The remains of (the old?!) days...

Third world countries tend to be organized by a very simplistic, unfair pair of cathegories:

From one side, the rulers/bosses/masters and, from the other side, the ruled/employees, servants.

Egypt, in concrete, it 's still divided into the ones who have money, power and the social status that goes with it and the servants who tend to, blindly, obey and serve with no sight of their own dignity and rights as HUMAN BEINGS.

We all hope the Egyptian Revolution will change this reality but, so far, it still the landscape we're living in. Signs of this fact are everywhere...

Today in the morning, while preparing to go into the "turkish hammam" in my gym, I found myself surrounded by three girls, cleaning ladies of the place, ready to assist me in this, apparently, complicated task of "getting in the hammam".

One of them wanted to undress me, the other wished to hold my cloths while I closed my bags, the other one was staring at me, just observing my every move and waiting for a whim, a wish, an order to use her services.

I looked around and felt trapped. Not only invaded in my personal space but put under pressure to fit the role of the MASTER using the services of the servants.

I am not comfortable in that position.

I grew up educated in a mentality that told me we re all EQUALS and I must respect EVERYBODY, independently of their social status or any other label. I also had a mum who refused to spoil me to the extent that I had to learn how to bath, dress myself, clean my room and even bake myself a cake if I wanted one. My mum often told me: I will not do it for you because you have a functional brain and body BUT I will teach you HOW to do it yourself."

Thanks to my hard loving mum, I am now able to cook, clean, iron, embroider (yes, mams!), work for my subsistance, fix electrical devices at home, even do some small carpenter tasks, if needed. I am fully trained to take care of myself as an ADULT and I feel truly shy if others treat me like a doll who cannot bath herself. It is an infantilization of women...ridiculous at my eyes.

Serving others is beautiful but behaving like a SERVANT is something else. I asked, with a much inevitable irritant manner, that all of them would leave because I could undress myself and open the door of the "hammam". I didn t have need of a maid taking care of my every step, combing my hair and guessing how hot I wish my shower water to be.

The girls took it as an aggression, only acceptable because I am still a foreigner in egyptian land so my status allows me a good part of extravagant behaviour.

For me, it was just another side of the coin. I make a point of thanking everybody for their kind services everywhere and treating every single human being I encounter with the same respect BUT I refuse to be surrounded by servile, down headed individuals who want to treat me as their master. This has never been an honour to me but a sign of decadence.

The three girls waited outside the "hammam", clearly annoyed at my attitude, hoping the heat would change my mind and turn me into the "PRINCESS" they think they have to serve at any cost. It didn t happen. I try to make sure that it never will.