Modern Life in Egypt

Living in Egypt is greatly the same as it is in any other town of the earth. People get up in the early morning, go to school or work, have meals with their family unit, spend time with their friends, and go to the superstore, much the similar as your family does. Although present day Egyptians are generally lumped together with ‘The Arabs’ due to their language and Islamic traditions, this isn’t totally accurate. There is a really Bedouin Arab grouping inside Egypt, who are still frequently nomadic tribal people living in isolated oases and roaming through the country's huge desert regions. Lots of Bedouin Arabs reside the Sinai Peninsula and all along the Red Sea coast, crossways from Arabia.

The majority Cairenes live in apartment house buildings. Only the rich can afford to live in free-standing houses because room is not easy to find. Men and women generally live at home with their parents until they get wedded. Traditionally, extended families lived jointly, however, with the new situation in Cairo- as houses were abandoned in good turn of apartments - the traditional family has given way to the nuclear family. Apartments generally have one large room in the face- the living room, where the family entertains guests. Guests who aren’t relatives are usually not permitted back into the rest of the home. Traditionally, women would stay in the back of the house and not come into the living room if somebody who was not a close friend or family visited, although this is fewer ordinary now.

City of Egypt- Cairo

It is, though, considered unsuitable for a woman and man who aren’t wedded or related to be unaccompanied together. Egyptians dote on their kids, who as they grow up quickly, take on mature duties. The younger ones begin by herding sheep and goats. When the boys reach nine or ten, they start learning how to farm the land that will finally be theirs. Young girls give to eat chickens, milk goats and water buffalo (gamoosa), create the dung patties used for fuel and fetch water. At an early period, they learn to bear loads on their heads; starting with frivolous items like as bread loaves, they graduate to laundry and then to large clay water jars. Their job gives them an elegance of carriage that remains with them all through their lives.

In modern Egypt Egyptian extensive families, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all feel tribe obligations and these ties unite them in good times and bad. If an individual's crops fail, all relatives give from their own supplies. If an animal is lethally injured, the fellahin will kill it and each family within the clan will buy a piece, thus sharing the meat and contributing to the price of replacing the animal. The clan elders judge disagreements, even those between husbands and wives and give opinions that variety from farming techniques to spiritual obligations.

Bread is a daily food of mutually the commoner and the rich in current Egypt. The best loaves were ground with sand. This is why the teeth of royals showed serious scrape. The wheat was ground by rolling round sandstone on a load quern. The loaves were then baked in tapering molds. Rich Egyptians sweetened their bread with honey and stuffed it with fruit. A common meal for a peasant might be boiled or roasted beef, assorted vegetables, fruit (generally figs and grapes), a piece of bread, and beer. The wealthy ate on bronze, silver or gold plates while the masses ate on clay dishes. People ate with the tips of their fingers. Everyone was given a small bowl of water to clean their hands after the meal.

The rich soil of the Nile River made growing crops trouble-free. Donkeys were used to help bear the bags of seeds during planting period. The fields had to be irrigated during the hot summer months. Besides crops the farmers raised geese, hens, ducks and pelicans. Islam is the administrator religion, practiced by 90% of the population and several national holidays are of Islamic derivation. Christianity and Judaism are formally established. It is not up to anybody as an Egypt visitor to judge the country politics and religious values. Possibly it would be fair to say that from a Middle Eastern point of view, life in modern Egypt is quite open-minded; while from a western viewpoint there is still some progress to be made in human and civil rights, liberty of the press, opportunities for women, alternative lifestyle issues etc. Business dress is proper and traditional. Dress well if you want to create a good feeling. 

A happy family in Egypt

Men should dress in dark colored, lightweight, conservative business suits, at least to the first meeting. Men should avoid wearing observable jewellery, particularly around the face and neck. Women must be careful to cover themselves suitably. Skirts and dresses should cover the knee and sleeves should cover up most of the arm. More than 90 percent of Egypt is barren desert. Life in current Egypt is pretty crowded. Just three percent of the total geographic area is populated by almost 80 million Egyptians of olden Egyptian, Arab, Bedouin and Nubian ancestry. Not lots of foreigners choose to live in Egypt. Along the Nile valley, present Egypt still looks very much like its very old past, except for the roadways running along the river and some electricity towers and lines scattered here and there.

In olden days, the papyrus plant grew in abundance along the banks of the Nile. Now it's almost died out and grown only for the manufacture of souvenirs for the tourism industry. Marriages in Egypt are rather dissimilar than in the West. Islam discourages dating, as single men and women aren’t supposed to be alone jointly if they aren’t related. Among the middle and upper classes, often the man and woman know each other from school or university, where youthful people gather in groups like they do in the West. In the lower classes, the chance for intermingling of the sexes is rarer and sometimes families discuss a marriage for a bachelor son or daughter.

With the setting up of the 2004 Egyptian cabinet and the 2005 presidential ballot vote, the administration of Egypt began a fresh reform movement, following a stalled financial reform program begun in 1991, but moribund since the mid-1990s. Since 2004, the cabinet financial team has cut down and reduced tariffs and taxes, improved the clearness of the national budget, revived stalled privatizations of community enterprises and implemented economic legislation designed to foster personal sector-driven financial growth and get better Egypt's competitiveness. The Egyptian financial system experienced steady GDP growth rates around 7% between 2005 and 2008, before plummeting below 5% during the worldwide economic crisis.

The financial system is still in a weak position by government interference, substantial subsidies for food, housing and energy and bloated public division payrolls. Limited energy subsidy reform began in 2007 but has stalled since the 2008 global financial disaster. Just about one-third of Egyptian labor is engaged straight in farming and many others work in the processing or trading of farming products. Nearly all of Egypt's agricultural manufacture takes place in some 2.5 million hectares (6 million acres) of productive soil in the Nile Valley and Delta. Some desert lands are being developed for agriculture, including the determined Toshka scheme in Upper Egypt, but some other productive lands in the Nile Valley and Delta are being lost to urbanization and corrosion. Agriculture is mostly in confidential hands and has been largely deregulated, with the exemption of cotton, sugar and rice manufacture.

Unity of Egyptians

In Cairo, official education is extremely significant. There are twelve years of official education in Egypt and municipal schools are free, though under funded. Many families who can afford to send their kids to confidential school. Toward the end of high school, kids take an examination similar to the SAT required of students planning to go to college in the U.S. The results of that examination decide which college every student will attend and also which fields of study are open to that learner. Top students can attend the American University in Cairo, which teaches its courses in English. Other universities in the Cairo area include Cairo University, with over 30,000 students, Ayn Shams University, and al-Azhar University, one of the oldest and most high-status theological schools in the world.

Lots of kids don’t complete school or go on to college and be taught a trade or apprenticeship in trade instead. Egypt's court system is alike to European (primarily French) lawful concepts and methods. The courts have established increasing self-government and the principles of due process and legal review have gained greater admiration since the January 25 Revolution. Egypt’s lawful code is resulting largely from the Napoleonic Code. Wedding and personal status (family law) are principally based on the religious rule of the human being concerned, which for most Egyptians is Islamic Law (Sharia).