You look Egyptian

We could not have known, before coming here, that there are so many different looks of people in Egypt. Suddenly, we see the faces of so many people we have known. Blue, brown, and green eyes, blonds and brunettes, very pale and jet black complexions, broad, flat, and hooked noses. This is not how media or education portrays middle easterners.

Differences of appearance are not only visible in skin, eye, or hair colors but also in how people choose to express themselves. For women, by example, style can be totally western - make-up and a perm with jeans and high heels, or, more commonly, western clothing with a head scarf. Also common here are full body covering robes with gloves and socks. Older women are generally covered, (as they are married); importantly, though, all these women are interacting with each other without any overt disagreement or dislike.

While we realized quite early that greetings of, ‘You look Egyptian,’ on the streets was just a common catch phrase to get your attention to buy tours, miniature plastic pyramids, or papyrus paintings; with a decent repertoire of Arabic and proper head covering, anyone could ‘go Egyptian.’ In addition to ‘European’ looking passerbys we see plenty of Asians from Muslim countries walking the streets here. Our country, the USA, and Europe, like to hold themselves up as melting pots; but the Mediterranean still fosters the exchange of cultures, looks, and camaraderie for which it was know millennia earlier.