The complexity of Egyptian identity
The image Europeans and Americans usually have of Egyptians is rather
stereotyped. In their minds, they classify them as Arab Muslims who were
recently entangled in a war with Israel, and associate their country with hot
desert, the Pyramids, the Pharaohs, the Nile and the Red Sea.
The Egyptians’ own perception of themselves and of their country is dif-
ferent. Until quite recently, most did not consider the desert as part of their
environment, although it covers 96.5 per cent of Egypt. Their traditional living
spaces were on the one hand the intensively cultivated arable land and, on
the other, the densely populated, commercially active towns. Only in recent
times, after intensive political propaganda through the media, did the com-
mon citizen begin to be aware – without being actually convinced – that the
desert could serve as a habitat, too.