Zaat [1st Paperback Ed] 9774248449, 9789774248443

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This unusual2a: and much lauded

novel tells the story of the life of an Egyptian woman—the eponymous Zaat—during the regimes of three Egyptian presidents:. Abdel Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak. Imbued with an Egyptian sense of humor and deeply rooted in the culture and poli_ tics of the modern

period, the novel

takes a humorous but often black.look at the changes that have occurred in ~. Egypt over the past few deeades..

Zaat’s life experiences and relation=. ships ‘are set against economic and.

social upheavals in a style that is both sophisticated and bawdy, highly. ironic:

and often extremely poignant. Zaat’s story\is interspersed and

illustrated with-extracts from news-

papers. of the day—headlines, articles, picture captions, death notices, adver- -

tisements—reflecting events and inci- ~ dents contemporary with her life.

Beautifully put together with bitter and cutting irony, they tell of corruption, financial scandals, torture, for-

eign-debt, and social problems. The © heroine epitomizes the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of simple folk tossed:

about on the stormy sea of modernization, consumerism, and the ever-

present mirage of new wealth. Zaat is

a brilliant social commentary that provides keen insights into. how Egypt has.

come to be the way. it is today.

x

cas

laa

Zaat Sonallah Ibrahim Translated by

Anthony Calderbank

The American University in Cairo Press Cairo — New York

English translation copyright © 2001 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York 10018 Wwww.aucpress.com Copyright © 1992 by Sonallah Ibrahim First published in Arabic in 1992 as Dhat Protected under the Berne Convention

First paperback edition 2004 Second printing 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Dar el Kutub No. 17311/03 ISBN 977 424 844 9

Designed by Andrea El-Akshar/AUC Press Design Center Printed in Egypt

Translator’s Introduction

|:order to read this story you first need to know how to pronounce the heroine’s name. In Arabic, Zaat is made up of three letters: the first is 4, which is pronounced by Egyptians like the English z (in Classical Arabic, as pedants will always hasten to remind you, its correct pronunciation is dh like the th sound in then); the second letter | has no exact equivalent in English, a long vowel pronounced as a longer version of the e in egg or bed; the third letter is &, which is pronounced more or less like the English t. The name written phonetically would look like this: Ze:t. In this text it is spelled Zaat. The word zaat, which is not normally used as a woman’s name, means ‘essence; ‘identity, or ‘self? It is an evocative

word that appears often in metaphysical discourse and Islamic mystic texts and leaves considerable scope for interpretation. It also serves to highlight Zaat’s unconventional, introverted, and slightly unfortunate personality, and the relationship between her inner dialogue and the world outside.

Like so many of us, Zaat is tied to the human beings around her by lines of communication. These transmission channels that link her to her family, friends, colleagues, and other members of her community are constantly on the go. Conversation, chitchat, gossip, argument, and friendly banter flow incessantly from the mouths of the characters, creating a heaving sea of verbiage. Zaat

would love to swim through it like a fish, but at best often struggles merely to stay afloat and keep her tender sanity intact. Even the government participates in this carnaval of rhetoric with its own centralized transmission mouthpiece, the television. In Zaat’s world people are valued for the quality and originality of their transmission material and life is a constant struggle to find something fresh and exciting with which to accost one’s listeners. Failure to do so lowers one’s standing in the hierarchy, as poor Zaat with her generally worn-out and uninteresting topics knows only too well. Zaat’s sensitive nature and her desire to perform as a first-class transmitter together with her limited social skills cause her no end of angst and upset as she finds herself suffering boycott after boycott. Her struggle to master the techniques of transmission and to succeed as a focal point in the interchange of channels are constantly challenged and set back by the shifting economic and social turmoil that surrounds her as the nation seeks to develop a flourishing and diverse economy and the citizen aspires to modernize her bathroom and kitchen and expand her collection of household gadgets. After all, what is wrong with making a decent living and hoping to improve one’s station in life? In reality, however, most people simply end up ‘finding a piece of bread’ and ‘running after the piaster’ as the Egyptians call it, and while most citizens struggle night and day to do just that, others mysteriously amass huge fortunes worth millions and millions of dollars. The press clippings that accompany Zaat’s story exhibit with brutal humor that other side of the story as they catalog the changes that took place during the final decades of the last century, not only in Egypt but throughout the world, as previously colonized peoples settled down into developing nations. The soldier with his rifle went home but the dollar came instead and almost overnight a whole new sense of morality developed to meet the new imperialism. The large number of names of people, places, and organizations that appear in these chapters should not deter you.

vi

The antics of the minister, the politician, the businessman, the fly-

by-night entrepreneur, the popular religious leader, the police, the torturer—and the bewildered citizen who is surrounded by them— are not limited to national boundaries. In these chapters, different fonts are used: one for the news items and headlines and another for advertisements. Items of text surrounded by a box indicate photographs that originally appeared in the Egyptian press. If you find this arrangement mildly inconvenient, try to imagine an Egyptian’s reaction, as he peruses those same advertisements in his language, to all the foreign words and alien product brand names he finds masquerading in the Arabic script. In a similar vein, in Zaat’s half of the novel I have retained some Arabic words in the translation. In many cases they are words that carry considerable socio-cultural implications that would have been lost if an English word or phrase was chosen to represent them. It is hoped that these words, if they serve no other purpose, will at least offer readers the opportunity to enrich their vocabularies, just as the Egyptians have been granted ample opportunity to enrich their own over the last thirty years: English words that appeared in Arabic letters in the original text have been transcribed here in Egyptian pronunciation in italics. In this translation I have tried to reproduce the rhythm and texture of the original Arabic and to preserve the dark humor and erotic tension that, though not always openly voiced, are ever present. And although I am totally aware of how difficult and ultimately elusive this endeavor must be, I hope that you will not be disappointed by this English version of Zaat’s story—Zaat who is

Egypt, and her will to survive.

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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/zaat0000ibra

e could begin Zaat’s story from its natural beginning, that is, from the moment she slid into our world bespattered with blood, and the shock, the first of many she would endure, that followed as she was lifted feet first into the air

and given a hefty slap on the backside (which gave no indication whatsoever at that point in time of the size it would eventually attain due to long hours sitting on the toilet seat). The critics, however, would hardly welcome such a beginning, for a straight line, in literature as in morals, rarely achieves significant results, and in

our case here would certainly constitute nothing but a waste of time for the reader and the writer alike. Time which could be better spent in front of the television, for example, and which would benefit both of them far more than ploughing through hundreds of pages. Moreover, the contemporary view of the art of storytelling is that it is essentially a sensual and masculine art, treating on equal terms different points of entry from the perspective of the importance of the business itself, that is, storytelling, and the eventual conclusion with which the story might or might not end. This view encourages the writer to select the opening that appeals to him, according to his mood and abilities, and he plunges headlong into the task and gets it over with in a limited number of pages. Zaat’s life was full of such initiatory moments, all of which were

associated with shocks no less traumatic than that first slap on the backside. Some of these were entirely routine, such as the moment

she discovered that what she had thought was a passing wound was in fact a new property that her body had acquired, and that she was now capable of discharging liquid of a color other than the usual gold. No one had prepared her for this development (her father, like all fathers, eagerly insisted on ignoring such matters, leaving it to the mother, who, in her turn, eagerly insisted, like all mothers, on

postponing the moment of revelation, fearing that the gushing forth of blood from one place would inevitably lead to it drying up in another). There were other traumatic initiations, some of which illustrated

a particularly unique modification of the prevailing custom, such as when they held her down, forced open her thighs, and tore out that little protuberance that has so disturbed the Egyptians since ancient times. Although in all good faith we must set down that the tearing out, fortunately or unfortunately according to one’s point of view, was not complete. The mother, who had herself been relieved of the offending organ at an early age, was—contrary to what one might expect—keen that her daughter did not enjoy the opportunity of diversion (before marriage) and then the compensation (after it) that she had been denied. The father on the other

hand, contrary to what one might also expect, was desirous to spare his daughter the traditional operation, imagining (rightly or wrongly) that it was responsible for the problems he had encountered with his own personal protuberance. In the end, with the protuberantial powers on the brink of open conflict, it was necessary to reach a compromise. Thus he permitted a part of the illustrious protuberance to remain, which had the opposite of the desired result, for instead of compensating

for the lost part, it became

a

constant reminder of it. But why digress when we have a natural starting point, charged with much drama, indeed melodrama, by which we mean the greatest shock of all: the wedding night.

This momentous night came after long months of gradual convergence between Zaat and Abdel Maguid Hassan Khamees, during which time they frequented the places of amusement available in those days (the mid-sixties): the Casino Fontana Fish Garden, Abdel

Nasser

on the Nile, the

the Tea Island, and the Cairo Tower had

erected,

as

a substitute

(which Gamal

for the well-known

“finger in the air gesture,” using the three million dollars that America had tried to buy him off with). The most important role in their courtship, however, was played by the miracle child itself, which assumed gigantic proportions from the moment of its birth, i.e., the television. It was to play a major role in the life they would share, until it became the only tie that held them together. (Such an outcome had been totally unexpected by Zaat’s father when he brought home the set, bearing the brunt of its monthly payments in the hope that he would be able, through its intercession, to avoid any kind of contact with her mother). Zaat and future husband would sit in front of the set for hours on end under the watchful eyes of the mother, while their interest

was divided between the acting of Abdel Ghany Amar in the soap opera and keeping the cushions in place. It was the era of the seductive miniskirt, which created for cushions a whole new func-

tion above and beyond their customary functions (the innocent among them and the not so innocent). For by placing a cushion on her knees it was possible for Zaat to sit back on the sofa as she wished without revealing what it was not yet the right time to reveal. This also enabled the mother to occupy herself exclusively with following the events of the soap, sufficing herself with a sideward glance from time to time to reassure herself that the cushion remained firmly in position. Nevertheless, it so happened that this swift glance was enough to distract her, since her eyes could not help but wander to the thighs of the expectant groom and the corresponding cushion which had settled on his own lap, and at whose purpose she was most perplexed, since Abdel Maguid possessed a natural screen in the form of the trousers of his smart suit. With the

passing of time the naive woman, who was distinguished by her meagre experience and tiny imagination, and who had a narrow mind and the feelings of a stone, became filled with pity and sympathy for Zaat, since she concluded that the need of her daughter's fiancé for an extra screen was a result of the enormous size of the thing he was compelled to hide from view. The thing he was not compelled to conceal was much larger, and here we mean his backside or his buttocks or his posterior (the classical dictionary does not provide us with a word approaching, in its morphological precision and accuracy, the more obscene one which is now on the tip of every reader’s tongue), and it was this part of his anatomy which shrunk and diminished with the passing of time in direct inverse proportion to the flowering expansion of Zaat’s own. Apart from that there was nothing wrong with him. He was handsome,

smart, and fitted out with all the gold accoutrements:

cigarette case and lighter (Ronson), ring, Old Spice aftershave, and

winkle-picker shoes. He knew different kinds of food and the protocol for each, and was always ready to complain about the nation’s politics and its bias towards the public sector and industrialization. He had a distinguished way of hailing taxis which always made them stop and which filled Zaat with pride, and he alloted great importance to every word that issued from his lips. His incontrovertible views on various subjects were delivered with such confidence that others (or at least Zaat) were compelled to be convinced by them, and they normally ended with a word that perplexed Zaat and her father, with his limited culture, for a long time, before she finally became familiar enough with Abdel Maguid, after the wedding of course, to muster the courage to inquire about its meaning. Raising his eyebrows with such amazement that she was embarrassed, he kindly offered the explanation, pronouncing the English word in his own impeccable way: “Oov koors?, naturally.”

In addition to all this there were his chivalrous Antar escapades, and battles fought in defense of honor and reputation, not to mention the truth, none

of which Zaat was allowed to witness, since

they took place in the bank where he worked, and the university which he did (not) attend.

Yes indeed. One dark cloud in Abdel Maguid’s clear sky: he did not have a university degree, although only one exam, which he had been unable to attend due to illness, stood between him and it. In any case, he now

received a sufficient salary, and the doors of

the future lay wide open before him. It was a period of great hopes, bold aspirations, and dreams and day dreams in all their varieties (the dry By the duck pond in the Merryland Gardens, she “Washing clothes is no longer a chore thanks to Omo.

dreams: night and the wet). said to him: Just a little in

a bowl of water, and a quick swish to make lots of foam, then you

throw in a shirt or a blouse and go off to make the tea or do some cooking, and after that a scrub or two, no need to shred your fingers or wear out the washer” (she means here the woman

who washes,

not the machine, for its time had not yet arrived).

Abdel Maguid received this announcement of her intentions with little enthusiasm. This was because the image of the washerwoman sitting at the tub, revealing her thighs, and sometimes her breasts,

as she bent over to firmly grab a shirt collar or the gusset of a pair of knickers, and give either one a deliberate scrub, first with a hard block of co-op soap then with her fists, had nestled in a corner of his mind, not only as a memory of his first glimpse upon that world, but as a very realistic possibility for the long-term future. As well as the Omo there were anti-perspirant sticks and contraceptive pills, of course, and the holy trinity, which the modern home

could

no longer do without,

and which Abdel

Nasser had

placed within eveyone’s reach: a water heater, a stove from the war department factories, and an Ideal fridge. This brings us to the crux of the matter: the nest. ~ Abdel Maguid drew the outline in his own incontrovertible way: “A lounge and three bedrooms (think of the children), a balcony overlooking the street (we have to go up in the world), on the second

floor (not too

high, not too

low), in a new

building

with

respectable neighbors, in a clean up-market area, oov koors, and not

too far from the grandparents’ (by which he meant, of course, his parents, not hers, thereby causing their first quarrel, which did not end until both sets of grandparents had gone to meet their maker). All this talk, of course, was of a rented apartment (for the heresy

of home ownership had not yet appeared). But Abdel Nasser, intoxicated with the exultation of the masses and their demands for more, ordered two consecutive reductions in rents, which won him

the applause of the actual tenants and the wrath of those who were still looking for a place to rent, for he left it to the bureaucrats with the large backsides to sort out the details. And so Abdel Maguid wore out several pairs of winkle-pickers before he finally hit lucky. On the edge of Heliopolis, equidistant from his parents’ house in Abbasiya and her parents’ house in Zeitoun, in a side street not far from the tram line, which was still the pride of the district for its

cleanness and punctuality (since the foreign presence had only. recently been removed, and the authentic Egyptians had not yet had time to bless it with their national traits: carriages bursting with crowds of passengers and the rails disappearing under piles of rubbish), Abdel Maguid came across a kindly builder of the nonexploitative type who had built himself a block of flats, taken two of them for himself, and rented out the rest, without demanding

any under-the-table down payment, to respectable tenants, including one in the police and another in the army. They were all newly married, and the doors of the future were wide open before them.

Abdel Maguid welcomed the opportunity to live in this block of newlyweds, despite the drawbacks. The flat was on the fourth floor, and did not look out onto the entrance to the building. This particular feature brought tears to Zaat’s eyes because she suddenly real-

ized that she would be deprived forever of looking out on the world. The advantages, however, soon revealed themselves in light of the competition which existed between Zaat and her elder sister Zeinab (whose marriage had broken up over the thorny issue of the flat), and her cousin Afaf (who lived with her accountant husband

in a basement),

and her best friend Hanaa

(who lived with her

officer husband in two rooms that his father had built on the roof of the family house), and Safiya (who had moved

to Alexandria

and was living with her husband’s family), and Manal (who was also living with her husband’s family while he waited to be sent abroad to do his doctorate), and finally Zaat’s own parents who lived in a damp dark flat on the ground floor. The advantages multiplied when they took possession of the flat all ready for them to move

in. (In those days the tenant wasn’t

obliged to paint the walls and tile the floors and fit all the taps and pipes, because landlords back then were still so naive that they actually undertook the finishing touches themselves). In fact Abdel Maguid’s kind-hearted landlord generously agreed, as one of Abdel Maguid’s conditions to signing the contract, to install a red light over the bedroom door which lit up automatically when the door was locked from the inside, which gives us some idea of the importance Abdel Maguid attached to this room at the beginning of his nuptial life. Zaat was over the moon, and Abdel Maguid hid his approval behind a harsh frown, as they made the tour of inspection, savoring the smell of fresh paint and contemplating the gleaming walls: no cockroaches or rats here, no handprints on the kitchen cupboards, no broken tiles in the bathroom, no nail holes scattered

over the walls, no door handles

hanging off, no wires

dangling from the ceiling caked in dust and fly residue. This was a clean break from a past filled with untidy corners and piles of dirt to a bright and open future that might just take them up a few steps in the world. Zaat wept profusely as she left her parents’ house for the last time, in the wedding dress she had borrowed from her cousin, leaning on the arm of Abdel Maguid, who looked resplendant in his black suit. They were transported to the marital home by taxi, followed by family, relations, and best friends in a number of similar

vehicles (we are still talking about a time when the possession of a private car was no easier than finding a flat). Everyone inspected the

flat and the furniture amidst embarrassed laughter, and then they left, after Zeinab had summoned up the courage to let out a huge zaghrouda, to let the world know about her own unfair circumstances, and to attract some good luck for herself. She was followed by Manal who was well known for her frivolity, and this drew the disapproval of Abdel Maguid who was determined to have a completely new beginning with no room for anything common or vulgar. Then, at last, the bride and groom found themselves alone. The current conditions of publishing prevent us from going into detail about one of the most crucial moments in the lives of Zaat and Abdel Maguid. For this reason we shall leave them awhile, with Abdel Maguid busy emptying a bottle of whisky to calm the terror that had seized him, and return after about an hour to find them sitting on the edge of the bed completely naked, the two of them in tears. What had happened was that Abdel Maguid had discovered, or thought he had discovered, that the merchandise upon which he had spent all his savings, and waged his future, was not in perfect condition, and that someone else, maybe even more than one, had han-

dled the contents, or at least the packaging, before him. Was this worth crying about? Perhaps. But the real reason behind his tears was not the discovery but the doubt. Zaat swore every oath, before the unsullied white sheet, that no one except him had ever touched

her. She got up to look for the Book of Allah to swear her oath on it, and he had the opportunity to view the merchandise from behind in all its nakedness. He liked what he saw and his tears dried up. It seemed that Zaat had forgotten to bring the copy of the Quran that his father had given them (possibly for this very precise reason, or because we are still in the sixties, in any case this omission would be rectified in the future as the flat filled up with all kinds of Qurans). She returned and sat down next to him and started to cry

again. Why? Because she had discovered that the thing she had so long struggled to preserve had not been there in the first place. We shall now jump several important moments in Zaat’s life, each

of which could have provided a suitable opening to our story: the sad days when it became clear that the Egyptian army was not advancing northeast through the Sinai, but southwest; the dramatic withdrawal performed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, and then Farid El Atrash, Umm Kalsoum, and Abdel Haleem Hafez after him; the moment she

first set the one munist; making

eyes on the gorgeous naked thighs of her young neighbor; when she became, or thought that she had become, a comand the other when she discovered her own new way of “dressing” for the cake from cheap local materials.

We will put all these historical moments aside, for now at least,

and stop at one no less important than any of them. In the days of the duck pond in Merryland Garden, Zaat, who was preparing to take the first-year exam of the Media Faculty for the second time, had announced that she wanted to continue her studies so she could work after graduation for a newspaper, or, if she was lucky, in television.

This second option collided with an unequivocal rejection from Abdel Maguid, who had just succeeded in not sitting for the graduation exams at his own faculty. He silenced her with a stern look that reminded her of her father, before announcing, in his uncom-

promising tone, that the house would need all her time, especially after the hatchery started working and the babies came along. He would be able to provide for all their needs from now on, and cer-

tainly so after he got the long-promised degree. Once again Abdel Maguid was drawing the borders: outside the house belonged to him, inside belonged to her.

Zaat accepted the proposed borders with a certain satisfaction and submitted to the sturdy shelter bestowed upon her, which seemed to her a natural extension of the shelter her father had provided. She also found it an opportunity to score a point over her cousin whose husband had forced her to go back to work from the first day of their marriage in order that they could move up to ground level. Nor was Zaat in any hurry to continue her studies since, due to the limited nature of the traditional operation she had

undergone in her childhood, she found it extremely difficult to concentrate, and a strange state came over her whenever she read or wrote, in which the words all climbed on top of one another’s backs and the phrases and meanings got mixed up. Zaat dropped out of college and was delivered from the problems of commuting and the incessant crowds. She devoted her time to looking after the home and operating the incubator while Abdel Maguid continued not to sit for the annual graduation exam, and the cost of living continued to rise. Then one day Abdel Maguid announced, in that same uncompromising tone of voice, that her staying at home had no “meening” and that she would have to work like other women. Te How would she manage? She was no longer qualified for any work. She was even starting to forget the basics of reading and writing. The only thing she could do well was the housework, and even this she sometimes messed up under the stern and watchful eyes of Abdel Maguid (she would add salt instead of sugar, or vinegar instead of rosewater, or stand frozen in front of the milk pan or the coffee kanaka, unsure as to the exact moment

to remove it

from the flame, until the contents boiled over).

Maguid, however, as she had become used to calling him in more intimate moments, he who could do everything, found her a job on a daily newspaper, through one of its directors who was a customer of the bank, in a department which did not require any talent whatsoever, since it was responsible for monitoring and assessing the newspaper’s entire operation. The department’s work amounted briefly to reviewing published articles to check for typographic, linguistic, political, and professional errors, then comparing them (the articles, not the errors) with the stories the other newspapers published in order to determine areas of strength and weakness, and to set all this down in a daily report which was sent up to the editor so he could send it up to the managing director. Now, because the daily newspapers all derived their news from the same source, and the typographic and linguis-

10

tic errors were often too serious to be noticed by the staff, whose

education had not passed beyond university level, and because the managing director used to throw the reports into the wastepaper bin with his left hand, because the right one never left the receiver of the telephone, down which he received instructions regarding

what could and could not be published from a very junior secretary in the Ministry of Information or the President’s office, after he had told him the latest news and rumors, the head of the department, a kind-hearted man in his forties who bore a truly authentic Egyptian name with a scent of history about it-Aminophis Faltas Kulta—and who had been working for years on a massive encyclopedia of all the famous people who had visited Cairo (given her position as the capital of liberation movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America),

had devised a practical way of acheiving the department’s aims which allowed him to dedicate himself entirely to his important tome. He had prepared by himself seven model reports for the seven days of the week, and while his assistants were engrossed in reading the newspaper or were on the telephone or having a chat, or devouring sandwiches, tea, and coffee, then slipping away one after the other, Aminophis worked away in silence. He would take one of the seven model reports out of his briefcase, copy it out on the department’s own paper (photocopying machines had still not become common), date it, and send it to the office of the managing director. Then he would move on to his glorious work. The next day he would choose another report until that week ended and a new one began, whereupon he would resubmit the same reports, changing their order so that each one would only fall on the same day once every forty-nine days, according to a precise schedule he had worked out for that purpose. Aminophis’s plan was an outstanding success and the department became a byword for achievement until the managing director summoned him, following the coup which El Sadat carried out against the supporters of Abdel Nasser, and, scrutinizing him closely, said: “One of them told on you, Aminophis.”

if

The kind man was taken completely aback. He thought that his plan had been exposed, but the managing director added that State Security had been making inquiries about him asking if he was a member of the secret organization which had been set up by Abdel Nasser, in the last years before his death, from members of his overt organization in order to confuse everybody. Aminophis swore by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost that he had never been interested in politics for a single day, and that his membership in the Socialist Union was a normal routine matter, just like any other Egyptian. _ The managing director, who was himself a senior official in the secret organization inside the overt organization, lowered his head,

and said: “I know, Aminophis, I know. That’s just what I told them.” He added that he had spoken in Aminophis’s favor and referred to his exemplary reports which would one day be taught in the faculties of journalism and media, and that the informer, in his opinion,

was no more than a greedy aspirant for the headship of the department which Aminophis managed with such competence. The aspirants grew in number and the allegations were repeated but Aminophis stood firm and tightened his grip on his position, and despite the fact that he continued to be promoted until he reached the rank of deputy editor in chief, with the right to head the editing desk, he refused to abandon his department since his only ambition in life was to complete his encyclopedia which was growing even more massive as a result of the great and famous who flooded into the country after it opened up to the liberation movements in western Europe and the United States.

During all this Zaat, who still felt like an intruder among a community of workers too well qualified for the task they were absorbed in not doing, would bury her head in newspapers and magazines and not remove it unless the chance came along to pick up some transmission material. Because of the silence which reigned over the place due to the profound involvement of Aminophis and his assistants in their work, and because the women

outnumbered

the men

and so

vv there was a disposable surplus, or simply due to the boredom suffered by those who expend excruciating effort in not working, the department had become a meeting place for a number of editors who held the transmission sessions that the pages of the newspaper forbade them. Zaat sat silent and wide-eyed as she listened in, receiving one shock after another, in particular from a fat and rather pleasant photographer called Mounir Zaher who first appeared in the department carrying a tape recorder. Without paying the slightest attention to Aminophis, who was engrossed in checking lists of transit passengers from Cairo International Airport, he put on a tape. Was it Adawiya? No. Not even Sheikh Imam. It was something far more radical and subversive, a lone voice crying: “People of Aghour! I’m Saad Idris Halawa, one of you, a peasant like you. I farm my land with my hands and my sweat. I haven’t left the land, or gone and sold the buffalo, or pawned the house to take out a loan with interest to buy a ticket to travel, or a forged contract to work in Libya or Saudi. Today’s the 26th of February, 1980. Today El Sadat has opened an embassy for Israel in Dokki and they raised their flag over it. People of Aghour! I’ve had enough. I’ve decided to pay with my blood so that we can be on top. I’ve got two hostages, members of the weary and oppressed people, and if Khedive El Sadat is afraid for their lives he’ll expel the Israeli ambassador immediately from Cairo within 24 hours or I'll kill the hostages and kill myself.” Other shocks included the ultra-modern printing machine that the managing director had ordered for tens of thousands of dollars and which was then deposited in the basement after it became clear it was not needed. A short while later it was scrapped and sold to one of the managing director’s relatives for tens of hundreds of pounds. Then there was the daily columnist who waged a campaign about the disappearance of a certain brand of eyedrops then traveled to Europe at the expense of the company that produced them; one editor who specialized in furnishing the editor in chief not with news but with young women; another who provided the First Lady with news and donations; and a third who went on the pilgrimage every year to the

Sacred House of Allah, all paid for by the servant (of the House, not the journalist); and a fourth who was promoted from preparing reports for State Security to writing speeches for the president. Not a single one of the transmission machines scattered through the houses, offices, and communities of Egypt could ever have dreamed of such an abundant source of material. It certainly encouraged

Zaat, after she had recovered

the ability to read, to

attempt to overcome the difficulty she had moving her tongue. The problem, which had been with her since she was little, had degenerated at the hands, or more correctly the eyes, of Abdel Maguid (for as soon as she started to try and put the letters in order on her tongue and form them into words, he would throw her one of his stern looks and interrupt her in his peremptory tone of voice to confirm that what she wanted to say was a mistake, oov koors, and

the letters would be thrown into disarray and all ride on top of one another). Fortune befriended her, however, for the effects of the ever-widening chasm between Abdel Maguid and his dreams were

beginning to tell (the capitalist dream that had seemed almost attainable under the socialism of Abdel Nasser had, amazingly enough, become impossible during the capitalist era of El Sadat). Abdel Maguid listened without interruption to the news of the tape, then commented abruptly, saying that its owner was either crazy or a communist (which caused her to worry for reasons related to her student days). He was indifferent to news of the scandals and vices, but received stories of the huge fortunes, which

were

being made overnight, with great interest (he found in them a certain satisfaction, even though the fortunes weren’t being made anywhere near him). Gradually Zaat started to carry two bags with her every day: one for the sandwiches and pickles which she took to work, and the other for transmission material which she could

take home with her to liven up the communication channels, which had begun to wane somewhat, between her and Abdel Maguid, and to confront the fierce competition during family visits. Things continued in this vein until the incident of the picture occured.

14

When Gamal Abdel Nasser died and El Sadat became president, the bureaucrats wanted to put the picture of the latter in place of the picture of his predecessor on the walls of government offices and various institutions, but El Sadat rejected this procedure, giving his citizens a valuable lesson in loyalty. It was related that he said that better than to remove the picture of Abdel Nasser would be to let it fall down of its own accord. In this way the pious face with the prayer mark settled down beside its smiling predecessor vith the greying temples, until the prophecy of El Sadat came true nd the pictures of Abdel Nasser began to fall down of their own iccord (this phenomenon began in the companies that had been founded in accordance with the new investment law, then spread to

all other organizations). The room which contained the the Department of News Monitoring and Assessment, however, kept the two

pictures

next

to one

another

thanks

to Zaat, who

used

to

receive nocturnal visits from the smiling giant with the greying temples in turn with her father, who had joined Abdel Nasser (in heaven, not on the wall), until El] Sadat was assassinated.

The bureaucrats were becoming experienced at changing presidents, and framed pictures of the new president were immediately distributed to all offices and institutions. According to the principle of loyalty established by the murdered president, it was decided to keep his picture next to the picture of the new president. The wall of the Monitoring and Assessment department, however, wasn't big enough for the large pictures of the three presidents with their thick frames, and the opportunity arose to get rid of the first one. There was no way, though, that Zaat would accept the removal of her beloved president, and with a rare courage that had not shown itself before, and never has since, she said: “If someone has

to go, then let it be El Sadat.” ‘Aminophis understood the danger inherent in this situation; he would relive the accusations of membership in the secret organizations, which could lead to his removal

from the headship

of the

department, especially since no one knew yet the leanings of the

new president, although he had announced

more than once, in his

own brand of English: “May neem eez Hosni Mubarak.” In order to rid himself of any responsibility, Aminophis wrote a report about the matter (it was his first new report since the seven historic ones) and sent it up to the managing director. The episode ended with the removal of two persons: Abdel Nasser and Zaat. Zaat was transferred to the Archives which occupied the top floor of an old neighboring building, up a dark miserable staircase. Occupying most of the floor was a long narrow room packed with wooden and metal desks all crammed together, and empty chairs. The walls, recently painted dark green, were covered in fingerprints and indentations where the backs of chairs had scraped against them. There was one picture on the walls, of the new president of course,

underneath

else?). He was

which

a tiny man

sat the head with unkempt

of the department hair who

(who

hadn’t had a

shave for several days and whose shirt had a dirty collar. He contemplated her with eyes that looked like they were lined with kohl, and with a movement of his hand, whose thin fingers had twisted themselves inwards towards the palm like a claw, he invited her to sit on a chair near to him. Then he buried his head in a magazine and completely ignored her, not out of shyness or malice, but because he didn’t know what to do with her.

She was thus given the opportunity to contemplate her new workplace from the boss’s vantage point: there were files piled on top of desks, covered in dust, newspapers and magazines thrown carelessly about, shelves of hefty tomes arranged according to a system that made it impossible to consult any of them, and the staff: a quiet young man reading a book with the help of a pencii which he used to underline sentences, leading her to conclude that he must have been a student at one of the universities, and a num-

ber of women with ugly faces: two in higabs (one wearing a grey blouse and black skirt and the other a dress made of imported cloth, garishly colored like her makeup, with heavy gold jewelry round her neck and wrists and on her fingers and in her ears), a third in

full higab with broad shoulders and mournful features, a fourth in an ordinary skirt, maxi, black, like the color of the mole which adorned

her cheek, and a fifth with a face like a rabbit, and an

embroidered skirt with a rose blouse. The moment of mutual eyeing up passed in silence and the staff soon discovered that their new colleague, who had been preceded by much publicity, appeared (as she would always appear to them) insignificant and dim-witted. They got on with their work: Rabbit Face shot over to the corner where Black Mole was sitting next to the university student, put her hand on the necklace of large rings that was dangling on her chest, and exclaimed: “What do you think about this set? The necklace and the earrings? They’re my niece’s. She has a bag full.” Meanwhile the woman with broad shoulders spread out the day’s newspaper on her desk, took a pile of sandwiches wrapped in a piece of paper and a jar of pickles out of a drawer, and directed an invitation to the boss, the new colleague, and the other women, none of whom accepted, according to a previously arranged understanding, except for Black Mole and Rabbit Face, who made use of the opportunity to show off the morning's jewelry at the other end of the room. These machines, though busy chewing beans and pickles, then slurping tea (which was made by the woman with broad shoulders on a small heater on the floor next to some old dilapidated files), were so proficient that they didn’t stop transmitting for a single moment:

Black Mole: “Saad got us some disgusting olives.” Rabbit Face (yawning): “Saad who?” Black Mole:

“What

do you mean,

Saad who?

My husband

of

course.” Rabbit Face: “Oh, that’s right. He must have got them from the co-op.” Broad Shoulders:

“I got some gorgeous olives from Port Said

once. The lid on the jar had rubber in it.” From olives to the price of nylons, in Port Said too, and the best

kinds of tablecloths, medicine for headaches

and indigestion, the

various possible reasons for the late arrival of the monthly cycle (in a somewhat lower voice with glances snatched at the male camp),

the secret of the sudden pains in the area between the stomach and the groin, and how to get children to drink milk, and husbands to change the furniture in the sitting room. Their voices were loud and powerful, dripping with health and vitality. They did not recognize periods of silence or rest. They were tied by unseen threads of familiarity and animosity which excluded strangers like Zaat, who suddenly felt the urge to burst into tears. The feeling returned when it was time to leave, and after she had stood for more than an hour

waiting for the reached home, daughter Doaa her for a cup before

service taxi. It finally overcame her the moment she again as she prepared the food, when her young didn’t do the washing up, when Abdel Maguid asked of coffee, while she was watching the television,

she went

to bed, and

as soon

as the impassioned

Abdel

Maguid tried to snuggle up to her (tears had always been associat_ed with his lecherous feelings since the night of the great shock and Zaat would eventually be forced to resort to the toilet when ever she wanted to shed them). Zaat became accustomed to carrying a small handkerchief with an embroidered hem in her handbag. She would hold it in her hand when

she sweated,

or became

confused,

and wipe the secretions

which built up around the comers of her eyes, or the kohl when it

ran on hot days, with its edge. She continued to hold on to this little handkerchief despite the spread of its paper counterparts, for she was unable to imagine herself as anything other than the lady with the little cotton handkerchief. Eventually however she was forced to bow her head to the inexorable march of civilization when the oldfashioned hankies were no longer able to keep up with her tear ducts. She filled her handbag with a wad of the modern alternatives, and she kept a full box in the drawer of her desk. In this way she was able to quickly remove any inappropriate secretions and get eagerly down to work, sticking and filing clippings, which the boss chose, on those

days he happened to be present (for his encyclopedia, unlike Aminophis’s, required movement), and examining the original sources they came from, which were stacked up in the corners ready to be sold by the kilogram: countless newspapers and magazines that had responded to public malaise with empty political speeches and resounding slogans, by offering a new journalistic service where news that rice makes you put on weight took the place of the boring old headlines about Israeli aggression, or the new stage (always new) which lay ahead on the path of the nation’s development. With the passing of time Zaat began to take part in the eating and transmission sessions, during which she picked up a wealth of useful information. And what did she have to offer in return? Kind-hearted Zaat possessed only the skill at organization and administration that she had acquired working under her strict mother: she kept an ample supply of grated onions and crushed garlic in the freezer, and about a kilo and a half of boiled meat and

cooked sauce in the fridge. Before sleeping she would deftly clean the vegetables while she watched the television, wash them and put them in the fridge. In the morning she would take them out and leave them

on the kitchen table (she now

had Formica),

so that

when she came home from work in the afternoon everything would be ready to prepare a meal that would last two or three days, while she did the washing up from breakfast, put away the things that were

thrown

about

in the

morning

(Doaa’s

nightdress,

Abdel

Maguid’s disgusting socks), and soaked dirty clothes, ready to put them in the washing machine the next day. She cleaned the rice in front of the television in the evening, washed it the next morning, and cooked it when she got home from work. This gave her the time every third day to prepare an extra dish, or some sweets (creme caramel or jelly) or to tidy the wardrobe, or to clean the kitchen cupboards or to darn socks and sew on buttons, or to . . . and all the other housework that never seemed to end. But the Archive machines were ravenous, and such news was only suitablefor one > transmission, after which the machines tuned ie ON

in to other more stimulating channels. Zaat had become involved in a contest that she wasn’t qualified for: she had tried describing the events of her day and it was trivial, not worthy of the venerable machines. She learned jokes from Doaa, Zeinab, Afaf, and Hanaa by heart, but she forgot them as soon as she entered the office and stumbled towards her seat with panic on her face amid the interconnecting lines of transmission. She even resorted to telling them about one of Abdel Maguid’s adventures (in which he

was threatened by three thieves armed with knives: he punched one of them with his right hand, kicked the second with his left foot, and finished off the third with a head-butt), but all they did was

raise their eyebrows and lick their lips. Did she let it get her down, though? Not in the slightest. As soon as she had shed proper and sufficient tears, she would bounce back,

ready for another try.

20

The name of Anwar El Sadat is added to the memorial erected by Israel commemorating the “victims of the secret war.”

The Cairo daily El Akhbar: “Only a complete recovery of moral standards will pull Egypt out of its economic crisis.” Osman

Ahmed

Osman, president of the Engineers Union, chairman

of the committee for popular development of the ruling National Party and former Minister of Housing and Popular Development, in response to allegations by the assistant of the Socialist Prosecutor General that a senior official expediated the embezzlement of the Suez Canal Bank: “So what? It’s our money. We can do what we want with it.” Sheikh Sharawi: “If you see a building, for example, which earns its owner a lot of money, you shouldn’t envy the man. Rather you should pray for him because he has earned his money honestly. He hasn’t exploited anyone because he has put food in the bellies and clothes on the backs of the poorest workers.” Midhat El Tonsy sets up Intraco Import Export Company with Omar Hamed El Sayeh, 29, son of the Minister of Finance and manager of

al

the American Citibank, and the children of a senior journalist who were still minors. Minister of Defense, Field Marshal Abou Ghazala, talking to jour-

nalist Salah Montassir: Salah Montassir: “Field Marshal, one of the results of the October War

was that America became our chief supplier of weapons, just like she is with Israel. 1 am not hiding the fact that, from my own political perspective, | can find a lot of reasons why | believe it is important for America to stand by Egypt and Israel in one camp. But for a moment 1 want to put myself on the other side of the argument and ask you: How can we tely for our arms on the same source that supplies Israel?” Abou Ghazala: “You could put the question another way: Why is America happy to arm Egypt and Israel at the same time? America has a higher strategy that conforms to this position. It has two main goals: to keep petrol flowing from the region at reasonable prices and to remove Soviet influence from the region. As for colonialism,

| doubt

that that’s America’s goal. Their goal is that we are their friends and not the Soviets’ friends.”

French News Agency on the anniversary of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon:

“Between

June

4 and

the end of September

1982,

19

thousand people were killed and 32 thousand wounded as a result of the invasion. This does not include the victims of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, who are estimated

at 328 dead and a thousand

missing.”

Galal El Sadat is accused of using his influence with Dr. Mustafa Abou Zeid, former Socialist Prosecutor General, to acquire five flats in a sequestered building. Dr. Mustafa

Abou

Zeid in court: “The truth is that Galal El Sadat

only took one flat. The details of the five flats are as follows . . . They say that the third flat was rented to a gentleman named Ahmed

2,

Abbas who was the brother-in-law of Galal El Sadat. So we did rent to this person because he was from such a good background, he was a judge in the criminal court. In this case the renting out was being done according to.a rule | had made which was that prospective tenants had to have a good name. They say that the fourth apartment was rented to Suheir El Sadat, whose husband

is an officer in the

armed forces. We had made a few conditions so that the flats were distributed across a broad social spectrum, and we had set aside some

flats for members of the judiciary and others for officers in the armed forces. The fifth apartment was rented to Galal El Sadat in his wife’s name, Hoda Abdel Latif. When we’d finished with the flats we dis-

cussed the garage and Galal El] Sadat came forward. As for the allegation that he rented the garage to a woman for 200 thousand pounds, | was not Socialist Prosecutor General at the time.”

The judge: “Were there not bases upon which tenants were chosen?” Dr. Mustafa Abou Zeid: “They were chosen on the basis that they were some of the most shining personalities in the country.” Yussef Idris: “Was Anwar El Sadat sincere deep down inside, or was he stupid, or even mentally retarded in the face of extremely intelligent opponents? Perhaps he was not stupid at all and understood the significance of the role he was playing, fully aware of what was planned for the Arab nation at his hands? Was El Sadat’s awareness of his role, his willingness to undertake it, and his strange obsession with carrying it out based on any kind of principles? Did he love America and Israel and hate the Arabs and the Egyptian people, or was he completely lacking in principles, and played his role knowing full well how despicable and dirty it really was? An arrogant and complex urge drove him to blindly follow the choices he made. A sick and selfish greed, hidden but nevertheless present, and in fact known to some, particularly to Abdel Nasser.” Sheikh El Ghazaly: “The implementation of Islamic shariah law in Sudan is a glorious inspiration from Allah, may He be adored and

23

glorified, to the government there. Sudan must be congratulated on

this magnificent and auspicious occasion.” Moussa Sabry, editor of El Akhbar, publishes passages from old articles by Yussef Idris extolling the virtues of El Sadat and describing him as “the great father of the nation’s family.” Field Marshal Abou Ghazala: “If we look at the Arab East as a major oil producer, with over 60 percent of the world’s oil, we find that a major aim of its strategy is to maintain good relations with the West as the consumer of its oil. Consequently it is in the Arabs’ best interests to develop these relations with the West. They export the oil and in return they receive the finance and also the technology with which to build a new

economic

foundation

to prepare,

from now,

for a

future after the oil runs out. If we also take into consideration that the Arab states, because they believe in divine scriptures and revealed religions, are closer to the West than the East, we will see that all

these reasons categorically rule out the existence of any conflict or contradiction between Arab and American strategy.” Sheikh Sharawi, on the relationship between Islam, communism, and

capitalism: “The enmity between Islam and atheism is insurmountable,

whereas

the

difference

between

Islam

and

Christianity

or

Judaism is a difference in the concept of the nature of Allah.” The American Secretary of Agriculture: “Food aid is the most powerful weapon we possess. It will prove an effective force in the coming few decades because it will increase the reliance of numerous countries on our food exports and they will then have to be careful not to incur our displeasure.”

The Egyptian Minister of Planning: “Egypt’s foreign debt is 13 billion dollars. That means 400 dollars for every Egyptian citizen including children.”

24

The Egyptian Minister of Planning: “Egypt’s debt is 15 billion dollars. That means 648 dollars for every citizen including children.”

The Egyptian Finance Minister: “Egypt’s foreign debt is 44 billion dollars.” The Egyptian Prime Minister, Kamal Hassan Ali: “Egypt’s debt is not more than 24 billion dollars.” The World Bank: “Egypt’s foreign debt is 30 billion dollars not including military debts.” The marriage of Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi to his English wife Sandra ends amid rumors about her relationship with Sudanese President Jaafar Numeiri. Sheikh Kishk: “The campaign now being waged against President Numeiri for implementing Islamic shariah law was waged in the past against the Prophet Mohammed, and against all those who call for reform.” After the Egyptian Hotels Company (public sector), whose president is Amin

El Gorani,

Egyptian

pounds

pays

358

thousand

to the German

dollars and half a million

company

N.M.B.,

the German

Embassy in Cairo issues a statement saying that no such company exists. It later emerges that the company is an engineering office

owned by a plumbing contractor named Naeem Mahfouz El Bestawy, and that the initials are the first letters of his own name.

Secrets of Talaat El Sadat’s meat and tomato puree deals The Court of Ethics estimates the wealth of Esmat El Sadat, which

he accumulated over sixteen years working as a driver, at 125 million

640 thousand pounds.

25

Dr. Mostafa El Said, Minister of Finance: “The Egyptian economy

under El Sadat’s government was simply a bridge to transfer important financial resources, such as foreign currency, out of the country.” Heroin returns to Egypt for the first time since the Second World War. UNCTED: “The deposits of commercial banks since 1974 job opportunities for around tries every year from 1973 to

Arab oil-producing states in western are equivalent to the cost of providing a million people in the industrial coun1977.”

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia bestows upon himself the title “Servant of the Two Holy Places.” The former American president Jimmy Carter: “No country in the world has presented such proof of its cooperation with America as Saudi Arabia.”

President Mubarak shaking hands with Sheikh Sharawi as he awards him the Medal of the Republic.

French police uncover a prostitution ring in Nice run by Abdu Khawaga, personal secretary to Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, which provides women for Khashoggi’s business clients and senior Saudi figures.

26

Hussein Annan, President of Egyptian Radio and Television, opens a

number of livestock and television projects belonging to Saudi billionaire Saleh Kamel, owner of the Dallah group.

President Mubarak on a visit to

E] Tonsy farms.

El Tonsy tells the president that he owns the biggest farm in the world. The cows eat by computer and it is the only farm that produces cholesterol-free eggs and a manufactured egg thirty centimeters long. He also informs the president that the late Anwar El Sadat issued orders that he be given land and loans, but that the governorate of Giza has only given him 200 feddans and the National Bank has only lent him 25 million pounds. Der Spiegel: “Swiss pharmaceuticals company Ciba Geigy tested Galicron insecticide on Egyptian children and young men after it had been proven to cause cancerous tumors in laboratory mice.” The Minister of Information: “The president has ordered that all obstacles facing El Tonsy be removed, whether they be related to funding or the allocation of the necessary agricultural land.” Ciba Geigy admits: “Some Egyptian children developed cancer as a result of the use of Galicron insecticide in 1976.” The Supreme State Security Court commenting on the case of the Popular Movement: “The accused were subjected to torture in the Citadel Prison at the hands of State Security investigators.”

Dif

A joint working group

made

up of the ministers of Agriculture,

Finance, and Cabinet Affairs, and the governor of Giza, is formed to

study the possibility of increasing government

investment

in El

Tonsy Farms.

An American report documents the appearance of blood in the urine of Egyptian peasants on same day insecticide Galicron was used. Sheikh Saleh Kamel and Prince Saud Bin Fahd resign from the board of directors of Faisal Bank in protest of the cancellation of the power of attorney issued to Mohamed Sayyed Abdel Monem. The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture confirms that it does not permit the testing of substances that could endanger the life of any citizen, and that Galicron was tested on the cotton worm and not on citizens. An electrical spark from a bare wire causes a transformer fire at the village of El Insha (Gharbiya Governorate). The entire village is burned to the ground.

Dr. Abdel Aziz Higazy replaces Hamed Mahmoud

on the board of

directors at Faisal Islamic Bank. Mohamed Hassanein Heikal publishes documents proving that the journalist Mustafa Amin, who was arrested in 1965 while meeting with an American intelligence agent, and released on health grounds in 1974 after the intervention of Golda Meir and Henry Kissenger, worked as a spy for the British Embassy since the forties and that he used to pass on to President Abdel Nasser carefully planned and misleading information which he received from American intelligence in Cairo.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health confirms that it carried out health checks on workers and children in the area where Galicron insecticide

was sprayed and that the results show no adverse effects. Latest tests

28

indicate that the insecticide produces no harmful side effects on animals or humans and it is now being sold again under a new license. Sheikh Mitwalli Sharawi warns shareholders in the Faisal Islamic Bank that the enemies of Islam are conspiring to destroy the bank. “My son

was

arrested

on

November

12,

1984.

He was

detained

because he didn’t have an identity card. During the seven days he was held, he was subjected to all kinds of torture by the officer who arrested him, including hitting him on the head with chairs and putting out cigarettes on his thin body. He eventually died from internal bleeding on the morning of November 19. The following day they hid his body and | still don’t know where it is until now.” Mustafa Beltaguy Darkness and the glare of oncoming headlights cause a bus to veer off

the road and plough into a funeral tent in Luxor, killing 13 women. Vice president of Ciba Geigy Egypt: “Galicron insecticide caused health problems in Egyptian children because they ran through the fields behind the planes as they were spraying the insecticide. However, they have not developed cancer. All that has happened is that there are some minor health problems.”

Available now: gold one hundred pound coins featuring the Holy Kaaba To order and pay call Faisal Islamic Bank Abdullah

Abdel Bary, editor in chief of El Ahram, responding to

Heikal: “! swear to Allah that Anwar El Sadat, the hero, the man, and

the giant, did not, for one single day, flee from his past, or lose sleep over the memories of his poverty. And if he had had a complex about the color of his skin, as Heikal claims, he would not have sat in the

sun for hours every day.”

2g

A horrific fire on the ferryboat Tenth of Ramadan on Lake Nasser kills more than 300 Egyptians and Sudanese. Dr. Fikry Younan, publicity director with a foreign drug company: “President El Sadat, Allah rest his soul, loved to live happily and to make the rest of the people happy too. This generous principle was exploited by some

envious characters, deviants from the national path, whose souls were weak and who harbored in their hearts a bit-

ter hatred.” The shareholders of a certain Islamic bank: “The bank deposits its money in an American or Swiss bank at 18 percent interest and pays its customers no more than eight percent.” Stocks of surplus textiles worth a quarter of a billion pounds pile up in public and private sector companies after the abolition of customs duties on imported textiles and clothing.

A French company spends a hundred thousand pounds laying the foundations for the university hospital in Tanta then discovers that the site is unsuitable. An Egyptian radio base accidentally picks up pictures of military installations in Egypt and Syria being sent by an American satellite to Israel. President Mubarak: “Finally | say to the workers that every one of you is proud to be born in Egypt, and to grow up in Egypt. And be proud also that everything your country produces is made in Egypt, from the sweat and toil of Egyptian workers. We will never grow tired of talking about Egypt and Egypt’s great piace among nations. Egypt is stability, Egypt is security; Egypt, upholder of sacred principles; Egypt, harmonious and unified society; Egypt, steadfast despite all attacks in light or darkness; Egypt, nobility and certainty despite all pain and

30

anguish. Egypt, you are life. There is no life except upon your land, Egypt, there is no life except for you, Egypt.” A teacher and his fiancée are killed when the balcony of a new building in Shubra falls on them. Bahi Nasr is barred from the Middle East Company for Hotels and Tourism after declaring bankruptcy.

At the signing of the contract to build a major cooperative housing project with the name “Gadir Maadi City” sponsored by Osman Ahmed

Osman,

Mohamed

Rabia

Gadir,

president

of

the

International Investment Company, confirms that the new project derives its inspiration for building the Egypt of the future from the spirit of President Mohamed Anwar El Sadat The Minister of Finance, Mustafa El Said, issues a decree freezing the

accounts of currency dealers in Egyptian banks according to a list of 55 names prepared by State Security investigators. At the top of the list are the names Fattah, Mohamed

of Sami

Ali Hassan,

35, Ahmed

Tawfik

Abdel

Tawfik Abdel Fattah, and Ashraf El Saad.

Mr. Taha Zaky, former Minister of Industry, represents the British company Chloride at celebrations to mark the creation of a new joint ven-

ture company between the British company and the Egyptian Battery Company (public sector). According to the deal, the original Egyptian company will cease production of the liquid batteries which supply the needs of the armed forces, the Suez Canal, and public transport, and its

liquid battery factory in Giza will be sold to a company producing plastics. In the future the company will limit its production to dry batteries.

The Egyptian Hotels Company (public sector) rejects an offer from Wagons-Lits International to rent the Cataract Hotel for two and a

half million pounds a year (twice the annual profit of the hotel).

31

Officials at the ——

Bank, whose

founders include Osman

Ahmed

Osman and Hossam Abou El Futouh, are accused of allowing a number of clients to borrow seven million dollars.

The Minister of Tourism, Fouad Sultan, appoints Bahi Nasr president of the Egyptian Hotels Company (public sector). A branch of the American company Union Carbide is established in Egypt to produce 187 million dry batteries with the name “Eveready.” Hossam Abou El Futouh, after nominating himself for People’s Assembly elections: “l made my fortune in Saudi Arabia. 1 am a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. | have a stud farm in Abou Rawash, a free zone in El Amiriya, and 14 factories, companies, and commercial franchises. 1 came to Egypt to serve Egypt with all my money. The proof of that is that the price of a color photograph went down after | became Tudor’s agent in Egypt.” At the trial of the currency dealers: “Samy Ali Hassan granted Fouad El Sarraf, president of Faisal Islamic Bank, power of attorney over his affairs.”

The fugitive millionaire Mohamed

Rabie Gadir took possession of

state-owned land in Maadi and sold it to 1,500 citizens for ten mil-

lion pounds. Hossam Abou El Futouh: “While 1 was on the road tions | saw with my own eyes people living below living in tombs and cardboard boxes, and | thought into parliament, I'll soon have them saying: ‘Lord, aires more and more.”

during the electhe poverty line, then that if 1 get give the million-

Forty people are killed and injured in a collision between the Cairo—Alexandria express train and the diesel coming from Alexandria,

a2

three months

after a similar crash in the same

area which

claimed

twenty lives and more than one hundred injured. At the trial of the currency dealers, the ——

Bank, founded by Abou

Rigeila and Hossam Abou El Futouh, is accused of smuggling five hundred million dollars out of the country. Bahi Nasr, new president of the Egyptian Hotels Company, accepts an offer from Wagons-Lits International to rent the Cataract Hotel for 830 thousand pounds a year. Hossam Abou El Futouh: “I know what it’s like to be poor more than a poor person himself. The poor man is living in the midst of his troubles and so he doesn’t feel them and can’t express them. As for me, with the comforts our Lord has given me, I’m living a happy life. That’s why | feel for the poor so much and why | express their concerns better than they do themselves.” At the trial of the currency dealers: “The vice governor of the Central Bank, who was seconded to the National Bank on a salary of ten thousand pounds a month, speculated in gold with the bank’s general manager on behalf of the currency dealers, making deals worth more than a billion pounds in one year.”

54 percent of interns do not know the names of antiseptics and are unable to give injections and first aid or bandage a simple wound.

19 people are killed and 8 injured when a bus overturns near the Ibrahimiya Canal in Beni Suweif. The dean of the Dentistry Faculty at Tanta University and three professors are sentenced to five years in prison and dismissed for channeling public funds to a foreign company in exchange for bribes.

33

The Government Cooperative Stores Authority refuses to market the products of the General Batteries Company (public sector) and begins to distribute the products of the American firm Eveready. At the trial of the currency dealers: “Abdallah El Gammal made his deals on board his luxury yacht on the Nile in the presence of —— , former assistant to the president of the Republic and other senior officials.”

The General Batteries Company (public sector) announces losses of 44 million pounds.

;

The International Construction Company Heidico Egypt and El Moghtarabeen Ltd: “We have completed 80 percent of our projects in record time.”

750 families in Heidico’s Golden City Project. Dr. Anmed Salama, Minister of Local Government, signing the contracts. Also in the picture, Hilmy Abdel Akher, president of the Legislative Committee of the People’s Assembly, and Dr. Maher Mahran, president of the National Population Council.

Samy Hassan, a sports trainer at the Shams Club who became

the country’s biggest currency trader, admits that all his deals took place

between him and his customers in the offices of bank managers who

34

charged commission

of up to two thousand pounds on each deal.

One and a half meters of a man’s intestines are cut out during an appendix operation. Dr. Abdel Aziz Higazy, former Prime Minister, is chosen as chairman

of the board

of directors of the joint Egyptian-British

company

Chloride.

Part of the wall of the Galaa Tunnel, which was built by Osman Ahmed Osman’s company, collapses.

Minister of Finance Mostafa El Said announces important new measures Foreign currency reserves in the banks are to be placed under the control of the Central Bank in order to be allocated according to the best interests of the country’s economic policy. The system of import without currency transfer is abolished. From now on the importer will pay the value of the imported goods in Egyptian pounds and the banks will undertake to provide the amount in foreign currency. They butchered an old man, cut up his body, and disposed of it in plastic bags because he asked one of them to pay back the 600 pounds he owed him.

El Salaam Shopping Center The first fashion house to specialize in clothes for the muhaggaba

Face to face with the Lady of Heidico The Steel Woman To begin we'll ask Mrs. Hoda Abdel Moniem: “In Britain they call Mrs. Thatcher the Iron Lady. Here in Egypt they call you the Steel Woman. Why’s that?”

BIS)

The Steel Woman: “It’s a long story, but I'll tell it as simply and as briefly as 1 can. 1 grew up obeying my father, who put his faith in Allah into his work, which he loved and always thought of as something sacred. When my father passed away suddenly, because he was working non-stop, 1 found myself responsible for running these huge projects in North Africa and some of the Gulf countries. But above all we never forgot Egypt. She remained in our mind and our heart and our imagination always. As the years passed, and Egypt entered her economic

crisis, we began to reorganize our accounts

abroad and bring our money and long experience back here to help solve the crisis. After all, it’s thanks to Egypt that we are where we

are today.”

Dr. Abdel Aziz Higazy, president of Chloride, requests an extension of the customs and tax holiday, and calls on the government not to

allow the construction of new Egyptian factories for the production of batteries.

Concrete support pillars in a building on Ashwal Street, Pyramids, collapse. American sources: “The Bright Star military exercises in which 9,000

American and 100 Egyptian troops took part cost the Egyptian army 75 million dollars.” Three months after the Minister of Finance’s new economic measures,

Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal Hassan Ali announces: “Mostafa El Said tricked us. The measures he announced are totally different than the proposals he put to the Cabinet.”

Moussa Sabry, editor in chief of El Akhbar: “Mostafa El Said was not honest with the Cabinet or the Prime Minister because he proposed his measures in such a way that the leader of the government failed to understand them.”

36

Eugene Black: “American foreign aid programs offer important markets to American products and help to create new markets for American companies.” Ashraf Gherbal, former Egyptian ambassador to the United States, is

appointed agent for Westinghouse and General Electric in Egypt. The Court of Ethics on the case of the currency dealers: “Mostafa El Said’s decision to close the bank accounts of currency dealers was an economic disaster fraught with shortcomings and viewed with suspicion from all sides. It resulted in confusion on the money market, shortages in foreign currency, and increases in prices.”

Recommendations to appoint the son of a minister as agent for a major American company. The United States is developing the turbines at the High Dam at a cost of a hundred million dollars, including a thousand dollars a day

for each American expert. The Steel Woman: “My success in Egypt in such a short time is thanks to the state because they give all investors a tax holiday of between five to ten years.” Dr. Mostafa El Said: “The huge foreign currency reserves that Egypt built up between 1975 and 1981 have been completely squandered

on luxury goods rather than being used to import essential items and production requirements, or to reduce the country’s debt.” Sudden loss of power in the new American turbines at the High Dam only months after their installation. An officer with State Security Investigation assaults the owner of a cig-

arette kiosk in Senouris (Fayyoum Governorate). The owner had publicly

37

accused the officer of forcing him to pay protection money. The officer takes the man to the police station where he dresses him up in women’s clothes and smears makeup on his face. He then drags him through the streets with his hands in chains and continues to beat him violently while forcing him to announce: “There are no men in this town.”

Dr. Mostafa El Said: “Under the system of importation without currency transfer, the imports of fourteen products alone jumped from 51.3 million dollars in 1981 to 443 million dollars in 1983, a sevenfold increase in only two years.” The director of Presidential Security appears in court accused of amassing a personal fortune through illegal means. An opposition newspaper:

“At a time when we are importing feta

| cheese from Denmark at a cost of 15 million dollars, our own dairy producers are dumping milk because they prefer to buy imported powdered milk at a piaster a kilo which they then mix with fats.”

The public prosecutor’s office accuses the Steel Woman of amassing 70 million pounds over seven years, of borrowing another 40 million from the banks, of advertising construction projects on land she does not own, and using forged building permits. Soldiers of the Central Security Forces use live ammunition and tear gas to break up a mass demonstration outside Senouris police station, protesting against the treatment of the owner of the cigarette kiosk at the hands of the police officer. The Socialist Prosecutor General, Abdel

Qader Ahmed

Ali, accuses

resigned Finance Minister Dr. Mostafa El Said of having abused his position to increase his wealth and that of his relatives. The government

press launches

a campaign

38

against the resigned

Finance Minister, revealing that he owns a consultancy practice in partnership with Mohamed Hamed Mahmoud, Minister of Local Government, Dr. Atef Sidqi, director of the Central Accounts Office,

and Dr. Rifaat El Mahgoub, speaker of the People’s Assembly. The practice operates under the name “The Arab Center for Developmental and Technological Consulting (Pioneers).” The firm’s charter stipulates that any of the partners who occupy a public office such as minister will continue to keep ten percent of the profits. Fouad Sultan, Minister of Tourism: “The black market in foreign cur-

rency serves society because it serves investors and importers.”

Sheikh Sharawi: “A woman

must wear the higab so that a man will

not doubt the paternity of his children.”

The wife of Dr. Mostafa El Said is accused of setting up the Derb Nigm company with Rashad Osman and Osman Ahmed Osman.

7

The president of the Republic at celebrations for the First of May. On his right is Prime Minister Kamal Hassan Ali,

and to his left is Saad Mohamed Ahmed, Minister of Labor and president of the General Workers Union.

Traces of water are found on the roof of the Anmed Hamdy Tunnel, under

the Suez

Canal, which

was

constructed

by Osman

Ahmed

Osman’s company at a cost of 105 million pounds. Mr. Osman had previously contracted to undertake the project for 31 million pounds while he was Minister of Housing.

39

The Steel Woman disappears after receiving a summons to appear in court.

Dr. Mostafa El Said: “The Socialist Prosecutor General, Abdel Qader Ahmed Ali, used his influence to obtain credit facilities from banks for himself, his wife, and some of his relatives without collateral.” Prime Minister Kamal

Hassan

Ali issues instructions not to disturb

currency dealers inside and outside banks. An opposition newspaper: “The minister who was working as a consultant with the Steel Woman for ten thousand pounds a month facilitated her escape after he arranged with workers at Cairo International Airport to disrupt the computer containing the list of the names of people forbidden from traveling just as she was leaving the country.”

Hawa’ magazine visits Dr. Ahmed Salama, Minister of Local Government, in his home to interview him about the values and principles which have guided him in raising his children.

Dr. Maher Mahran, president Population Council, chairman of the Society, head of the Department Ain Shams University, and owner of | Hospital, giving a lecture at the AIDS

of the National Family of the Future of Gynecology at the Mahran Maternity Awareness Conference. |

The Socialist Prosecutor General, Abdel Qader Ahmed Ali: “The loans that Mostafa El Said is talking about were obtained by my son to finance a nutritional security project with a guarantee of mortgaged property.”

40

The new American turbines at the High Dam break down. Hundreds of billions of cubic meters of water are lost.

r

The Minister of Irrigation with Engineer Osman Ahmed

Osman, president of the Engineers Union,

awarding the Medal of Excellence to Dr. Mohamed El Hashimy, president of Ain Shams University.

Kamal Hassan Ali is appointed president of the Egyptian Gulf Bank after leaving the Cabinet. The government press extols in glowing terms the long military career of Kamal Hassan Ali. Having taken part in three wars, he went on to become head of General Intelligence in 1975, Minister of Defense in 1978, then Foreign Minister and finally Prime Minister. He also played a leading role in the military and political negotiations with Israel after the Camp David Accords. President Mubarak: “Comprehensive development has taken place in all fields of life thanks to the strong arms of those who labor at all stations of production with a single integrated team spirit of solidar-

ity under the banner of sincerity.”

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ifwasn’t only the transmission marathon that was responsible for the flowing of Zaat’s tearful secretions, for the tiny glands squatting behind her eyes (whose beauty Abdel Maguid praised so lavishly during the days of the duck pond) could be activated by any number of factors, such as her cousin Afaf moving up from the

damp basement flat to one facing north which the sun came into, the marriage of Zeinab without any flat and her immediate departure for the Gulf then her return with a fancy car and a deep freezer big enough for the needs of an entire restaurant, Manal moving from America to Geneva after her doctor husband became an expert with the United Nations, and Hanaa completely redoing her whole flat starting with the colored wallpaper and ending with a brand new twenty-cubic-feet Westinghouse fridge instead of the decrepit ten-foot Ideal and 26-inch National TV set for the old 16inch Telemisr. But then, why search so far afield when their street, which had been so peaceful and shaded when they moved into it, had filled with small stores and car mechanics’ workshops and was covered in sewage and rubbish. The adjacent spare land that had been planned as a garden was now a dump. The walls of the building itself had turned black, the windows in the back stairwell were all

smashed, and street cats had occupied the lobby and the landings.

43

oe }

Because of the exodus of labor in search of pickings amongst the valuable refuse of the Gulf, local rubbish piled up in buckets left in front of apartment doors, which allowed the cats to hold riotous carnivals that went on all night. The contents of the buckets spilled onto the floor (over a wider area than when the rubbish collector emptied them), and residents would be compelled, when going up and down, to tiptoe cautiously through the mess with the bottoms of their trousers and skirts hitched up. Despite this inconvenience, however, not one of them ever thought to meddle with the cats’ daily bread except Zaat. We have to suppose (if we are to be completely honest about the fact that tolerance for dirt is a national characteristic of ours) that Zaat was sick, or at the very least, not normal. Or that, under the

pressure of circumstances, she had decided to operate according to the golden rule of transmisson, which stipulates that, rather than waiting for something to happen and using it later in a subsequent transmission session, one should manufacture one’s own material.

She spoke a number of times to the middle-aged bawwab (who came from the farthest reaches of Upper Egypt, where he enjoyed considerable prestige due to his position in Cairo): the first time, he

announced that he was only responsible for cleaning the stairs once a week; the second, he proposed putting down poison for the cats but Zaat rejected the idea outright; the third, they agreed to replace the metal buckets with plastic bins with lids, according to a schedule that allowed the cats ample time to train themselves how to remove the lids. The fourth time they decided to call a residents meeting to discuss all aspects of the matter. After long preparation and intense comunications, the first and last meeting in the history of the building was convened, in the flat of the police officer {it seemed that this would provide sufficient immunity from the emergency law). All the residents (the men only, of course) attended, except for the owners of the furnished flats and

their tenants, and the man who worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, who refused to attend without giving any reason.

44

Amm Sadeq the bawwab also took part, standing up (he later reprimanded Abdel Maguid because no one had invited him to sit down). The meeting lasted a number of hours and ended with com-

plete agreement on three points: one, no putting chicken and fish leftovers in front of flat doors (which Zaat used to do as her pro-

gram of organization and administration called for reducing the element of wastage to the minimum

degree); two, ceasing to pro-

vide special treatment for pregnant and newborn cats in the form of boxes lined with newspaper or rags (which Zaat used to do out of the kindness of her heart); and three, knocking nails twisted into the shape of a letter ‘L’ (the Latin one not the Arabic one of course)

on the landing walls next to each flat, at an appropriate height, and hanging the rubbish buckets from them out of reach of the cats. A special committee consisting of Abdel Maguid, the army officer,

and

a neighbor

who

worked

for a building

contractor

bought the required nails and installed them, while Amm Sadeq oversaw the replacement of the existing bins and buckets with new ones that had lids and handles so they could be hung on the hooks, according to a schedule which allowed the cats to train themselves how to jump into the bins after removing the lids. The final blow to the conference’s

from a totally different direction. duty overseeing implementation ing of the dirty rusty cheese can for her rubbish (it had still not

resolutions,

however,

came

Amm Sadeq was carrying out his when he noticed that the emptythat the police officer’s wife used been replaced according to the

schedule), left a larger amount of rubbish scattered around it than

the cats did playing in it when it was full. He decided to accompany the rubbish collector while he was emptying the receptacle, thinking that his negligence was the reason. He stood next to the man, observing him carefully as he lifted up the can to empty it into his basket, and the contents fell out onto the stairs. The can

had no bottom. Amm Sadeq felt that the powers granted him in the meeting, that had, after all, been held under the patronage of the police officer,

45

gave him the right to remove the worn-out can, which he did with an impetuosity not in keeping with the wisdom of his years, and without sufficiently taking into consideration the possible results. When the officer’s wife discovered what he had done she called her husband on the walkie talkie while he was out in the patrol car. He drove home immediately, and from the entrance to the building, where

he stood surrounded

by his men,

he issued the order to

return the can to its place. None of the residents thought to meet again, since they realized by telepathy the absurdity of trying to overcome the cats, and they went back to serving them chicken and fish leftovers on aluminium foil, and preparing padded boxes for the pregnant ones, and they took down the rubbish bins and even removed the bent nails,

and they trained themselves once again how to lift up the bottoms of their trousers and dresses and pick their way skillfully through the filth. Zaat now turned her attention to a more serious matter: the march of demolition and construction. The residents, just like all other Egyptians, had been exhibiting total compliance to the directive they had received over the central transmission apparatus in the form of a housewife with a hammer laying into the walls of her kitchen, which were painted dark green halfway up. After demolishing them she would move on to the wooden cockroach-infested cupboards or the rust-eaten iron shelves.

As

soon

as she

finished

the

kitchen

would

reappear,

resplendant and gleaming, its walls and floor covered with colorful imported ceramic tiles, and fitted out with a well-coordinated selection of shelves and units that neatly, stove, and sink, all of which were made from non-stainless steel. The hammer then took on the bathroom walls and floor, and they too would be covered in attractive ceramic tiles, after which she would change the huge oblong bathtub for a small square one, or the other way around, and replace the ancient hand basin with a new one atop a streamlined stand that made up, together with the toilet and the cistern, a complete matching set in the same material and color. At the same

46

time, of course, all the tired old locally made pipes and taps were replaced with shining long-lasting “soober diyooti” Italian ones.

The march of demolition and construction in the building began with the Ministry of Agriculture man when his fortunes began to | take a turn for the better after competition flared up between the foreign insecticide companies that supplied the ministry. The banner then passed on to the schoolteacher who had worked in Kuwait, then to Hagg Fahmy, the butcher who had joined the residents of the building more recently, and in the latest way, i.e., buying rather

than renting, until eventually it was picked up by the armed forces: the police officer after his return from a security mission in Oman,

and the army officer after he took part in a training mission in the United States. The real leader of the march however was a refined and rather smarmy chief engineer who lived directly above Zaat and had no particular occupation apart from his marriage to a schoolteacher with a vicious tongue and huge chest. When he noticed the Agriculture man’s fortunes had begun to take a turn for the better, he paid him a visit, dressed in his finest clothes, a gold

chain dangling around his neck, and swinging a car key in his hand (one of his friends had asked him if he could sell his car for him),

to offer his services as an interior decorator. Thanks to the chief engineer’s efforts the whole building joined the march, except for the floor Zaat lived on (besides Zaat there was one furnished flat,

another which was closed up, and a third which had occupied by a couple who kept to themselves). She interest the typical signs: sacks of cement, plaster, tins of paint; the din of falling rubble which mingled

recently been followed with and sand and with the voic-

es of the street hawkers, car horns, and calls to prayer on top of all

the usual background noise; sinks, rolls of carpet, and wooden panels; and finally the rubbish: empty cans, broken sinks, and twisted

pipes, bits of brick and porcelain, wood and cement, and dust piled up on the stairs until feet distributed it to the very doors of those neighbors who were still waiting their turn in expectant glee. The residents kept successfully to the agreed marching timetable,

47

for although no two flats ever joined in at the same moment, the time of departure never changed (this happened without any prior agreement and was in some senses telepathic). It began every year with the onset of the cotton spraying season, when the Agriculture man would change his wallpaper for a more up-to-date color, or add a new unit to the air-conditioning system. When he had finished the teacher who had come back from Kuwait would take his turn and fit new carpets, or add a latest electrical appliance to his rare collection. Then, according to the schedule, those next door or upstairs would follow suit, and when the next spraying season came around, the cycle would be complete and the banner would return to the Agriculture man, and he would replace his wallpaper with wooden panels, and so it went on.

There were certain exceptions of course, when the first move came not from the Agriculture man, but from the police officer (once, when he was transfered temporarily to the Drugs Squad) and the army officer (twice, once when he got a new flat from a housing project belonging to the armed forces and sold it immediately for double

its price, and

once

when

he was

transferred

to the

Military Apparatus for Civil Contracts where he was brought into direct contact with the great construction market). Apart from these few cases the march kept to its well-ordered cycle, jumping every time from the third floor to the fifth without pausing on Zaat’s. All of this got her ducts flowing, especiaily when she had to wrap a piece of cloth around the bathroom pipe to stop the water leaking, or when she noticed the layers of grease and smoke ingrained on the kitchen walls, and worst of all when

her sister Zeinab, com-

menting with feigned innocence on the old iron cistern suspended near the ceiling, and the metal chain that usually ended up dangling just above the head of the person sitting on the toilet, said: “Goodness gracious Zaat, do you still have one of those?” Zaat did not forgive her husband his responsibility for such situations, yet still Abdel Maguid, in his curt way, refused to join in the march without giving any reasons. Then he mellowed after a while

48

and explained the practical considerations which made it necessary to wait until after he got his degree, which he never entered the exams for, or a contract in Raas El Kheima which never came either. The nocturnal visits that Zaat received increased. They had at first been confined to her father and Gamal Abdel Nasser, but they had now been joined by Manal’s husband after he got his PhD, and Hanaa’s husband after she moved to a flat near the Pyramids, and, for no particular reason, an old visitor from her university days, Aziz, Safiya’s husband. There was also a surprise visit, which was not to be repeated for many years, from Mounir Zaher, the corpulant journalist. These visits were characterized by a considerable amount of sweet tenderness until some violence started to creep in. Gamal Abdel Nasser would regularly turn away from her all of a sudden and charge into the kitchen, pick up a hammer, and lay into the walls and cupboards, then move onto the bathroom. Zaat would wake up terrified, shouting: “The kitchen... the bathroom. . .” Abdel Maguid

would rush off to get her a glass of water, annoyed that Gamal Abdel Nasser was coming round to his flat, providing with his attitude towards the walls one more addition to a record laden with crimes of aggression against the rights and property of others. When he came back with the glass, some hope had returned, and he asked his

wife: “Are you sure it was Abdel Nasser and not El Sadat?” Abdel Nasser’s assault succeeded in forcing Abdel Maguid to abandon some of his inflexibility and he allowed Zaat to lead him on an exploratory tour of bathroom and kitchen showrooms, during which she stopped for a while in front of a nine-piece bathroom suite of synthetic marble: a Versailles bathtub with steps (“What does Versailles mean, Abdel Maguid?” she asked, and he muttered something angry under his breath), a wash basin with a stand, a bidet, a toilet, a shelf for shampoo and balsam, a towel rail, a toi-

let paper holder, fancy ornamental corner units, in addition to a four-piece rug set for the floor, a plant pot holder, a water mixer, and a shower head in the shape of a telephone. The price? Double

his salary (with incentives) for a whole year.

49

Although the tour succeeded in temporary closure of the ‘march’

file it did nothing for the bathroom pipes and the leaking taps, and Abdel Maguid was obliged to turn to a plumber. He took a day off work, went to meet the plumber at the time they had agreed, and waited for him till he appeared two hours later with a grim expression on his face, and the audacity to say: “Leave it till tomorrow. I don’t feel like doing it now.” Then, encouraged by Abdel Maguid’s amiable and sympathetic manner, he asked him: “What have you got?” At first Abdel Maguid did not understand what the plumber meant, then he realized the man

was inquiring about the make of

his car. His face reddened with embarrassment as he answered that he didn’t have anything, which caused the plumber to exclaim in amazement: “How am I supposed to get back then?” The

plumber,

who

did in the end

enter Abdel

Maguid’s

flat,

alarmed him several times: when he knelt down on the bathroom floor in his expensive velvet trousers in order to inspect the pipe behind the toilet; when he plunged into the filthy water that was pouring up from the drain without taking off his Coochy shoes; when he announced the cost of the repairs that were required, and which involved, with some encouragement from Zaat, removing the tiles and the old enamel, which according to the plumber was no longer used, not even in public urinals, and replacing them with the attractive ceramic variety; and finally, when he disdainfully refused the five pounds Abdel Maguid offered him in exchange for his efforts inspecting and estimating, and announced from the chair on which he had sprawled in his wet velvet trousers that he didn’t accept less than what a doctor earned examining a patient and prescribing a treatment. The interior décor engineer turned up outside Zaat’s flat the very next morming, confirming the effectiveness of the local telepathy network, offering his services with the utmost politeness, suggesting that an extremely limited operation be undertaken to replace the toilet pipe and the taps, until the fortunes of Abdel Maguid or Zaat or the

50

two of them together took a turn for the better. That same evening he joined Zaat'’s secret visitors and continued to frequent her until the limited operation was completed, whereupon he disappeared, only to reappear when Hagg Fahmy, who lived directly below, complained about water seeping through his bathroom ceiling. Despite clear indications to the contrary, the engineer managed to persuade his two victims—Abdel Maguid and Hagg Fahmy—that the matter was to do with the old system, i.e., before he had performed his limited repairs. And the solution? That he himself should undertake a new limited operation, in which he would strip the ceiling so it could dry, then repaint it, at Abdel Maguid’s expense, of course. The only objection to this solution came from Zaat, who (despite the nocturnal visits, and perhaps because of them) was plagued with doubts about the efficiency of the chief engineer’s pipes, and she recklessly voiced the opinion that the way to Hagg Fahmy’s bathroom ceiling began with her bathroom floor. Abdel Maguid brushed aside her objection as usual but Zaat stuck to her point of view. Zaat had changed. She was no longer that speechless sub- | | missive listener she had once been, and, thanks to the transmission

exercises, words no longer stumbled off her tongue and letters no longer rode on top of one another. This irritated Abdel Maguid, and he accused her of not understanding anything, oov koors. He didn’t speak to her for a week, during which time the chief engineer carried out his limited operation, and she began to seriously consider the march of demolition and construction. She was determined that things would be very different from now on. The Egyptian woman, like most women everywhere and at all times, displays a wonderful ability to attend to her needs by herself, as Pyramids Road can well testify. That particular boulevard, world famous though it may well be (in the land of valuable refuse at any rate) was, however, closed in Zaat’s face due to a number of considerations, some of which had to do with the laws of econom-

ics (such as the law of supply and demand), others which were related to an instinctive fear that had been aroused by the experi-

5)

| | | | |

ence of Madam Suheir, the woman who lived in the furnished flat. The Ministry of Agriculture.man had become most irate about the number of Gulf brothers frequenting Madam Suheir’s residence, and he took two simultaneous steps: he collected the cat excrement which was scattered about the stairs and smeared it on the door of her flat, and he installed a transmitting and receiving device (an

intercom) next to the door of his own flat.

There was no connection between the two steps. All that had happened was that the cotton spraying season had come around. A connection did develop after that though, for the Kuwaiti and Saudi brothers, who had considerable experience in some of the world’s

most glamorous and sophisticated capitals, insisted on stopping outside the Agriculture man’s flat and knocking on his door, thinking that they were in front of the reception of the establishment they were intending to visit, which led him to take two new simultaneous steps: canceling the intercom line and calling the police. The last step, of course, had no tangible effect, but it was enough to dispel the hopes and fantasies that had preoccupied Zaat, and to direct them in other fields of self-reliance such as selling nightdresses smuggled from Port Said or dealing in goods from the Ministry of Supplies. Unfortunately the returns from these activities were not as tempting as one might have hoped, because of the number of links in the chain, and when her neighbor Samiha suggested the pan project to her, Zaat welcomed it with open arms. Samiha was a young woman who had still not completed her twentieth spring, as writers say. She had a pale complexion due to poor nutrition during childhood, and she was new to marriage and the building. Her husband, Wagdy El Shangeety, who was older than her by another twenty springs, was a construction engineer from Meet Ghamr. Since his first wife, a relative of his, had specialized in giving birth to daughters, he had decided to marry the daughter of the clerk of works so she could specialize in giving birth to boys. He brought her to Cairo where he obtained a position with the Heliopolis local council and the flat next to Zaat’s, on

52

which he paid all his savings, and which was thus empty of all the latest gadgets. This prevented him from picking up telepathic transmission, and he too had been unable to join in the march of demolition and construction. At first the relationship between the occupants of the two neighboring flats was limited to a greeting whenever they met on the stairs. Those more familiar aspects of daily communication, during which a loaf of bread and an onion or a little salt are exchanged, were denied to Samiha. We can therefore imagine Zaat’s surprise when she opened the door, in response to a ring of the bell, to find E] Shangeety standing in front of her, pale-faced and perturbed: “The wife needs you.” Zaat responded to the call and followed El Shanqeety into a living room crowded with large pieces of humble furniture: a dining table shoved up against the wall, chairs upholstered in shining pink and covered in plastic, and a blood-red sponge suite arranged in the corners. The obligatory canvas embroideries hung on walls that were smeared with fingerprints and head traces and marked with nail holes and knocks from the corners of chairs. Samiha herself was smeared with another kind of stain: she lay in the bedroom on the bed, legs open wide, with a piece of material covered in blood lying between them. It was Zaat’s first opportunity to Sane at Samiha’s gorgeous thighs. El Shangeety brought a doctor, who was able to stem the flow but who was unable to prevent it from happening again, so Zaat was called in a second time, and the relationship between the two women was baptized in blood: for Samiha, who was free to attend

to the business of her hatchery, all attempts of which to operate had so far failed, and who was deprived of any social activity except for visiting her family on holidays and special occasions, found in the mature Zaat a window onto a world she had only known from television, while Zaat found in Samiha a new and willing receiver, in

a constant state of wonder, and at the same time a fresh source of transmission material, for Samiha knew all about the various kinds

53

of ministry supplies, which were brought in by military truck for those poor souls in the police and army officers’ families who were in so much need, the take-away meals which the Agriculture man’s wife and Madam Suheir ordered every day, and all the latest devel-

opments in the march of demolition and construction. The isolation in which El Shangeety and his wife lived did not

prevent them from seriously contemplating that very march and from arriving at the obvious conclusions. One evening, on a semiofficial visit to Zaat and her husband, they brought their brainchild: a large aluminium pan consisting of two identical parts, one of which acted as the lid and had a wooden handle in addition to an electrical socket which was connected to a series of wires inside. The new invention was tested with great ceremony: a chicken was cut into two halves and these were placed side by side in the bottom of the pan. The pan was then closed and placed on the ring and the plug inserted into the socket connecting the lid to the electricity. After precisely a quarter of an hour the smell of grilled chicken began to permeate the room while El Shangeety and Abdel Maguid calculated with pen and paper the cost and profit involved in mass production. Over the following days all four of them became pan carriers. The two men cooperated in supervising the manufacturing process in a nearby washing machine repair shop. Abdel Maguid sold one to the head of the Savings Department in the bank, El Shangeety sold another to the official in charge of licensing industrial premises in the local council, and Zaat sold two in the Archives, a third to her

friend Hanaa, and kept one for herself, then bought the more advanced model which ordinary consumers were not destined to obtain because the project ground to a halt after the number of units produced reached seven and the market reached saturation point. Those who have tasted the sweetness of innovation and creation never forget the feeling, and not long passed before El Shanqeety and his wife appeared on a new official visit: “Madam Zaat,” Samiha said excitedly, “what do you think about paying twenty

54

pounds thought to make sternly:

now and getting five thousand after one month?” Zaat the whole thing was a joke, and she laughed as she went the tea, but El Shanqgeety, who did not know humor, said “This is serious business.”

He explained the new project, which, according to him, came from Germany: “You pay the twenty pounds by postal order to a person you know, and convince five other people to each pay you the same sum in the same way. Each one of them repeats the business with five other people, and Bob’s your uncle.” Abdel Maguid (not to mention Zaat) did not comprehend the complex mathematical

calculation which his visitor explained, for

his mind wandered several times, not in regard to how El Shangeety

had reached such a vast sum, but as to how to spend it: should he go halves with someone on a taxi and drive it, or rent a cafeteria, or a mini market? Zaat had her eyes fixed on the kitchen walls, and

the ghost of Gamal Abdel Nasser appeared to her, busily smashing | them up, while behind

him Anwar

El Sadat, with great care and |

attention, was fixing up colorful high-quality ceramic tiles. The chief engineer turned up the next day (the news had reached him by telepathy) and offered his services. He stressed that it would be necessary to reopen the bathroom dossier in order to treat the side effects of the limited operation he had carried out on Hagg Fahmy’s ceiling, and suggested another limited operation during which the entire flat would be painted. Scarcely had he disappeared when a new visitor knocked on the door, an elderly man over sixty, who carefully monitored his cautious steps from behind thick glasses: Amm Mahrous the barber. He did not need to introduce himself, for he had been renting the only shop in the building since its construction, and he was on good terms with Zaat and Abdel Maguid, even though they did not avail themselves of his services, for he was a specialist in women’s hair, and Zaat had remained faithful to her old hairdresser, and because most of the time he neglected his original trade in order to deal in used cars and furnished flats.

BS

“Was the chief engineer here today?” Amm Mahrous asked after drinking his tea. Abdel Maguid answered in the affirmative. Amm Mahrous went on: “And he suggested you change

the

plumbing?” (Yes), “And paint the flat?” (Yes), “And do some alterations?” (Yes), “And remove that wall?” (Yes), “And change the fur-

niture?” Here Abdel Maguid

objected: “No, he just suggested that we

reupholster the furniture in the sitting room.” Mahrous lowered his head: “I see. And did he offer to buy the fridge?” Zaat replied: “He just said he would be able to help us get hold

of a new one.” “Did he really,” Mahrous said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he offered to buy all the furniture.” Abdel Maguid protested: “But we don’t want to sell.” Amm Mahrous understood very well. He would be able to arrange for the flat to be painted through certain of his connections in order to prevent them falling into the snare of the chief engineer, who would bring the workers and order them to remove a wall or paint it quickly without bothering to cover the furniture, then express his regret at the negligence of the workers and his readiness to bear the cost by buying all the furniture, and the next day he would send someone to price it and before they knew it he would take the furniture for piasters, do it up, and resell it. Zaat remembered: “That's right... While we were talking about the painting he was fingering the chairs and the dining table and the fridge.” Abdel Maguid displayed enormous self-restraint in the face of Zaat’s gloating looks (they clearly said: “Didn’t I tell you?”) and extreme cunning in the face of Amm

Mahrous’s expectations, for

he assured the old man that he would make use of his experience when he began the painting. The very next day he set out in search of an honest and trustworthy plumber who could take the five

56

thousand. Zaat went with him and finally they found one, although he was of a somewhat different specialization. Zaat had been to see the doctor at the newspaper complaining of a chronic cough, and he had advised her to go and see a specialist: “Just to be on the safe side.” That evening she went with Abdel Maguid to El Gamia Square to buy a pair of shoes, and while they were crossing the road near Salah El Din Square she noticed a newly constructed single-storey building divided into medical clinics of different specializations,

one of which bore the name

of a

famous surgeon who her father had always spoken very highly of. The walls of the clinic were still being painted, but the doctor was more than willing to examine her, admitting that he himself was not the famous surgeon, but rather a distant relative. Zaat submitted to an examination that was so exact and copious that she thought it highly dubious. The doctor felt her breasts for quite a while and pressed them up and down, and squeezed them and fiddled with their nipples. He was standing in front of her and her head was on a level with his stomach but she resisted the temptation to look down and confirm her doubts. In the end it was he who did the confirming when he shook his head solemnly and announced that it was divine intervention that had driven her to him at the right time (for him of course) and that he would be wait-

ing for her in the morning in order to remove one of her breasts in an attempt to save her life. Zaat did not mention her visit to the doctor in that evening’s joint transmission session with Samiha, because Samiha had previously expressed, on several occasion’s, her admiration of Zaat’s full

round breasts and her dismay that her own were no larger than lemons. For that reason Zaat did not appreciate the full gravity of the situation until she went to bed. Her tears poured forth and Abdel Maguid cried with her (for the first time since the wedding night), for he had not lost his anxiety over the sound condition of the merchandise, even though the years they had spent together | had raised his concern to a more human level. !

yf

It was on this basis (the sound condition of the merchandise) that

Abdel Maguid rejected the suggestion to remove'the breast. Zaat was reluctant too, for despite the fact that she had not used the breasts as much as she might have (suckling in all its kinds), they were, after all, a part of her physical appearance, and belonged to an apparatus that had still not reached the end of its life expectancy. Thus in the morning the two of them reached a final decision: no operation. Thus began a journey that involved much fiddling at the hands of senior physicians (not only with the breasts) after waiting long hours under the stern view of video cameras, in air-conditioned waiting rooms, crammed with a mixture of the daughters of good families, bureaucrats and plumbers, in other words the creme de la creme, walls decorated with verses from the Quran, photographic murals of the North Pole, the Russian painting of the weeping child, and certificates in foreign languages which, though giving the impression of global know-how, in reality testified to nothing more than participation in conferences (organized by pharmaceutical

companies to promote their wares). Zaat’s nightmare journey included visits to places far away, whose names evoked terror: the Maadi Military Hospital, where she was seen by an American doctor from Texas who was unable to give an opinion about her condition but who advised her to have the operation, saying that in America it had become a routine procedure, just like having the tonsils out or “like that protuberance you remove here”; the Ain Shams Specialization Hospital where she went to have some X-rays done and sat waiting her turn in the company of the technicians, until one of them remembered there was a patient lying under the camera and rushed over to him exclaiming: “Lord preserve us, no harm done inshaa Allah.” When they called her, she begged them not to forget her under the camera, and she objected to the used needle with which they wanted to inject the colored substance into her veins, and to the dirty sheet

which they spread out for her, and they pleaded with her: “Leave it all in the hands of Allah, may He be exalted and glorified.”

58

And that is just what she did, and Abdel Maguid too, who had come to know the way of Allah. He had started to pray regularly, not for her salvation but for his own, for in the southwest corner of his balding head mysterious fantasies were gathered, in which another woman, more sympathetic to the various arts of suckling, had taken Zaat’s place, for her disappearance was now expected at any moment. Nevertheless he prayed for a cure obsessively and was desperate for news of the latest discoveries, and the miracle worker in the Philippines who removed tumors with his bare hands without any surgery, and stories of people who had survived and others who had not. It was at the Cancer, or “Tumor,” Institute, as it modestly called

itself, that their wanderings finally came to an end, among a crowd of peasants who had come from remote villages with swollen stomachs, necks, bladders, wombs, and breasts, squatting against the walls of a cold dark waiting room, which was enough in itself to

cause the most malignant of tumors, where a number of young doctors willingly fiddled with the patients in exchange for a fee of fifty piasters under the supervision of a senior professor who was furious at people’s passion for smoking. He reluctantly gave her a clean bill of health with the same angry intensity, as if he were sorry that she had been cleared, and he advised her to follow the self-fiddle method, and to begin each day with it so that next time she could come to him at the right moment. During all this, the business of the twenty pounds which changes into five thousand had been forgotten and the issue of “nutritional security,” which had recently become very popular with the government and entrepreneurs, had taken its place: a small trailer decked out with shelves, stove, and fridge, parked in Roxy Square selling sandwiches to passers-by and cimema-goers. E] Shangeety worked out the cost with pen and paper and he began to pay, together with

Samiha,

secret

nocturnal

visits to Zaat, who

was

enthusiastic about the new project. She volunteered to be responsible for the pickles, and she filled the kitchen and living room, and

59

even the corridor leading to the bedroom, with large glass and plastic jars packed with cucumbers, lemons, peppers, and onions. It was only a few days before signs of maturity appeared on the pickles, and soon everything was ready except the car, which still needed a little longer. It was El] Shangeety who had managed to get hold of it, but the project was not destined to come to fruition, for on the one hand the pickles had long gone bad in his friends’ house, and on the other, the car, which was a rare kind of small Fiat

dating back to the early sixties, was not big enough for anyone to stand inside it and there was no room for any equipment. It was enough, however, to cause Amm

Sadeq, the bawwab (who demand-

ed five pounds a month from every tenant in order to clean his car at the crack of dawn so that the tenant would find it bright and shining when he came down just before noon) to stop her on the stairs and say with a look of compassion that brought tears to her eyes: “Only you without a car now ya Sitti. Come on. You ought to get a move on.” In the end it was Samiha and El Shangeety who got the move on, and

after a selection

chamois

and

of sumptuous

leather jackets,

and

blouses

modern

skirts

and and

shirts, and expensive

shoes and contact lenses and Cartier spectacles, the familiar signs appeared: cans of paint and boxes of ceramic tiles, sinks made of non-stainless steel and a colored bathroom suite. Rolls of carpet crowded the corridor leading to the two flats, the tattered sponge suite in the living room was replaced with a new one, the miserable

Ideal washing machine with a full automatic Westinghouse, and the rectangular dining table with a round one accompanied by smart Style chairs covered in blue velvet. The march was moving nearer to Zaat’s own door and she had no choice but to join its ranks, despite the opposition of Abdel Maguid. With her determination strengthened by the betrayal of her business partners, she implemented a strict economic policy: she worked hard to get as much money as possible out of Abdel Maguid, and she hid all the raises and bonuses she got (which was something that had

60

not escaped the shrewd Abdel Maguid, and he started to hide what

he got too). Then she started a limited savings club at the Archives made up of ten people (Samiha joined and paid two shares), each of whom would receive a thousand pounds in a given month. As soon as Zaat’s appointed month came she put her trust in Allah, after the machines at the Archives had found her the ubiquitous plumber, and

faced Abdel Maguid with a fait accompli. He was furious. He stopped talking to her and boycotted the whole affair, not because he objected to the principle, but to the procedures. The thousand pounds were not enough to cover the cost of all the proposed alterations, so Zaat contented herself with changing the bathroom toilet for a modern one (“a combination” as she and

the plumber

insisted

on

calling it in spite of Abdel

Maguid’s

attempts, volunteered from behind his boycott barriers, to correct them).

Then

she directed

her attention

to the kitchen

and

she

stripped the walls and covered them and the floor with luxury polished rose-colored ceramic tiles. Gamal Abdel Nasser stopped coming with his hammer of demo-\\ lition, but Anwar El Sadat continued his nocturnal visits with the|

popular ceramic tiles in his right hand. Unfortunately, however, Zaat’s coffers ran dry a few inches before the tiles reached the ceiling and she had to paint the remaining space with the familiar old oil paint.

61

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President Mubarak thanks the United States and confirms that their aid has noamesulterior motives and that they take nothing in return. El Ahali newspaper: “American nuclear warships have been passing through the Suez Canal since 1984 as a result of a political decision by the Egyptian government and despite the opposition of experts.”

NATO exercises in the Egyptian desert The American Council for Public Affairs: “American companies exported to the Third World 2.4 million pieces of children's clothing treated with a chemical substance which is banned in the United States.”

The king of Saudi Arabia receives a tumultuous welcome from British government officials after the largest British arms deal since World War Il, worth ten billion dollars, for the purchase of Tornado aircraft. The

deal is seen as a gift to Mrs. Thatcher's Conservative Party on the eve of British elections. President Mubarak launches a call for the production of a popular motorcar one hundred percent Egyptian.

63

Pound sterling increases from one dollar to one and a half dollars. United States invites Israel to take part in Star Wars program. Egyptian Industry Minister invites bids for production of Egyptian popular motorcar from foreign companies.

_/At the end of his official visit to Britain, the Servant of the Two Holy Places moves to his mansion in Hampstead which he bought for thirty million pounds sterling. President Mubarak: “America has responded to all our demands, and has provided grants with no strings attached. The Soviets used to impose terms and conditions which affected the standard of living of the Egyptian citizen. Experience has shown that cooperation with the Russians leads to futile wars which we gain nothing from."

The New York Times: “American aid to Egypt has led to an increase in reliance on the United States for food and military assistance. Egyptian leaders will certainly think twice now before adopting any position that might lead to a suspension of aid." The Herald Tribune: “USAID exported Phosphil to Egypt. The insecticide, which Is banned in the United States, has caused the deaths of a number of Egyptian peasants and their animals." Field Marshal Abou Ghazala, Minister of Defense: "We must support an American rapid deployment force and create a joint Arab force to counter the Soviet threat.”

Bidding for the production of the one hundred percent Egyptian motorcar seems to be moving in favor of the Japanese consortium. King Fahd, Servant of the Two Holy Places, presents President Reagan

64

with a gift of a huge solid gold egg containing the flags of the two countries. The king's youngest son donates a million dollars to an American school. Field Marshal Abou Ghazala: “An American soldier deployed in the region costs 150,000 dollars a year, whereas an Egyptian soldier only costs 1,200 dollars, less than one percent of the cost of an American one.

”

The Washington Post: "America's National Security Council has made plans for Egypt to attack Libya with American assistance and occupy half the country in order to remove Gaddafy." President Mubarak before leaving for Washington: “We receive 850 million dollars aid every year from the United States. We pay 500 mil-

lion dollars of this as yearly interest on our military debts to them."

President Mubarak in Texas: “Most American companies that have invested in Egypt have made huge profits. That's because we have the biggest market in the Middle East and Egyptian labor is cheap." A secret investigation is underway at an important government establishment of 11 officials who were members of a committee which contracted to purchase 29 damaged aircraft from British factories. Two of the aircraft exploded after only four days, killing both pilots. The Canadian government accuses two senior Egyptian officials of taking three million dollars commission on a helicopter deal to Egypt. The New York Times: “Before President Mubarak's visit to Washington the Egyptian government submitted a secret document entitled ‘The Need for Reciprocal Reliance Between Egypt and the United States, in which Egypt lists the cases where she has allowed the United States to use her installations for military purposes.”

65

An American consultancy firm receives 17 million dollars from the funds for the new housing project in Helwan. After construction begins a layer of soft clay is discovered in the soil. The director of the French Planning Institute: “In return for every franc that France spends on aid to developing countries she receives six francs worth of business.” Mubarak to Reagan: capable than yourself sacred mission in the great nation at a time

“I do not believe that there is any leader more of playing a historic role and accomplishing a Middle East. Fate has chosen you to lead this when there is a golden opportunity for peace."

While the Egyptian and American leaders are meeting in Washington, tanks of the Israeli Defense Force roll into the village of Zerarie in southern Lebanon, killing dozens. America vetoes a proposed Security Council resolution sponsored by Lebanon condemning Israeli aggression against the inhabitants of southern Lebanon. Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi: “| am proud to have rescued the Egyptian television network in cooperation with Dr. Mostafa Khalil when he was minister.” The Washington Post: “Dr. Mostafa Khalil’s consultancy company was paid five million pounds to study the economic viability of the telephone project before he became Prime Minister. As an agent on behalf of an American company, Dr. Khalil also negotiated a deal with the

Egyptian Ministry of Telecommunications on which Adnan Khashoggi took a large commission." '| President Mubarak: “I challenge anyone to say that Egypt does not

|have a will of her own."

66

First consignment of Mirage 2000 fighters to reach Egypt in a few days. The Commander in Chief of the Egyptian Air Force: "The variety of fighters in our Air Force unnerves the enemy. We obtain all our requirements for modern weapons from America and France without any problems." The Egyptian Minister of Social Affairs during celebrations to mark 15 years of cooperation between Egypt and America: “Cooperation with America is the ideal way to overcome our problems.” Dr. Mahmoud Abdallah, Undersecretary of State for Agriculture and member of the People's Assembly: “All thanks to the providers of aid to Egypt and to every aid representative working in Egypt. Would a person bite the hand that is held out to him?" A shipment of rotten wheat from the United States, declared suitable for human consumption by the American Department of Agriculture, is detained in the port of Alexandria for two months, at a cost to the Egyptian treasury of 8,000 dollars a day. An economist: “American aid is nothing more than loans to Egyptian | companies so they can buy American products.” y The Commander in Chief of the American Navy: “Joint projects between Israel and America to develop new kinds of rockets, submarines, and gun boats." President Mubarak on the results of his trip to Washington: “The aid has increased and it's all in the form of grazts that don't have to be paid back. Who's going to give me 2,315 million dollars that don't have to be paid _ back? | can hear you say: ‘He's accepted the grants: . . I'm not defending America... but they're giving me something, they're helping me... Should | hold out my hand or step back? After all, I'm giving them nothing.”

67

A member of the Egyptian People's Assembly: “There are 1,116 American experts in Egypt being paid 267 million dollars a year, which is more than the entire budget of the Ministry of Education." An American magazine: “The profits of foreign banks and investments in Egypt which left the country in 1985 reached 7.6 million dollars. Foreign banks make 18 dollars in return for every dollar they invest in Egypt.”

Four Palestinians hijack an Italian ship in Egyptian waters The American ambassador demands armed intervention and a military attack on the ship. The Egyptian authorities refuse and reach an agreement with the ambassadors of the countries that have citizens on board the ship that the hostages will be released in exchange for the freedom of the hijackers, who will be handed over to the PLO to stand trial. American jet fighters intercept the Egyptian civilian airplane which is carrying the hijackers of the Italian ship and a representative of the PLO, and which took off secretly for Tunisia. They force the airplane to land at a NATO military base in !taly.

The American

ambassador in Cairo hurls insults

at a senior Egyptian official The Washington Post: “American intelligence placed a listening device in the office of the Egyptian president and were able to obtain information which allowed them to force the Egyptian plane to land at an American base in Italy.” President Mubarak demands a public apology from America for the insult to the Egyptian people. United States freezes 150 million dollars of extra aid scheduled

Egypt and demands repayment of interest on debts.

68

for

The opposition press: “American experts in Egypt receive their salary in America plus 207 percent plus 13 percent profits to the organization that loaned him out plus the rent of a flat which ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds a month plus a motorcar allowance of 2,500 pounds plus 20 percent.” Intense American pressure on Egypt to encourage normalization with Israel. The Egyptian press announces that the contract for the one hundred iN percent Egyptian motorcar had been signed with the American company General Motors.

The American government stipulates that 200 million dollars of aid\ money be allocated to guarantee the new investments of General Motors in Egypt. The Egyptian Industry Minister: “Egypt has not signed a contract with General Motors.” Youssef Wali, Secretary General of the National Democratic Party: "We

have signed the contract with General Motors." The Egyptian Industry Minister reconfirms: "We have not signed." General Motors announce

in the American

press: “The contract has

been signed." Experts at the Egyptian Industry Ministry: "The General Motors contract means that the millions of pounds spent on developing the Egyptian motor company Nasr (public sector) will have gone down the drain, and that a quarter of a century of experience assembling the Italian Fiat will have been wasted. Everything has turned upside

down."

69

Spare parts worth a million pounds disappear from warehouses at Nasr Motor Company. The New York Times: “In what appears to be an attempt by the Italian company Fiat to apply pressure, Italian intelligence has leaked news, which was broadcast by the American television station ABC, that it was an Egyptian military official who gave information to the American government about the time of the takeoff of the Egyptian airplane carrying the hijackers of the Italian ship thus allowing the Americans to intercept the plane."

Hijackers force Egyptian plane to land in Malta The hijacked plane is the same one that was forced down Americans in the Italian ship hijacking.

by the

President Mubarak puts Field Marshal Abou Ghazala in charge. Field Marshal Abou Ghazala: “Libya is responsible.” Israel and the United States accuse Libya of organizing the hijacking. Libya denies the allegations. An Egyptian commando unit storms the hijacked plane. 60 people are killed and 26 wounded. 15 hours after the storming of the plane the Egyptian government releases a long statement about the success of the operation, blaming the casualties on the hijackers. An Australian passenger: “The commandos did not know who the hijackers were. They shot at everything and everyone that moved.” An American newspaper: “The Egyptian unit did not have any infor-

70

mation concerning the layout of the aircraft or the identities of the hijackers." The American Ministry of Defense: “Three officers from the American

diplomatic mission in Cairo accompanied stormed the hijacked airplane.”

the Egyptian

unit that

An American official: “The Egyptian commando attack that ended the hijacking will strengthen the noticeable improvement in relations between Washington and Cairo." Field Marshal Abou Ghazala: “The interests that exist between the oil states and the industrial nations depend, from both perspectives, on the stability and security of the Gulf in order to guarantee that the oil reaches the consumers through the pipelines of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Egypt's interests therefore are directly concerned with ensuring the transportation of oil. It is well known that the West only produces ten percent of its oil needs and gets the rest from the Gulf. Consequently the region must remain stable, and we believe that Egypt carries a major part of the responsibility for this, and that herrole is inno way secondary.”

Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi: “East is east and west is west and whenever the two meet there is a commission in it for me.” At a National Democratic Party youth meeting a young Egyptian asks President Mubarak: “Why doesn't Egypt allow her land to be rented out as a military base and use the income to solve the economic crisis?”

Reagan’s National Security Advisor proposes to Mubarak a plan to attack Libya 44 American 1110 bombers attack Gaddafy’s headquarters in Tripoli killing 39 people, including Gaddafy’s daughter, and wounding his son

71

Field Marshal Abou Ghazala: “It's totally ridiculous, but Egypt pays 86 percent of American aid to repay debts. We take a yearly economic grant from America of 780 million dollars and every year pay 600 million dollars interest on previous military debts.” Field Marshal Abou Ghazala flies to Washington suddenly to discuss Egypt's military debt (4.5 billion dollars) while the head of General Motors arrives in Cairo to meet with President Mubarak. An American newspaper: “The commissions on international deals amount to more than ha!f their total value.”

arms

An American economist: “General Motors has realized that the cost of labor in Egypt, including wages and benefits, is two dollars an hour compared to 15 dollars an hour in Europe. The Egyptian project will make the company a competitive force and rescue the Opel factories in Europe that were threatened with closure." New price rises as the government secretly abolishes subsidies on basic foodstuffs.

The Egyptian Investment Corporation agrees to a proposal by General Motors to produce the Opel in Egypt. Dr. Rifaat El Mahgoub deliberately ends a session of the People's Assembly before looking at a question from the opposition about the General Motors project.

American Secretary of State announces 110 million dollars cash for Egypt The sum, part of an economic aid package scheduled for Egypt, was withheld until Egypt implemented economic reforms demanded by the United States and the IMF.

I[H

The Egyptian press: "The United States has refused to increase military aid by half and to reduce interest payments on Cairo's military debts from 15 percent (the rate in 1979) to 7.5 percent (the current rate).

American government allocates 3 billion dollars aid to Israel and 2.3 billion to Egypt The Egyptian opposition: "The General Motors contract means handing over Egypt's motorcar production base to a major American company.”

Sony celebrates its return The fruit of cooperation between the Japanese company Sony, the International Islamic Computer Company (Compulang), the International Islamic Bank, and the Benha Electronics Company (public sector).

SESE

Professor Mohamed Samir Alish, managing director of the International Islamic Computer Company, speaking at the gathering held to celebrate the return of Sony at the | Mena House Oberoi Hotel in Cairo

Professor Mohamed Samir Alish: “Praise be to Allah and thanks be to Allah. This great occasion is the result of years of continued and unstinting effort, of work undertaken quietly and unobtrusively. Today we are able to gather the harvest of all that labor and all that sweat and to see that the dream has finally come true... Yes, Sony is back in the Egyptian market ... We met with some of the pioneers of Egypt's new economy in the late seventies and resolved to raise the name of Allah and the law of Allah in every field of life . . . for the rules of Islam are not mere religious rites to be performed, but a perfect model on which to build our lives... with the effort and potential of humanity. Here we are today .. . witnessing the birth of the International Islamic Company

13

for Computer Technology (Computum), offspring of Compuland, ready to realize its goals and take the world of the future by storm... the world of information, which until now has been monopolized by a number of nations you could count on one hand."

Good news for everyone who loves Egypt. Every vehicle coming off the production line will carry the slogan Made in Egypt General Motors Egypt Building Egypt's future The press: “General Motors has asked the four public sector banks in Egypt for a loan worth a hundred million Egyptian pounds to finance their operation in Egypt."

74

Te was nothing that attracted Abdel Maguid to El Shangeety’s thighs. In any case he had never had the opportunity to peruse them, and even if he had the result would not have been any different, for he had long since grown out of the stage where such attractions develop (and during which sizes, shapes, and features are

compared in the playground or the school toilets, and where matters might even develop into various forms of mutual

assistance), and

now they had disappeared completely from his memory due to the long years he had spent between the legitimate thighs of his wife. Nevertheless a firm relationship developed between the two men, despite the difference in age, which was more than a decade and a half, due to their common

tastes and interests: for if circumstances

had not permitted Abdel Maguid, as they had permitted Zaat, to peruse the full splendor of the other pair of thighs in El Shanqeety’s possession, the small amount of them that Abdel Maguid had managed to glimpse on various occasions (in particular the period he spent lying on his back after he broke his leg when he slipped on the newly ceramiced kitchen floor) was enough to arouse a curiosity that was nourished on the wings of fantasy. (This was not lost on Zaat and it provoked in her mixed feelings that could be termed compound

or multifaceted jealousy, or, to use the precise term, a

transsexual jealousy). 75

Thighs aside there was complete agreement between the two men concerning current affairs: they both welcomed peace and Camp David,

they both

cursed socialism,

Abdel

Palestine, and the Soviets, complained

Nasser,

pan-Arabism,

about prices, schools, and

public transport, enumerated the disadvantages of poultry farms and taxi companies, and offered successful answers to the Ramadan

riddles, but never won the prizes.

The desire to build and strengthen bridges led them to gradually explore the art of fine evening conversation. It fell upon El

Shangeety to take the initiative, for he had spent his military service training how to erect bridges, and one evening he accosted Abdel Maguid with that most common of Egyptian passwords: “Have you heard the latest joke?” Abdel Maguid pretended to be interested: “No. What?” El Shangeety, with a slow deliberateness that allowed him to remember the details he had been struggling all day to memorize, related the joke: “This man’s getting drunk and his friend asks him, ‘Why do you drink?’ So the man says, ‘To forget’ His friend asks him, ‘Forget what?’ The man thinks for a minute then says, ‘I can’t remember.”

Abdel Maguid burst into laughter and came back from the bank the next day with a similar password. “This man called Ass gets fed up of his name so he changes it and goes to his friend. He’s really happy: ‘Guess what?’ he says, ‘I’ve changed my name. His friend says: ‘Congratulations. What did you change it to?’ The man says: ‘Fish: His friend’s surprised, he asks him: ‘Can you swim?’ He says: ‘No. His friend says: ‘So you're still an ass.” El Shangeety burst into laughter. In fact, he slapped his thighs with the palm of his hand, initiating a period of thigh slapping that did not last for long, for the spring from which they had supped soon dried up. Indeed, the technological progress that the Egyptians had been acheiving had led to a diminishing of their creative abil-

ity in the one field in which they had historically dominated all other nations, and their output declined, quantitively and qualitatively, until they had exhausted its limited themes: politics (the

76

laughing cow, or la vache qui rit) and racism (the Upper Egyptians). The two wives, desiring to be alone in order to transmit on matters of extreme sensitivity, compelled the two men to refine their own machines and once again it fell upon El Shanqeety to take the initiative. Unfortunately he could find no way to fill the gaps in his transmission except by referring to his past life in Meet Ghamr or dipping into his military history. (Sadly): “Instead of the normal one year’s conscription, I was caught up in the War of Attrition. Seven years of my life wasted in the trenches on the canal, from the middle of 1967, just after the defeat, until October 1974, just after the victory.” (Enthusiastically): “When zero hour came on the 6th of October we were like a tightly wound spring ready to uncoil in an instant. Everyone was psyched up. We were all optimistic. For the first time we were taking the initiative after training and preparation. At two minutes past two, eighteen minutes before zero hour, four MiG 21s flew low over our heads, hugging the ground, cross-

ing the canal to the east, and our cry rang out down the length of the canal: Allahu Akbar. After that the artillery opened fire, the dinghies were inflated and the pontoons made ready. After one hour we were

on the east bank, after five hours we had broken

through the famous Bar Lev Line which had cost two billion dollars and which the Israelis thought would last forever.” (Laughter): “We caught the Israelis with their pants down, as they say.” (Proudly): “The engineers were at the heart of everything: dismantling and assembling bridges, opening breaches in mine fields and the earthworks, we opened 44 breaches in the awesome earthworks

of the Bar Lev Line.” Testing his improvisation abilities for the first time, Abdel Maguid tried to make a joke by suggesting that the Deversoir breach (which the Israelis later made on the west side of the canal) was one of the

breaches that El Shanqeety had helped to open. El Shangeety missed the joke. Instead he used the opportunity to inject some of his own humor: “The commanding officer had a vicious tongue. He had formulated a plan to close the breach, but the commander in chief, who

WL

was endowed with an extremely large backside, rejected it. When the commanding officer heard this, he shouted down the phone at the C-in-C in front of everyone: ‘I suppose you're going to fill it with your arse then?’” (There, we've said it).

Abdel Maguid fumbled about for another joke: “And the angels? Didn’t you see them? Weren't they fighting with you in white robes?” El Shangeety shook his head (he still hadn’t fallen into the clutches

of Sheikh

Salama):

“We didn’t need them. The soldiers

were attacking the enemy tanks with their bare hands. Do you remember Abd El Aty and Bayyoumy? In one day they both hit eleven tanks. Do you remember Said Khattab who volunteered to stop the advance of the enemy tanks? He threw himself in front of them with four land mines and was blown up with the tank. And there was another lad, I saw him with my own eyes, a corporal called El Sayyed Shahhata ... And there were dozens of others.” (Excitedly): “Our attack was like a thunderbolt that shattered the

myth of Israeli supremacy. I saw with my own eyes the Israeli tanks going round in circles, in chaos, crashing into one another. I saw their soldiers fleeing before us in terror. I saw their attacks crumble and retreat in disarray.” (Poignantly): “We could have inflicted a massive defeat that would have threatened their very existence.” (Calmly): “But America bailed them out, sent them planes and tanks and rockets and guided missiles, as well as electronic interference

devices and satellite pictures.” These military evenings revealed another aspect of the growing intimacy between the two men, which was their tolerance, broadmindedness,

and the wideness of their horizons (not to mention other orifices), as well as their pragmatism in understanding the

realities of life. This was particularly obvious in their changing attitudes towards their old enemy the United States. In fact, it might have been possible for their relationship to grow even more intimate if the English language had come to their aid, for El Shangeety had acquired, from a steward on Egypt Air (the New York route), a book in that language, which contained pictures that

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had made the blood rush through his veins, not because of their highly explicit nature, but because they depicted a man whipping his naked lover on various parts of her body. Why was that, you may ask (the effect, not the whipping). The answer to this question requires a deep knowledge of psychology, and we have nothing to go on but surface manifestations: for because of the repeated hemorrhaging, Samiha adamantly evaded the performance of that nuptial duty that El Shangeety (together with the vast majority of religious scholars, doctors, and editors of readers’ letters) considered tantamount to sacred.

\

El Shanqeety took the book home, and instantly began to try and unravel the text that was written in a language none of whose vocabulary he remembered anymore due to the years he had wasted in the War of Attrition. It was the same with Samiha, who leapt

to his assistance after the pictures, justifiably, had aroused her concern. She remembered

nothing of her English (because of all the

years she had wasted trying to study it). And since it was not easy for El Shangqeety to parade his disability in front of his neighbor, it was determined that Samiha would take the book to Zaat, who in

turn showed it to Abdel Maguid Oov Koors. At first Zaat thought that Abdel Maguid’s aversion to the book was because of its pornographic content, but she gradually discovered that the matter was related to the opportunities that had passed him by during his own numerous wars of attrition. The book

remained closed to them all, and the chance to cement the rela-|| tionship between the two men, and perhaps between the two cou- | ples, or at least between the members of each couple on its own, was lost. Not long after, however, another opportunity presented itself—fortunately—thanks to Samiha’s lovers. For Samiha too received nocturnal visits, even though her visi-

tors were limited to Shangeety’s fortunes oped an appetite for an invitation to go

stars of the Egyptian cinema, and when El began to take a turn for the better she develdaytime visits as well. One day Zaat received and watch El Shanqeety fix up the video

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| | \

machine visit. The visit to Samiha’s club. She

to the television. That evening he paid her a quick secret next day Zaat accompanied Abdel Maguid on an official the neighbors to offer congratulations and to watch lovers in a film she had borrowed from the local video carried it all the way home by the tips of her fingers so

she could swing it more easily in front of all the eyes peering down from windows and balconies, as she upheld the condition of publicity necessary in such situations. Abdel Maguid kept silent over the following days, huddled up in

his woolen dressing gown (which was wearing through at the elbows), with his packet of king-size and his two daughters by his side. (The first child had been a girl so he called her Doaa, which

means prayer, in the hope that the next one would be a boy. When the second daughter was born he called her Ebtehal, which means impassioned plea.) Meanwhile Zaat was round at Samiha’s watching her lovers, and between each one and the next she would come

back to check on the girls while they watched the television instead of doing their homework. It was El Shangeety who eventually dragged Abdel Maguid out of his silence and seclusion. For El Shangeety had found in the video an opportunity to compensate for some of the deprivation he had been suffering in his war of attrition, by way of those films whose visual content is so explicit that it does away with the need for the spoken word. ‘It was for this reason that he resorted to his neighbor, not in order to have a group showing of the film (if this had happened developments would have proceeded in a less tragic and more civilized way), but in order to have a private screening, for men only. E] Shanqeety could not accept such a screening in his flat, with Samiha curled up in bed while he and his neighbor sat in the living room watching (even with the sound turned off, which was not

exactly desirable). He could Abdel Maguid’s flat, however, daughters. Unfortunately El Abdel Maguid, desperate to

easily imagine a similar scenario

in despite the presence of Zaat and her Shangeety had the upper hand, and compensate for the deprivation that

80

arose from his own wars of attrition, acceded. Zero hour was set for after midnight on a neutral night, in the middle of the week. Having made sure his daughters were fast asleep and listened to Zaat’s steady snoring, Abdel Maguid quietly opened the door of the flat and knocked on his neighbor’s door. El Shanqgeety responded instantly and together the two of them carried the video machine to Abdel Maguid’s and fixed it up to the television. After numerous sound checks they were able to set the volume at a level sufficiently low not to wake anyone up. The experience was both stimulating and enlightening at the same time, and after the show had finished and they had taken the equipment back to El Shangeety’s flat, Abdel Maguid turned off the lights, made sure the windows were closed and the gas tap turned off, then, without bothering to brush his teeth, hurried to the dark-

ened bedroom where his wife was sleeping. He stood close by her head listening to the sound of her steady breathing, and when his eyes got used to the dark he saw clearly that her eyes were closed. She was not asleep, however.

Some weak creatures have been granted distinctive sensory powers to compensate for their inadequacies. Zaat was one such creature, for she possessed an extremely sharp sense of hearing as regards low frequency sounds, which grew even sharper after midnight when the high frequency sounds (coming from street hawkers, children playing, sheikhs calling to prayer, car horns honking, and people shouting at one another) had died down. Thus, although the commotion involved in connecting the video to the television had failed to wake her from her slumber, the muted sighs that followed had succeeded in doing just that. In addition to her acute sense of hearing Zaat also possessed keen intuition, and so no sooner had the performance finished, and El

Shangeety had left the flat with the equipment, and Abdel Maguid “had come into the bedroom, than she pretended to be fast asleep. Abdel Maguid’s attempts to wake his wife ranged from opening the window then closing it again to stumbling over her legs as he

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climbed

into bed to take his usual place next to the wall, from

pulling the sheet which covered them both from on top of her and wrapping it around himself to colliding accidentally with her massive backside. When all these attempts failed he resorted to more direct measures and he put his arms around her and tried to kiss her but his lips were unable to reach her because the sharp end of one of the plastic pins that held her rollers in place jabbed him in the eyebrow. He lost his temper and decided to take her by force, at which point Zaat saw no alternative but to wake up. At first she resorted to the usual excuses in the female arsenal (and the male one too in reality) from tiredness and headache, to

the children and the lateness of the hour, but Abdel Maguid only grew more resolved and there was nothing she could do except surrender. And because she did not want her sacrifice to be in vain, and to make things easier for him, and to spare herself any repercussions, she sought help from her internal video and compiled a truly creative montage in which passionate kissing scenes from sixties Arabic films were cut with close-ups of the male protuberance (not ignoring the odd fleeting glimpse of the other amputated one) to the accompaniment of a musical score that contained some of the sounds she had just picked up with her hypersensitve hearing.

In this way she was able to acheive the required amount of participation to allow Abdel Maguid to begin the performance which she bore with a woman’s usual patience. She did not have to wait long, for Abdel Maguid, in his anger and excitement, was already racing towards the final credits. The same thing happened to El Shangeety with some minor technical differences. For Samiha really was fast asleep in the arms of her lovers, and she was young, and did not always fully understand the consequences, which endowed her with an audacity that Zaat lacked, and as soon as El Shanqeety, who was crouching over her like a bull, tried to wake her up, she screamed at him: “Go back to sleep, Wagdy,” and turned over on her side, pulling the bedclothes over her. Wagdy rolled away without losing his state of readiness.

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Samiha surrendered to her lovers, while her husband squatted by her side, contemplating his next move. He knew from the War of Attrition that opening breaches required the attacker to be on the defensive and to have control of the high ground, then concentrate his offensive in one particular spot until support units could be sent in to back him up. However, he was on the offensive, not defend-

ing, and he did not control any positions, nor was he expecting backup from any units. He had no choice but to withdraw. But it was a tactical withdrawal and did not mean that he had abandoned his strategic goal. He went into the kitchen and made himself a large cup of coffee which he carried into the living room and put down beside the comfortable armchair in front of the television. He put his cigarettes next to the cup, rewound the film to the beginning, and moved the chair a little so he would be able to see Samiha if she left the bedroom to go to the bathroom. Then he started the tape, settled down in the chair, and started to depend on himself.

The film showings were repeated and so were El Shanqeety’s withdrawals and his reliance upon himself. Zaat also became more reluctant to participate even in the initial stages, and it wasn’t long before Abdel Maguid joined his neighbor. As soon as the film finished and each of them returned to base, El Shangeety would make his cup of coffee and put his packet of king-sizes beside it, and Abdel Maguid would follow suit and sit down a few yards away, with his back to that of his neighbor and only the wall that separated the two flats between them. Then each one would start

his own video equipment and rely on himself. ~ And whether it was by telepathy or not, the technique of “withdrawal and self-reliance” spread among the residents of the building, of both sexes and various ages (beginning with the age of puberty of course). As soon as the official television transmission ended after ‘midnight, they would devote themselves to the practice, and in the

morning they would emerge from their flats, red-eyed and gloomyfaced, their nerves in shreds, because in fact the new technique was

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not wholly satisfying, particularly for the husbands and wives who had spent so long between legitimate thighs, for their feelings and sensitivities had become colored and they began to miss the warmth of active participation, even if it had not always been especially enjoyable. We can therefore well understand the behavior of both Abdel Maguid and Zaat on the day of the Singer incident. On that day Abdel Maguid was under severe pressure, the source of which came from two different and completely unrelated sources (as is usual in such cases). The first pertained to the Abdel Rahim Mabrouk

affair, and

the second

had to do with the deposit

of

Nefissa Abou Hussein. For some time the subject of daily transmission among Abdel Maguid’s colleagues had been the scandal of a bank that had smuggled abroad more than half a billion dollars (600 million dollars to be precise), right under the nose of the authorities, and with the

official agreement of the Central Bank no less. Naturally enough, rumors concerning the personal background of Abdel Rahim Mabrouk, the manager of the disgraced bank, were rife among the staff. Abdel Maguid paid little attention to them, though, until he read the details for himself in one of the opposition papers. Abdel Rahim Mabrouk had graduated from the Faculty of Commerce in 1971 and joined the army as a reserve officer. He served in the first War of Attrition until 1975, after which he joined the National Bank to take part in the second war of attrition, on a

starting salary of fifty pounds a month. This suddenly went up to two hundred when he moved to the Limited Arab Bank, where he met a Jordanian named Haleem El Salfeety who had monopolized the trade in exporting foreign banknotes (a codeword for smuggling money abroad officially). In 1981 he moved to the bank involved in the scandal as general manager on a salary of 2,000 dollars a month (that’s right, two thousand dollars

a month) which reached double

that with benefits and incentives. After the scandal he moved to the Hong Kong Bank (whose chairman was Dr. Hamed El Sayeh) on a salary of 3,500 dollars a month before benefits and incentives.

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Abdel Maguid made the necessary comparisons with the aid of the words “if only” (not ignoring the role played by an uncle of Abdel Rahim’s, who was Minister of Irrigation and then president of El Mohandis Bank) and, in the company of a cup of coffee and a cigarette, he reached the obvious conclusions. At this exact moment his boss asked him for the details of Nefissa Abou Hussein’s deposit. Abdel Maguid pulled out the papers, filled out by Mr. Abou Hussein

himself, transfered

from the Iraqi El Rafideen Bank, and

went through the details. He then made the natural comparisons (accompanied by the venerable two words) and hardly had he begun to come up with the necessary conclusions when Nefissa Abou Hussein herself forced an entirely different kind of comparison and conclusion upon him. She stood there before him just as he had imagined her: captivating foreign perfume, a dress of expensive cloth in coordinated colors (although he would not have been at all surprised if, under-

neath all that, she had been wearing flip-flops as well), and a fair complexion (that Turkish fairness tinged with red, not the pasty European). She wore a sheer black scarf and two shy eyes peered coyly out, avoiding collisions with other people’s eyes. Apart from all that there was something else he had not expected. During working hours Abdel Maguid’s engines of lust and desire continued to function, and despite the many obstacles placed in their way, there were still opportunities for stimulation. The screens that had been added to the fronts of the desks to stop people looking at the legs of the women sitting behind them had been com-

pensated for just in time by the fashion for low necklines. Then the higab revolution, which had spread through the women workers like fire through dry straw (even some Christian women had rallied under its banner) had been offset by an intentional crowding of too many desks into narrow spaces, which allowed for what was even more pleasurable than simply looking, by which we mean friction with protruding edges and corners. But all that could be put in one

85

pile, and what Abdel Maguid now beheld in the face of Nefissa Abou Hussein put in another. For the great shock that Abdel Maguid had received at the outset of his marital life was not restricted to the sound state of the merchandise, but also included her aversion to certain practices that were halal, and in particular, legitimate ways of suckling that did not need much effort on his part, which he had learned while sitting in the back row of Cinema Odeon in the days when it specialized in showing Russian films, which spawned all kinds of innovative ways of spending the time. We can thus imagine the pressure to which Abdel Maguid was subjected, having just returned from his trip with those venerable words, when he found himself looking up at a breach framed with two wide, soft, luscious

banks, painted in lewd lipstick the color of bright red blood. That same evening Abdel Maguid was sitting in front of the television, trying, as a result of the pressure he was feeling, to concentrate on the football match, while Zaat divided her attention between helping Ebtehal to memorize a verse from the Quran and

escaping from time to time to iron her school uniform, amid a huge racket which had all started over the flat’s geography. Because the plug socket in the girls’ room was not working, Zaat had put the ironing board up in the living room while Ebtehal stayed where she was, sitting at the desk in her room, and their conversation was being carried on through the open door, with some lively participation from Doaa, and support from the bean, tirmis, and candy floss sellers outside. When the memorizing and ironing ended, Zaat turned, as usual,

to preparing dinner. She listened absentmindedly to the chatter of the girls, and even burned a piece of bread as she was warming it up. After supper it was time for the girls to get washed, voice their usual complaints about the bathroom tap, and moan that there was no toothpaste left. Then at last Doaa and Ebtehal disappeared into their room and peace descended. Out of the corner of his eye Abdel Maguid saw his wife as she moved the small Formica table over to

86

the balcony door, picked up the sewing machine from its place in the corner, and put it on the table. She then pulled up a chair, sat down, and started to sew. This kind of sewing was not exactly in keeping with the scenario Abdel Maguid had prepared in his mind for the night’s entertainment, and when Zaat got up to make herself a glass oftea, the pressure that had been mounting all day rose from his nether regions and threatened to choke him. He got up, intending to go out onto the balcony and take in some Formica

fresh air, but he had to move

the

table first, and he did this with such irritation that the

Singer slid off the table and fell to the floor. Zaat came rushing out of the kitchen when she heard the noise and stopped, aghast at the sight that met her eyes. Abdel Maguid had abandoned the scene and was now on the balcony fuming: with the Singer because it had fallen, with himself because he had not paid enough attention to what he was doing, and with Zaat because it was all her fault in the first place. Zaat approached the machine and bent over it, feeling the damage done, before flopping down in the chair and bursting into tears. The machine itself was unharmed, except that the small plastic cover of the box for the needles and thread had flown off and now lay shattered on the floor. Was that enough to start off the tear ducts of a sensitive person like Zaat? Of course it was. Nor did it mean that there were not other reasons. Unlike her husband, Zaat’s engines of lust and desire had no direct relationship with the matter, thanks to the regularity of the nocturnal visits whose number had increased as of late. She had motives of another kind. The technique of “manufacture your own material,” which Zaat had resorted to in her dealings with the machines at the Archives, and which had achieved reasonable success in the beginning, had lost its efficacy with time, because it was, by its very nature, limited and did not allow for a great deal of innovation and originality. The voracious machines, whose orifices never ceased to transmit and

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chew

and swallow,

did not have the patience for Zaat’s way

of

transmitting, and when she felt that the opportunities available to her were constantly diminishing, she began to rely as much as possible on drawing things out, using long-winded introductions and other methods of arousing curiousity that she had learned from Arabic soap operas on the television. In addition to this Zaat was incapable, naturally enough, of joining in the favorite subjects of the machines, which were the problems of cars and the minute differences between the more than forty kinds of them driving around the streets of Cairo, ceramics,

foreign schools,

Gulf markets

(the

free and the not so free), contracts to work abroad, video cassettes,

etc., etc. Thus she gradually ceased to use the transmission lines and received incoming messages only. Gradually also she began to ascertain that the machines were ignoring her on purpose, for they avoided greeting her in the morn-

ing, and they neglected to invite her for the communal tea, and they no longer bothered to ask her opinion on work matters. It was not long before she reached the definite conclusion that there was an organized boycott against her. Why was this? She thought initially that the reason was Gamal Abdel Nasser, so she stopped referring to him in her conversations (even though she was unable to stop his visits). She took her Abdel Haleem Hafez tapes home (she had bought his patriotic songs, which she associated with her childhood memories, when they were allowed to cir-

culate again after El Sadat was assassinated, having been forbidden during his presidency, and she had brought them to the Archives so she could listen to them on Rabbit Face’s cassette recorder to pass the time, and so she could use them, and the memories associated with them, as material for transmission). She hid them in a remote

corner of the wardrobe, far out of reach of her daughters, who would not have enjoyed such old songs anyway. But the boycott did not come to an end. One day they were joined by a new colleague named Nadia, who was of tiny build, skinny, introverted, and shy. It appeared she had

88

been chased out of another department like Zaat, and so Zaat sympathized with her and took it upon herself to aquaint the newcomer with her not too clear duties. She applied herself eagerly to this task, for she found in Nadia a submissive and patient receiver for replays of old transmission tapes, and she failed to notice the real boycott that her new friend had been subjected to. Zaat only discovered this when Nadia did not come into work one day and she went to sign her name in the attendance register, as was the custom and spirit of solidarity among the workers. All of a sudden there was Rabbit Face, exploding at her with penciled eyebrows raised: “Have we no one but this Christian to sign in for now?” Kind generous Zaat was a loyal daughter of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s revolution, brought up on the principle that all people are equal regardless of religion or sex or wealth or rank or position. For this reason she had omitted to inquire after Nadia’s family name in order to ascertain her true identity, a fact that had not been ignored by the vigilant machines. In order to atone for her mistake she began to reassess her convictions, going over in her mind the different Christians

she had known:

their outer appearances,

their clothes,

their accents, their kinds of food and drink, their behavior, looking

for the secret of this strange consensus against them. All she could find was the green crucifix tattooed on the inside of Nadia’s left wrist, a gold crucifix that swung between the breasts of one of the editors, and a bronze statue of the Virgin that Aminophis used to protect the papers of his encyclopedia, but she was a coward and she stopped visiting Aminophis in his office and she avoided Nadia. The machines, so it seemed, did not accept the Christian offering, and Zaat, who failed to understand the real reason for the persecution to which she was being subjected, was overwhelmed with

despair. What made her feel even more dejected was the fact that the boycott was not logical, for it would ease sometimes, or even disappear, as happened when the ceramic tiles triumphantly ascended her kitchen walls, and when Doaa passed the preparatory school examination. Other times it would tighten its grip and inten-

89

sify: when the tiles ran out before they reached the ceiling, when Ebtehal failed her primary exam, and when Samiha joined the march, and got the video, and just after the Agriculture man installed the intercom at the door of his flat, and the Kuwait teacher

added a new air-conditioning unit to his collection, and the army officer exchanged

his old 131 for a brand-new

Mazda, and every

day that Madam Suheir, the tenant of the furnished flat, threw away kebab wrappings and huge cake boxes. In short, there was a hidden relationship between the intensity of the boycott and the crying fits that afflicted her. There is no end to the hidden relationships in Zaat’s story. When Abdel Maguid emerged from his retreat on the balcony and saw her crying, his anger abated and in its place came those familiar feelings that had to do with the tearful wedding night. He walked over

f

to her and held out his arms to embrace her, when all of a sudden

she screamed in his face for the first time in her life: “Don’t touch me.” Singer, when he invented his machine, had nothing more in mind than easing the task of needlework for women, but the machine that now lay on its side on the floor offered Zaat something much more important than that. Here was the opportunity to express a whole range of accusations at Abdel Maguid: he demolished things (considering the number of glasses he had broken, and the earthenware casserole dish, and the Pyrex bowl that had been part of the original wedding set, and he was also responsibile for losing a blanket which he had left on the edge of the balcony and the wind had blown away); he had ruined her life (ifitwere not for him she would have completed her education and would now be a journalist or a television announcer); he was selfish (he was inter-

ested in himself and his family and ignored her needs for shoes and tiles and other things); and he was lazy and apathetic (otherwise how could you describe his failure to travel abroad to improve their wretched lives?).

This relentless outpouring of accusations stunned Abdel Maguid,

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not because of the short distance that led from Singer to Hoover (the semi-automatic washing machine which required that the person using it never leave its side, unlike the fully automatic ones that Zeinab, Fathiya, and Samiha

all had), but because of Zaat’s

iron memory: for this woman who was incapable of remembering a few lines from the morning paper unless she trained herself to memorize them not only remembered the number of glasses he had smashed, but also the details of the occasions on which the incidents had occurred, what he had said verbatim five years ago while he was undoing his shoelace, and what he was actually thinking about at the time. Abdel Maguid went to his bed (without relying on himself on this particular occasion) while Zaat retired to the bathroom. The following days passed in silence, each party reviewing the arguments that supported their point of view, waiting for the opportunity to confront the other. This was provided by the tragedy of the school bus. That Friday, Ebtehal’s school had organized a trip to the Pyramids and the zoo. On the way back the driver, wanting to save time, had taken a shortcut, crossing the train tracks that lead to El

Marg at an opening made by the independently spirited feet of the citizens over many years (because the distance between one official crossing and the next was as much as four kilometers) and which had been termed

(because of the results) Death Crossing. But the

rubbish that had piled up on the rails brought the bus to a standstill and the train tore into it, killing seventy children instantly. Ebtehal did not go on the trip due to a sudden rise in her tem-

perature, and so Zaat did not hear about the tragedy until the next morning in the Archives where the accident was the main subject of transmission after the papers had published the news under a headline in which the Heliopolis chief of police reassured the public that the situation had been brought under control and that all impediments to the burial of the corpses had been removed. On her way home that evening Zaat saw with her own eyes the mothers of

of

the victims coming out of apartment blocks in Hilmiya and Zeitoun and Matariya and Kobba, wailing as they converged on Heliopolis Hospital where their daughters had been taken. No sooner did she reach home than she too burst into a fit of howling. After a number of entreaties from Abdel Maguid, Zaat announced that her howling was not out of solidarity with the mothers of the victims, but because she herself was supposed to have been one of them. And who was responsible for that? Abdel Maguid, of course, because he had left his daughters to the government schools rather than putting them into language schools, which would forever deprive them of the opportunities that the children of Hanaa and Manal and Afaf and Zeinab would enjoy. This new confrontation allowed Zaat to allude to what she called the biggest mistake she had ever made, and to mention some particular supporting proofs: she had wasted her life in the kitchen, bringing up the girls and looking after Abdel Maguid. In any case it had now become most urgent not only to join the march but also to look far beyond that and to prepare, from now, to marry off the two girls. Abdel Maguid concluded, in traditional self-defense style, with a question: “What do you want me to do? Steal?” Zaat responded without a thought: “Why not. What’s wrong with that?” Then she threw in another question which decided the bout (because he was unable to answer it): Why didn’t he go and work

abroad like other people? The discussion broke up with each one retiring to base: he to bed and she to the toilet. Sitting there on the plastic seat (which had

lost a hinge during one of Abdel Maguid’s sabotage operations) she found that her tears had dried up, and that she was in dire need of a good transmit. In such circumstances there was only one person capable of receiving, and it wasn’t Samiha. It was Safiya.

o2

The Court of Ethics revalues the assets of Esmat El Sadat, which are threatened with sequestration, at 78 million pounds instead of the previous estimate of 126 million.

/ El Ahali newspaper: “Esmat El Sadat's lawyer is the nephew of the fugitive millionairess Hoda Abdel Moniem, the Stee! Woman.

/

Heated session in the People’s Assembly, attended by Dr. Rifaat El Mahgoub, chairman of the Assembly, sitting in the benches. A minister: “In regard to the question about the rebuilding of Kasr El Aini Hospital, | can confirm that the contractual procedures with the French side were completely above board, and that this contract will save the public treasury 72 million French francs." Another minister: “The government pays serious attention to the spending of public money in order to achieve the dest interests of the Egyptian people." Member of the Assembly: "At the end of the seventies the hospital was demolished and the government invited preliminary tenders for the rebuilding of the hospital. A number of international companies submitted bids and a short list of ten companies was drawn up which did not include the French consortium. The French came in with their bid and

93

were awarded the contract because they knew how to pull the right strings . . They came in through the back door in January 1981. | have here a document proving the dubious nature of their involvement. It is a

letter to the Minister of Construction. It says: “Subsequent to our telephone conversation | have the pleasure to send you the French company's letter in which is mentioned the bid to the selection committee.” It is signed by the personal secretary to the president of the Republic's wife, Ahmed Fouzy, the husband of the famous television announcer . . "The selection committee was made up of a chairman, three medica! professors, the advisor to the National Council, and others from the Faculty of Engineering. There was not one specialist in building hospitals among them. If we compare we find that the French bid was equivalent to 76.4 million pounds and the European Community bid 73.9 million pounds. In other words there is a difference. A committee was formed to work with the French consortium which included Dr. Rifaat El Mahgoub. There is a letter from the French consortium to the dean of the university saying that the French had allocated 50,000 pounds to this committee but that the money would not be paid unless the contract was signed. The contract was subsequently signed within a matter of weeks. The members of the selection committee are the ones who draw up the contracts. And the company put the money in the bank: ten thousand pounds for Dr. Rifaat El Mahgoub, seven thousand for Dr. Sarwat Badawy, 7,500 pounds for Dr. Ali Raafat. Dr. E! Mahgoub

admits that he has withdrawn the money.” Minister: “Dr. El! Mahgoub took the money not in his capacity as a member of the selection committee, but as a lawyer and owner of a law firm which undertook to draw up the contract. Do you expect him to write the contract out of the goodness of his heart? The Centra! Bank then confirmed that the conditions of the contract were suitable. So did all the other bodies. And the National Bank accepted the letter of guarantee on the contract.” Dr. El Mahgoub: “The whole matter was in safe and trustworthy hands,

beginning with Dr. Fouad Mohyie El Din and ending with me. | would say to the honorable gentleman who is asking the question: The per-

94

son who has supplied you with the documents has deceived you, Mr.

Abdel Monem, because he wanted to be on the selection committee but he was not raised to such a senior level . . . The French side allocated ten million francs to finance feasibility studies for this project. | received my fee of ten thousand pounds from this company for work which lasted a whole year and as such | would suggest that the sum represents a relatively humble fee. Everything in this contract has been written with wisdom and sincerity and | swear to you in all honesty that it is an honorable contract written by honorable men... And finally to the gentleman who asked the question, | would like to say: Where is your sense of shame, sir? Peace be upon you." (Applause) \

Ibrahim Nafie, editor in chief of El Anram newspaper, is appointed press advisor to the International Arab Bank (chairman of board of directors Dr. Mostafa Khalil) at a fee of more than one thousand dollars a month.

] Dr. Hallouda, director of the Central Statistics Office: “Osman Ahmed Osman has a complete file about all the natural resource potential of Egypt which the Office prepared for him over a six-month period on his orders while he was Minister of Housing and Popular Development. The file is a wonderful source of wealth since it can be used to undertake studies and clinch huge deals." Abdel Khalek El Mahgoub, prota: of the speaker of the People’s Assembly; Rifaat El Bashir, Undersecretary of State for Finance; and 16 others are accused of taking bribes in exchange for forging the signature of Dr. Mostafa El Said, former Minister of Finance, on documents

authorizing the return of money confiscated from the currency dealers.

Out of 45 children handed over to the Center for the Care of Children and Mothers in Assiout by local police stations over the last three years, only seven are still alive. The President opens El Matariya Hospital, the largest and most mod-

95

ern teaching hospital in the Middle East, which was built with a French loan of 70 million francs. An American consultancy firm announces that the cost of the project to pump Alexandria's wastewater into the sea will cost one billion ana

160 million pounds. Pumping wastewater out to the desert would cost two billion and 14 million pounds. Patients at the new El Matariya Hospital are transferred to Dimerdash Hospital because equipment at Matariya doesn't work. Administrators at the new hospital removed the equipment from its boxes for the opening ceremony in order for television cameras to film it. Consequently it was not installed under French supervision as the contract had stipulated. The guarantee is now void and the French are under no obligation to reinstall. This means the equipment at the most modern teaching hospital in the Middle East has become scrap metal. The Supreme Council of Justice agrees to allow the secondment of judges and public prosecution officials to work with private companies. The owner of Ramado International appears in front of the Court of Ethics accused of swindling 20 million pounds from the Property Bank, the National Bank, Bank Misr, and the Arab African Bank. Dr. Hassan Mitwalli, professor of Wastewater Engineering at the Alexandria Health Institute: "Pumping wastewater into the sea is the cheapest alternative and will not cause any harm." Millionaire Henry Michel Zeidan manages to leave the country despite his name being on the list of those forbidden from traveling, after failing to repay a loan of 35 million pounds he took out from Egyptian banks. Sheikh Sharawi: "Those people who go to sleep to the music of Beethoven do not know Allah."

96

Mohamed Sayyed Abdel Monem, managing director of El Salam Hospital, is paid five thousand pounds a month by the hospital.

Now The Holy Quran in gold letters on papyrus To reserve and pay call Faisal Islamic Bank The villa of fugitive millionaire Henry Michel Zeidan, which contains a swimming pool, is handed over to a senior religious figure after restorations costing 190 thousand pounds. The brother of a senior official is appointed advisor to the Italian company Montedison at a fee of four thousand dollars a month. Dr. Farouk Garana, member of the People’s Assembly: “Consultants on the wastewater project were paid a hundred million pounds for no rea-

son and managed to remove the president of the wastewater board in Alexandria from office because he opposed the proposal to pump wastewater into the sea.” His Holiness the Sheikh of El Azhar: “It is not permitted that any part of a Muslim woman be seen except her face and hands." 28 citizens suffer food poisoning during a dinner. Members of the Gamaat Islamiya in Assiout tear out the beard of a Christian citizen.

An engineer at Meatland: "The company obtained approval from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture's Animal Health Institute to freeze meat that had passed its expiry date and to put it on

the market with a new expiry date."

97

3,908 files out of a total of 7,300 disappear from the Giza tax office. A neutral government committee from the Scientific Research Academy and Ain Shams University recommends that the wastewater not be pumped out to sea but rather that the sewage be treated and used to irrigate 54 thousand feddans of desert land.

The owners committee of

Shaima Commercial under Abdel Residential units, fully carpeted,

and Residential Tower Monem Gaber commercial premises, aluminum fronts,

ceramic tiles, intercom system

|

The Central Statistics Office: “There are 1.8 million unoccupied flats in Egypt worth 40 billion pounds.”

Coming soon Green Acid Oasis Residential villa with swimming pool and private garden at less than the price of an apartment A fire breaks out in the newly imported machines at the Egypt Helwan Textiles Company (public sector) The president of two public sector companies, Tricona and Dagahlatex, is to stand trial for bribery and misuse of state funds.

Ismailia Fashions You can find our clothes in the following stores in Egypt Monte Carlo (Shargiya) Doctor Ann (Ismailia) New Bambola (Tanta) Double-U M (Port Said) Femme Dee, Miss Riham (Alexandria)

98

A People's Assembly fact-finding committee demands that the design of the underwater sewage outlet for the Alexandria wastewater project be halted immediately and that desert land where the sewage can be directed be located as soon as possible. Sheikh Mitwalli Sharawi is in the hospital after experiencing a sudden drop in blood pressure and severe exhaustion as a result of his unstinting effort and hard work at the service of the Islamic call. The Gamaat Islamiya storm the offices of the Christian organization Salvation of Souls in the center of Assiout and destroy the contents of its library, together with two televisions and a video machine. The health of the Islamic evangelist His Holiness Sheikh Sharawi improves after a team of senior doctors take over supervision of his treatment.

El Salam International Hospital, a quarter of whose capital is provided by the state through Bank Nasser, the Ministry of Awgaf, and the Eastern Insurance Company, incurs losses of 200 million pounds. The Prime Minister opens the sea pipeline of the wastewater project in Alexandria. The governorate of Qalyoubiya writes off three thousand pounds after a contractor on the Khanka water project refuses to pay back the money. The governorate of Aswan loses 328 thousand pounds after work was halted on the tourist complex project. Sewage mixed with tap water in homes in the working class district of Shubra El Kheima.

99

The president of Petrojet, the petroleum installations company, appoints nine generals, a brigadier general, six colonels, and five lieutenant colonels, all from the police, at salaries ranging from 500 to 700 pounds a month. The governorate of Alexandria allocates five million pounds to begin preparation of the site for the first fish farm in Egypt. The completed farm will cover an area of 130 feddans. The Administrative Monitoring Authority: "Dr. Mohamed Magdy, director of El Salam International Hospital, transferred 400 thousand dollars to a British company to import office furnishings and only imported 37 thousand dollars worth of equipment. It later emerged that the company was a fly-by-night operation that had been set up specifically to deal with the hospital. Dr. Magdy owned thirty percent of the shares while his partner, Mohamed Sayyed Abdel Monem, owned another forty percent." Worms and insects fill the beaches of Alexandria and human excrement floats in the sea next to bathers.

Instead of undertaking the necessary excavations on the land set aside for the fish farm in Alexandria, the company in charge of the project drains the land and fills it in. The High Institute of Public Health in Alexandria: “Results of the analysis Of samples indicate that the percentage of microbes in the sea water, since the pumping of wastewater into the sea began, has gone down and is now lower than the percentage of pollution permitted in the United States.” The governor of Alexandria announces plans to build a village for newly married couples on the site of the fish farm. The village will house 120 thousand families.

100

The governor of Alexandria, accompanied by his family, travels to the United States, Britain, and France for medical treatment and convalescence, paid for by USAID and the Organization for the Development of Local and Rural Communities.

The Administrative Monitoring Authority accuses Dr. Mohamed Magdy, director of El Salam International Hospital, of conspiring with the Maadi Company for Investment and Tourism to rent the building of the hospital's nursing staff for 608 thousand pounds a year plus a deposit of one million pounds. It emerges that the doctor owns twenty percent of the company's shares in his wife's name while his partner, Mohamed Sayyed Abdel Monem, owns another forty percent in his wife's name. The governorate of Alexandria abandons the City of Happy Couples project on the site of the fish farm after it emerges that the land is not suitable for building. It is decided to turn the site into rubbish dumps. A liquid nitrogen machine imported from England at a cost of more than 300 thousand dollars explodes at the Center for Artificial Insemination in Gharbiya three days after it is installed.

Village of Dahriya razed to the ground. 30 thousand people left homeless. The fire, which began in a house due to negligence, rages for more

than thirty hours. Firefighters arrive at the scene hours after the blaze breaks out. Most of the fire engines do not work and electricity to the water pumps is cut off. The bodies of villagers are scattered around

the streets. The public prosecutor releases Mohamed Sayyed Abdel Monem, managing director of El Salam International Hospital, on bail of 760 thousand pounds, the largest amount ever in the history of the Egyptian legal system.

101

ae

Dr. Mohamed Magdy, director of El Salam International Hospital, flees to London Questions in the People's Assembly about the shortage of sugar in

the shops. The director of Government Supplies in Alexandria issues 3,500 kilos of sugar to Saad Zaghloul Confectioners although their allotment is only 240 kilos.

“I'm originally Egyptian but now I'm a resident in the United States. | came to Egypt to spend some time with my family and friends. | won't hide from you that I've noticed a great improvement in cultural programs on the television in Egypt. One of the nicest ones I've seen was about the diseases caused in Egypt because people consume too much sugar. | praised Allah that there are such great scientists, and | hope, when | come back to Egypt again, I'll see more of these cultural programs to increase the awareness of the Egyptian people.” The director of Government Supplies in Alexandria issues 150 tons of high-quality subsidized flour to a macaroni factory owned by Obeid Shayboub, who, in 1978, was a simple grocer. El Shaab newspaper: “A group of present and former senior officials have obtained land on the Bitter Lakes at a fraction of its true cost despite the fact that the land is owned by the state and cannot be sold under the law, and is in a restricted military area.” The investigation into the dealings of Dr. Naeem Abou Taleb, former governor of Alexandria, is closed. Dr. Abou Taleb was accused of committing a number of crimes during his time in office. He is alleged to have obtained, for himself and the members of his family, eleven apartments in the Maamoura complex and to have raised the percentage of exceptional cases from ten percent to 25 percent, knowing full well

102

that each seventy thousand pound apartment would be sold to exceptional cases for half that price. He is also accused of conspiring to com-

mit most of his crimes with Rashad Osman, former member of the People’s Assembly, who was entrusted by El Sadat to look after the city of Alexandria. The American Agency for International Development hundred million dollars to fund a project to develop provision and wastewater disposal in Fayyoum, Beni Minya governorates. The sewage water will be pumped and the river Nile.

puts forward a drinking water Suweif, and El into Lake Qarun

The investigation into Dr. Abdel Razek Abdel Maguid, Deputy Prime Minister and former Finance Minister, is closed. He was accused of obtaining customs exemptions worth four million pounds with the help of Rashad Osman.

The investigation into Hilmy Abdel Akher, former minister and chairman of the legislative committee of the People's Assembly, is closed. Abdel Rahman El Baydany, the owner of Egycon Consultants: “After the revolution in Yemen | realized that my political and patriotic mission in the country had been fulfilled. It was therefore only natural that | move on to my principal national role in Arab affairs, for | am well aware that the defense of the region's national security can only be achieved through the defense of Arab national security. In ancient times Plato devoted all his time to spreading awareness after he felt that he had performed his political role. For this reason | have spared no effort in gathering together the largest body of colleagues, experts, and specialists in all fields of civilization. | have formed the Union of Egyptian Consultants, Egycon, which includes 390 experts in different areas of specialization, including a large number of army and police generals with excellent organizational experience, who are taking charge of wastewater projects in three governorates. These are giant projects.

103

The contracts range between 50 to more than 100 million pounds.” President Mubarak speaking at the funeral of General Fawzy Maaz, governor of Alexandria: "The deceased passed away while doing his duty on behalf of his country with complete honesty, sincerity, and enthusiasm until the last moment of his life. He occupied various public offices from the days of his youth until he became the governor of Alexandria, a post which he held with exemplary and selfless dedication. Throughout his life he worked for the public good, generously offering his effort and the sweat of his brow in the performance of his responsibilities with total sincerity and unswerving commitment." Prime Minister Ali Lutfy: “All Alexandria's beaches are completely clean and free of any pollution according to reports from various scientific bodies." El Wafd newspaper: "Alexandria's fugitive millionaire, Abdel Monem 12 million pounds from the National Bank with a guarantee from the late governor of Alexandria, Fawzy Maaz." Gaber, obtained

Ali Lutfy announces a new and urgent wastewater project in the poor working class areas of the city of Alexandria.

Sewers burst in Alexandria on the eve of Eid El Fitr Poor working-class districts of Alexandria are flooded with sewage after work begins on the first stage of the urgent wastewater project. The government sets aside more than 60 million pounds for the project. A number of residents go to the governor. Some are detained by police and later released. Others are arrested. The Alexandria Wastewater Authority: "The company carrying out the work opened the junction points of the houses onto the branch lines before it had completed installation of the main lines, so water leaked into the streets."

104

Fee of American expert on Alexandria wastewater project reaches three thousand dollars an hour

Residents of Alexandria wade through sewage inside and outside their homes on the first day of the feast.

A number of children fall into uncovered drains hidden by the sewage water in Alexandria and drown. Residents demonstrate on the third day of the feast, attacking El Montazah police station and throwing stones and rocks. Central Security Forces surround the demonstrators and use force to break them up. Central Accounts Office: “Egycon Consultants, owned by Abdel Rahman El Baydany, obtained sixty percent of the American loan allocated to the urgent wastewater projects in Alexandria in collusion with USAID. The designs they prepared were later proven to be useless.

Abdel Rahman El Baydany, owner of Egycon, with a number of senior officials, lays the foundation stone of the project to renew Cairo’s wastewater system.

105

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T= familiar putrid smell was waiting for her, drifting from the salt flats on the edges of Alexandria. It stayed with them, and in fact grew stronger, as the Peugeot taxi with its eight passengers drew nearer to the center of town (the driver had squeezed an

additional skinny one into the front seat with a less than sincere invitation: “There’s always room for one more in a friend’s house”). It was there when she got out of the taxi in Sidi Gaber, it surrounded her as

she walked along beside the tram lines, and as she moved into the narrow side streets, plunging into piles of filth, ploughing through soft muddy ground. It hesitated with her at the entrance to the humble building, accompanied her up the stairs which were littered with rubbish, and it brushed her face as Safiya answered the door.

Safiya Abbas, a few years older than her; Safiya with the soft lips that had tasted as sweet as sugar in the days of “I’ll write to you with a red pen the sign of my burning love,” and the pacts they made confirming their eternal friendship, which came true when they entered the same faculty, and their dreams of marrying two brothers and living next door to one another, which did not come true because, of course, they both fell in love with the same person,

Aziz Abdallah, the communist, classmate of Saftya’s and guest of the concentration camps, who married her as soon as she graduated and moved with her to Alexandria. Shortly afterwards Zaat

107

accepted the proposal of marriage from Abdel Maguid Oov Koors, relieved that she had managed to avoid a future fraught with danger, and content to receive secret visits from Aziz, who was accompanied by Safiya on most occasions. Transmission began immediately, during the embraces, and kisses on cheeks only, avoiding the lips, not to escape the taste of sugar but the smell of the taamiya Zaat had eaten at Ahmed Hilmy taxi station, and the chronic inflamation of the gums that Safiya was suffering from: “What a wonderful coincidence. How did you know?” “Know what?” “Essam.” “What about him?” “He’s coming home tomorrow.” Essam was Safiya’s younger brother, the little companion—in shorts—from their school days who used to deliver their impassioned love letters. “He did his bachelor’s and his master’s at the same time.” In what, you may ask? In philosophy, no less. Another excuse for more kisses on the cheeks, and to contemplate the effects of time: the white strands in the tied-back hair, the

signs of impending bags under the eyes, the sagging breasts under the winceyette gallabiya, as well as something else in the eyes, or the expression on her face, or the color of her skin that had nothing to do with the Safiya of long ago. Perhaps it was the slow deliberate movements of one who used to walk with a healthy spring in her step.

She who had come to talk had to listen to a long story related in the prevailing narrative style, i.e., with boring details that omitted all that was essential, and with plenty of space for little lies which always began with the same answer (Praise be to Allah, we’re both

fine) to every question, then gradually diminished in number as the truth emerged: Aziz was not as healthy as he used to be. His continued frequenting of concentration camps and police stations (the last time was in the feast when the sewers burst) had given him dia-

108

betes and affected his blood pressure. It was because of Aziz that she had been sacked from her job (public relations) at the wine company. There was a case in the courts but it would take several years before they reached a settlement, and she had been obliged to work as a teacher. She had been offered a contract in Saudi Arabia but Aziz did not agree (even though he could have found a

job there too). The children had grown: the youngest wanted to learn the piano, Mustafa needed private lessons, and the eldest, Adel, was asking for a car to go to university (“We already have a battered 128. What about you?” Embarassed: “Not yet”). Then there was the flat: “Just look around you,” Safiya suggested, using the slogan from the birth control campaign advertisement bemoaning the effects of too many children. Zaat had in fact already looked around a number of times, and

had picked up the necessary details: festering walls, a decaying plastic tablecloth on the rickety wooden table that was jammed up against the wall so it would-not

fall over, and an Ideal fridge (8

cubic feet) with peeling corners stuffed tightly into the space between the table and the front door. An additional look in response to her friend’s request revealed a broken standard lamp in the corner and a dusty lace curtain over the living room window, yet, under the keen and watchful gaze of the mistress of the house,

who was expecting to discern in her at least some sign of pleasure at the miserable state of the flat, Zaat hid her feelings skillfully, encouraged by her sense of guilt. She went off down memory lane to the time when Aziz asked her and Safiya to take part in a summer program to combat adult illiteracy (as a teacher of course) and how she pulled out after the first session: “It drove me mad how respectable men with moustaches couldn’t distinguish between masculine and feminine demonstratives,” forgetting that she herself

still got them mixed up. Safiya’s eyes shone for the first time: “And the secretary of the Socialist Union. Do you remember him? He refused to let us hang up the literacy campaign poster (imitating the voice of wisdom):

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“My dear girl, if we teach them to read and write, who'll work in the fields and clean the streets?” Zaat laughed: “You showed him, with two lines of poetry from that German poet, what’s his name? It always reminds me of softboiled eggs. Do you know, I’ve forgotten it.” Safiya had not forgotten. “Brecht. Do you remember the lines? ‘Learn the simplest things, it’s still not too late. . ’” She could not finish. Tears had suddenly started to pour from Zaat’s eyes, not because of Brecht but in preparation for the coming transmission item. Safiya listened eagerly to the story of the mysterious boycott and to the bitter complaints about Abdel Maguid which ended dramatically with the words: “I’ve had enough. I can’t stand him anymore.” Safiya performed her role admirably. She elaborated on a long list of Abdel Maguid’s good points (he didn’t run after other women, he didn’t gambie, he didn’t take drugs, he didn’t sit in cafés, and what’s more, he loved her, he didn’t insult her and he didn’t hit her). On the other side were the faults Zaat had mentioned (demolition, sabotage, selfishness and apathy—in short, completely

useless). Not surprisingly she was torn in two: “Either I’ll leave him or l’ll get pregnant again.” Safiya asked a logical question: “Tell me. Is there someone else?” She received a logical answer, in the negative. Denial, for Zaat had learned since she was small that there are some things a person doesn’t admit, even to themselves, and that the way to survive in life is to avoid mentioning the truth at all costs. In so doing Zaat was not only denying that there had been | dozens, and not just “someone else.” She was also hiding, perhaps from herself more than anyone else, the real reason for her coming

to Alexandria, which was to reignite either one of two dying embers in the dark empty vastness of her spiritual life. The futility of this had been patently obvious from the first moment. Safiya, with her troubled withering face, her winceyette gallabiya over sagging breasts, and the scarf that held in her tied-back hair, had

110

already poured a bucket of cold water over one of them. Aziz put out the second when he arrived that evening. His face was pallid and full of wrinkles and his hair had gone silver before its time. With him was a transmission machine Zaat had never met before: Sheikh E] Arab, a short old man with white hair, fiery eyes, and a smiling face, constantly fidgeting, lost in admiration for himself. His shirt was opened to reveal a broad chest covered in a forest of thick white hair. He greeted the two women cheerfully: “Peace be upon those who follow right guidance.” In the kitchen, around the teapot, between walls that had not even

had a coat of oil paint, Zaat whispered: “Is he a communist?” Safiya said: “He’s a nice person, but he never gets tired of talking about past glories. You’ll see when he gets started. Just give him a minute.” Sheikh El Arab was not the kind of man to resist the temptation of a new listener: “In ‘46 I was working in a textile factory in Shubra. We went out on a big demonstration down to Bab El Hadid. The workers carried me on their shoulders. The demonstration lasted till Ismailia Square, Tahrir now. I used to have a picture of me shouting slogans, bullets flying through the air all around me, but State Security took it. I had a powerful voice and it rang through the square without a microphone. We were shouting for the struggle of the working class, the students, the Egyptian people, and the fall of Britain. The workers of Shubra El] Kheima came, and students

from El Azhar, and workers from government offices, all groups and organizations. The streets were a sea of turbans and fezzes. The demonstration became more violent, and they opened fire with live ammunition from Kasr El Nil barracks, where the Hilton is now. We

responded with stones and petrol bombs. This worker from the greasing shop set fire to his jacket and threw it into the barracks. Then the police started shooting at us. They had us surrounded and people threw themselves into the Nile. Lots of the demonstrators were martyred. After that the British army withdrew from their camps in Cairo: Kasr El Nil, Zeitoun, Abbasiya, and from Alexandria and other places, and kept to the canal zone.

111

“The British left the feudalists and the capitalists behind them and in the years after ‘46 I spent a lot of time in prison . . .” Safiya interrupted the narrative by turning up the television so they could listen to the news. Sheikh El Arab lost his listeners to the president of the Republic, who was saying: “A fall of one dollar in the price of a barrel of oil means a reduction of 75 million dollars in our earnings. Nevertheless, our situation is secure, thanks be to Allah.”

After him came the Minister of Local Government: “The coming stage will be the beginning of a radical development in the democratization of planning and implementation.” Another soap opera, just as ridiculous, starring Umar El Hariri, came on after the news.

That was

when Sheikh El Arab realized the evening would belong to him and he withdrew with dignity.

not

Sheikh El Arab’s departure left Aziz alone, for the two women

sitting just a few centimeters away, to whom he was bound by ties going far back in time, not to mention place (in the case of one of them at least), were now light years away, engrossed in the events on the screen. He tried to make fun of Umar El Hariri, who was playing the part of a poor downtrodden government worker, and yet whose silver hair was meticulously blow-dried. Safiya interrupted angrily to confirm that his hair was like that in real life. Then he made fun of the kind mother-in-law who loved her son’s wife and was concerned for her happiness, and Zaat got angry and told him that there were some mothers-in-law like that. In the meantime the downtrodden government worker’s child had developed a brain tumor at the same time as his boss had entrusted him with four thousand pounds to keep with him till the morning. Aziz shouted out victoriously: “He’ll have to spend the money to treat the child and he’ll go to prison.” But the women were in tears at the tragedy, and he went silent and lit the last cigarette he was allowed to smoke that day. After a meal of cheese and halawa Zaat carried her suitcase to the Everyone had to cooperate to help her close the plywood door because the small bronze bolt would not fit in its

small bathroom.

Ne

hole. She took off her bra and knickers, rolled them up in a plastic

bag, stuffed them in the suitcase, and took out a clean set. She bent over the sink and peered into a cheap medium-sized mirror hanging from a rusty nail that had bent when it was being hammered in. She ran her finger over the bags that had appeared under her eyes, and over a scar on her upper lip that lipstick did not hide. She checked that the color had not faded since the last time she had dyed her hair, walked over to the corner of the bathroom, and stood under the

shower. There was no tub to stand in and the water dropped straight onto the floor. She washed her hair with water then with Safiya’s shampoo, which she thought was foreign because she had not noticed the “Made in Egypt” written in microscopic letters on the bottom of the bottle. Because of this she shampooed her hair twice before she piled it up on top of her head and then scrubbed her body all over with soap. It was at this point that she discovered some white strands among her pubic hair, which she had not been bothering to remove recently. She tried to pull them out in a way which would help her to choose between the two alternatives that lay before her in her relationship with Abdel Maguid by discarding each solution every time she plucked out a hair, but she was unable to remove a single one. She gave herself up to the water of the shower and missed the opportunity to make a decision. Safiya had prepared her a place to sleep on a hard mattress full of lumps and a pillow saturated with the smell of sweat. Before she had finished going over the day’s events, the nocturnal visits had begun, with minor differences from previous ones, as a result, nat-

urally enough, of the events in question. She saw herself walking down a street in Alexandria when she felt a man walking beside her. He moved closer until he was almost clinging to her. She glanced briefly in his direction and noticed a wide chest and a shirt open at the neck to reveal thick black hair. There was also a bulge in his trousers which could have only one explanation. It seemed to her that he was pleased with himself and was displaying his manhood, so she decided to make fun of him,

It3}

but his thigh collided with her leg and when she turned to tell him she knew what he was up, to, suddenly there was Abdel Maguid with a woman she did not know. At this point the scene changed, not in the sense of undoing what had happened, but rather moving ahead as quickly as possible. She was standing in a waiting room somewhere, next to the man with the open shirt, who now looked like Essam, who was coming back tomorrow. Abdel Maguid and his woman friend stood a few feet away. Then Zaat and her companion turned to face one another and he pressed his bulge against her thighs. She felt the moistness between them and pleasure washed over her body. But before the orgasm she so badly wanted could take place she woke up. When she got back to sleep moments later the int internal deterrent had taken control and she could not recapture>the fleeting and deceitful moment. She found herself instead, or possibly as a result, with her father, who had just come back after a long absence, in

smart clothes and a bright red fez. She reproached him for having stayed away so long without telling them or even leaving a short note. The conversation did not last long because the internal deterrent was not strong enough and she soon found herself lying on the bed in her childhood home which overlooked the square. She was thinking, strangely enough, about the kitchen and how it must look now after all the years that had passed, and how its dilapidated contents had surely been replaced by new cupboards and sinks made of non-stainless steel, not to mention food mixers and juice squeezers. To make sure, she called her father, who came to her in his shining white house-gallabiya. This time his features were not clear, in preparation for what happened next, for he bent over her and kissed her, not the usual goodnight kiss on the cheek, but a different one, more delicious, unhurried, on the lips, which made her

lift up her body so that it touched the rest of his body. Then she saw his face clearly. It was Sheikh El Arab. Was it the fault of the internal deterrent? Perhaps, but in any case it led to the desired objective, for her adventures went off in a

114

completely different direction, and she was suddenly deep in serious conversation with a ravishingly beautiful young woman who did not look like anyone she knew. She felt the affectionate touch of the woman’s hand in that place, the sudden invasion of a finger, and, at last, the spasms she had been longing for. All that remained of the night’s frenzied activity when she awoke early the next morning was a feeling of satisfaction and relief. This soon disappeared when, on her way to the bathroom, she saw Safiya’s adolescent son lying on the couch in the living room, and in particular the tent that the sheet had made between his legs. Everything came back to her, as she asked Allah to protect her from Satan the pelted one. She would remember the two of them, Allah and Satan, several times that day. By seven in the morning they were on their way to the docks in Aziz’s battered old 128. Behind them was a small truck driven by one of Aziz’s aquaintances from the working class. Safiya, of course, was sitting in the front next to Aziz, and Zaat ended up in

the back between the two children. The boy, who was immediately next to her, was

the one who

had erected the tent, and his leg,

innocently sticking to hers, emitted a pleasant heat which grew stronger every time the little girl lurched forward to continue the border struggle that had broken out between her and her brother,

or whenever Zaat herself put her arms around him to pull him away from his sister, which made his ears go red.

The journey was not void of transmission: the new high-rise residential blocks soon had Aziz telling the story of Abdel Monem Gaber, who, in ten years, had gone from being a textile worker to the owner of five tower blocks, a building contractor, and a tourism company before he fled the country with the millions he had borrowed from the banks. The smell that lay over everything gave Safiya the opportunity to relate the sewer saga, which told how, in a few months, Alexandria had turned from the pearl of the

Mediterranean into a dump. Safiya had two sums of money with her: a larger one, which she

mS

had put in her handbag, to pay the customs duty on the car and

furniture Essam was bringing with him, and a smaller one for sundry tips and gratuities which she had distributed among her various pockets. They started to use this pocket change immediately: entry permits; the attendant who appeared from nowhere in the car park near the quay; the young lad who congratulated them on the expected safe arrival of their loved one; another who brought them the good news that the boat had actually docked; a third who expressed his readiness to perform any service (when Safiya ignored him he stretched out his hand and said: “Praise be to Allah for the safe arrival”); a fourth, who seemed to jump out of the ground when the boat finally did dock, who volunteered to go on board and inform Essam—who they could see but who could not see them—of their whereabouts; then a smart man wearing a fancy pink shirt and gold-rimmed spectacles who moved with confidence and dignity, and, ignoring Aziz, for it was obvious who was in charge of the money, presented Safiya with a glossy business card full of telephone numbers and said: “Kamel El Rashidi, car clearance, at your command”;

and last of all Aziz, who

held out his

hand saying: “Give me something for the porters.”

Aziz came back with a file containing two sheets of paper which he gave to Safiya: “You do the car and I'll sort out the furniture.” He went over to the customs house pulling the boy and girl behind him. Meanwhile

Safiya put her arm in Zaat’s and said: “Come on,

let’s go and look for El Rashidi.”

They looked around the building which dealt with motorcar customs, among dozens of people coming and going, or just hanging around, all of them prepared to offer any service with smiling faces,

until Safiya mentioned El Rashidi’s name, then the smiles disappeared and heads shook in denial of any knowledge of the name or the man. Only one took a different stance. He was a middle-aged gentleman with a skinny chest and a swollen belly. He was wearing baggy old trousers, a shirt which was well ironed as if to compen-

116

sate for its great age, and a pair of spectacles with a cracked frame. His hand shook incessantly. He approached them with his eyes on the file that Safrya was holding in her hand: “Your servant Kamal, car clearance. What can I do for you?” After thinking for a moment, he led them to a passageway between two buildings and said: “Wait for him here. He’s coming in a minute.”

And surely enough El Rashidi came into view moments later with his dignified walk, and took the file off them. He led them towards a building, past Kamal, who was sitting cross-legged against the wall with a number of his clearance colleagues; he did not want to miss his chance, and he addressed El Rashidi, saying: “It was me who told them about you.” Without slowing his pace, El Rashidi threw back a scathing reply: “Bastard. I had an appointment with them.” Zaat, who was always one to take a humanitarian position, lept to the defense of the unfortunate man, in whom she noticed some-

thing familiar, as if she had met him before, or he reminded her of someone she knew really well, and she confirmed to El Rashidi that Kamal was the only person who had helped them track him down, but El Rashidi was unrepentant: “He’s despicable. All he’s interested in is his fifty piasters.” The despicableness of the middle-aged clearance man had sever-

al aspects; he had diabetes, easily lost his temper, treated the customers badly, and what’s more: “Take yourselves as an example. Can you clear the car without oiling a few palms? If you gave him your papers together with twenty pounds for expenses, i.e., bribing the odd official, he’d keep at least half the amount for himself. In the end it’s the customer who pays the price.” Safiya took this as a hint and took out the bribing material. Inside a huge room containing dozens of desks in unordered rows, surrounded by dozens of people all talking at the same time, each competing to make themselves heard above the rest, Zaat had the opportunity to see the middle-aged clearer again, this time in his

natural habitat.

117

He was carrying a blue file and trying in vain to talk to one of the

officials. Then El Rashidi presented Safiya’s file to the same official. The man welcomed him warmly and took the file from him immediately. The middle-aged clearer turned to a sullen-looking young man, gave him a knowing wink, and indicated with his hand the virtue of

patience. Then he went to another official who paid no attention to him, and he stood for a moment, motionless, gazing into space between the desks, his left hand still shaking. After a moment he turned around and walked back over to the young man whose file he was dealing with. Zaat heard him say: “We’ll have to wait a bit. There's a problem with your papers. But don’t worry. I'll sort it out for you,” and he left him and walked over to another official. In the meantime El Rashidi, of course, had obtained all the sig-

natures and stamps he required, and all that remained was the signature of the director of administration who was, of course, not in his office, and nobody seemed to know where he was, but the welltrained El] Rashidi tracked him down in a side office, deep in tele-

phone conversation about shipping lines and holiday tours, which quickly moved on to spare parts for cars and the faults of mechanics, until eventually he noticed the presence of El Rashidi and his two companions. He took the file, opened it, and began to read the contents, continuing his conversation, or, to be more precise, his receiving, while he leafed through the pages. The women’s eyes fol-

lowed him anxiously, waiting for him to reach the last page and give it the seal of approval with his signature, but he was not so naive as all that, and before he reached the end, he went back to the beginning and the women’s hearts pounded as they watched his fingers make their journey back and forth through the pages, until they discovered that he was doing this automatically without actually reading anything. At last the phone call finished, the director hung up, and began all over again, for his eyes had fallen on one line and he had par-

ticularly scrutinized it. Zaat’s heart skipped a beat as he picked up the receiver and dialed the number with the same hand. He then

118

raised his head, looked at El Rashidi, and said, as he handed him

the file with the other hand: “Fouad Beh.” Outside the room El Rashidi looked at his watch and frowned while the two women watched him anxiously. Their expectations proved correct: Fouad Beh had already left, the cash desk closed at one-thirty, and they still had to pay duties and the storage fee: “Leave the file with me and come tomorrow.” On the way to the furniture customs they met the middle-aged clearer who was careful to avoid them, even though Zaat wanted to talk to him to discover the secret of the familiarity that she felt towards him. It was this secret that occupied her for the next two hours as they waited among a crowd of porters and drivers, all of whom were prepared to offer any service, until Aziz appeared with the philosopher, upon whom Safiya had confered the title Doctor, followed by the furniture (a desk, a bed, chairs, a fridge, a washing machine, and a television: ample justification for the new academic title) which they loaded up on the truck. Their ordeal, however,

was far from over. The porters surrounded Aziz, arguing about their money. The others reached the 128 where the parking attendant once again appeared out of nowhere to alert them to the fact that one of the car’s tires was flat, and that he was prepared to offer any service, and change the wheel, thus deserving the one pound he had taken, and providing Zaat with an opportunity to express her faith in the goodness of human nature: “Don’t be daft,” she said, when Safiya insisted that the whole thing had been set up by the attendant in order to increase his income in what only seemed like an honest way. Zaat sat in the back seat next to the Doctor, who seemed confused as to how he should address her, for when he was a child he

had been used to calling her ‘Abla’ Aziz joined them at last but he had hardly gotten the motor running when one of the porters who had been surrounding him came running over, pulling a small boy behind him. He leaned into the window and pointed to the boy: “This is Hamada.”

9

Aziz was surprised: “Hamada who?” The porter said: “My son.” The son took his share before the procession moved off towards the main gate, where, at the glass kiosk by the barrier, they were stopped by a solemn middle-aged man wearing dark glasses who put his hand on the hood of the car. He leaned over towards the window and said: “Thanks be to Allah for your safe arrival, and many happy returns and best wishes.” Safiya took a pound out of her jacket pocket and offered it to him, but he returned it to her and said arrogantly: “No. You keep it. You might need it.” Safiya exploded angrily as she turned her empty jacket pockets inside out and opened her handbag right under his nose: “We haven't a millieme left.” Zaat took another pound out of her pocket and gave it to the man, who pointed to an old policeman with a number of stripes on his arm standing a few feet away, and said: “He deserves something too.” A search took place in the pockets of every passenger in the car, including the little girl, until three twenty-five piaster notes were collected. The policeman accepted them with an angry scowl, whereupon the solemn middle-aged man lifted his hand from the front of the car and allowed the procession to move out. The Doctor, whose studies had been of a theoretical nature, and

who had been away a long time, commented: “I never imagined it would be so difficult to come back,” by which he meant the number of shocks he had received trying to get his baggage in. But he was not the only one to be suffering shocks, for because the back seat of the 128 was so narrow, and due to the great size Essam had attained during his stay abroad, together with the result of all Zaat’s sitting on the toilet, there was no way to avoid the physical

contact that took place, and contrary to what had happened on the way there, it was

Zaat whose

ears went

red this time, since the

effect of the stronger firmer leg was more potent than that of its adolescent predecessor.

120

Essam caused Zaat’s ears to go even redder when he put a small smart leather case on his lap, undid the combination lock, took a

spectacles frame from inside, and offered it to Zaat, saying: “What do you think of that?”

Her ears positively glowed when he took back what she thought was a gift and returned it to the case after she had indicated her approval. He took out a number of assorted frames, showed them to her, and

asked:

“Do

you

think there’s

a market

for them

in

Egypt? I’m going to be the agent.” As well as spectacle frames, the leather case contained

a new

kind of videotape cassette, which was harder-wearing than the normal kind because the drive was made of metal instead of plastic,

and small electronic machines to repel mosquitoes, which, they all agreed, every home in Egypt needed. At that moment Zaat realized—with some amazement—who middle-aged car clearer had reminded her of: Abdel Maguid.

121

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