Microaggressions in Egypt:

Microaggression is “a common verbal, behavioral, or environmental slight, whether intentional or not, that communicates hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward members of marginalized groups.” A video that conveys this concept very well is titled “What kind of Asian are you?” I really enjoyed watching this video because it was a sarcastic and comedic take on how microaggression actually occurs. Microaggression is also extremely prevalent in Egypt regarding certain marginalized groups. The first one that really stuck out to me was racial microaggressions. I feel like in Egypt whenever someone sees a dark-skinned person for example, they immediately think they are uneducated and assume they are “the help.” I believe there are also religious based microaggressions in Egypt. I remember in school, there was a worker who was Christian and kids at the time made fun and insulted them, calling them slurs which is extremely rude. Even if there were Christian students, kids made fun just because it was a mostly Muslim school. But what I observed from microaggression is that even if a person is educated, they fall into stereotyping people because it’s very common in Egypt. There are countless other microaggressions occurring in Egypt like gender (objectification of women) and nationality (for example Syrian refugees).

4 I’s of Oppression video examples in Egypt:

  1. Ideological: In Egypt, a deeply ingrained ideology is that any person of color is associated with a lower status than other people.
  2. Institutional: An example of institutional sexism in Egypt is how men make more money than women in a lot of jobs. Also, men in Egypt always have more power than women whether it’s in the workplace or household.
  3. Interpersonal: This happens all the time in Egypt. An example would be the one I mentioned above, when a person who’s Christian in a predominantly Muslim area is being harassed and called slurs.
  4. Internalized: When I first put my headscarf on, so many people told me that I was forced by my parents and that it’s not good to be “too religious” to the point that I started believing them.