The Revolution of Hand Holding

Back in the seventies, when everyone with a heart was a radical leftist and we still thought Mao was a hero even though we all knew the murals and posters of the Chinese Communists were never going to hold a candle to the artwork of the ancients, my friend Mona got to go to visit there with the very first group of Americans allowed entrance. Mona, you must understand, had been wearing a Mao cap and jacket for several years already, along with those flat little archless MaryJanes on her feet. She'd been learning Chinese. She was, in short, eager as they come.

But it was, after all, the seventies, and we were not only radical leftists with heart, we were hippies and we were still  young, and sex and love were probably the ony two agenda items that beat out world peace and freedom on our agenda. So when Mona reluctantly returned from her long-anticipated visit to the culture that would set a model for the rest of humanity (yes, we are indeed talking about China...there was a point when we thought they were actually heading toward freedom), the first thing she had to tell us was this and it has long since surpassed anything else my friend told us that may have had political value: "They don't even hold hands on the streets in China!" Mona's current boyfriend was also on the trip. I'm sure the two of them scandalized most of Peking, as it was still known then.

Now it's 2011. So much has changed. Hippies are pretty much gone, except for a handful of scrawny men with scrawnier gray ponytails aimlessly wandering around Berkeley and Madison and Santa Cruz still; China has not only moved beyond Mao, they have become a model of Western industry, complete with all the environmental hazards inherent in that. And in Egypt, lovers still can't kiss in public, can't spend the night with each other, can't acknowledge homosexuality which, as I've said previously, "doesn't even exist." Egypt may not be ruled strictly by sharia law, but there is still a surprising amount of enforcement of sexual mores in both the cities as well as the desert. I guess it gives the huge police force something to enforce. In a nation where drinking is also frowned upon, if not outright banned, and traffic laws are absolutely non-existent, there can be so little for police to do with their authority.

It's serious. Doormen and porters are the primary enforcers of the code that prevents premarital sex, and in hotels, even the big Western hotels, you must show proof of marriage to be given a room with someone of the opposite sex. I don't imagine they would ask two men for this, but then, remember: homosexuality doesn't exist in Egypt. Bowabs, as we non-Arabic speakers, muddle their proper Arabic title, can make or break a romance and make or break your budget. During the corrupt reign of Hosni Mubarak, they were part of a deep and sinister chain of informants that kept Egyptians docile and compliant. What role they play in post-revolutionary Egypt remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, I don't recommend you go kissing your honey in the streets of Cairo or even on the beaches of the Red Sea. Someone may still be watching you. But take heart: It's okay to hold hands here.