Jester’s “ monthly ranting” coincided with some of the things floating around in my head lately and instead of leaving a long winded comment on the poor fellow’s blog, I've decided to post it here.

Side note: I hope jester is in fact a fellow... me thinks my memory serves me correct and he is... but if not then I hope she forgives me for the whole heshe bit.

My cousin held a birthday party at some fancy shmancy coffee shop where they served alcohol whilst my parents were on vacation in Egypt last week. Upon their arrival, in our casual exchange of what went down while they were away, they made mention that a small part of my cousin's guest list included girls who were veiled. They told us how, after the party got underway, the owner of the place approached the two girls and asked them to leave. This of course instigated a lot of aggression from the guys who in turn ruined the evening for my cousin, the girls, and the owner in an all too typical brute 3alaya w 3ala 2a3da2y fashion ( which I guess best translates into kamikaze mission). The discussion naturally became about whether or not their actions were justified and inevitably about the owner’s right to ask the girls to leave with a “we serve alcohol here and this is no place for you”. I found it strange that I could, on some level, identify with both parties. On the one hand I could understand that this was a private establishment and on that basis one could argue when in Rome do as the Romans do or better still and more to the point "my house my rules". Just like certain places have a dress code whether it be the basic shirt required, the no jeans or even the snootier suit and tie required I found it generally acceptable that this man control the type of attire his clientele bring into his establishment. Question then is...are we being over sensitive just because the scarf is in itself a symbol of religion? And on that note did the 6pack boys react the way they did because they intrinsinclly object to the owner’s re-enforcement of the all too familiar faulty inequality ,higab != shiyaka/ more loosely modern thinking that exists in Egyptian society0 today or was this just a misguided display of who is bigger than who?
But on the other hand I am enraged by the fact that a country packed to the brim with people who take Islam on as a faith of their own would allow such behavior. I mean really how disappointing is it when people who don’t embrace the practice are being shunned for their actions, namely France, while this sort of madness is going on at home? I think what this whole scarf thing boils down to, as a friend of mine pointed out, is that being a higabi is a part of who you are just as is being of color, Middle Eastern descent or short. Shouldn’t there be rules and regulations to prevent this sort of thing? With all that mess out of the way…What then is to be said of mean coffeeshop owner’s assumed position of piety? Who is he to say to a higabi or a non higabi where she should or should not be? Is it not her decision? And since when did religion become something between two people? Last I checked it wasn’t this umbrella that gave every tom dick or Harry a carte Blanche to pass judgment, preach and control!? But I think if nothing else this thought experiment has tought me that there are 2 sides to the coin.