Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Rabbit Kiosk

Sounds like a great band-name, huh? Well its actually verbatim from the latest campus-wide email we got this week. Check out this item tucked in amidst the usual announcements:

Rabbits at the DDC Kiosk Today
The DDC Kiosk will be selling rabbits for LE 20 per kilogram on the Main Campus in front of the Science Building starting Wednesday, February 21 through Thursday, February 22 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, and 2:00 to 4:00 pm while supplies last. For more information, contact DDC at ext. 6611 or the kiosk at ext. 5992.

So how incredibly awesome is that? If anybody wants me to buy rabbits - by the kilo, mind you - just let me know. It's a bargain!

Also: pictures of Cairo - check 'em out! A funny note, though - I took some photos of soldiers standing guard, and did so discreetly, since it's technically not allowed. Much to my surprise, when I got the pictures back, those shots had been removed from the film! By the developing studio!

A police state, indeed.

Other assorted happenings - tomorrow night some friends are planning to have a gallabiya surprise party. A gallabiya is the big, robe-like traditional Egyptian garment - so the idea is of course to all wear our newly-purchased gallabiyas, get sufficiently drunk and then take them off to reveal...a surprise.

It should be interesting.

Also, I'm supposed to take a ride the next day, 6 hours round trip from the Pyramids of Giza to the much more ancient Pyramids of Saqqara. Hopefully the party won't interfere with that - a six hour horse-ride is hard enough without being hungover to boot.

There was also some interesting discussion on my literature class today about women in 20th-
century Egypt. The book we have been reading, The Open Door, is a feminist novel from the 1960s about a young woman struggling against the society and patriarchy she is growing up in as Egypt itself struggles against colonial rule in the 1946-56 period.

So why is this interesting? Well, those of you who know me have probably noticed my constant struggle with and arguments with a lot of feminist literature - the demonization of men always gets to me. But this book really lays out in a clear and nuanced fashion the challenges faced by women in patriarchal societies, and the role that both men and other women play in enforcing those roles.

What I'm trying to say is that I think, having read this book, I have a better understanding of why its so hard to be a woman in general and in particular for those in conservative or reactionary societies, be they in the Muslim world or immigrant communities.

Anyways, enough intellectual posturing. I'm going to go buy some rabbits.