Every now and then it's important to come out of the rarefied clouds of academia and just hear the voice of someone living life in the Middle East. So I commend to you Cairo, Part 2, a blog kept by a student at AUC whom I have never met, incidentally. But she has a nice way of writing and posts pictures every now and then.
Part of a recent post discusses the growing problem of groping:
I was walking down the road and a man was walking toward me. As often happens, I noticed that he was not going to allow much extra space to remain between us as he walked by. I tensed up and used my peripheral vision to moniter his location, and as he passed me he reached out his arm, intending to hit my butt. I have no idea how I managed to move out of the way so quickly--I leaped onto the sidewalk, dodged his hand, and kept walking. He continued as though nothing had happened, as did I. He didn't turn around to try again. He didn't come after me. It all happened so quickly that it took me a second to realize what had just happened. To see him continue on his way through my peripheral vision. To collect my inner self, which was so much at odds with my exterior at that moment, the Bethany that never even paused in her measured walk to the metro station. And at the same time that all this was happening, a car passed us and the young driver looked up at me from the window. I couldn't read his expression, and he didn't say anything to me. But there was a moment of strange connection, a bizarre understanding of sorts that bound the three of us together in this sick game, whose rules we all know too well.
Also, check out pictures of the new AUC campus.
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