My very own LOVE declaration for Egypt.

My dear friend and fellow dancer/artist Mohamed Shahin posted the most interesting note on the Facebook. Like it usually happens with most polemic "goodies", this note caused such a stir and reawakened a fire that was never extinguished in my heart.

For writing this note and even defending me from some mediocre dancers comments on my person, I thank him and my warmest thoughts go to him.

The main theme of the note was the way Oriental Dancers live and are treated in Egypt and how dirty is the whole business around here.

There was a lot of mixing between the love for Egypt - the title of the note was "Egypt-love it or leave it" - and the criticism over the prostitution and general corruption associated with Oriental Dancing in Egypt.

As the wonderful egyptian writer Allah al Aswany would rightfully tell you, there is no such thing as "love it or leave it". You can love a country and still see its faults and the rotten things that MUST change in order for that country to flourish in every possible way.

After performing, non stop, in Cairo for the past 5 years and facing the music all by myself (no manager, no empresario, no helping hand, no "connections" of any sort, no rich man on my back, no express egyptian husband who brings me egyptian nationality and help in my career, no damned thing!) I am in total right of speaking up by personal/professional experience and say it out loud:

ORIENTAL DANCE IS STILL ASSOCIATED WITH PROSTITUTION AND LOOSE MORALS IN EGYPT (AND ALL THE MIDDLE EAST) AND MOST 5 STAR JOBS ARE OBTAINED THROUGH THE BED OF SOME MANAGER.

IF SOME DANCERS, LIKE ME, CAN GET A MIRACOULOUS CLEAN CHANCE TO HAVE A LEGAL CONTRACT TO DANCE HERE IN CAIRO THEY WILL NOT GROW IN THEIR CAREERS FROM THAT POINT ON, UNLESS THEY SURRENDER TO THE PROSTITUTED/CORRUPTED BUSINESS.

Now...the ironic thing is that I ve been acused by people who don t even know me of passing through the bed of some of these high powered men and the truth is that I never did it and got punished, until today, for refusing to do it.

My arrogance is the worst kind of arrogance. I CHOOSE the men I sleep with and I don t allow any "pasha" to haunt me down, after having in his agenda the amazing goal of taking me to bed.

Besides that, there s nothing I need to say in my defense because TRUTH speaks for itself BUT I don want to stress this point:

I love Egypt, its music and dance.Due to that LOVE, I chose to come here and make a dignified career built exclusively on my talent and against all odds.

The fact that I arrived here with no connections, guidance or help of any kind and learnt the trade by myself, climbed the stairs with my own legs, learnt the language, the culture and the ART of egyptians by myself is nothing short of miraculous. I have no one but GOD to thank for all this.

Loving a country doesn t mean denying what s wrong with it. Quite que opposite.

I owe my Art to Egypt in every possible way. I ve had the greatest time of my life with egyptian musicians, audiences and "regular" people who, in some way or another, taught me the MEANING of egyptian music and dance. For them all my gratitude and love go...

Egypt is my past, my present, my home, my GREAT school on so many levels and the country where I developed myself as an artist and a woman. So much do I owe to it and yet I am not blind and wish to see REAL CHANGES in this marvellous country.

Dancers should start respecting themselves and not letting ambition and desperation take their dignity away.

I wish ORIENTAL DANCING is in its rightful place and not in one of the roads to easy money and prostitution.

I wish more and more dancers REFUSE to sell their bodies and souls to the devil in exchange for the realization of their dream. If you know you reached any glory by selling yourself, then you re not honouring yourself as a woman or an artist. You are perpetuating an old mentality disgusting idea that STILL says: "Rakkasah sharmouta." (meaning "a dancer is a prostitute").

Here s the reality and what dancers have to face in Cairo:

The great majority of egyptian men will not marry a dancer or present her to her family.

The top gigs on dancing flow through someone s bed with extremely RARE exceptions.

To be a dancer in Cairo, you need to be a hard, cold, thick skinned business woman much more than an ARTIST itself.

Men expect any dancer to accept monetary/career compensations in exchange for sexual favours and very few places do not do it.

When having a regular conversation with any also regular egyptian, expect to have a dirty look at you if you mention you are an Oriental Dancer.

Being a smart ass, passing over another collegues and harming them in any possible low way is on the order of the day (I ve had my share of VERY famous dancers SCREWING me on my back and coming to see my show, ridiculously under cover, to see what the hell am I doing and to copy it).

Flirting with men and accepting their domination is STILL the way to get around as a dancer in Cairo.

The thing is, after so much HARD stuff I had to face on my own over here and after seeing how dance is seen as garbage, I believe more and MORE that ORIENTAL DANCE and REAL DANCERS are sacred and must be treated with respect and reverence.

For this belief I REJECT any humiliating attempt for any man to buy me and I KEEP DOING what I always did - my BEST! - in order to help, somehow on my own limited way, CHANGE the ORIENTAL DANCE situation in Egypt.

Not because I don t love Egypt. If I didn t love it, I would simply leave this country as many egyptian dancers did and want to do.

I keep on the struggle here because I believe in Egypt and in the possibility of, very soon, seeing its music/dance/musicians/dancers being VALUED, CHERISHED and RESPECTED as noble carriers of this amazing country s culture.

This was the dream that brought me here and it s still the same dream that keeps me going and this dream doesn t mean anything else to me except: LOVE.