CU Abroad – Maurice Chammah

Malls are not a typical feature of the musings of American students abroad. They are the places we go to be reminded of home, to drink Starbucks and take a break from the more adventurous seeming experiences. The City Stars mall in Heliopolis, about a half hour from downtown Cairo, certainly reminds one of America, but by no means represents a “break” from adventure. Attached to towering hotels for foreign shoppers and flanked by gauche fountains and golden statues, the mall is a swirling maze of stores and restaurants that present globalization in all of its nuanced absurdity.

One Egyptian student told me of the mall’s climate in the summer, which they call “Saudi season,” for all the Saudi tourists who come to Cairo to shop and enjoy the awkwardly powerful air conditioning. They drive for many miles in SUV’s and Hummers to spend thousands of dollars on clothes and jewelry, and to be silently derided by Egyptians while contributing to the economy. Combined with the many Muslim Egyptians who find a lifestyle of embodied piety and American-style mall shopping (whether or not there is a paradox here is the subject of great debates far above my head), City Stars is an overwhelming greeting to Egypt’s bustling consumerism.

Near the central ATM’s and bathrooms sit rooms from prayer, which must be cordoned off from the stores because most of the shoppers who want to pray will not do so in front of images. The images, plastering nearly every surface, advertise Mexican food at a restaurant called “On the Border,” Chinese food at “Panda Bear,” every clothing store imaginable transplanted from Europe and the U.S., and perhaps most surprisingly, Egyptian tourist souvenirs. The souvenirs—pharoanic chess sets, sparkling belly-dance costumes, and slightly too lavish jewelry—are located in an imitation of the Khan al-Khalili market (the real one is forty minutes away in Islamic Cairo) that even features street signs, “authentic” coffee shops, and the ceaseless rhythm of craftsmen pounding precious metals into copper goods. It is just like the real market, only designed by an architect, cleaned by a janitor, and lit by fluorescent bulbs, without the centuries of grime and history that make the original so appealing to so many travelers.

Walking through Khan al-Khalili’s imitation was even more striking only three days after a grenade, killing one and wounding many, was thrown at a group of tourists in the original Khan. No official group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which created a ripple in the normally still waters of the Egyptian tourist economy. As much as Americans come to experience Cairo, it is still a place of heated emotions and political tension for a variety of reasons well beyond us, and so we cherish a safety and an authenticity that don’t always overlap.

It’s not even so much that the real Khan can be completely deemed “authentic.” The Egyptian government regularly pours money into the area to spruce it up for tourists, leaving a few beggars for ambience, but actively kicking many of them out in some quarters. Many historical sites are being renovated hastily, with fresh paint cracking off already from the frequent use that reminds one that this a neighborhood as much as it is a tourist attraction.

So my same questions remain…Is Cairo to be found in the renovated, real Khan al-Khalili or the imitation in City Stars? Would the Egyptian government rather the real look like the imitation? What are we being asked to consume?