Culture and health are always intertwined in any society, particularly in developing communities with a long history of social and economic fluctuations like Egypt. Health and Identity in Egypt, co-edited by Hania Sholkamy and Farha Ghannam, presents a compelling argument that bodily experiences and conditions are central to understanding social processes in Egypt.
The authors draw on recent ethnographic research to explore beliefs and practices related to infertility, beauty, and physical and spiritual health, while engaging with the broader question of Egyptian identity in both urban and rural contexts.
Each chapter of the book serves as a study that moves beyond the conventional understanding of ‘health’ and ‘ill-health’ as purely physical experiences, instead framing them as phenomena with significant social and political dimensions.
One chapter, titled A Discourse of Resistance: Spirit Possession Among Women in Low-Income Cairo, is authored by Heba El-Kholy, a development practitioner and social anthropologist with two decades of experience in social development across Egypt and the Arab world.
El-Kholy argues that spirit possession among low-income women can best be understood through its expressive forms, such as ceremonies, episodes, rituals, and narratives, which illuminate their hidden worldviews. Her analysis centres on two key themes: sexual relations and religion.
She expands the theme to a national level, referencing Egyptian commercial films such as the 1990 movie al-Bayda wa-l-Hagar (The Egg and the Stone), directed by Ali Abdel Khaleq. The film portrays possession and its rituals as symbols of moral decay and facades for illegal activities such as prostitution and drug dealing—depictions vehemently rejected and denied by all the women interviewed, according to El-Kholy.
Another chapter, Quest for Beauty: Globalization, Identity, and the Production of Gendered Bodies in Low-Income Cairo, is authored by Farha Ghannam, an assistant professor of anthropology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
Ghannam notes that issues concerning the body are increasingly prominent in Egypt and the Middle East. Organ transplants, cloning, abortion, circumcision, and, more recently, weight loss have all become central to public debates in the media, mosques, and schools.
She argues that an Egyptian woman’s perception of her body is closely tied to the flow of information that sparks various desires, alongside a burgeoning market of beauty products promising to fulfil those desires.
On one level, the female body remains under the control of the family and the surrounding community, particularly in matters of sexuality and reproduction. However, as Ghannam observes through her interviews with young Egyptian women, education and access to information are creating alternative spaces where women can shape their bodies in ways not dictated by their families.
Another chapter, Fi Nas Wi Fi Nas: Class, Culture, and Illness Practices in Egypt, is authored by Montasser M. Kamal, a medical doctor and anthropologist with extensive experience in public health and medical anthropology. Kamal is also one of the founders of the Arab Forum for Social Science and Medicine.
Kamal’s chapter draws on anthropological studies and empirical observations to explore the importance of group affiliation, a theme often reinforced by how ‘natives’ describe themselves. He questions the extent to which this limited formulation adequately represents—or ever represented—the nuances of affiliation in contemporary Egyptian culture. He also asks what this formulation conceals.
Kamal addresses these questions through the title of his chapter: Fi Nas Wi Fi Nas, an Egyptian saying that translates to ‘There are people, and then there are (other) people.’
Kamal interprets the saying as a reflection of inequality, where people differ based on social standing, economic status, or class.
Another chapter, Mushahra: The Justice and Injustice of Infertility, is authored by Hania Sholkamy, an assistant professor at both the Social Research Center and the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo.
Sholkamy examines issues of female fertility and infertility among Upper Egyptians. She asks how women have endured—and continue to endure—the immense pressure placed upon them to be fertile and to produce healthy sons.
Her chapter investigates the gendered discourse of fertility and infertility, particularly through the belief in mushahra, an infertility spell. This concept, Sholkamy suggests, provides insight into the everyday experiences of women and men in these communities.
The book as a whole is a valuable contribution to the complexities of Egyptian identity, which remains undefined amidst the myriad of multidimensional issues affecting rural and urban communities. While the text presents a deeply researched set of papers, it ultimately serves as an attempt to delve deeper into the intersections of health and its cultural stigmas.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.