Salaam Alaikum :-)

This article- while extremely humorous and informative, is also a great representation of the driving/vehicle situation in much of the Middle East.

Sometimes I wonder, if we cannot straighten out small issues such as following the lines on the road, how can we expect the political world to take us seriously?

I think it’s always important to be proud of your country, but when pride gets in the way of creating positive change, that pride becomes poisonous- turns into vanity. And nobody wants to be vain!

I’m Arabic :-) yearning for some of that positive change…. InshAllah. Ya Rab!

MashAllah awesome article.

I love this article!

I’ve been here for a year, and crossing the streets still scare me, and taxi drivers/microbus drivers still make my heart skip a beat.

Once during the first few months I was here, I was trying to cross a really busy street and I was standing at the curb for about 5 mins. I would step onto the street and then jump back on the curb after the cars drove by me so fast. Then a man who was waiting at the bus stop sees me struggling and comes and asks me if I’m trying to cross. I say YES!, and he’s like ok ok, so he just walks into the street motioning to the cars to stop then he walks me to the other side. It was so nice of him mashaAllah, may Allah reward him!

I’m thinking of getting my first car to drive in Cairo when going back later this year. I am dreading the drive, but I know one of my friends has become truly ‘Egyptian’ after driving for a year or so (and he has no license, here or there!).

I got use to crossing streets, its a matter of precise calculation and bravery. Also don’t look like a sissy when you see young girls crossing without fear.

Assalamu Alaiykom

I wanted to point something out, not a lot of people in Egypt own cars…. YET! Just wait until TATA releases it’s ultra cheap car into that market… WOOO HOOO!!

By the way, this article is more true of driving in Cairo. I learned to drive in Cairo so I can happily say that Alexandria is A LOT better driving wise. I’m ashamed to drive down there with my “Cairo” license plates (for those who don’t know, in Egypt license plates are done by governates – sort of like large counties).

Funny article masha’allah. Unfortunately very true also. The worst is the night driving by far because almost NO ONE turns their lights on because they believe that it drains the battery or that the street lights do the job for them. I try to encourage people that are driving there to turn the lights on, especially cab drivers. Al-hamdulillah, most people are humble enough to try to change their ways.

I do disagree with camel based transport, they smell really bad!! Horse or donkey is the way to go, plus the ride is less bumpy.

Assalamu alaikum,

I’ve been here for 4 years and 3 years ago, they passed a law against driving at night without lights on. Alhamdulillah, now a majority of cars do have lights on while 3 years ago, it was maybe only 10%.

Unfortunately, many people do die on the roads, one of them being my neighbour.

As for the cars being old, there are a few reasons for that: one of them is that cars are very expensive. While a car in the West is worth 1/2 it’s value after a year, here it only goes down by 10%. another reason is that people are poor. A car is a huge investment, especially for taxi drivers. There are some improvements as you now have yellow cabs (it started 3-4 years ago) and these are well maintained.

Egyptians are wonderful in the sense that, if you talk to them quoting Qur’an or hadeeth, they will shut up and accept what you say (it doesn’t mean they’ll change their ways though). So you can talk through them. You can ask a taxi driver to slow down. You can’t ask a minibus driver though as you’re not the only one in it. You can ask a driver to stop playing the music.

Yes, driving is crazy. Yes, they don’t think of the consequences until it hits them. My husband and kids have seen one driving to his death on the highway. One taxi driver also told my husband (before he got in): “Do you have a heart?”. When my husband enquired, he said that his taxi had no brakes.

May Allah guide us and them.

As for people changing, you do have to talk to them personally. Some of them do think about what you say and they do change, especially if you tell them the evidence that what they are doing is unislamic.

As for queues, there are some small improvements since I came.

Change will happen when people will feel it in their pockets. This is how the West changed, one example being France. France got rid of their cars too when the government gave incentives for people owning cars older than 10 years old to buy a new car instead.

When I went to primary school in Europe, we would sometimes drive back home 8 kids in a Beetle or in a mini Cooper. That was when there was only a seat belt for the driver ;)

Assalamu alaikum

Bangladesh faces road death toll crisis – doesn’t sound all that dissimilar from Egypt.

It’s not that bad, I just popped across Ahmad El-Zomor (three lanes boths ways) four times before Isha with a two year old in my arms and my 7-year old daughter holding my hand (I forgot to buy some feeno bread
so had to cross back again.)

All you need to do is find where the speed bump is as the cars have to slow down for that and cross on the speed bump (if you cross after it – it is harder as the cars are going different speeds and playing frogger
with cars moving at random speeds after accelerating of a bump is difficult.)

That and make eye contact with the drivers – traffic is heavy but is normally so heavy that they are not actually
moving that first and if you make it clear that you are trying to cross, and avoid crossing in front of
taxis, buses and especially microbuses, it is doable.

As for pavements/sidewalks – walk down the middle of the road (we take a pushchair out and used to
live off Abbas al-Akaad and Rabiya al-Adawiya – Rabiya was the only place where crossing was extremely
painful. )

Finally, if you have a choice, walk facing traffic – as you are less likely to get hit if you can see the car
hurtling towards you.

Brilliant post – I think it has deeper connotations though.

Just looking at statistics, among the 20 top countries with the highest traffic mortality rate are Eritrea, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, UAE, Iran, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Sudan, Chad, Jordan. (admittedly taken from wiki – though I dont think its too far wrong). Im sure Saudi is worse than them all though!

Ignorance exists in many forms, its just that when someone gets behind a wheel the implications are felt in a more obvious way – people are maimed or die as a direct result. There is a link between the level of education/awareness and road mortalities.

Everyone in Sudan has lost relatives due to some traffic related accident or other.

few comments:

yes the ‘cairo ‘ driving is bad. however, there’s now ‘suburbs’ outside of cairo where it is WAY better. check out alrehab.

Having said that, i want people to know that articles like this actually stop many western muslims to ever consider living in a muslim country.

Well i want u to know that i live in egypt and i think its a GREAT place to raise a family. honestly. sounds weird i know. but u can build here your own little ‘american life’. its possible :-) there’s SO MANY foreigners here from the west raising their kids here.
‘
There’s great schools here mash’allah..not the mediocre education u always here about.

to sister ameera khan, im from pakistan and i can tell u that pakistani driving iS WAAAAYYY better than cairo driving. for one, pakistan is not built like vertically. u can actualy breathe there. versus cairo ppl just build up and up and up.

but now the’yre learning and moving OUT of the city. alhamdulillah.

OMG!!! I’m crying!!!! LoooooooooL