns around to what it was in the 50’s and 60’s. Women should be free to wear the Hijab/Niqab or not wear it. They should not fear walking in downtown Cairo and being harrassed by crowds of rowdy youths.