Female cyclists challenge local customs on Egyptian streets

Yasmine Mahmoud cuts a defiant figure as she weaves her bicycle through the chaotic streets of Cairo, a place where few women dare to pedal.

Every day, like for the past four years, she takes her bicycle from her 10th floor apartment and rides through the Egyptian capital, to the astonishment of bystanders.

“Unfortunately, it’s socially unacceptable in Egypt for a girl to ride a bicycle in the street,” said the 31-year-old executive secretary, as she prepared to set off from the upscale Cairo neighbourhood where she lives.

Women enjoy more freedom in Egypt than in deeply conservative Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, but the most populous Sunni Arab country still considers it inappropriate for them to ride bicycles.

Unlike in many countries, the two-wheeler is considered unsafe for travelling in Cairo’s traffic-clogged roads.

For Egyptian women it is all the more challenging given the city’s notorious sexual violence, and female cyclists in particular are targeted by passers-by.

The majority of cyclists in Egypt are working class men, preferring two wheels for running daily errands.

Mahmoud’s family objected to her cycling initially, but later started trusting her ability to cruise through the capital’s traffic bottlenecks.

“I used to ride a bicycle when I was a kid, either near the beach where we went for holidays or in sports clubs,” said Mahmoud, dressed in a yellow sweater and blue jeans, and wearing bicycle-shaped earrings.

“It took me a while to ride it again, but now it’s my daily companion.”

Original article by Haitham El-Tabei

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Female cyclists challenge local customs on Egyptian streets