By: Haven Meng

Hi I’m Aya I am 13 years old and I live with my mom, dad, brother, and sister. My cousins are also so close they are treated like siblings although my older

sister who moved out did marry one of our cousins. I speak Arabic and I am a Sunni Muslim.

Me, my older sister, and my younger sister a few years ago.

I live on the sixth floor of a ten story, red brick apartment building in Cairo. We occupy the whole floor and every floor has its own security guard. Everybody has access to electricity, but only about half of the population uses the internet including my family.

This is our apartment building

This is Cairo

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Me and all of my siblings attend/attended primary school, but only my brother and older sister have/are attending secondary school. At school we learn Arabic and a little English. We have two big exams
that determine
our education.

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There is strict discipline at our school and we start studying for the exams months before. Our parents even got a private tutor for us. We go school for about 7 years.

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This is my brother and his friend from secondary school

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For breakfast we eat bread and sometimes tomatoes and cucumbers. For lunch I eat stuffed cabbage and grape leaves and okra stew. For dinner we eat rice, bread, pork, and for the adults beverages they drink alcohol. We eat with our fork in the left hand and knife in the right hand. We usually just eat with our right hand but if needed we use a spoon.

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These are some foods we eat and places we buy food from.

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Soccer is our national sport. I do not play soccer but my older brother does. For leisure time I enjoy watching television and going to the movies with my friends from school. We celebrate the Lunar New Year and this holiday called Sham al-Nessim ("breathing the breeze") where we celebrate the beginning of spring, dye eggs, and have picnics.

This is the end of the holiday Ramadan

This is the Egyptian soccer/football team

All of the women in my family like many others wear long dresses and head coverings called hijabs. We use hand gestures and other things to communicate with people. Pointing is considered impolite. To show respect or thanks I raise my right hand and bow slightly. When around other people I am allowed to be near other girls but I have to keep distance from males.

This is me, my older sister, and my mom wearing hijabs. (the little girl is my little sister.

We have very advanced technology for medicine, but like many other places all the hospitals are very far away. When we do have to visit the hospital like we had to do because of my sisters’ hepatitis, we have to pay for all of the healthcare. My father is a business person and my mother stays at home with us.

This is the hospital

For my family like most others it is considered unacceptable to date anyone although there is a lot of parental support when people wish to be engaged. Even once you are married though it is frowned upon to display affection towards them in public.

This is my eldest sister with her husband in public.

Although given official independence in 1922, Egyptians regard 1952 as the beginning of their real independence. The military overthrew the British-supported monarchy and brought Muhammad Najib to power as the first president of Egypt. France and Britain vied for influence over Egypt throughout the 19th century. Egypt fought two wars that involved Israel (1956 and 1967) and lost the Sinai Peninsula in 1967.

During Mubarak's presidency, he reached out to former enemies, such as Sudan and Iran, to improve regional stability. In January 2011, anti-government protests broke out in Egypt. Under the leadership of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt has seen stability restored and some economic improvements.

Resources: CultureGrams and Africa Factbook