Egypt in August: bad idea?

[BoltSnap]

As much as I would love to dive the waters of Egypt, I just cannot justify any support to the economy of a country that as a society has no concept of women having equal rights and even today has little to no repercussions for horrendous atrocities against women.

That is just BS. There are more atrocities in the US and committed by the US and its allies against women and their families and loved ones worldwide than any alleged atrocities against women in Egypt.

BTW, women in Egypt benefit a great deal from tourist coming in to Egypt so if you want to help women in Egypt, go there and spend money.

 

[Khoujo1]

As much as I would love to dive the waters of Egypt, I just cannot justify any support to the economy of a country that as a society has no concept of women having equal rights and even today has little to no repercussions for horrendous atrocities against women.

Appreciate that, although one could argue our country is equally misogynistic. Inequality in pay, sexual abuse, and (recently) no reproductive rights. Probably shouldn’t throw stones when we live in a glass house…

 

[ontdiver]

As much as I would love to dive the waters of Egypt, I just cannot justify any support to the economy of a country that as a society has no concept of women having equal rights and even today has little to no repercussions for horrendous atrocities against women.

Sadly, there are very few countries today that do not have human rights/gender equality issues. To be fair and balanced, we need to acknowledge what is happening in our own backyard before criticizing others.

 

[BoltSnap]

As much as I would love to dive the waters of Egypt, I just cannot justify any support to the economy of a country that as a society has no concept of women having equal rights and even today has little to no repercussions for horrendous atrocities against women.

Dude, who is committing the absolute worst atrocities against women in modern history? It can't be Egypt or Egyptians for certain. Isn't it the US and its allies through Israel who are committing the most horrendous atrocities and slaughters against women, children, babies, elderly and all humanity in Gaza today? You guys need to examine your freaking heads and carefully think of what you are spewing before you utter this shiit. No matter what you think, falsely, about the "atrocities" Egyptians are committing against women, you need to see what your weapons and policies are doing to women in Palestine. You are a bunch of evil hypocrites.

My friend, a Palestinian, who lives in one of the Gulf states told me few weeks ago that EIGHT (8) of his NINE aunts were slaughtered by Israeli/US bombs with their ENTIRE families, ALL OF THEM! Seventy people were wiped from the face of this earth by your kind and humanitarian f'ing do gooder bombs and you come here to cry about atrocities Egyptians have committed against women???? Whatever "atrocities" Egyptians have committed against women since the beginning of time on this earth aren't even a 0.1% of what YOU the humanitarian Americans/West/Israelis have done to women and their relatives in Gaza and now the West Bank. Bring the dead women, their children and relatives back to life and then we can talk about the rest.

I can't believe the arrogant self-righteousness with delusions of moral superiority some have in the west.

 

[MB NZ]

Dude, who is committing the absolute worst atrocities against women in modern history? It can't be Egypt or Egyptians for certain. It isn't the US and its allies through Israel who are committing the most horrendous atrocities and slaughters against women, children, babies, elderly and all humanity in Gaza today? You guys need to examine your freaking heads and carefully think of what you are spewing before you utter this shiit. No matter what you think, falsely, about the "atrocities" Egyptians are committing against women, you need to see what your weapons and policies are doing to women in Palestine. You are a bunch of evil hypocrites.

My friend, a Palestinian, who lives in one of the Gulf states told me few weeks ago that EIGHT (8) of his NINE aunts were slaughtered by Israeli/US bombs with their ENTIRE families, ALL OF THEM, seventy people were wiped from the face of this earth by your kind and humanitarian f'ing do gooder bombs and you come here to cry about atrocities Egyptians have committed against women???? Whatever "atrocities" Egyptians have committed against women since the beginning of time on this earth aren't even a 0.1% of what YOU the humanitarian Americans/West/Israelis have done to women and their relatives in Gaza and now the West Bank.

I can't believe the self-righteousness and arrogance with delusions of moral superiority some have in the west.

Sadly, you're not wrong BoltSnap. We in the west need to consider how our governments conduct themselves overseas.

 

[Tippytoes12]

As much as I would love to dive the waters of Egypt, I just cannot justify any support to the economy of a country that as a society has no concept of women having equal rights and even today has little to no repercussions for horrendous atrocities against women.

Wow, that’s a sweeping statement.

Women are the first to suffer if the economy nosedives IMVHO. I grew up in country where women were treated very badly and for example until the 1960s were not allowed work in government funded jobs after marrying. But when the economy massively improved so did their status. Blokes were too busy playing golf and going on holidays and driving fast cars to bother repressing their wives and sisters. Many many women benefit from the tourist trade in Egypt.

Egypt is not perfect, but not nearly as bad as other countries in the region.;Do you fly with Middle Eastern airlines, or airlines that fly to the Middle East and repressive countries ?

 

[Jai Bar]

Dude, who is committing the absolute worst atrocities against women in modern history? It can't be Egypt or Egyptians for certain. Isn't it the US and its allies through Israel who are committing the most horrendous atrocities and slaughters against women, children, babies, elderly and all humanity in Gaza today? You guys need to examine your freaking heads and carefully think of what you are spewing before you utter this shiit. No matter what you think, falsely, about the "atrocities" Egyptians are committing against women, you need to see what your weapons and policies are doing to women in Palestine. You are a bunch of evil hypocrites.

My friend, a Palestinian, who lives in one of the Gulf states told me few weeks ago that EIGHT (8) of his NINE aunts were slaughtered by Israeli/US bombs with their ENTIRE families, ALL OF THEM! Seventy people were wiped from the face of this earth by your kind and humanitarian f'ing do gooder bombs and you come here to cry about atrocities Egyptians have committed against women???? Whatever "atrocities" Egyptians have committed against women since the beginning of time on this earth aren't even a 0.1% of what YOU the humanitarian Americans/West/Israelis have done to women and their relatives in Gaza and now the West Bank. Bring the dead women, their children and relatives back to life and then we can talk about the rest.

I can't believe the arrogant self-righteousness with delusions of moral superiority some have in the west.

It is a pity that you contaminate scuba-related board with politics. But let us not forget: a terror organization started a war on October 7th by shooting thousands of rockets into civilian population, followed by invading and killing some 1500 civilians in a most brutal way- a barbaric massacre of children, women and elders in their homes, in a music festival and people who were on the beach. Then took more than 200 hostages- including children, toddlers, babies, and old people. They committed these atrocities joyfully and with extra glee. These monsters recorded their actions on body cameras, using the victim's cellphones, they maimed, tortured, murdered, burned, raped and were proud of it.

What exactly did you expect the aftermath of this? Which normal country would shrug if off without retaliation? Starting a war and then not liking the outcome does not make one a victim. They should have anticipated what will happen when starting a war in such a way. And to make things worse, these monsters use own population as human shields???

I am sad for any loss of life, but depicting one side- Israel- as a mindless baby-killers without any reason is wrong. You must be confused, but the wrongdoers are Islamic Jihad and Hamas- two terror organizations who govern the people of Gaza and have sworn to annihilate the state of Israel.

 

[MB NZ]

It is a pity that you contaminate scuba-related board with politics. But let us not forget: a terror organization started a war on October 7th by shooting thousands of rockets into civilian population, followed by invading and killing some 1500 civilians in a most brutal way- a barbaric massacre of children, women and elders in their homes, in a music festival and people who were on the beach. Then took more than 200 hostages- including children, toddlers, babies, and old people. They committed these atrocities joyfully and with extra glee. These monsters recorded their actions on body cameras, using the victim's cellphones, they maimed, tortured, murdered, burned, raped and were proud of it.

What exactly did you expect the aftermath of this? Which normal country would shrug if off without retaliation? Starting a war and then not liking the outcome does not make one a victim. They should have anticipated what will happen when starting a war in such a way. And to make things worse, these monsters use own population as human shields???

I am sad for any loss of life, but depicting one side- Israel- as a mindless baby-killers without any reason is wrong. You must be confused, but the wrongdoers are Islamic Jihad and Hamas- two terror organizations who govern the people of Gaza and have sworn to annihilate the state of Israel.

And round and round we go. It'll never end. Permanent war and suffering of innocents. I agree with everything in your first paragraph, but not the rest of the post. It is possible to condemn both Hamas and Israel in current events. Israel clearly doesn't concern itself with civilian casualties on the Palestinian side. I suspect the only reason they haven't gone even further is to protect what's left of their international reputation in order to keep the money and weapons flowing in from other countries. Israeli spokesmen saying that they only perform targeted strikes and avoid civilian deaths are clearly just words with no actual meaning.

 

[divezonescuba]

Politics aside and not bothering to quote the same, I would like to offer this.

A male Egyptian dive guide was accused of inappropriately making contact with a female diver aboard a liveaboard a few years ago. Without evidence nor witnesses, the dive guide was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison. The guide who told us about that said that all of the dive guides were in fear of a similar fate and took care that it would not happen to them.

Perhaps it is only in the tourist areas, but we have found the Egyptians in general to be very respectful of women.

 

[Jai Bar]

Politics aside and not bothering to quote the same, I would like to offer this.

A male Egyptian dive guide was accused of inappropriately making contact with a female diver aboard a liveaboard a few years ago. Without evidence nor witnesses, the dive guide was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison. The guide who told us about that said that all of the dive guides were in fear of a similar fate and took care that it would not happen to them.

Perhaps it is only in the tourist areas, but we have found the Egyptians in general to be very respectful of women.

I do not know if this single example is a representative of the general attitude in the whole of Egypt or not. I think it can differ between rural Egypt and big cities. I have a few friends who used to travel a lot all over Egypt "by themselves" (i.e. not accompanied by a male) and were harassed until they began to travel with long sleeves and hair cover, then the attitude towards them completely changed to the best. Guess it is always a good idea to respect the local population in any place one is a visitor.

Moreover, Egypt relies heavily on tourism industry, so they may be more stern about stuff like that in touristic areas such as Sinai, and I'd expect the locals in such places to respect women even if they are wearing bikinis, or with bare arms/legs, even if in their culture this is considered a sign of, I don't know what's the appropriate word they use for that.

I was on a deep south liveaboard many years ago, in which one of the crew appeared to be- not sure what the correct term is- slightly retarded, or a "loose mind". Anyways, he approached me a couple of times and showed me the screen of his phone with some arab porn and asked if I have some on my phone to show him. I dismissed him and later learnt he harassed other divers in the same manner.

Then, one day I see him locked in the engine room, waving through the door's port hole. He looked pretty beaten and another crew entered an smacked him on the face.

When I asked what's the story, was told one of the female divers-guests was sleeping on upper desk and woke up with the crewman's hand under her skirt. She started screaming and he was captured and beaten quite bad by the rest of the crew, then locked in engine room for the following week until we returned to the marina. It was crazy hot and I don’t envy the guy. Don't know if he was taken to custody or just took the beating and engine room as a punishment and learnt a lesson.

I think the crew were angry at him because of the possibility of their jobs being in jeopardy more than for mistreating a female.