I am sitting in Cairo airport as I write this blog after spending a week promoting MSL. I arrived during a maelstrom of political activity and protests and while not directly affected, I was very aware of the impact of people taking action and the power of social media.
The many women that I met were inspirational and there are three things that I will always remember about Cairo.
The first is the framing of women’s faces by their headscarves. I looked at beautiful faces made up skilfully to accentuate eyes and mouths and the different shades of skin colour that acted as a canvas to the dark colours of black and red.
The second is the contradiction of a Harley Davidson and a woman dressed in a burkha. As I sat in a taxi on one of the motorways, I had to look twice as a man and women, who were fairly large, sat riding a Harley Davidson. As they sped past my taxi I smiled as the female wore a burkha and as the wind caught her clothes she looked so modern!
The third is that I was amazed to learn that there are no traffic lights in Cairo city. I wondered why there were so many traffic jams and why every motorist appeared to be using their horns to warn others that there were going to change lanes or overtake on the inside. However there was an order to what appeared to be chaos.
I guess there are few lessons for me: framing a face can be beautiful; contradictions are exciting; and chaos can sometimes be good.