Cairo, Egypt 2009
In the incessant tumult, Cairo coos. At all hours of the day and night, every day of the week, lovers are everywhere. On the Nile's corniche and on the feluccas that streak the river, in the few parks of the city, fish gardens or rose gardens. Two by two, eye to eye, they hold hands demurely and talk for hours. Smiling, shy, sometimes absent. A necessarily public chaste flirtation in a society that forbids any amorous exchange before marriage. So out of sentimentality or frustration, they celebrate love twice. In February, like lovers around the world, and on November 4th with a second love festival that belongs only to them.
Nathalie Cattaruzza