On Oct 9, 2007, at 6:32 PM, Mohamed Magdy wrote:
I'm not questioning their reliability of getting you to your destination , I'm rather questioning the accuracy of information they have about Egypt. whether they visited Egypt by themselves and experienced it (and telling you their personal findings) or googled keywords similar to yours and formulated an opinion to offer to their customers. What they are saying will remain hypothetical and generalizations. Exactly like the information I can give you (or any other Egyptian in Egypt). I can say that their information is false and vice versa.
You mean like: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=9038
"CAIRO: The story of eleven-year-old Hind, who gave birth after being raped, shocked the nation when it broke a few weeks ago. Further exacerbating the situation were the words of Al Azhar University’s Islamic jurisprudence scholar, Souad Saleh, who issued a fatwa stating that the girl and her father deserved the punishment of “eighty flogs” for defamation."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn? pagename=article&node=&contentId=A8121-2002Jul26
One particularly gruesome killing had us dumbfounded as word of what happened came into the Cairo newsroom where I was working at the time. A young woman named Nora Ahmed had eloped. Her father had not approved of her choice of husband. When she returned to Cairo to try to change her father's mind he asked to speak with her privately. He then cut off her head and paraded it down a Cairo street, shouting "Now my family has regained its honor."
In 1997 some 52 honor killings were reported in Egypt. The actual figures in all of the countries I've cited are probably much higher because most honor killings go unreported.
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3809 (referencing the Cairo Eid rape frenzies of recent years)
"On-the-street sexual harassment, whether auditory, visual or sensual, is more than common. This and other such incidents map out a widespread and frequent attitude toward women; Layla is not the first woman and obviously will not be the last to have her visual sphere spoiled and violated in such a manner."
"What happened in the Eid holiday, though, is not typical of what we have seen in past decades on Cairo streets. Rather, the incident seems to represent a new generation reaching a whole new caliber of harassment." "
(The author of that last story was a psychotherapist from the American University in Cairo.) ---end news clips---
Egypt in particular (though it should be noted Cairo, not Alexandria) has been noted for having a standing problem with harassment and rape of women on the street. To deny that categorically is simply wrong.