Western Perceptions of “Third-World” Egypt are Inaccurate

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Author: Chloe Jenkins-Sleczkowski

This past winter break, I received funding from an ASP/Richter grant from the Undergraduate Research Center to travel through Egypt while conducting an independent research project. Although the purpose of my trip had a specific focus – to study the placement of women in modern Egyptian society – I discovered that the Americanized view of countries like Egypt is very different from the actual experience inside the country.

Taking into account the ways in which religion, postcolonialism and modernization intersect in a developing country, I examined whether or not women in Egyptian society share the same rights that American women take for granted. Although I found that women experience many of the same rights in Egypt’s public sphere, I also discovered, in a general sense, that formerly colonized, so-called “third world” countries are very different from the images we create for them in the United States.

In the U.S., the newspapers, media and culture develop myths about life in so-called “developing” countries. As children, we learn about Ancient Egypt – the world of pharaohs, pyramids and hieroglyphics. We are taught to see Egypt as a country of ancient history that now only exists as a struggling postcolonial nation. Newspapers give us reports of murders and poverty in Egypt. In February, for example, The New York Times detailed multiple killings due to religious conflicts between Muslims and Copts; in March, the Los Angeles Times reported an increase in poverty rates in the country and the lack of jobs for citizens. At the same time, travel agencies promote the exoticism of the ancient country’s history, selling tours of ancient temples and sites that feed into the preconceived stereotypes of the country.

Because our knowledge is limited to these slanted forms of information (the history, conflicts and exotic images), our perception is limited to our Western bias and the myths we create – myths that label Egypt and similar countries as inferior, stunted, “developing” and completely different from our society.

As Americans, we develop generalized myths about these countries from our “modern” standpoint, yet we fail to recognize that they are much more modern than we think. Although I was expecting to find an underdeveloped, impoverished country, my trip to the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor showed me a surprisingly modern culture. I found that, despite the myth of an “other” Egypt that our foreign perspective promotes, Egypt persists in many ways as a modern, 21st-century country in much the same way as the United States.

When I arrived in Egypt, the country definitely defied the perceptions I arrived with, and I was surprised how the metropolitan areas contained evidence of modern advances everywhere. I had expected a country of huts and dirt paths, but instead found cities with men and women taking buses, shopping in malls and going about their lives much as we do in America. The packed freeways connect the major cities and contain even more traffic than Los Angeles. Apartment buildings tower over the streets. I found several McDonalds’ and Pizza Huts, in addition to modern purveyors of more local cuisine. Clearly, these cities were not the ancient villages that our Westernized mythologies make them out to be, but a society of modern individuals.

This is not to say that the country doesn’t contain the poverty that we associate with a developing country. Egypt is struggling through a severe economic crisis, and I saw numerous crowds of homeless children on the street, as well as downtrodden workers in the sugar cane fields. I recalled a news article I had read about a man who hung himself because he couldn’t find work to pay for his house and family. Bazaar vendors were eager to force their wares on you for a price, and taxi drivers invariably charged a higher rate for tourists.

But, just because the country needs money doesn’t mean it exists in a state of arrested development. Despite the perceptions of Egypt being an underdeveloped country, the people and the culture maintain a hold in the modernizing world, contrary to the opinions we generate in the U.S. as a world power.

My trip to Egypt showed me that our Western perspectives can be biased and shaped by our own myths about the East. We are taught about Egypt’s history and label the country as “developing,” but ignore the largely modern country it has become.

Although the poverty and rural areas of the country present a source for the title “underdeveloped,” Egypt’s densely populated urban centers have become much more modern than most Americans believe.

My original research – the examination of Egypt’s women – showed me how wrong we can be about a country’s situation. I found that women exist largely as men do in the public sphere, contrary to stereotypes our media would have us believe about the conditions in the country. Our country needs to reconsider its generalizations about former colonized countries. Our biases ignore the degree of modernization that foreign countries, such as Egypt, have achieved.

Chloe Jenkins-Sleczkowski is a senior ECLS major. She can be reached at cjenkins@oxy.edu.

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