Growing up in the Middle East makes one aggressive. From a very young age I was told that life is hard and to get what you want you have to fight for it. The problem is, in Egypt, there are almost no rules. The opportunities for success are very limited and to win one has to be a ruthless competitor. Once one occupies a place in society they have to protect it because others will push and shove to overthrow your success and take your place.
My generation grew up with no wars and in a period of prosperity, peace and economic growth. However, if there is a single trait that would define Egyptians, it is that they are uptight and stressed out. In my university years, in The American University in Cairo, I tried to seize the opportunity to grow and unwind. The social pressure into conformity was crushing. The problem is that each social circle would judge and try to crush and alienate other different social circles. Almost every friend I talked to would tell me “If you maintain your bubble you will be safe and happy”. There are 20 million people living in Cairo. What kind of bubble can be truly safe in such a dense population.
The Middle East is also unforgiving and cruel. As a child in a Muslim family I was taught that Copts are impure and filthy. One of my very first memories is when I saw our neighbor get rid of a water bottle because my christian friend (6 years old) drank from that bottle. I was told not to sit next to christian students in my class room. I witnesses countless situations of bullying and abuse to the christian minority for no reason but that they were Christians. Religion is the poison of the Middle East.
The Middle East lives in an existential crisis. The internet generation wants to live freely, have fun and exhaust the limits of the possible. The jungle-like society they live in; however, makes it impossible to live without fear, insecurity and a perpetual worry about the future. Even in the most democratic model in the Middle East, Israel, everyone is stressed out. No one wants to do obligatory military service where your humanity is brutally erased, no one wants to live with neighbors that hate them from the bottom of their hearts for wars waged by their grand grand parents and definitely no one wants to live in a region where dying is very easy.
As one of my American friends put it “Everyone I know in the Middle East is suffering from some kind of PTSD”. Now it is not enough to run away, I have to find a place to run to.
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