Publick nakedness in Cairo
Reader comment on item: "Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists"

Submitted by Joaquim R (Canada), Nov 21, 2006 at 10:31

"Somewhere along this route we had a few startling exhibitions of Oriental simplicity. A girl apparently thirteen years of age came along the great thoroughfare dressed like Eve before the fall (...). Occasionally we saw stark-naked men of superb build, bathing, and making no attempt at concealment. "

Mark Twain, in 1868 Cairo, as written in Innocents Abroad, Chapt LVIII

What strikes me in this anecdote is not that the girl was naked -- she was probably a prostitute -- but that no one stopped her or agressed her in the street. These people were no less muslims than contemporary cairenes. Current islamic hysteria belongs more to Al-Wahab than to Muhammad.

I wish someone would write a book about this, to remind everyone that Islam is not synonymous with Taliban-styled street police.

Joaquim, in Canada

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