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Stereotyping "others" is an existing phenomenon within the Egyptian society (and every society in the world). Even mutual prejudices exist between northern Egyptians and southern Egyptians. These prejudices are not necessary to be negative judgments. Gradually, those stereotypes became widely accepted by the majority of the Egyptian society as valid judgments of "others". This stereotyping of the “Outsider" has played a major role in defining a mixed marriage in Egypt, in which the origins of the two spouses do not belong to the same place or region. In some rural parts of Egypt, a mixed marriage is defined as a marriage between two religious groups. Seriously, those stereotypes have had a great impact not only on the decision of Egyptian singles intending to marry out, but also on the comportment of other Egyptians already involved in mixed marriages. Several crucial cultural, demographic and economic factors have caused the appearance of stereotypes concerning "others" in Egypt. In addition, these prejudices consider the people involved in mixed marriages as suspects in front of the society, and sometimes guilty of betrayal if involved in Egyptian-Israeli marriages.
Through the last fifty years, the preventive sanitary measurements taken by the Egyptian government has resulted in a drastic decrease in infant mortality. This action, inevitably, has lead to intense overpopulation and over crowdedness in almost all of the Egyptian rural farmlands. The fast growing population, accompanied with the low amount of resources has raised the problem of illiteracy among the new generations. The relatively high illiteracy rate in rural areas of Egypt, especially amongst females, has increased poverty, and has made farmers more and more attached to their farms as their only sources of income. One of the most common solutions the Egyptian farmers have found as a response to their psychological need to encourage themselves and to glorify their job in their long and monotonous way of life, is stereotyping the richer urban society, and the different outsider society as corrupt, and furthermore unfaithful. In fact, that is not the only reason for the existence of such stereotypes. It was the stream of the minority of educated people of the rural areas traveling to urban areas, finding work there, marrying from here, and rarely returning to visit their families in their own villages that have really offered a good opportunity for prejudices about urbanized people to appear and have a loud voice among the Egyptian society.
The majority of Egyptian stereotypes grew simultaneously with the historical and political events of the Egyptian history. The outraged feelings of the Egyptians towards the Israeli neighbors, whom they accused of occupying Arab lands and massacring Palestinians, made the stereotypes of Israelis the most widespread and the most accepted stereotypes among the Egyptian society. Moreover, the religious and historical conflict between Islam, the major religion in Egypt, and Judaism, adds a religious aspect to the latter type of stereotypes. Although Islam gives the right to the Muslim male to marry either a Christian or a Jewish woman, the prejudices concerning Israelis are so powerful that the vast majority of Egyptians cannot think that other Egyptians would dare to share their lives with Israelis.
Despite what the vast majority of Egyptians thinks about marrying Israelis, a newly born phenomenon of Egyptian-Israeli marriages has appeared since the complete retreat of the Israeli forces from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, which was the final phase of the peace treaty of Camp David between Egypt and Israel. The number of Egyptian-Israeli mixed marriages occurring only in 1996 was 1,039, which is more than the number of mixed marriages between Egyptians and any other country in the Middle East. When the Egyptian Government began its projects of developing tourism and urban societies in Sinai, a large number of Egyptians moved to Sinai to take part in these projects, and their work became closely related to tourism or desert development. The peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979 allows Israeli civilians to cross the Egyptian borders as normal foreign visitors, and allows Egyptians to enter and even work in Israel. In 1995, 30,000 Egyptians visited Israel, the largest number of visitors to any Middle East country other than for work or pilgrimage. On the Israeli side, the Israeli people are concerned about the decrease of the world Jewish population during the last fifty years. This anxiety has let a remarkable group of Israeli women, under the motive of participating in saving the Jewish population from extinction, accept marrying men from different societies, while keeping in mind that children having a Jewish mother are considered as Jews in Judaism, and are given the right to ask for Israeli citizenship. Gradually, the close distance between the major tourist areas of Sinai and Israel, the relatively large population of Egyptians working in Sinai or Israel and seeking marriage, the free movement of Israelis through Sinai, the Islamic religion allowing Muslim men to marry Jewish women, and the large hope of Israeli women to have Jewish children, all these factors together have created a suitable environment where marriage between an Egyptian man and an Israeli woman can occur.
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Writer Profile
Saladin
My name is Ayman el-Hakea, I am a Construction Engineering graduate from the American University in Cairo. My origins date to an interesting mixture of Yemeni, Moroccan, Albanian, and Egyptian ancestors. I always try to be a moderate Muslim, I like animation, geopolitics, comparative religion, and football. I like to be with "people"...and I hope my writing isn't boring for anyone.
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Comments
opinion Joseph A. Mikhail | May 30th, 2007
dear ayman,
that is a very decent and fair article .
you know my orientation will be toward whom in such a discussion but still i must be honest and fair also so lets get to the facts 1- in judaism if you converted to X or Y and originaly you are jew JEWS still consider you as jew they dont accept the fact that you converted wether officialy on the paper or between you and whomever
so the fact that a muslim guy married a jew girl and converted her to islam the child in front of the jew ppl will be considered a JEW do you think they would leave him i mean do you think by anymean they will simply leave him they will go after him convince him they will take the necessary steps lol so dont worry about that point
2- in 2006 the official reports about the israeili tourists in egypt was exepected to be 300,000 visitor but the facts where that 415,000 israeili tourist came to egypt in 2006 a conspiracy? no egypt is way too cheap then israel (probably i would done the same) imagine it you need 1hour bus from tel aviv to eilat then 10 minutes bus to get from eilat to TABA in egypt and voila you are in :) and while you pay at least 300$$ for one night in a decent hotel in eilat you pay 120 or 160$ in the same decent hotel in egypt :) so what do you expect lol
3-about the guys marring israeilis wether convert them or not (not the issue now) i fell sorry for them from the ppl stero typing and thats true that guy can never see his familly again its like commiting a crime and hiding from the authorities
such a guy can never ever come home again never see his freinds again if not for him for them the national security in egypt wont let him nor his familly nor his friends alone if they knew he is marreid to an israeili whom to blame the ppl ?? nop actually its the governemnt who continues to make barriers between the insiders citizens and anyone in the outer world the gov. keep on spreading those poisoned ideas into the poor ppl brain and the citizines mostly are naive and feel terrified fromt he governement while most of them isnt really well educated so if the gov. started catching ppl married to israeilis and spread 2 or 3 rumors booom everybody will stay home terrified
so actually the sterotyping and the conspiracy in MY own opinion is a Government act to make a barrier so nobody do it :D
thanks mate
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