Queer Query #9: Le Caire... The lesbian side of Cairo?

I woke up, this Friday and sort of it had it all planed out to be a quiet night, just lay on the pool in one of Cairo posh pools till sunset, followed by a dinner with a friend in a quiet Zamalik restaurant, which is what exactly happened, however that was not only what happened. As I was finishing my dinner with my friend who I haven’t seen in a long time, I called my good friend Saurez who is leaving the country in a few days, see what he is upto and grab a coffee, later I found out that he is downtown with some other friends who are visiting having a drink, and told me I should come over, so I looked at the watch it was 9:30, I said to myself why not I will just go for an hour then head back home, I did it have it me to stay longer,

As I met up with Saurez and his friends who are visiting, I did enjoy my time which is not a hard thing for me considering that I am happy most of the time, as I usually do I called Z (aka Ice Queer) to check up on him … to much of my surprise, he said “I am in a lesbian birthday party at a friends house, you should come and get your friends with you “ … in my head I was like fuck going home early I will not miss on the chance to meet the lesbians of Cairo. In my whole life in Cairo I only met three, and I thought there was no lesbian scene in Cairo I thought that might just meet off gaydargirls, and just be like more private and less outgoing than us poofters.

So I round up the boys with me, and we head off to bourgeoisie Mohandseen, Z takes from downstairs of the building then three flight of stairs (no lift) and I make an entrance to a house I have entered a month ago, where there was a vibrant dance party. The door opened, OMG, the gay men have been replaced with lesbians I mean girls. The proportionality of Poofters to Lezzies was 1 to 3, I was in shock. Also as soon as I entered my head was just drawn back two years, when I went to an after party at a Filipinos friend of mine in Dubai, I remember that night clearly, it was after a wild night in club Peppermint when it existed in the Habtoor Grand, I entered his house and I found out like 30-40 other Filipinos, where there was no dancing they just sat in a big circle talking!!!!! Well entering the house and seeing the Lesbians gathered around the house sitting on the sofas and chairs and not dancing just made me reminiscent of that night.

As the night progressed, and drunken Z swayed his hips left and right and a couple of the lezzies started to get up and dance, the music was mostly straight music, okay not straight music, RNB music (which to me by definition is straight, even if its Rihanna) it was very interesting to observe the lesbian culture of Cairo, even though I didn’t really talk much as, with any gay culture, I was too busy looking fabulous and mingling with the other gays and updating about my very active life and showing off my new gym body (not so perfect but improved)

However i kept noticing as the night progressed the girls, just went from calm to damn right wild girls!, some girls where kissing, others where touching, we had the variety of lipstick girls to the dykes and the tom boys, and well all the girls that you see on the L-Word. However as the clock came close to 1:30am I was thinking it was time to make my way back to the Island, and head back home, however just as I was leaving I met one of the most interesting girls, she was very friendly, the way we met was I was lighting her “cigarette”, and she accidentally kicked a plant that looks like a mini palm, she tried to readjust using her butt cheeks! Which she was able to do ! then we exchanged the whole I hate vag, I hate cock words, then we talked.

I asked her: why don’t I see you girls more often ?
She Said: oh because the girls here are afraid, they are more afraid than us gay boys, we have more freedom,
With this this expression on my face that reads WTF, I said: but you girls have it better than us, you can be more disguised than us, you can just walk into clubs, because you don’t need this whole couple entry rule as you are girls, you just can walk as we men we cant walk in any clubs
Her response: well as you we are mixture of girls, and the girls are just afraid to go out and be judged or thought of as that they are lesbian..

Then I got interrupted by a friend who dragged me for a dance, however this girl I was talking didn’t sound like the girl who is afraid to go out, she wasn’t afraid but it seems she was just pointing out what the others girls though, which sort left me hmm well I had no idea other than damn there is a lot more to Le Caire (Lesbian Cairo and not the French name to Cairo) to discover it was sad that I didn’t get any contacts or spend more times with these girls to discover them its also sad that both of our scenes don’t mix often, as both of us could be very beneficial for each other in cairo, for people in the closet, we can use each other to maybe mask the fact the they are lesbians and that the guys in the closet are gay. There is a lot more collaboration that can be made between the two scenes.

When I was in Australia I noticed one thing, that the lesbians didn’t really much go to the gay bars and vice versa and when I found finally a group of Arab lesbians there, they invited me over to their house and introduced me to sub Gay Arab scene, which apparently was more interconnected, also one of the girls said, it was also due to the fact that some of Arab Lesbians and Gay Arabs would get married to each other to mask their sexuality to their family in Australia, or if there families are back in the middle east. I have done my share of traveling and globally I have noticed that there is always a disconnect between the two scenes and until know I don’t understand why I have tried on more than one occasion to do but I don’t


With love,
Q