Every Egyptian Woman........

.......dreams of a knight in shining amour. This is the conclusion I have come up with after several discussions with colleagues, students and friends, as well as 3 weddings.

Egyptian women have a strong need for someone to accept them as they are, to allow them to follow their dreams and to feel loved, someone willing to sacrifice for them and be with them. They need to escape from their parent's clasp and have a life of their own. They think that the only way of doing this is through marriage, and thus from an early age start searching for their MAN!

In my opinion only about 1% of the Egyptian women realize this dream, if not 0.000001%. Here in Egypt the fathers are the ones who decide if the husband is good or bad for the girl. And the fathers decide whether the girl is fit to marry their son. The couple have little say. Obviously, in the modern Egyptian world, the opinion of the daughter is asked, but even if the daughter says no, she is charmed by money and romance (and who knows maybe also some verbal violence from her father) into liking the guy.

Very often though, the woman ends up saying yes to the guy who stepped forward and wanted her hand in marriage. Why, I wonder, does she do that??? Is it the strong longing for a person to care for her?, is it the need to escape her parent's home, and finally have her own life?, The want to make love for the first time and get rid of her virginity?, Or the hope that the dream of the knight in shining amour will eventually come out of this man!!!!? Who knows?

Speaking to these women has also made me wonder what exactly is love, how do you define it, who exactly is the right man, is there anyone you can call the right man? or just like every Egyptian woman is he only in our dreams???

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