D’s new look
Thrashin’ Badger knows how to professionally tilt his head for the camera.
There comes a time in every man’s life when he must embrace facial hair. Sometimes his own, sometimes others’. That time, for me, has come. I enjoy tugging at the bits of my beard, and I am told that it makes me look very thoughtful. (Little do they know that I am trying to solve the most daunting of puzzles: “Is it ‘Panama ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,’ or ‘Panama, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh’?” Damn that David Lee Roth.) The only complaint I have is that the mustache grows straight out, like I have half a toilet brush on my upper lip.
Before I grew lazy enough to allow myself to grow a beard, I wondered what Egyptians would think about a foreigner with one. Most of the same foreigners I run into from time to time have grown and since shaved a beard. I presume from the same cycle of hygenic laziness that affects me. In Egypt, however, the beard carries a much deeper connotation. Here, growing a beard can land you in jail. Islamists, recognized by their long beards, among other things, are often picked up on the street by police, and many Egyptians have told me they would never grow a beard, for fear of being questioned by police. Being questioned by the fuzz here is a little more dramatic than in the USA. At least outside New York and L.A. The Associated Press had this grisly story to educate you on the subject:(http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6361278,00.html).
Here is what an unnamed source told S (S doesn’t know the person’s name or whereabouts, or even appearance, so don’t ask. Do I sound paranoid? Did you read that article?): “Someone who follows the example of the Prophet Mohammed and goes to the mosque for the five prayers each day, or a woman who wears a niqab (face veil), or a man with a beard – they are all looking over their shoulder, afraid that the police will come and arrest them.”
So my doorman, Hamdi, whether driven by such fears, or simply a heightened aesthetic refinement, has urged me several times to shave my beard. He tells S, in explicit English and Arabic, that it is no good. Keeping the mustache, however, is apparently okay, preferably with the ends waxed up like a silent-movie villain (this is traditional among the Sa’idis, people from the south of Egypt).
Likely the beard won’t last for long, but my villainy may very well get the best of me. Anyone know the Arabic for ‘mustache wax’?
Tags: Egypt, Tag Index
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January 25th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Aiiiiieeee, I’m not sure how I feel about your new facial hair. On another note, I’m going to start arabic lessons in DC — GWU is doing this big free language class thing so I’ll be ready to keep your arabic fresh when you come back!
January 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I’m sure I’m displaying some kind of ignorance here, but most Egyptians are Muslim, right? Is whether you wear a beard or not a matter of which Muslim sect someone is part of? What’s the difference between the Islamists and the rest?
The beard makes you look like a university academic!
January 27th, 2007 at 3:31 am
I like the beard,
The moustache alone screams porn star.
January 27th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I like the look. Does it interfere with your karoake sound? I didn’t read the grisly story about police interrogation because in true mother mode it would make me worry. I have to wonder what kind of a mother I was that you have no fear!
January 27th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Kirsten, the answer to your last question is somewhat complex so let me just leave it alone and tackle the other ones instead 😉
Egypt is roughly 90% Muslim (overwhelmingly Sunni) and 10% Coptic Christian. The beard doesn’t indicate any sect; it is more of a reflection on how closely you are emulating the life of the Prophet Mohammed. Thus anyone wearing a beard appears outwardly to be more religious than clean-shaven men.
Now, why would a beard get noticed by the police? I’ll leave that for another day…
January 31st, 2007 at 8:16 am
I gotcha. Thanks for replying!