Egypt’s Vagina Monologues Tackle Dating, Sex, Harassment

A daring, brave effort. Read on.

The Daily Beast, by CHALAINE CHANG

A Cairo theater group is breaking taboos with a daring series of sketches that tackle dating, sex, and sexual harassment in Egypt today.

A naked mannequin stands center stage. Clothing is strewn across black plastic crates that lay haphazardly on the floor. Two actresses are the only variables in the simply-staged bedroom.

One woman stands with a strip of bright red tape across her shoulders, with another strip just above her knees. She announces that “This is the space that is off-limits” to her boyfriend. As she moves through her monologue, the two strips move as well—one migrates across her breasts, while the other slides to her mid-thigh. Continuously they move closer together, until they overlap, and the space disappears completely.

“How can we be expected to like sex when we’re taught our whole lives that it’s something vulgar and disrespected?” the actress asks.

A tennis match of monologues ensues between the two actresses as they discuss the challenges women face in regards to relationships, reputation, and marriage. The fact that parents and teachers are too embarrassed to discuss sex; that they feel pressure from boyfriends to engage in sexual relationships; and that if they do, they risk their virginal “marriageability” —an expectation they are constantly reminded that needs to be fulfilled.

The monologues are the centerpiece of “Stories from Women of Egypt” —the latest edition from the local theater group Bussy—which premiered on December 4th in an independent theater in downtown Cairo. The show is a collage of anecdotes from different women, performed by Sondos Shayabek and Mona El Shimi. Staged as if they are having a dialogue, the actresses perform separate monologues that are woven around one another, forming mini-testimonies about body image and society’s perception of women in Egypt.

Bussy was conceived as a project at the American University of Cairo in 2006, lead by two students who decided to direct a program of monologues concerning the experiences of women living Egypt. In its inception, Bussy largely consisted of stories generated by the student body. The following year, it expanded its scope and transitioned from being a campus-centric project to one that would reach a broader range of spectators. Wanting the project to be more than just Egypt’s version of the “Vagina Monologues,” the directors strived to make the project “personal and local.”

They made an open call for stories from women—cutting across the economic and social lines that are deeply engraved in Egyptian society—to accurately portray the diversity of ‘womanhood’ experienced in Egypt today. Indeed, one of Bussy’s aims to “ let people write for themselves, instead of being written for.” In other performances by the troupe, storytellers have the option of performing their own pieces, or of having an actor relay their anecdote to the crowd.

Bussy’s shows have featured monologues and short skits on pre-marital sex, the pressure of getting married, female circumcision, divorce, body image, sexual harassment, and abortion. The project uses the stage as a public sphere to raise the conversation on controversial topics that often remain muted in Egyptian society. As with most taboo-breakers, Bussy has had its detractors, with some viewers purportedly telling the directors that they “can’t talk about these things”. But for the most part, the shows have been commended by audiences for broaching prohibited topics and for speaking honestly about women’s experiences, specifically concerning sexuality and harassment. In a country deemed as the worst Arab country in which to be a woman, the discussion surely merits being raised.