It’s a man’s world

Posted by Lindsey Cole at 22:48 on 16 Feb 2010

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There are moments where I think  I'm tough and invincible, especially after a few drinks. I'm not a wussy girl and would be quite happy to volunteer myself to face whatever needs facing. Whether it be George's dragon, or Goliath's giant. I'm not saying I'd thrash them down, but I'd give it a go. I even thought about doing the trip on my own, but decided not to to keep my mum happy. Thankfully, I wanted to please her. I can handle stares, and requests for photos (if you're female or male and white Egyptian locals will want their photo with you) but thinking there's a right to grab you, no no. I cycled ahead for only one moment out of the whole day, and was quite impressed with myself too. Soon to find out that the others were behind working out whether we'd gone wrong or not. A car pulled beside me as I was waiting, still straddling my bike, and clipped in the pedals. A solo Egptian man peered out of the window asking for my name and reaching out his hand to shake mine.  Locals have been very friendly and it's only to embrace it. His English didn't  extend to much more than  "What is your name?" and I can sadly say no more than "Shukran", meaning thankyou, in Arabic. So, the conversation became uncomfortably repetitive, to which i started ignoring him. He grabbed my arm and then attempted to grope my chest before accelerating off when I shouted some English obscenities.
There have been plenty of friendly Egyptian men. However, It's sad but true, being a British independent female in the Arab world will not be an easy feat and will take a lot of getting used to.

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