AN ANTIPODEAN IN EGYPT

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21512, 29 June 1935, Page 17

AN ANTIPODEAN IN EGYPT

THE WOMAN'S SPHERE (SPECIALLY WBITTKB JOB THE PRESS.) [By DOROTHY LUND]

Along any road in the Egyptian countryside, at any hour, comes trotting a donkey. C-n its back, his bare legs dangling, a sunshade over his head, perhaps, sits the master. At a respectful distance behind walks his wife, a baby in her arms, a load upon her head. The let of the peasant woman, although in some ways it may be preferable to the gilt-caged ex.stence of those of higher casce, hardly bears thinking about. Born to drudgery, regarded as soulless, down-trodden, contemned, she leads her life from earliest stages through one long round of service to an earthly lord. She marries while yet a girl, her care alternates between child-bearing and heavy outdoor labour. Since her husband too works from early dawn till sunset for a few pence, on which their large family is somehow kept and reared, there is not much left over for pin-money. Zhe sits on the ground at the door of her mud mansion, optimistically attaching a bundle or shabby charms -to her skinny baby, quite regardless of the flies that swarm on i's eyes. What is she murmuring in the child's ear as she rocks it to and fro? The one sad lullaby oi all its kind?— O rest you, my baby, your sire slaves all day. Your mother draws water, for twopence a day. O rest you, my darling, the time soon will come When you'll do the same for the same paltry sum. So rest you, my baby, take sleep while you can; You'll be sadder and wiser ere you're woman or man. Then rest you, O rest you, that you may not fret, At the toil and the gloom and the misery yet, The thorns and the tares that your hard master saith Must be your sole portion alj life through till death But she will not be spared there for long. There are those heavy

water pitchers to be filled and carried, the donkey waiting for his load of turf, the weeding and scything, the reaping and binding, and many other things that will not wait. Alreadv now she is off to scrub the clothes in the murky pool that is a feature of every village. Oiten green and stagnant, yet, like Poon Bah, it combines many offices. It provides drainage, bath, washtub, duck-pcnd, sewerage, and drinking water for the on tire community. Cattle wade and drink as she drubs out the dirt, afterwards filling the drinking jars frr. the self-same spot. The taste of this water, it is raid when acquired, soon is Dreferred to any other. The preference kills many, including 90 per cent, of the oabies.

A new house is building on the opposite side of the rood. Another job for the fellahine weman. For several days some six or seven have "walked the plank." rp and down, up and down, bowls of mcrter perilously poised cn their heeds. And now that bricklaying has begun th"y also take their place among the men. Dress-and Deportment The pea-ant man i:n clean, white clothing; his wife must see to that. Not so her own. Fresh and attractive, she migh': he desirable in the eyes of other men. So from earliest maidenhood, as one for ever mourning and bereaved, she comes and gees in unrelieved black. The dress in itself is not unpxturesque, long and deep-yoked, with mil skirt, frilled at the hem. to trail behind in tho dust Cnntradictoiy as it may sound, there is more in the length of Urs skirt than meets the eye. Its original purpose to brush over the surface of toe .sand, obliterating the footprints oi the wearer, through which it was believed she could be injured magically. So that what to the uninitiated glance might seem merely slovenly, was in fact a truly ingenious device. From beneath the skirt, long, black pantaion legs peep out; sometimes —daring frivolity!—they are of turkey red instead, with black braided frills. Thj luckier maidens, and their mothers, possess strings of amber, very plentiful here, silver anklets, cheap ear-rings and bracelets, of which they are very fond and by which they hope to attract a husband. These jewels are being worn at present for all informal and formal occasions; make-up consists usually of charcoal only, smartly smudged beneath the eyes. Long pigtails, sometimes reinforced with artificial locks, complete the ensemble. Feet arc almost invariably bare; when not so. wooden clogs or heel-less, backless shoes are worn, in which the only mode of progress possible, a dull, graceless shuffle, symbolises once more the Egyptian woman's bondage to earth. Presumably it is the law of extremes that causes the eflendi's wife, her social superior, to display beneath her European dress a pair of the highest of high French heels. Yet not even such a shuffle destroys or can even hide the extraordinary gracefulness of the peasant woman, such poise is hers, such dignitv of bearing. Centuries old, yet still unchanged, her school of beauty culture boasts neither outfit nor gymnasium. Daily toil give' end'ess opportunity to practise and perfect her deportment —through the balancing of weights upon her head! There is no specified size or weight of burden; anything, from a small bottle to a stone pitcher, too heavy, when filled, to lift alone; a bundle of produce of greater bulk than herself; a solid piece of furniure; a cra'.c containing geese; or even a baby. No wonder her balance is good. A Troup of these women are at this moment going nast the house, dingily black, like a flock of shabby crows, yet queenly, every one.

Child Labour The little ?;irls deliver milk, assist with the flocks, or, sitting by the roadside, pat together in their hards cakes of manure to be dried and sold. For in a world where pounds are pennies and labour is endless, nothing is wasted. The smaller;' of them are industrious an-i resigned. Do thev never rebel? A man in Egypt killed his 14-year-okl daughter the other day. She had failed to collect him enough cigarette ends. Yet the tov/n-born child fares worse. It was at first to me a matter of wonder to see small boys in plenty, from about sever, years, in laundries and tailors' shops, bending all day—and night, too. seemingly—over their irons and needles, yet few girls of the same afo anywhere about. They are hired out, or practically given, to people more prosperous, and become drudges and slaves, sometimes maltreated and beaten, sleeping on the kitchen floor. A batch of the coarsest native bread is made once a month, and on tiiis they subsist solely, tasting no other food from year to year. It is quite common +o pass a fat woman —for most of the effendi class are, from over-indul-pence and the enervating climate, very stout—waddling along the street with husband and brood of sturdv children, the tiny maid in apron and kerchief staggering along behind under ihe weight of a heavy baby. When bound for the station, she'becomes nurse and porter, too Two families of married sisters and brothers share the flat directly below ours, one small hand-maiden at the beck and call of both. In her spare time she attends also another household, living two or three hundred yards away. "Am-e-e-ena! Am-e-e-ena!" So poor Amena runs up and down all day. But then she has put away childish things for r.any a year. She is 10 or 11. Daughters of high birth who attend English and American second - ary schools, and even finish their education abroad, are brought back at last to a prison-like existence in their fathers' harem, until they leave it for one of their own. Many independent Egyptian women teachers, even, whose homes arc out of town, board in at their schools in partial captivity. They must not venture outside the school gates alone. At the yearly recention given by the hcadma:ter of the Tanta secondary school to the English staff and their wives, one of the latter is invariablv called upon to preside, the hostess nropor—the Egyptians' wives not being permitted to appear.

Again, the Tanta sporting club opening ceremony took place cjuito latelv, and while all the danced the Egyptian clientele (solely menl faced the choice of sitting out all +}-)o evening or walking with one another. , Slow Emancipation Against all this however, it must be said that centurie- of cramped existence in a world of which she has always been parcel rather than part have left the superstitious Egyptian woman ignorant, deceitful. capricious, and over-emotional The wives of many decent men of means are hopelessly unpresentable, with little or no idea of cleanliness, let alone of bringing up a family, running a house, or comporting themselves with any de rt ree of seem, liness at all. Irresponsible, unstable as children, they pass their time in squatting about in disorder, smoking, and drinking black coffee Should they resent their husbands' treatment it is a simple matter to I

return, with their grievance, to the bosom of their own families, who are ever ready, not only to lend a willing ear, but to threaten and avenge. Conditions for women have improve:! in every way. In contrasl to the ruling in India, where hundreds of thousands of child-mothers die each year in frightful conditions, the marriage age in Egypt is now the same as in British countries. 16 years. It is said, too, that ians returning from abroad desire their wives to live like- European women. English people of long experience in the country have certainly noticed a great increase in the numbers in attendance at theatres and public functions during the last few years. And a few months ago the first Egyptian girl lawyer made her triumphant appearance! Still, the day of genera' emancipation for women, come as it certainly will, is still very far from near.