Egypt is witnessing a cultural revolution. Strike that, more like a cultural destruction. It started in the late 1970s with the return of migrant workers from the oil rich Gulf states with two things; money and religious fanaticism. However, the degradation of Egypt's rich and vibrant culture has accelerated in the past few years, with no end in sight.
Religious fanaticism has spread like wildfire among rich and poor. Tourists may never notice this because tour companies exert extra effort to conceal it. Many unfavorable consequences have resulted. One of these is the decline in people morals and behavior.
Take for example the situation of women a few decades ago and now. Back then, the upper class women had no problem wearing bathing suits at Alexandria's once glamorous beaches or walking around in short skirts. This was considered the norm and is portrayed by the movies of that period; and the sexual harassment cancer of today Egypt was almost non existent. Fast forward to 2010, where most women are pressured to cover up outside the house to be respectable and modest, and sexual harassment has increased exponentially. Extremist interpretations of religion encourage religious men to view women who bare any part of their body as immoral, since every part of a woman is awrah. A woman in Cairo, no matter how modest she is, cannot walk in the street and board a bus or metro without verbal or physical harassment.
Egypt, once the bastion of liberalism and moderation in the Arab world, has become a breeding ground for backward ideologies. A man cannot wear shorts without a friend telling him that it is religiously forbidden to show his knees in public. Many girls have told me that the only reason they started wearing hijab was because of constant nagging by her more modest and condescending friends. A medical student explicitly said that she had to adopt the headscarf because the patients would not accept her as a doctor without it.
One might say, So what if people have become more religious? Will that impede progress and development? This is the bottom line. People haven become religious, but are focusing on religious superficialities to a pathological degree, taking up far too much time and brain cells than is healthy. An example of how trivial Egyptians have become with regard to religion is the nationwide vilification of culture minster Farouk Hosni that happened a few years ago when he dared to criticize the hijab, which is still basically nothing more than a piece of cloth used to cover the hair.
Loss of productivity has become commonplace. Tram drivers in Alexandria will actually stop trams for as long as fifteen minutes during their shifts to perform Friday prayers, leaving hurried and tired passengers stranded until the prayer is over. And of course no one dares object because they are following God orders. During Ramadan, when its time to break the fast, all transportation comes to an illegal standstill for almost an hour. In government institutions, employees will early leave their desks for extended periods to attend the prayer in congregation, leaving endless queues of exasperated citizens.
Apart from these obvious effects, religion is invading all aspects of life. University professors, including those of medicine, cannot resist the temptation to twist the facts of whatever subjects at hand to throw in some divine wisdom, often going to ridiculous lengths. They are not too happy either when a student asks for a scientific explanation for something he has just attributed to Gods will.
On a minibus, a total stranger may suddenly speak up and start religious lectures, regardless of whether or not the driver and passengers are interested. Some university professors may intrude on the privacy of mixed gender groups on campus and forbid them from standing together. One is pressured to go the mosque with his friends if one of them suggests it, for he dare not blaspheme by saying he doesn't want to pray. Religion is, literally, being forced down their throats.
Cultural breakdown is happening at full speed. Egyptian cinema has fallen to an all time low. Films that attempt to break social norms and introduce something different (and there are many of these) receive widespread condemnation. A work of art that portrays nothing but the ugly truth is deemed blasphemous and immoral, and hence has no market.
Freedom of expression was never great in Egypt, but it has certainly made great progress in recent years. Now more than ever, things are opening up. Old taboos are slowly breaking down. However, blind religious fanaticism isn't improving anything. You can still land in jail for insulting Islam. Blogger Kareem Amer is serving a four year jail sentence; three of them for allegedly insulting Islam. It is a disgrace that such a crime even exists. Kareem was simply expressing his opinion, which was very brave of him considering the society they live in. Try telling people you are an atheist and see if you will have any friends left. Most disturbing of all is that many people, upon hearing about Kareems case, actually agree with the punishment, because he's a non believer should not be allowed to broadcast his views to the public.
Columnist Nadine Al Bedair wrote a thought provoking article a while ago in the independent Al Masry al Youm, criticizing the still existent custom of polygamy. It sparked an outcry and prompted one MP to actually file a lawsuit against her. The quite amazing thing is that she had a point. While certain religious values like honesty, truth, mercy and hard work are essential for every time and place, ancient laws on inheritance, polygamy and divorce are certainly not. Women now are not like they were in the 7th century, so it is preposterous that these ancient laws are still applicable these days. Perhaps women back then didn't object, but in today's world, these laws are certainly discriminatory and need to be abolished for good.
Freedom to do what you want isn't being helped either by religious fanaticism. Last Ramadan, citizens were arrested and fined for publicly breaking the fast during daytime. While the arrests were probably just an excuse to collect fines rather than actually motivated by religion, the prospect is disturbing. Sounds more like something that could happen in Iran or Saudi Arabia. Again, the fact that most ordinary Egyptians believed that these people deserved the fines does not warrant optimism.
The government has given free rein to ignorant, widely popular telepreachers to poison the hearts and minds of their youth with 7th century views on everything ranging from women to travel to Facebook. One popular preacher recently referred to women who don't dress modestly as whores. Not really helping with their sexual harassment problem.
Die hard secularism will never be accepted by Egyptians, at least not in the foreseeable future and probably won't work as well as it has in other countries. What is essential, however, is that religion needs to take a back seat. There's nothing wrong with a little moderation.
