The Chinese lingerie dealers of upper Egypt
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/learning-to-speak-lingerieI found this whole piece fascinating.
Upper Egypt is the most conservative part of the country. Virtually all Muslim women there wear the head scarf, and its not uncommon for them to dress in the niqab, the black garment that covers everything but the eyes. In most towns, theres no tourism to speak of, and very little industry; Asyut is the poorest governorate in Egypt. Apart from small groups of Syrians who occasionally pass through in travelling market fairs, its all but unimaginable for a foreigner to do business there. And yet I found Chinese lingerie dealers scattered throughout the region. In Beni Suef, at an open-air market called the Syrian Fair, two Chinese underwear salesmen had somehow embedded with the Syrians who were hawking cheap clothes and trinkets. Minya, the next city to the south, had a Chinese Lingerie Corner in a mall whose entrance featured a Koranic verse that warned against jealousy. In the remote town of Mallawi, a Chinese husband and wife were selling thongs and nightgowns across the street from the ruins of the Mallawi Museum, which, not long before the Chinese arrived, had been looted and set afire by a mob of Islamists.
All told, along a three-hundred-mile stretch, I found twenty-six Chinese lingerie dealers: four in Sohag, twelve in Asyut, two in Mallawi, six in Minya, and two in Beni Suef. It was like mapping the territory of large predator cats: in the Nile Valley, clusters of Chinese lingerie dealers tend to appear at intervals of thirty to fifty miles, and the size of each cluster varies according to the local population. Cairo is big enough to support dozens. Dong Weiping, a businessman who owns a lingerie factory in the capital, told me that he has more than forty relatives in Egypt, all of them selling his products. Other Chinese people supply the countless underwear shops that are run by Egyptians. For the Chinese dealers, this is their window into Egypt, and they live on lingerie time. Days start late, and nights run long; they ignore the Spring Festival and sell briskly after sundown during Ramadan. Winter is better than summer. Mothers Day is made for lingerie. But nothing compares with Valentines Day, so this year I celebrated the holiday by saying goodbye to my wife, driving four hours to Asyut, and watching people buy underwear at the China Star shop until almost midnight.
China Star is situated next to the Ibn al-Khattab Mosque, and not long before the first call sounded for sunset prayer a sheikh arrived at the shop. He was tall and fat, with strong, dark features, and he wore a brilliant blue galabiya, a carefully wrapped turban, and a pair of heavy silk scarves. He was followed by two large women in niqabs. The sheikh planted himself at the entrance of the shop while the women searched purposefully through the racks and the rows of mannequins. Periodically, one of them would hold up an item, and the sheikh would register his opinion with a wave of his hand.
"The Chinese Lingerie Dealers of Upper Egypt" is the name of my two-man minimalist rock cover band for Leonard Cohen.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)have morphed the Chinese owners into other inspired businesses and employ people. The Chinese don't care what you believe in or care what products you buy. They are safe to purchase from and will keep your secrets.
They do however deplore the gender inequality in Egypt and it translates into not being able to employ young women long-term because 1. they are there to make money in order to marry, quitting when they do get married and 2. they are willing to endure 4 hour bus rides because tradition says you do not stay at the dormitories but go home to your parents each and every night. Of course, the Chinese should not have built a Trade Zone so far away from a town in the first place.
Very enlightening article.