69 million page views

Gamal 'Abd el-Nasser 50 years ago: el-Hegab and بديعة مصبني

Reader comment on item: Nasser Died Fifty Years Ago: He Lives on in Egypt

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 29, 2020 at 10:42

Dr. Pipes,

I urge readers to view this video of Nasser and the subject is: Nasser making fun of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders demand that women wear el-Higab! And yes the video includes English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIqdrFeFBk

Last, a few years ago I watched a video by an Egyptian intellectual (in the Liberal Age he would have been called "homme de letters" because he was educated at the Sorbonne and he was a very smart man) I do not recall his name now and I could not find the video on YouTube. However he was asked about the response of the Egyptian people, when Nasser addressed them on June 9/1967 to declare that the war with Israel has been lost and he will be resigning immediately. And as usual thousands of Egyptians were marching in the dark streets of Cairo demanding that he should not resign. And it seems that every sane Egyptian was saying to him/herself: Resign and good riddance.

The great homme de letters told his audience a joke that Egyptians were sharing following this national disaster. He said, and I'm paraphrasing that the girls of Badi'a Masabni (بديعة مصابني she was a Lebanese/Syrian/Egyptian and she was the owner of night clubs) also left their male clients and went on a march too demanding that Nasser should not resign and they were shouting:

نتناك بلاش

ولاتتنحاش

This is a bit vulgar but it can be rendered as: We will have sex with our clients free of charge if you do not resign!

BTW it rhymes very well.

Amazing Egyptian humor and healthy dose of skepticism in very dark times

The Egyptian Arabic word ولاتتنحاش is ولاتتنحى in modern classical Arabic and it means Do not resign.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Daniel Pipes replies:

Amusing; but if I remember my Masri correctly, it's ‏ببلاش.

Submit a comment on this item

Reader comments (14) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Nasser's lessons apply to America today [45 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Timothy HadleySep 29, 2020 12:00260737
Gamal 'Abd el-Nasser 50 years ago: el-Hegab and بديعة مصبني [287 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
dhimmi no moreSep 29, 2020 10:42260735
Both ببلاش and بلاش are correct in this context [58 words]dhimmi no moreSep 29, 2020 15:34260735
Rare videos of Nasser's address of June 9/1967 [60 words]dhimmi no moreSep 30, 2020 09:06260735
Gamal 'Abd el-Nasser 50 years ago: Rare interview in English and Nasser's correspondence with Moshe Sharett [107 words]dhimmi no moreOct 2, 2020 11:09260735
Brilliant, but 50 year prediction? [175 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
MalcolmSep 29, 2020 03:38260725
An Altered Egyptian Legacy [186 words]M ToveySep 29, 2020 18:03260725
The downfall of Nasser [49 words]Karl BaumgartenSep 28, 2020 23:23260718
Nasser suffered from Hemochromatosis and the "suicide" of عبد الحكيم عامر [146 words]dhimmi no moreSep 29, 2020 14:44260718
Nasserist usage [27 words]bernardZSep 28, 2020 21:39260716
1Nasser's Egypt - A Westerner's Revisionist's View [395 words]M ToveySep 28, 2020 13:01260703
Nasser's Egyptian Legacy Still in the Details - Even in Civilian Perceptions; Military Still Holds Power [120 words]M ToveyNov 2, 2021 17:28260703
1As usual, I will point out that "anti-Zionism" is vague and incomprehensible to many [35 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
AnonSep 28, 2020 10:09260700
4It was broke, but we shouldn't have "fixed" it [264 words]DaveSep 27, 2020 22:05260691

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)