Sex Tourism in Cairo

Author(s): Karim el-Gawhary

Source: Middle East Report, No. 196, Tourism and the Business of Pleasure (Sep. - Oct., 1995),
pp. 26-27
Published by: Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3013301 .
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doesn't look like a classic madam. About 50 years old,

She Hagga lives in a simple flat in the chic Cairene quarter
of Muhandisin. Her black abaya (cape and headscarf) evince
a more traditional outlook. Even her language is full of reli?
gious references. "Tomorrow you can have two girls, God
willing. For the furnished flat you have to pay extra. May
God make it easy for us."
Summer is the peak season forthe business of furnished
flats, complete with a "housemaid" who can come at any time
of the day or night and in any shape, color or size. That is
when the khaligin?the
Gulf Arabs ?invade the city look?
ing for cool air and a hot time.
Nearly a million Arab tourists ?mostly Saudi nation?
als?visited
Cairo last year. They constitute more than a
third of all tourists to Egypt, and their numbers are grow?

ing every year. Nearly 100,000 Kuwaitis were also part of

last year's summer party. One of Cairo's poshest boule?
vards?Arab
League Street?is commonly called Salmiyya
Street, after the famous shopping street in Kuwait City.
Just a stone's throw from the shopping crowds, the expen?
sive first rows of Egypt's National Circus overflow with
extended families from the Gulf. In the city's amusement
Karim el-Gawharyis theVoicescorrespondent
forthismagazinein Cairo.
2Q

parks, giggling veiled Gulf girls ram their bumper cars

into those of their male counterparts. Young Gulf men and
women who are into Arabic disco music pay $100 or more
per person fora table right in frontofthe stage where Egypt's
pop idols perform. In the nightclubs on Pyramids Road, some
Gulf men kill time by throwing money at Egyptian belly

dancers, who these days resent the fierce new blonde com?
petition from Russia.
For some, this sort of entertainment is not enough. Every
year Gulf men revitalize the prostitution business in town.
Though officially illegal, Egyptian authorities habitually
close their eyes to it "because of possible diplomatic embroil?
ments," as one Egyptian political scientist puts it, not to
mention "the lucrative prospects for hard currency." These
profits do not find their way into any official economic sta?
tistics. A representative of Egypt's vice squad, located in the
upper stories ofthe Mugamma'a, Cairo's Soviet-style admin?
istration building, declines even a request for an off-therecord conversation about Egypt's sex tourism "industry."
Neither is sex tourism a topic for Egypt's countless
research centers and universities. "We have other priori?
ties," explains a researcher with the Cairo-based Institute
for Sociological and Criminological Studies. Yet it is diffi?
cult to close one's eyes to this phenomenon. Even Egyptian
Middle East Report ? September-October

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1995

men with mustaches (thus resembling Gulf Arabs) are open?

ly solicited by pimps on Qasr al-Nil Street in downtown
Cairo. In some fancy Nile-view restaurants, the clientele
switches after midnight, from dining families to clusters
of Gulf men and provocatively dressed single women who
gather around the bar. Men straight from Riyadh, Jeddah
or Kuwait City in their white dishdasha robes are some?
times solicited directly at the airport with offers of "special
furnished flats."
There is an entire network involved in the business, which
turns this forbidden enterprise into somewhat of a public
event. On one street in Zamalek,
the doorman, Abu

ing up to the problem. Sausan al-Shaikh, the spokeswoman

of the Egyptian AIDS Society, claimed until last year that
"illegal sexual encounters" are not common, thanks to Islamic
teachings. She completely denies the existence of homo?
sexuality. To give prostitution an Islamic cover, some women
enter into secret marriage contracts with their summer vis?
itors. Known in Egypt as zawag al-'urfi, this contract is made
without witnesses and typically ends in divorce by summer's
end. Most of Egypt's Islamic scholars condemn this use of
zawag al-'urfi.
In addition to their summer trysts, some Gulf men also
come to Egypt to look forwives, especially in villages around

Muhammad

(all names have been changed) immediately

understands the request: "A flat for one day to relax, espe?
cially at night." The flat-broker quickly calls the apartment
owner: the rent is negotiated by phone, with an appropri?
ate commission forthe broker, and hush-money forthe door?
man, who takes care of all the logistics.
In a dark two-bedroom apartment, the housemaid Fatima

the Delta town ofMansura, where, according to local folklore,

Napoleon's soldiers began mixing with the local population
on their short Egyptian expedition nearly two centuries ago.
Today one can spot their putative descendants?"dream
women" with fair complexions and fine hair. This reputa?
tion has attracted enough attention on the other side of the
Red Sea that informal marriage agencies servicing Gulf men

prepares ice forthe whiskey. She is responsible forthe guest's

comfort till the arrival of the "real girl." What might this
include? "For a few pounds," says the 40-year-old woman as
she turns on the air conditioner, "I am prepared." Fatima

have begun to appear. Some older women make their living

as marriage brokers. Upon request, agents present photos
of women from the villages. The chosen woman is then invit?
ed for an "interview under four eyes." Once the deal is done,
the bride and her new husband quickly make their way back
to the Gulf, often the next day.
In the province of Giza, adjacent to Cairo, other villages
are also known for marrying their daughters to Gulf Arabs.
The village of Hawamdiyya has a reputation for particular?

looks like a typical woman from a poor quarter, trying to

survive by cooking and cleaning houses in wealthier neigh?
borhoods. She has worked here since her husband died
two years ago. She talks proudly about her four children,
whom she can afford to send to school. Sometimes the flat
is rented to vacationing families, sometimes to single men,
most of them from the Gulf. She prefers the former?"but
what can you do," she adds. "It's business."
She untangles how this enterprise operates. News offlats
rented by the day or week spreads among the pimps, and the
prostitutes stream in?"like ants," says Fatima. Single pros?
titutes go from one flat to the next during the day. Sometimes,
she explains, the first request comes in at five o'clock in the
morning. Then the prostitutes make the rounds till late after?
noon, only to be replaced by a tougher night shift.
The social background of the women varies significantly
according to studies and statistics about women arrest?
ed for sex crimes. Aisha, 20 years old, comes from the lower
class quarter of Imbaba, recently the stronghold of mili?
tant Islamists. With her new hairdo, a thick layer of make?
up and a cloud of perfume, she does not look like a Gama'at
al-Islamiyya bride. Unlike Fatima, who can't read or write,
Aisha has a high school diploma. One of her school friends
introduced her to the business a few months ago. She is
looking for other work with her diploma, but she now earns
in a few days what a public sector accountant makes in
a month.
Doctors speak privately about an increase in the num?
ber ofAIDS cases due to "unclean blood transfusion" (main?
ly from outside the country), drug abuse and, last but not
least, prostitution. Asked if most Gulf men use condoms,
Aisha burst out laughing. She herself gives no thought to
possible risk. Egyptian officials have had a hard time faeMiddle East Report ? September-October

ly cheeky young women: "Oh, you daughters ofHawamdiyya,

ofthe colorful scarfs and galabiyy as" a popular proverb goes,
"your kohl-black eyes enchant the studs. When they see you
sway and strut, they lay down at your feet."
Proverbs like this make their way to the Arabian
Peninsula. Marrying a daughter to someone from the Gulf
looks like good business for impoverished farmers living
around Mansura or Hawamdiyya.
Tens of thousands of
Egyptian pounds can change hands as a dowry. The mar?
riage broker, too, gets 10 percent for her efforts. A new
cement house, a new fridge, a video machine, perhaps a job
forthe bride's brother in the Gulf?these are common expres?
sions of appreciation by the new son-in-law and his fami?
ly. Some of these villages have developed into two-tier soci?
eties: the "haves" who married their daughters to Gulf men,
and the "have nots" who were not able or refused to play
the game.

Despite sex and marriage tourism, Egypt has hardly

become the Thailand of the Middle East. But popular
Egyptian sentiment against Gulf Arabs is growing. The
treatment of Egyptian workers in Saudi Arabia?an
Egyptian doctor recently received 80 lashes forhis complaint
that his son was raped by a Saudi school headmaster?aggra?
vates attitudes towards Gulf men looking for sexual enter?
tainment on the banks of the Nile. In some of the fancy bou?
tiques in Cairo's World Trade Center, a favorite shopping
place of Gulf Arabs, signs have begun to appear in the shop
?
windows: "We don't cooperate with Saudis."

1995

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27