Baladi Women of Cairo: Playing with an Egg and a StoneTraditional, urban Egyptian women - baladi women - extol themselves with the proverb, A baladi woman can play with an egg and a stone without breaking the egg. Evelyn Early illustrates this and other expressions of baladi women's self-identity by observing and recording their everyday discourse and how these women - who consider themselves destitute yet savvy - handle such matters as housing, work, marriage, religion, health and life in general. |
Contents
Spontaneous Performance and Everyday Life | 1 |
Mameluke | 29 |
Playing with an Egg and | 51 |
To Dupe or Be Duped | 63 |
Baladi Households | 75 |
Processions and Vows | 85 |
Let Me Tell You What Happened | 131 |
Action Not Appearance | 142 |
Procession and Response | 153 |
Daily Life and WellBeing | 161 |
Conclusion | 197 |
Common terms and phrases
afrangi afrangi Egyptians Ahmad al-balad amulet Aniyat asked baby Badriyya baladi and afrangi baladi culture baladi Egyptians baladi quarters baladi women birth boys bread bride Bulaq Abu Ala Cairo cemetery child circumcision clinic clothes Coptic Coptic Christian Copts daughter death discourse door Egypt Egyptian El-Messiri everyday excision Fatahiyya father Fatima feast friends futir gellabeyya ghee girl Hamida haramlik Hassan hospital house dress household husband Ibtisam Ihlam infertility Islam Laila lane lives Mahrusa marriage married mawlid Mecca melaya liff merchant midwife Miriam Mona Mona's mosque mother Muhammad mushahara Muslim narrative Nawwal neighborhood neighbors performance piasters pilgrimage popular Islam pounds pray prayer procession Quranic Ramadan religious ritual Sabah's saints Sakkina Samira Saudi Arabia Shaykh Ali house Sherifa shrine Siddi story street Suad talk told traditional Univ urban village Wafaa wanted wedding woman workshop Zainab Zakiyya