A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Odds Are This Egyptian Stamp Will Not Be Reissued by the Present Government

The (Arabic) post accompanying this Egyptian stamp posted to Twitter by @Hragy reads: "Egyptian postage stamp from my childhood [not specified when] before Egypt became extremist, celebrating Eastern dance [what the West calls "belly dance"]."

 (It may be a tax stamp rather than a postage stamp, but I think it's real.)

Ah, those were the days ...




1 comment:

David Mack said...

Reminds me of the stamps issued by the Emirate of Ajman, prior to UAE's birth in December 1970. Like several of the emirates, Ajman was desperately poor at the time. Someone had the idea to issue a series of stamps that featured Western art, mostly of semi-nude women. Must buys for many stamp collectors, to say nothing of Arabian Peninsula soft porn fanciers. A reverse form of the Orientalism that popularized harem images.