Cairo Cosmopolitan POLITICS, CULTURE, AND URBAN SPACE IN THE NEW GLOBALIZED MIDDLE EAST Edited by Diane Singerman and Paul Amar The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York Copyright © 2006 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com An earlier version of chapter 3 appeared as “Dimensions nouvelles de la métropolisation dans le Monde arabe: le cas du Caire.” Les Cahiers de la Méditerranée. Université de Nice, No. 64, 119 66. Reproduced by permission. Material in chapter 8 is drawn from Farha Ghannam, Remaking the Modern: Space, Relocation, and the Politics of Identity in Global Cairo. The Regents of the University of California, 2002. An earlier version of chapter 15 appeared as “When the Lights Go Down in Cairo: Cinema as Global Crossroads and Space of Playful Resistance.” Visual Anthropology 10 (1998): 413 42. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Dar el Kutub No. 2828/05 ISBN 977 424 928 3 Designed by Fatiha Bouzidi/AUC Press Design Center Printed in Egypt To the courageous, hopeful, and creative people of Cairo who have all taught us so much about their city. Contents Contributors xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction Contesting Myths, Critiquing Cosmopolitanism, and Creating the Cairo School of Urban Studies 1 Diane Singerman and Paul Amar Cairo: The City Cosmopolitan 1 Cairo as Neo Liberal Capital? From Walled City to Gated Communities 47 Eric Denis 2 Cairo as Capital of Socialist Revolution? 73 Omnia El Shakry 3 Cairo as Regional/Global Economic Capital? 99 Leïla Vignal and Eric Denis 4 Cairo as Global/Regional Cultural Capital? 153 Said Sadek Cairo Consumer and Investor Geographies 5 Egyptianizing the American Dream: Nasr City’s Shopping Malls, Public Order, and the Privatized Military 193 Mona Abaza 6 Café Latte and Caesar Salad: Cosmopolitan Belonging in Cairo’s Coffee Shops 221 Anouk de Koning 7 From Dubai to Cairo: Competing Global Cities, Models, and Shifting Centers of Influence? 235 Yasser Elsheshtawy 8 Keeping Him Connected: Globalization and the Production of Locality in Cairo 251 Farha Ghannam Cairo Heritage and Touristic Globalization 9 Reconstructing Islamic Cairo: Forces at Work 269 Caroline Williams 10 Urban Transformations: Social Control at al Rifa‘i Mosque and Sultan Hasan Square 295 Yasser Elsheshtawy 11 Pyramids and Alleys: Global Dynamics and Local Strategies in Giza 313 Petra Kuppinger 12 Belle Époque Cairo: The Politics of Refurbishing the Downtown Business District 345 Galila El Kadi and Dalila ElKerdany Cairo Subcultures and Media Contestation 13 Upper Egyptian Regionally Based Communities in Cairo: Traditional or Modern Forms of Urbanization? 375 Catherine Miller 14 Place, Class, and Race in the Barabra Café: Nubians in Egyptian Media 399 Elizabeth Smith 15 When the Lights Go Down in Cairo: Cinema as Global Crossroads and Space of Playful Resistance 415 Walter Armbrust 16 A Round Trip to Isma‘iliya: Cairo’s Media Exiles, Television Innovation, and Provincial Citizenship 445 Fanny Colonna viii Cairo Celebratory Spaces and Vernacular World-Crossing 17 Mulids of Cairo: Sufi Guilds, Popular Celebrations, and the ‘Roller Coaster Landscape’ of the Resignified City 465 Anna Madoeuf 18 The Giza Zoo: Re Appropriating Public Spaces, Re Imagining Urban Beauty 489 Vincent Battesti 19 Egypt’s Pop Music Clashes and the ‘World Crossing’ Destinies of Muhammad ‘Ali Street Musicians 513 Nicolas Puig Afterword Whose Cairo? 539 Nezar AlSayyad ix