Dancing through the Egyptian presidential elections

So, last night I was on the Golden Pharaoh boat performing to a fabulous, albeit half the size of normal, audience. Seems hardly anyone is going out these days... certainly tourists are staying clear of Cairo in case of ‘problems’ caused by the presidential elections, which so far there hasn’t been, thankfully. In fact, the people who were at my shows last night were so responsive I actually joked to myself... I wonder if these people, who obviously love dance, are making sure they see some dancing before the Muslim brotherhood candidate becomes president and dancing is banned! Not that that is a sure thing... that he will get in, or that he, once in, will ban dance. But considering he (Mursi) is advocating ‘Islamic law’ then it doesn’t seem very optimistic for those of us in my line of work.

On speaking with the musicians it seems the elections have caused some marital issues with some wives voting for Islamic candidates, without realising that effect that could have on their husband’s job. Of course, there is the chance that they do know what that could mean and are actually voting for their husbands to stay home each night rather than working down Sharia Haram (the street with lots of cabarets on it) with bellydancers!!

At work, there seems to be a split between everyone saying either ‘they (meaning the brotherhood) won’t get in’ because the army are still the ruling power and therefore even if people vote for Mursi, somehow it’ll swing towards Shafiq who is the ‘Mubarak man’. The rest just seems really worried that they might not have jobs for long. No- one knows. But we will by Tuesday seemingly when official result will be announced. That is to say, we will know who is the president... but not what actual effect (rather than fear based speculations) that will have on daily life for those of us in tourism and entertainment industries across Egypt.

It is a great thing that Egyptians are for the first time in 7000 years actually getting the opportunity to choose who they want to lead their country. However, it will take many years to fully educate a population about politics and how it works and so show a real representation of what Egyptians want their country to be. These results are only the first step towards creating a ‘new’ Egypt!

 I've been asked if i will leave Egypt if The Brotherhood gets into power. The answer is , I will leave if i can't keep working. I really really hope it does not come to that though! Let’s hope the new Egypt will still be one with Bellydance in it!