Located in the Northeastern coast of Africa, Egypt is country part of the middle east. Being part of the middle of the middle east brings its pros and cons to the country’s economy and its international appearance.Egypt is one of the oldest human civilizations. Its history is mainly divided into three major Periods; the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom. It is therefore, a culturally rich nation.
Its enriched culture includes various aspects including its customs and beliefs, arts, religion, fashion and its assigned gender roles and tasks. Although most stereotypes are based off of myths about this country and its people many are extrapolated through stories and assumptions of the western world. Some of these include gender inequality between men and women, whereas Egypt is one of the earliest civilizations to give women an equal status in its society. According to our research, they were given the same rewards as what mens were given for their accomplishments, in this case gold. They also had their own sculptures and paintings portraying their importance as members of the running society. Nevertheless, they had their own individual tombs built and for women of higher status, such as the wives of pharaohs they even had separate pyramids and monuments dedicated to them. Another common stereotype related to the culture of Egypt is that all women practice belly dancing, which is untrue. Although belly dancing is a widely practiced dance form, it not something everyone enjoys and isn’t mandatory for them to learn.
At last, one of the many stereotypes we would like to clarify is that people wear extravagant and expensive clothing on a daily basis. This includes, heavy gold jewellery, dresses with heavy embroidery as well as belts and crowns full of jewels, again not truthful. This stereotype is mainly derived from the ancient egypt and its fashion at the time.
People outside of the country assume that egyptians have an abundant amount of gold, which is partially truth. As in the past it was one of its many abundant resources and pharaohs and nobles used to depict their wealth through showcasing the number of jewels and gold they had. They would wear it in order to show the pride they held in there culture as well as their superiority. However, the peasants, merchants and slaves, also known as the “Lower Class”, did not have any of the gold.
Unless, it was given to them as reward for an accomplishment by a noble. When comparing the fashion and wealth of ancient egyptian civilization and the Modern Egypt we see a huge difference, as it is influenced by many other countries, specially the western society. Nations who have invaded the Egyptian territory include Persians, British, French, Arab and many more.
Due to its unique history, Egypt has considerably adapted to various customs from different nations and created its own identity. An example would be, the religious influence of the Ottoman Empire allowing Islam to be the largest practiced religion of the country , however also integrating the Optic Christian Church of Alexandria.
