The streets of Cairo AKA The nightmare

          She walked down the streets of Cairo in a relatively cool night, when a cold breeze hit her knee length royal blue dress. For some reason the wind didn't come as a welcomed guest as it always did in Cairo, she could feel the hair on the back of her neck standup, goosebumps spread through her body. She could sense both danger and for an anonymous reason fear.

         The night was getting darker, she had to remind herself that she was almost home, four more streets and she'll see her building, walk faster and you'll make it. As she started walking a tad faster she heard it, the one thing every girl lives in the middle east fears the most. The sounds of drunk men shouting harassments on how beautiful her butt is coming closer, no matter how faster she ran they managed to get closer to her, what chance has she got anyway, they were in a car and she was walking.

"You might consider spending the night with us sexy ass" shouted one man, "Yea, we know how to take care of you," replied the other "Or maybe you don't work for free, tell us how much would you like for an entire night with all of us?"  They barked out a laugh.

        The teenager couldn't believe what she was hearing,she started running but hearing their laughter made her feel as if it was a lost case, as if they already won and had her and now they were just playing with their food before they get to prey on it. Her legs started shaking and she could see that they sensed her terror.

       It all happened so quickly, the car got so close to her, so close that the men could actually touch her body, she was so close to her street now but it was pitch dark "Damn they must have cut off the lights again" she thought to herself. The man stopped the car,two guys got off the backseat and that was the night she started seeing the ugly face of life, people and Cairo.

The next couple of days, the minutes, the seconds felt like they were years. They had a blind fold on her eyes,she couldn't see anything and for that she was somehow thankful, there's no need for these faces to haunt me for the rest of my life,she thought – if I didn't die now-.

But what she didn't know is there are more powerful memories that stay with a person other than just faces, the smells, the touches, the guilt, the humiliation and the shame that society and one's family put on a girl's back that's almost impossible to carry.

The girl was found on a highway two days after disappearing, laying on the ground in her torn royal blue dress, a moment away from death which she welcomed with open arms then.

Hours passed by, maybe days, she had no idea and she didn't care, everything is the same now, the same numbness, the same invisible weight on her chest, the horror, the smell of alcohol mixed with sweat that she couldn't get off her body no matter how many times she showered and washed her body with the luffa till she bled.

The hums and whispers by family members surrounding her were the same "Can't you just talk to the doctor and beg him to operate on her and make her a virgin again?"

"God forbid anybody knows about this and the family's reputation is gonna be destroyed"

"Thank God she's not engaged,how could we possibly explain that to her man if there were one"

Other words were soothing,though to her parents not to her;

"Don't blame yourself guys,she is to blame for this unforgivable shame,you told her to come back home before it's 9:00 pm"

"Just hide it well enough and nobody has to know about it,don't worry we wont tell anyone"

She felt like screaming, like kicking everybody out of the room, but she had no strength left to even open her eyes, her hopes and dreams even her dignity   were destroyed that night.

And that's when a normal girl in Cairo started her journey of self loathing, hatred, anger, revenge 

but somehow found peace, self acceptance and most importantly; Love.