Evening of 8 November 24

At 5 pm we heard a talk by one "Susan" (an Anglicized form of an Egyptian name) about the recent history and current realities of three problems faced by women in Egypt: female genital mutilation, underage marriage (essentially, selling an underage daughter), and avoidance of necessary abortions performed by professionals. Skipping all the details of a very well-presented talk, I'll epitomize: while the Egyptian government has outlawed the first two of these, and legitimized the third,  all three practices persist, especially in rural areas, because tradition and everyday social relations demand it. 

After a short break, we walked about five minutes to the restaurant of choice for our"welcome" dinner. Excellent Egyptian cuisine and delightful conversations. However, crossing roads in the midst of Cairo traffic, even for a few minutes, is a challenge. We let Hend decide when to launch forth each time we came to a street along the way. Below you can get an idea of what the sixteen of us (counting Hend) look like at the dinner.