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Mavzuna (right) with Arab Academy teacher Mervat at Saqqara Step Pyramid during an Arab Academy outing

Arab Academy had a story-writing contest last year. The first prize was a month’s free study at Arab Academy plus accommodation.

The talented first prize winner of our competition was Mavzuna Taruaeva and she arrived to study with us this month. Mavzuna is originally from Tajikistan but she is currently doing her MBA at the University of Montana in the US. Here is an excerpt from Mavzuna’s essay, describing her first impressions during a previous visit she made to Egypt:

Let me take you on a journey to one of the most ancient countries of the world. This country is mentioned in the annals of antiquity, at the time when many of those nations prospering nowadays or those relegated in the obscurity of the past centuries did not exist. Let me take you on a journey to Egypt.

Egypt is known around the world for its Pyramids of Giza or its magnificent temples of Luxor, or for its full-flowing river Nile – the cradle of the Egyptian civilization. As everyone else I associated Egypt with Pyramids and Sphinx. Indeed, Egypt holds the remains of the ancient civilization known to humanity; however, it is not the only fascinating feature of Egypt that I discovered for myself when I first set foot on the Land of the Nile. Along with the antique history of the country, those are the culture and people of Egypt, or how locals call it “Masr”, of the modern time that enchant me until today drawing me back to Egypt.

My airplane was approaching the airport of Cairo on the warm summer night. It could not possibly be a better time to arrive in a Middle Eastern country. The yellow crescent of the moon was resting on the dark blue sheet of the sky that touched the horizon along a thin fading aureate line. Black shapes of the palm trees were surrounding the landing strip here and there adding even more exotic touch to the oval view reminding me scenes from the Thousand and One Nights. The resemblance became even more striking when I entered the airport terminal filled with men and women dressed in Islamic clothing. Women’s outfits attracted my attention the most. Some women were standing in groups; some were surrounded by children and several were arguing (I could tell from their intonations) with the men standing besides them, their husbands, I assumed. Unlike me, no female in the terminal was alone by herself. I found it surprising that women were not all dressed in the same style of clothing or the same color. I was expecting to see all women in black dresses, covered from the tip of the toes to the top of the head with narrow opening for the eyes. There were women dressed that way; others wore black but had their faces open. The rest of the women and young girls wore scarves of different colors matching with their outfits and purses and beautifully framing their faces. There is a strong stereotype in the West about the Middle Eastern societies oppressing women and discriminating their rights. Very often in the Western point of view the headscarf, or hijab, represent a symbol of that oppression and discrimination. For a very long time in my life I shared the same idea; however, on my first personal encounter with the Middle East I did not see any sign of oppression in the eyes of those women. On the contrary, those small details of their outfit expressed and emphasized their individuality and tastes. On that very first time when I saw a small piece of the Middle East with my own eyes, I wondered what else of what I had heard about that part of the world was not true.

We will be sharing more about our winners in future blog posts and announcing another competition next month, so stay tuned!