Rural Egyptian village stuck in time
Egypt has gone through dramatic changes in the last three years, but in the remote upper Egyptian village of Western Bindar, life remains at a standstill with little state presence.
WESTERN BINDAR, Egypt — Everything is changing in Egypt, except for this village 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Cairo. The clock stops here in Western Bindar, where the faces are dark, the houses are poor and the benches are wooden and resemble a bare sofa, as if it were made to go with the houses built from mud or red bricks, on unpaved dirt roads, alongside a canal. At night, these benches turn into the only spot where men stay up and chat. There are no cafés, no parks and no school uniforms.
After an eight-hour train ride to reach the village, which is in Markaz Gerga in the Sohag governorate in upper Egypt, you forget how tired you are as soon as you feel the love of the residents, whether it's the men or the women who usually wait in the indoor “yard” of their homes.
Revenge attacks between families dominate in this village, but they are not its only features. The popular jilbab robe is not the only garment worn around here. There are women who wear pants, while others wear the niqab as another kind of contemporary uniform.
Hussein Fawzi, 24, took us to his father’s land, which was all green and surrounded by a rocky height, known as the Eastern. “Here is where my brothers and I plant potatoes and wheat,” he told Al-Monitor.
