Naturally, each culture has particular social habits and traditions. The same goes with dating practices and courtship. Each culture comes with its own set of rules and customs regarding dating. In Egypt, however, the dating situation is baffling. We don’t follow the Egyptian traditions because if we did, there won’t be such a thing as dating in the first place and it would all be ‘gawaz salonat’. But, we don’t date in a Western way either. We go on dates, sometimes we even go the whole nine yards and have the “talk” which lets us know where we actually stand. Yet, our dating lives exist in this gray area, which I like to refer to as the land of obscurity.
You don’t get asked out properly
You rarely get the chance to be asked out on an “official date”, and when you do, it’s still somehow under the umbrella of “hanging out” which is easily the vaguest phrase in the world of modern dating. It could mean multiple things: Either they like you, they just want to hang out as friends or they want to hook up. But no one really knows.
Slut shaming imposes serious dating on you
Because of prevalent notions in our society such as religion, dating for the sake of dating is considered “haram” and “shemal”. Sometimes, you don’t want to get serious with someone but at the same time you don’t want to stop dating them. In our society, this battle is hard because you will be slut shamed for wanting a casual relationship.
Therefore, you can’t be honest about what you want
If we want casual, we say we’re looking for something semi-serious and wouldn’t mind if it had the potential of turning into something serious. We end up stuck in a situationship (the world’s worst kind of ship), because stating what we want clearly and loudly would be disrespectful. If we reveal we’re looking for someone, our parents won’t shy away from giving us options. And if we reveal we’re not looking for anyone, our parents will still make sure we know our options.
Marriage is always looming in the background
That last point brings us to our society’s favorite subject: marriage. The topic of marriage is inescapable. If you tell anyone that you’re dating someone, even if you’ve been on one date, they immediately ask you if you think they’re marriage material. Not all dating stories conclude with marriage and it shouldn’t be like this!
You can’t introduce him to your parents
So naturally, because you want to avoid the inevitable discussion about marriage, you refrain from updating your parents about your dating life. You never introduce them to your date because they will overthink the situation. If you tell them it’s nothing serious, they will immediately get furious. The only exception will be if you actually met someone, fell in love and the relationship got serious.
You don’t get asked out by strangers because that’s creepy
In Egypt, you can’t meet someone for the first time and ask them out on a date straight away, because it will be perceived as “creepy” and not hot or romantic. The alternative is that you only go out with coworkers, friends or friends of friends. You rarely get to date anyone whom you share 0 friends in common with and that could sometimes lead to boredom and/or drama.
We’re meant to follow hazy rules
The specific yet, hazy and interchangeable guidelines society has set out for us has created limitless and contradicting boundaries that is mostly fed by double standards. Guys are allowed to date as many girls as they can but girls will be slut shamed if they get involved in many relationships. Society’s borderline madness is spreading confusion all around.
With that being said, however, dating is still fun and will never cease being fun.
