Cairo, Egypt
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
CAIRO, Egypt -
Israel's celebration of 60 years of independence is clearly more bitter than sweet for Arabs, who refer to the 1948 war marking their defeat as "Al Nakba," or "The Catastrophe."
While the anniversary of the birth of the Israel represents the fulfillment of a dream for Jewish people, for many Arabs it is a day of remembrance for the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee their homeland as a result of the Arab loss.
Several wars and peace agreements later, Arabs want peace, but view Israel with mistrust, as a belligerent nation that talks peace but actively works to deny the Palestinians a viable state.
CONTINUED >>
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
CAIRO, Egypt – A young woman in a pink scoop neck shirt with her hair neatly tied back in a ponytail pumped each hydraulic exercise machine single-mindedly as she moved through the circuit, focused on her workout.
She could have been a young mother taking a break from her day at any one of the thousands of Curves women's exercise franchises throughout the United States, but she was at a Curves branch in a quiet Cairo suburb.
And when Sherin Ismail emerged from her workout, her ponytail was gone from sight – she was carefully veiled and dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and pants, despite the warm spring temperatures.
For Ismail, Curves, is more than just a place to work out, it is a chance for the 37-year-old mother to have fun. "I come here [and] I am happy. I spend very good times here," Ismail said.
Ismail explained that she originally came to Curves to get into shape and have "a good body," but she said she also found a support system that cares about her well-being.
For Debra Alcala, the Curves branch owner, her business is all about providing a space to make customers healthy and happy – especially in a usually male-dominated society.
"Women on the streets [here] are so sober. They don't seem to have a sense of joy," said Alcala. "When they walk in here, they are fun people. They love to dance, laugh and be silly, but I never see that outside."
Alcala explained how she has two members who always enter the health club wearing the all-enveloping black hijab (veil) that reveals only their eyes – making them appear somber and serious. But she said that once they change into their t-shirts and start their workout, "They are laughing and carrying on like everyone else."
CONTINUED >>
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
RAFAH, Egypt – I will never look at bread the same way again. When we were driving through the
Egyptian border town of Rafah on Sunday, the pouring rain had turned the street into muddy, water-filled ruts.
A bent old man in a thin white gown and a ragged jacket slogged with difficulty through the cold rain, along the line of idling cars in his overlarge plastic sandals. He stopped at our window and asked for bread. One of the people in our group hastily prepared a bag of sandwich makings and bread and handed it to him. The old man turned red-rimmed eyes on us, and asked, "How much does it cost?"
He was not alone. The sidewalks were filled with Palestinian boys and men huddled under metal awnings. They had crossed the broken border between Gaza and Egypt looking for whatever they could buy due to the almost complete absence of the most basic goods in their own cities. But these stragglers, driven to Egypt by sheer need, were greeted by rain and shuttered shops.
Egyptian police, worried about the security threat posed by thousands of unmonitored visitors, have tightened the cordon around Rafah. One shopkeeper explained that Egyptian security officers ordered them to close their shops to discourage Palestinians from crossing the border. Shipments of Egyptian goods to the border town have been stopped. The attendant at a gas station packed with dozens of Palestinian trucks and cars complained that authorities had turned off the electricity so they couldn't pump gas.
CONTINUED >>
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
LUXOR, Egypt – An irreverent and entirely inappropriate thought kept imposing itself as I waited to report live on MSNBC about the first-ever public viewing of the face of King Tutankhamen from his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt.
There he lay in front of me, his blackened face and empty eye sockets staring upwards, with taut cheeks stretched over small bones, lips pulled back in a sneer and deep wrinkles forming jagged scars in his face.
And all I kept thinking as I waited for the anchor to ask her first question: Do not kiss the Sleeping Beauty who died more than 3,000 years ago. I imagined that if I did, maybe he would come back to life. And if he did, what would I say?
But all went well. King Tut didn't interrupt the live broadcast, and when the lights went out, I was left contemplating these mortal remains of the famous boy-king.
CONTINUED >>
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
Not everyone was displeased to see more than one hundred Pakistani citizens dead on the streets of Karachi on Thursday. Most of those who commented on the suicide bombings on a popular pro-militant Internet site called EkHlaas greeted the news with postings of “God is great!”
“This woman promised the United States to fight Islam and allow the U.S. to interrogate the father of the Pakistani nuclear weapons. God is great, thank God, the Mujahideen (holy warriors) Taliban said they would shoot her,” posted one visitor under the name Meskin.
“I hope she will be destroyed and this is the last page for Musharraf. I hope they will all be burned,” a visitor named Abbas said.
Even before the attack, one contributor posted a hauntingly accurate predication: “Today Bhutto will return to Pakistan and has announced she will allow the U.S. troops, so the suicide bombers are having a rendezvous with her today,” wrote Mohenid Saram. “If not today, after a week, or a month, but reaching her before she reaches power will be easy and the mujahideen (holy warriors) will not spare an effort.”
One sole voice stoked an angry debate when he stood against the attack: Tarek al Shamri called it a ‘crime’ that killed hundreds of Muslims and described the perpetrators as “infidels.” He questioned whether the CIA was behind it.
Others quickly rebuked him by saying the attack targeted a tyrant, her guards and supporters, and not innocent Muslims. Argued Abu Rayan al Ansari, “If you call it a crime, it is not a crime.”
CONTINUED >>
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
Maadi, a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Cairo, is known for its historic mansions, quiet tree-lined boulevards and American franchises like Gold's Gym and TGIF that cater to its large expatriate community.
But now, according to daily front-page headlines, the formerly peaceful suburb is in the "Grip of Terror.”
Egyptians, unaccustomed to anonymous violent crime and especially serial violent crime, are alternately terrified and titillated by the "Maadi Murderer.”
CONTINUED >>
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
Theatergoers in Saudi Arabia gave new meaning to interactive theater when they mounted a stage to punch, hit, kick and whack actors with planks during a performance.
The television network al Jazeera broadcast video Tuesday of Muslim militants attacking actors during a play whose theme was both anti-extremist and anti-liberal.
The incident occurred about a month ago when the actors were performing at Al Yamamah College in Riyadh during a college-sponsored culture week.
CONTINUED >>
