Book To Read Men And Women Of The Nile

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 178, 26 April 1938, Page 5

Book To Read Men And Women Of The Nile

A Girl’s Adventures In Egypt “Nevysgirl in Egypt,” by Barbara Board (London: Michael Joseph). T'HE casual tourist shuns Egypt in X the parched summer and sees, in the winter social season, the pseudoEgypt conjured up for Europeans. Barbara Board is not interested in conventional society but in the lives of the native people in the lands she visits. In her latest book, “Newsgirl in Egypt,” she writes of the men and women who live in the Nile-lands, toiling in the deta fields and living as their forefathers did thousands of years ago. With deep understanding and appreciative imagination she has written a book which is a vivid iftdex to the human and political problems of Egypt. By recent treaty the land has acquired independent status, with the unobtrusive protection of the British Army for a period of 20 years. Woven into the experiences of the young author are the opinions, reactions, and changes of the people at the beginning of this formative period. She has come near to touching the intangible qualities of the Egyptian, and has a delightful knack of presenting the humorous aspect of the persistent beggars and street actors, and the uncomfortable situations in which she finds herself. Her insatiable quest for information led her to live for a time among the humble people, to see for herself their customs —often revolting—and their manner of living, so that she is indeed qualified to write about them. Her book is primarily the account of a journey through a land of mosques and markets, but the people and their customs, the fascination of the intense loneliness in the chambers of the Pyramide, the weird rituals and dances, the humour of the Egyptian misunderstanding of English people, all become a reality as she describes them. No woman has held sway in Egypt since the days of Cleopatra, and the women play a very subordinate part in the life of the country. Now, in the awakening of Egypt, comes the stirring in the hearts of the women. Their struggle for freedom from the bondage of the veil and the seclusion of the harem is a subject of absorbing interest, and in Barbara Board’s opinion “the Egyptian ladies cannot claim to be truly emancipated until they are allowed complete freedom of dress, and treated according to European social standards when they appear in public.” , Her account of the oath-taking ceremony of King Farouk is more than an explanation of events, it is a 'description of human incidents and is alive with interesting comments on the Egyptian Royal Family and some of the prominent politicians. She was impressed by the esteem in which the eighteen-year-old king is held by his subjects and immediate associates. Like all Egyptians, he has matured early, and his opinions are a fortunate blending of eastern and western ideas—fortunate because Egypt is feeling the insidious and inevitable advance of western influence, yet clings tenaciously to eastern customs.

It is, however, in .the stories of the humble Egyptian, the men and women who toil and' live and love and hope, that she best depicts the land. She has woven the primitive mixture of humour and pathos which lies behind the lives of the Egyptians into a remarkable tale of experiences, and a very human record of a complex people.'