9781422278826

CUSTOMS AND CULTURES OF THE WORLD

MY TEENAGE LIFE IN

EGYPT

CUSTOMS AND CULTURES OF THE WORLD

My Teenage Life in AUSTRALIA My Teenage Life in BRAZIL My Teenage Life in CHINA My Teenage Life in EGYPT My Teenage Life in GREECE

My Teenage Life in INDIA My Teenage Life in JAPAN My Teenage Life in MEXICO My Teenage Life in NEPAL My Teenage Life in RUSSIA My Teenage Life in SOUTH AFRICA Our Teenage Life in the NAVAJO NATION

CUSTOMS AND CULTURES OF THE WORLD

MY TEENAGE LIFE IN

By Jim Whiting with Muhammad Nabil Series Foreword by Kum-Kum Bhavnani EGYPT

MASON CREST

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2018 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3899-8 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3903-2 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-7882-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Whiting, Jim, 1943- author. | Nabåil, Muhammad, author. | Bhavnani, Kum-Kum, writer of foreword. Title: My teenage life in Egypt / by Jim Whiting with Muhammad Nabil ; series foreword by Kum-Kum Bhavnani. Other titles: Customs and cultures of the world. Description: First printing. | Broomall, PA : Mason Crest, 2017. | Series: Customs and cultures of the world | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017003632| ISBN 9781422239032 (hardback) | ISBN 9781422238998 (series) | ISBN 9781422278826 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Teenagers--Egypt--Juvenile literature. | Youth--Egypt--Social conditions--Juvenile literature. | Egypt--Social life and customs--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC HQ799.E3 W45 2017 | DDC 305.2350962--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2017003632

Developed and Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group. Editor: James Buckley, Jr. Design: Tom Carling, Carling Design Inc. Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com

Front cover: Evegeniy Fesenko/Dreamstime.com

QR Codes disclaimer:

You may gain access to certain third party content (“Third-Party Sites”) by scanning and using the QR Codes that appear in this publication (the “QR Codes”). We do not operate or control in any respect any information, products, or services on such Third-Party Sites linked to by us via the QR Codes included in this publication, and we assume no responsibility for any materials you may access using the QR Codes. Your use of the QR Codes may be subject to terms, limitations, or restrictions set forth in the applicable terms of use or otherwise established by the owners of the Third-Party Sites. Our linking to such Third-Party Sites via the QR Codes does not imply an endorsement or sponsorship of such Third-Party Sites, or the information, products, or services offered on or through the Third-Party Sites, nor does it imply an endorsement or sponsorship of this publication by the owners of such Third-Party Sites.

E G Y P T

C ontents

Series Foreword by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, UCSB..................... 6

Meet Muhammad!................................ 8 Egypt: An Introduction. ...................... 12 Muhammad’S School Life................18 Time to Eat!.........................................22 Egyptian Customs. ............................. 24 Egyptian Culture ................................ 30

Muhammad’S Town...........................36 Egypt’s Economy and Politics............ 38 Muhammad’S Free Time...................44 Muhammad’s Faith............................48 The Future of Egypt............................ 50 Muhammad’s Country.................... 58

Text-Dependent Questions..................................................... 60 Research Projects.................................................................. 61 Find Out More......................................................................... 62 Series Glossary of Key Terms................................................ 63 Index/Author........................................................................... 64

Key Icons to Look For

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills.

Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more! Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

E G Y P T

S eries F oreword Culture: Parts =Whole

C ulture makes us human. Many of us think of culture assomethingthatbelongstoaperson, a group, or even a country. We talk about the food of a region as being part of its culture (tacos, pupusas, tamales, and burritos all are part of ourunderstandingof food fromMex- ico, andSouthandCentralAmerica). We might also talk about the clothes asbeing important toculture (saris in India, kimonos in Japan, hijabs or gallibayas in Egypt, or beaded shirts in theNavajoNation). Imaginetryingtosumup“American” cultureusingjustexampleslikethese! Yet culture does not just belong to a personorevenacountry. It isnot only about food and clothes or music and art, because those things by them- selves cannot tell the whole story.

Culture is also about how we live our lives. It is about our lived experiences of our societies and of all theworldswe inhabit. And in this series—CustomsandCulturesof the World—you will meet young people who will share their experiences of the cultures andworlds they inhabit. How does a teenager growing up in South Africa make sense of the history of apartheid, the 1994 democratic elections, and of what is happening now? That is as integral to ourworld’s culture as the ancient ruins in Greece, the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Himalayas above Nepal, and the Amazon rain forests in Brazil. But these examples are not enough. Greece is also known for its financial uncertainties, Egypt is

6

known for the uprisings in Tahrir Square, China is known for its rapid developmentof megacities,Australia is known for its amazing animals, andBrazil isknown for theOlympics and its football [soccer] team. And there are many more examples for eachnation, region, andperson, and some of these examples are featured in these books. The question is: How do you, growing up in a particular country, view your own culture? What do you think of as culture? What is your lived experience of it? Howdo you come to understand and engage with cultures that are not familiar to you? And, perhaps most importantly, why do you/wewant to do this?Andhowdoes reading about andexperiencingother cultureshelp you understand your own? It is perhaps a cliché to say culture forms the central core of our humanity and our dignity. If that’s true, how do young adults talk about your own cultures? How do you simultaneously understand how people apparently “different” fromyou live their lives, and engage

with their cultures? One way is to read the stories in this series. The “authors” are just like you, even though they live in different places and in different cultures. We com- municatedwith these youngwriters over the Internet, whichhas become the greatest gathering of cultures ever. The Internet is now central to the culture of almost everyone, with youngpeople leading thewayonhow to use it to expand the horizons of all of us. From those of us born in earlier generations, thank you for opening that cultural avenue! Let me finish by saying that culture allows us to open ourminds, think about worlds different from the ones we live in, and to imagine how people very different from us live their lives. This series of books is just the start of the process, but a crucial start. I hope you enjoy them. —Kum-Kum Bhavnani Professor of sociology and feminist and global studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an award-winning international filmmaker.

7

E G Y P T

Meet Muhammad!

About my family: there are five of us and we are happy with that. Mum, dad, me, and my brother and sister. I like to say that their presence is a bless . . . however, sometimes a mess!

My brother is six years my junior. My sister is three years my senior. The more we fight, the closer we get. That’s how it works here; our emotions for each other are unexpectedly strong, even if it could all fall down, we’re happy to build that back up again. Even if life squeezes a lemon inside of our eyes, there’s always a bottle of water for everyone to pour for a little for relief.

8

My father works as an accountant for the Ministry of Social Insurance. He’s such a hard worker, the kind of person who is a needle in a stack of straw—a rare thing indeed. His attitude is always, “yes, please, hand [me] this mission.”

The Reader

My Mom’s Job

My mother is an Arabic [language] high school teacher and my savior at this point, because I sometimes have an excessive amount of those grammatical mistakes and when it comes to that, she is the one for helping me fix them.

9

E G Y P T

Meet Muhammad

The Reader

My House

I live in a house on the main road, with a backdoor in the adjacent lane. The lane starts with my neighbor’s shop, owned by Mr. Shaaban, he’s a wheat/ flour seller and a really silent man. Next is his storage, and then his house. In front of this, there are columns of floor tiles that belong to Mr. Ameen, adjacent to the tiles shop there’s my aunt’s house. At the end of the lane there’s the backdoor of our house that leads to the backyard.

1 0

Egyptian Family Life Family is very important to people in Egypt. Many people live with their parents for a long time, and nearly everyone gets married at some point in their lives. One study said 98 percent of people in Egypt marry. A single person living alone is very rare. People in Egypt feel that their actions reflect very much on their family, so they are careful not to do anything that would bring shame to their rel- atives. Some young people are trying to create a more “Western” life, but the pull of family in Egypt is very strong. (Note: The photo is not of Muhammad’s family.)

1 1

E G Y P T

Egypt: An Introduction

W ith one of the world’s oldest continuing civilizations and with a vital place geographically on the world map, Egypt has long been a center of the world. Everyone is probably familiar with the huge stone pyramids that symbolize the country. Built thousands of years ago tohouse the remains of their kings, known as pharaohs, these ancient monuments stand shoulder-to-shoulderwitha crowdedmajor city. Together, they forma physical symbolof thecountry’sconstant clashbetweenancientandmodern. The nation of Egypt is located in the northeast corner of Africa. A small portion lies in the Sinai Peninsula in Asia, bordering the country of Israel. Libya borders Egypt to the west, while Sudan borders it to the south. The Red Sea forms most of the eastern border. Egypt’s total land area is 384,845 square miles. It is larger than Texas (268,597 square miles) and much smaller than Alaska (663,300 square miles). Words to Understand dynasties  long periods of time during which one extended family rules a place hieroglyphics  a form of writing used by ancient Egyptians that uses pictures or symbols instead of letters

1 2

The country is almost en- tirely barren desert. The cli- mate is hot and dry, with very little rainfall. Because of that, the key factor in the develop- ment of ancient Egypt was the Nile River. The Nile actually begins as two rivers—the Blue Nile originating at Lake Tana inEthiopia, and theWhiteNile, rising near Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. The two branches meet at Khartoum in Sudan and flow into the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nile River flows north from central Africa through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

A Long History

Written historical records begin more than 5,000 years ago, when a pha- raohnamedNarmer (also known asMenes) united the kingdoms of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt was the land between the southern border of Egypt and the point where the river forms several branches called the Delta. The Delta region was known as Lower Egypt. The crown the pharaohs wore was called the pschent . It combined the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt. Narmer began a series of 29 different dynasties that ruled Egypt for nearly 3,000 years. Perhaps the most stunning achievement during this long period was the construction of the three Great Pyramids of Giza.

1 3

E G Y P T

The pyramids were actually burial chambers for the pharaohs. They date back about 4,500 years. According to estimates, 20,000 men worked for 20 years to construct each of them. The largest one is the burial place of the pharaohKhufu. Rising 481 feet (146m), it was theworld’s tallest manmade structure until the year 1300. Nearly all the pharaohs were men. The most notable female pharaoh was Hatshepsut. She ruled from about 1480 bce to 1460. She was often portrayed as a man with a beard.

Thepharaohsweretheheadof thegovernment and were believed to be the earthly represen- tatives of the gods. A man called the vizier helped the pharaohs run the country, while others known as scribes kept careful records. Themajority of the people were farmers and paid taxes in the form of part of their crops. “Gift of the Nile” In thoseancient times, traveling insmall boats along theNilewas the easiestmethod of mov- ing through the land. Farmore important, the Nileoverflowed itsbanks inmidsummerevery year. When the floodwaters receded several weeks later, they left behind a thick layer of nutrient-rich silt that enabled Egyptians to grow life-sustaining crops. As a result, Egypt was often called “The Gift of the Nile.” The Egyptians had three seasons built around the annual flooding. Akhet marked the actual period of flooding. Peret was the

King Tut Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut, is probably the most famous Egyptian pharaoh. He began ruling about 3,300 years ago when he was only eight or nine. He died while he was a teenager. As a result, most historians believe he had little or no historical signifi- cance. So why is he so famous? Grave robbers plundered the tombs of all the other pharaohs many centuries ago. But they never found King Tut’s tomb. So when archaeologists discovered it in 1922, it was still packed full of the fabulous treasures that had been buried with King Tut. Exhibits of these treasures sometimes travel to different parts of the world. They always attract huge crowds.

1 4