[travel] From the "things that can't be photographed in a culturally sensitive way" dept:

Today I saw a woman walking down the street in a full hijab (black head-to-toe with just the eyes showing) with an antique desktop Singer sewing machine balanced on her head.


And in other news, Egypt has decided to ban travelers from Gibraltar from entering Egypt, citing their clear and present danger to  the aggregate revenue of the tourist industry.

[travel] Islamic fashions

After mostly abandoning headscarves in the 1970s as part of Women's Liberation, the Egyptians have re-embraced (or perhaps re-imposed) them as part of the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism.  However, teen girls are teen girls, and they (on average) want to look pretty and distinctive.  Thus, the headscarf becomes a fashion accessory that has to be matched with other parts of the outfit, and there are lots of ways to do it. 

A friend and I wandered through a very interesting park on the eastern side of Cairo a couple of days ago (more on this park later), and during our visit were accosted by a swarm of what were presumably middle-school girls showing off various headscarf fashions.  We were presented with a socially acceptable opportunity to take their picture, so we did:



One fashion not in this photo involves putting the hair up in a topknot or ponytail and then putting a headscarf over that, giving the head an elongated shape.

[travel] Yup, this thing checks out.

Good work, engineers.



Taken by me at the Pyramids, Giza, Egypt.

[travel] Impromptu bottled water commercial

Taken by me at the Pyramids, Giza, Egypt