Yes.
Media like to keep reminding people at every available opportunity about rising fundamentalism etc. like it is a new fashion or something.
Pay maybe poor for foreign dancers etc. but dancing in Cairo and putting up with all the Bull*** does have its pay offs as well as fulfilling a dream.
It is great to add to the CV and ensures lucrative workshop deals around the world.
I dont know about this bit about what Raqia Hassan was suppossed to have said about not being a real belly dancer till you have worked in Cairo.
The pecking order is greater than this, you are not a 'real' dancer till you have got off the Nile Pharoah I have heard many say... you cant win can you?
If anyone thinks they can do this and live this life, then think again.
You think going to a local belly dance class is tough... enter the world of 'real' belly dancers if you dare...
PS and dont own a cat
By the way, Caroline E does not have any luck with cats, one tried to jump off the balcony (5 floors up I think) and survived!