Originally Posted by Caroline_afifi

One of the things that often annoys me in Egypt is seeing foreign women being touched and kissed.

If you are touched by any man in the bazaar etc. dont be polite and smile... tell him to get off! I had a row with a man in the bazaar about this a few months ago. He told me that he 'knows' foreign women and he 'knows' they love to be touched etc. I told him they were guests and were just being polite.

I then saw woman chatting, laughing and being hugged and kissed etc... and thought how stupid I had made myself look. It has become part of the tourist culture but it is one I personally do not like.

I was in Felfelas by the Mena House last week and the waiters were kissing the dancers on the cheeks as hugging them as they came in. This may all sound very innocent but it is far more complex than most care to imagine.

Friends in Egypt may greet each other with a 'peck' on each cheek in but there is no real big 'smackers' followed by a tight embrace. Even a handshake is a tentative meeting of the hands.

A male friend should sit across the table from you and not beside you.

Any compliments of beauty and 'eyes like the Nile' is not the usual norm either. Men do not talk to other Egyptian women in this way. It is a ploy adopted by people in tourism. There is also a saying for this in Egypt 'you have to treat the animal well before you eat it'.

Egyptian men outside of tourism do not behave in this way at all.