Cairo University Dialogue and Al-Ahly

A huge part of this experience is to actually 'dialogue' with students from Egypt.  We had already had a discussion with the AUC students, but Sunday, May 16th, we went to Cairo University.  CU is located in downtown Cairo and has a beautiful campus.  We were there for about an hour and a half discussing very important issues with the Egyptian students.  Mostly, we talked about politics, and how different our perspectives are on certain issues.  Although we differed on many things, we found a lot of common ground, showing that although we grew up and study in completely different places, we are not far apart in our core beliefs and morals.  It was a passionate discussion and at the end everybody wanted to exchange phone numbers, facebook names, and emails.  It was a completely different experience than AUC.  While at AUC, the students basically left as soon as the discussion finished, at CU we had to be pulled away by our teachers.  These students were very different than the AUC students too.  Both are extremely intelligent, but I found the CU students to be more down-to-earth.  The AUC kids are upper class students who live in the best areas of Cairo and study in a university far from central Cairo.  In contrast, the CU kids are middle class who study in the middle of the city, and thus truly experience the essence of Cairo.  Overall, I loved this experience and I look forward to seeing some of these students again.


Last Monday, a group of us went to a football match between Al-Ahly and El Entag El Harby.  Abduh was kind enough to organize our transport and security for the game.  Our awesome drivers Zezu and Fares took us to Cairo International Stadium.  It was one of the last games of the season, and surprisingly the stadium was completely empty.  Although it can host around 75,000 spectators, I would estimate that only around 2,000 people were actually at this game.  Regardless, the experience was great, as we saw the Al-Ahly ultras and the small, drum-beating group of El Entag El Harby supporters.  In the end Al-Ahly won 1-0.  The security at the game was astonishing though.  I am pretty sure that there more security guards and policemen than spectators at the game.  There were sections completely empty of fans, but with anti-riot police.  We had an incident where a few Egyptian fans began to speak to us and one even handed his small child to my friend Jackie to take a picture (apparently the man thought she was a famous actress).  Security unfortunately intervened and the fans who did nothing wrong were ushered by the police out of the stadium.  On the drive back from the stadium, I saw the street lined with hundreds of police, which was pretty comical seeing how there was no danger whatsoever of any hooligan-like violence.  

Anyway, I am very glad that I went to the football game, as it was a completely different experience than the games I have gone to in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium of Real Madrid.  Football, I have learned is also extremely important for Egyptians.  Throughout my stay, I have seen that no matter the language barrier, football unites people like nothing else.  Everyone here loves either Al-Ahly or Zamalek, and everyone sides with teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, or Inter Milan.  For me, I love that football is such an integral part of their culture.  The Egyptians are very proud people, and many are still visibly shaken when you mention the Egypt-Algeria elimination that culminated in Egypt not being able to participate in the World Cup in South Africa.  Today I was talking to Abduh about the Al-Ahly - Zamalek rivalry (the Egyptian version of the Real Madrid-Barcelona or Yankees-Red Sox rivalry) and he told me that fans go absolutely crazy and that it is not uncommon to see riots or police interventions when they play each other.  However he then proceeded to tell me how the country unites for Egypt.  Rich, poor, Zamalek, or Al-Ahly; everyone feels the red Egyptian jersey.  It just proves to show how a country that is so divided on many issues can ultimately unite over something as simple as football.