Lelyn R. Masters
Lelyn R. Masters, A.K.A "Our Man In Cairo", was brought up in Louisiana, U.S.A., and studied Continental Philosophy at university. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy after 9/11, where he learnt Arabic, and in which he became fluent. After they re-considered his political outlook, the Navy decided that he was too much of a security risk and refused to promote him into a position where he could use his Arabic skills. He was released from his tour of duty in June 2008 and moved to Cairo.
Why did I study Arabic? I felt a need to understand the Middle East and Arabic culture. Maybe the real question should be: why don’t more people study Arabic? The more I learned, the more fascinated I became. A lost civilization unveiled itself before me. I saw a different sensibility to life.
Several years later I find myself in Cairo. As it turns out I came here at the worst possible time: Summer, 2008. I fell to earth flat in the middle of a food shortage coupled with inflation coupled with corruption scandals and a collapse of any kind of faith in the government to make things better. Cultural conservatism is at an all time high.
The city is crowded, dirty and under martial law. It is hard to ignore all of these problems, but it is also hard to ignore the goodness of the Egyptian people, for whom I write with an outraged pen. I am not an Orientalist: I am passing on to you the complaints and joys of the most populated city in Africa: Cairo.
Posts by Lelyn R. Masters
Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on January 18th, 2009 - Add a comment
Mahmoud Darwish was born in Galilee in 1941. The specific conditions we are born into is a crapshoot, and Darwish just lost. In 1948 his family fled to Lebanon. He became the poet laureate of Palestine, an expression of a dispossessed people. Like many in his generation his influences included Ginsburg and Rimbaud. In 1971 he moved to Cairo and worked in Al-Ahram. In 1973 he joined the PLO, and was hence banned from entering Palestine.
Published in 1987, his landmark Memory for Forgetfulness expresses the plight of the refugee under siege. This book is an eyewitness account of the peak of shelling in Lebanon during the civil war, called Hiroshima Day. Comparable to Slaughterhouse 5 or Murakami’s The White Sky of Hiroshima, Memories for Forgetfulness is a coherent exploration of a life that is already forfeit, a life of isolation, injustice and alienation.
When he died in 2008, discussions were held with Israel to bury him in his home town. He was buried in exile from that home village so that he could be where all Palestinians can visit. His remains rest in Ramallah at the heart of the disputed West Bank.
What follows is a short excerpt where Darwish recalls going out into the city streets under bombardment.
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Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on November 14th, 2008 - Read comments and add your own
I met Spartacus when I first got to Egypt and was looking for a job. She is an imposing personage. I tend to have a different experience of Egypt from her, for reasons you will no doubt understand from the following excerpt of an interview I held with her. We are obviously touching here on issues of gender and race. Whereas I agree that one shouldn’t generalize to the point of being prejudiced, I do hope the reader will be open minded about the events here related. Every truth is partial, and there is much truth to what Spartacus has to say. She has been living in Egypt, off and on, for the majority of the last decade, and by that very fact she deserves the respect of anyone who seriously wishes to understand this deeply troubled country.
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Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on July 13th, 2008 - Add a comment
Ninety-seven percent of women in Egypt have had some sort of genital mutilation. The majority of these cases are Type 1, clitoridectomy, involving the removal of the prepuce (clitoral hood). A smaller percentage involve complete removal of the clitoris, and an even smaller minority involve the removal of part or whole of the labia. According to polls, this practice is embraced by men and women of all races and religions in Egypt.
Five years ago almost no women in Egypt wore the headscarf (hijab). Now they nearly all wear it. A man cannot address a woman in public. Marriages are arranged, and the couple usually meet under parental supervision. Women are subordinate to men, and a woman whose honor is in question, through infidelity, rape or pre-marital promiscuity, may be killed by her family so that they save face. Without honor, a man cannot find work, and his entire family will bear the shame.
In 1979 a law passed to protect women’s rights made it more difficult to marry several women, and more difficult to divorce. In 1985 another law reversed the earlier 1979 law. But I ask you, is a law that protects a woman’s right to an inherently one-sided relationship really a protection of her rights? It still remained nearly impossible for a woman to ask for a divorce.
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Posted by Lelyn R. Masters on June 30th, 2008 - Read comments and add your own
“This place is ready to explode,” she said to me with great relish. Her name was Karen or something, and I stood there having a nice conversation with her and her fiancee. They were from northern California. At that moment we were in an art gallery during the opening of a new collection of photographs of graffiti. She was really excited by the idea that Cairo was on the verge of violent revolt.
I am not convinced. However, I left her with her enthusiasm. People need drama. They really will die without it. Have you ever met someone without any sense of passion or imagination? Zombies are real.
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