Real Women

[BENNU]

A man had been discussing with his friends, how come, if someone were to tell his wife that he intended to marry a rich Egyptian woman who would bring hundreds of thousands of pounds into the marriage, any wife would refuse to accept this . If, however, the same man wanted to take a foreign wife who would be expected to contribute with the exact same amount of money, the wife would happily accept . The only explanation that they could find was that it was all down to culture, and he kept repeating this.

I told him that I meet many - many foreign women who sound like certain local men when they say, Egyptianwivesareallaboutbabies , that babies are all a woman wants and all she has to give here, as if local women were not real, desirable women with feelings.

Perhaps, I said, your wives feel the same way, that foreign women are all business and not real women worth taking seriously. Where there is not supposed to be much feeling or hope for love to happen, there is no real threat, less jealousy.

He believed that I was right.

[carrie]

From speaking to different men and women (Egyptian) Bennu there doesn't seem to be much love in their lives. Respect yes, she's a good woman/man, good father/mother but not much love as we would know it.
Perhaps it's because many men marry for sex, not being disparaging but young men everywhere and young women have hormones flowing through their bodies and the only release is to marry. Often to someone they hardly know.
Family relationships are also so different from what we are used to, when we marry we leave the home and our wives/husbands and children come first with us, Mother's, Fathers other close family members take second place not so here.
As for the wives not bothering about the man taking a European wife, I do think Egyptian women don't see them as much of a threat as another Egyptian who will no doubt give him other children and be there for the long term.
And to be fair us European's haven't got much of a reputation have we?

[carrie]

Just found a quote that seems quite apt.
"The poignancy of situations that evoke reflections lies in the fact that we do not really know the meaning of the tendencies that are pressing for action." John Dewey.