Today is the 100th Anniversary of the "Battle of the Wasa‘a," When ANZACs Trashed Cairo's Red Light District

Today marks the 100th anniversary  of the event known, to those who've ever heard of it, as the Battle of the Wasa‘a or Wazza, or, Down Under, the Wozzer. Not an official battle of World War I, it's nevertheless a memorable story I first told back in 2011. Today's version is updated, corrected, enhanced with new photos and maps, and some broken links have been fixed.

Though it took place in Cairo, few Egyptians know about it; unless you're an Aussie or a Kiwi you probably don't know it, and even then only if grandpa was unusually candid. Hence, one of my wanderings down the forgotten (and somewhat censored) side alleys of Middle Eastern history. And side alleys are definitely involved.

Brace yourselves. This one requires a lot of historical background.

If you are, or have ever been friends with or worked with, an Australian or a New Zealander (I've worked with both), you will know ANZAC Day, April 25, the shared national day/remembrance day of the two great nations Down Under, memorializing the day the ANZACs (the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps in World War I) were thrown ashore under Turkish guns at ANZAC Cove on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. April 25 is, in both countries, the analog not only of Armistice Day/Remembrance Day but also a bit of the Fourth of July, for it was out of the crucible of World War I that both the Aussies and the Kiwis found their modern national identities. Though it marked a signal defeat, that was not the fault of the soldiers but of their utterly incompetent commanders, who were from neither of the countries involved. I will not at the moment comment on the degree to which the incompetence of the bloody Pommy Bastards British High Command led to unspoken disdain for the motherland and their growing independence of their colonial patrons. Except to say that the occasional ANZAC Day parties to which I was invited rarely mentioned the Turks at all, but rather Mother England. (Though the Turkish Republic itself has its genesis in the same events.)

April 25 will never be overshadowed, at least not soon, in the national mythology of either nation. But many of the veterans of the ANZAC Corps,  remembered another "battle" in that same month: on April 2, 1915, a mere 23 days before the debacle of Gallipoli, the ANZACs fought another battle in the Middle East, this one in Egypt. No Turks were involved. It was remembered by those who ever spoke of it as the "Battle of the Wasa‘a" to be scholarly about it, or in the speech of our Australian cousins, the "Battle of the Wazza." Or, even more colloquially, "the Wozzer."

Like all Great War veterans all the ANZACs are gone now. The last Australian Gallipoli vet, a Tasmanian named Alec Campbell, died in 2002. Though a Gallipoli vet, he didn't land there till November 1915. The last Aussie and the last Kiwi to land on April 25 died in 1997, and Australian Jack Ross, who enlisted in 1918 but never left Australia but still served in the Great War, died in 2009 at age 110. Good on them all. And their opponents too who died for their country. Brave men, stupid war.

Neither as glorious nor as bloody as Gallipoli, the "Battle" of the Wozzer may, however, have been almost as stupid, and even more pointless in its objective, and it certainly was something only a few veterans spoke of very much. For on the eve of their great sacrifice at Gallipoli, the Australian and New Zealand troops violently trashed the Red Light district of Cairo. On Good Friday. And their own troops, along with British military police, were called out to stop their destruction of the neighborhood.

The ANZAC units, Australians and New Zealanders, a great many of whom had never been far from their own hometowns before, found themselves in Cairo. Because Britain's own troops were tied down on the Western Front, and the Indian Army in "Mespot," (Mesopotamia, Iraq), the "colonial" troops were sent to the Middle East, where they would play major roles in both the Gallipoli and Palestine campaigns. Australian films like Gallipoli and The Lighthorsemen have helped make them known in the Northern Hemisphere.
The ANZACs were trained in camps near the Pyramids (photo) and other areas, the Australians mainly at Mena near the Great Pyramid and the New Zealanders at Zeitoun northeast of Cairo. So, not unnaturally, they spent their free time in Cairo which could be reached by tramway. Below right is a photo of a tram overflowing with Australians, including on the roof.

It would be nice to say they spent their time sightseeing, but they spent their time the way many soldiers have in many wars, drinking and seeking women, especially of the sort whose virtue was negotiable.

Lest you approach this tale with a "boys will be boys" snigger, let me deliver the downside up front: though tolerated houses of prostitution were supposedly subject to medical checks, the rate of venereal disease during the war was enough to create major problems for the British and colonial forces. ANZAC units reported an average incidence of VD across the Corps as 12%, or one man in eight; one unit is said to have had a rate of 25%. And penicillin hadn't yet been discovered.

Camp at Pyramids, Kangaroo Mascot

Cairo in 1915 was rather different from the Cairo of today. Many of its residents, whether foreign born or Egyptians of foreign ancestry, claimed the protection of foreign consulates under the system of "capitulations," under which they were subject to the laws of their protective country, not of Egypt. Disputes with Egyptian nationals were settled in a system known as the "Mixed Courts." This naturally created complex jurisdictional issues for law enforcement.

Sir Thomas Russell (Russell Pasha), was the British Deputy Chief of Police for Cairo, later becoming the Chief. (Egypt, until the war nominally Ottoman but under de facto British rule, was declared a British Protectorate when Turkey joined the Central Powers.) Russell's memoir, Egyptian Service, 1902-1946 is a very readable view of the British era from the inside. (His wife, Lady Dorothea Russell, wrote a readable guide to the Islamic monuments, a predecessor of later works by Richard Parker and Caroline Williams). As a police officer, his memoir deals a lot with the seedier side of things, including prostitution and the hashish trade.

Egypt had developed a licensed brothel quarter in the late 19th century, where the houses were nominally subject to medical inspection. Beyond the licensed quarters, there were areas where prostitution was semi-tolerated. Even when, in 1916 (the year after the events described here), a crackdown was introduced, the capitulations got in the way. Russell Pasha:

One particular house of some size and popularity defied Bimbashi Quartier, our chief detective officer, and myself for months by ringing changes on the nationality of the padrona [the Madam]. Police could not enter a foreigner's house without the consent and presence of the Consul or his representative. When we arrived with the French consular cavass to demand admission from the French padrona, the spy-hole in the front door would be opened and a husky voice announce that Madame Yvonne had sold the business to Madame Gentili, an Italian subject, without whose Consular representative we could not enter. Next week we would arrive with the Italian cavass to be met by another change of nationality by the padrona. Picqued beyond the ordinary, Quartier one night assembled seven Consular cavasses at the fast-closed door, and one by one the fictitious landladies were defeated, entry gained, and the law enforced.

A linguistic note: "Bimbashi" is not detective Quartier's first name. It's a rank which in the Egyptian Army and Police was equivalent to lieutenant colonel. (Though binbashi today in the Turkish Army is a major.)

Now, to further set the scene for the Battle of the Wozzer, we need to introduce the Red Light District of the Day (or the Red Blind Quarter as it was known). The area may come as a surprise to those who know Cairo today, since it included the once-elegant colonnaded street of Clot Bey (named, ironically given those VD rates above, for the French doctor who introduced European medicine to Egypt in the age of Muhammad ‘Ali), and other streets to the north of the Ezbekiyya Gardens.

Back in Ottoman times, Ezbekiyya had been a lake, and the area to its west was mostly flood plain; Bulaq was an island. Under the Khedives Isma‘il and Tawfiq in the late 19th century the area to the west was filled in and became the Ismailia Quarter, what today we think of as downtown Cairo. (Midan al-Tahrir was originally Midan Ismailiyya.) The Ezbekiyya Lake became the Ezbekiyya Gardens, formal gardens with promenades, surrounded by the foreign consular quarters and the big foreign hotels, including the famous original Shepheards, burned in 1952, opposite its northwest corner. (The later Shepheards was placed on the Nile instead.)

The area to the north of Ezbekiyya was known as Wagh al-Birka, "fronting the lake," because it was once the site of palaces and villas on the lake. The name itself actually needs a little note as well. Literally, the original name was named وجه البركة (Wajh al-Birkat in Arabic) which normally would be pronounced, in Cairene dialect where the jim is pronounced as a hard 'g', as Wagh al-Birkat. But in this case, the jim acquired an sh sound, so that the usual pronunciation was Wish al-Birkat. In fact, the engineer and planner of much of modern Cairo, ‘Ali Pasha Mubarak, in his street-by-street masterwork on Cairo, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya al-Jadida, actually spelled it that way: وش البركة.

Ezbekiyya remained fashionable, with Shepheards being the HQ of the ANZAC command (who may or may not have known that in 1798 Napoleon had his headquarters just to the west)

The general area of the Wajh al-Birkat and the streets to its north, though once fashionable, were also in the area where the new city of Cairo and the elegant foreign hotels rubbed up against the older quarters of town. It led to unusual juxtapositions: one reason the military command could respond so quickly to the riot we're about to describe is that they were in Shepheards only a couple of blocks away; just north of the area under discussion sat the main Coptic Cathedral for Cairo (the church is still there, but it was replaced as seat of the Coptic Pope by the new Cathedral in ‘Abbasiyya in the Nasser era). It was also an area where the tolerated brothel quarters around Clot Bey and the Wajh al-Birkat merged into a more unregulated area known as the Wasa‘a, literally the "wide area" which apparently once referred to the old fish markets when the Nile came much farther east. The actual "battle" in question started in a street called the Darb al-Muballat, but most of the troops knew the whole area as the Wasa‘a. Or, since the ‘ayn would defeat them, as the Wazza or the Wozzer. As Russell Pasha put it, the Wajh al-Birkat

. . . was populated at the time with European women of all breeds and races other than British, who were not allowed by their Consular authority to practice this licensed trade in Egypt. Most of the women were of the third-class category for whom Marseilles had no further use, and who eventually would be passed on to the Bombay and Far East markets, but they were still European and not yet fallen so low as to live in the one-room shacks of the Wasa'a which had always been the quarter for purely native prostitution of the lowest class.

He tells us the area was "ruled" by a "king," "a huge, fat Nubian named Ibrahim al-Gharbi," who dressed in women's clothes and wore a white veil.

Now, we come to April 2, 1915. The ANZACs were getting ready to ship off to the Greek islands of Lemnos and Mudros to prepare for the Gallipoli landings. According to some of the accounts I will be quoting below, there had been some incidents leading up to the "battle," but since April 2 was Good Friday, there was no training that day and large numbers of men had leave for the Easter weekend. So all the resentments came to a head.

Depending on the version, and there are many, the immediate provocation was one or more of the following:

• Anger over the extremely high rates of VD, already mentioned;

• An Englishman was trying to rescue his sister from one of the houses;

• Claims the beer was watered or even stretched with urine;

• A New Zealand unit was outraged because one of its Maori soldiers was rejected by a girl as too dark-skinned;

• Arguments over price.

Perhaps it was some combination of all these, or just the imminent deployment.The fight began with an attack on a house at Number 8, Darb al-Muballat, for whatever reason. Soon sofas were burning in the street, a piano came crashing out a window, and as many as 2000 ANZACs were torching brothels and fighting with natives and each other. Both mounted British military police and Australian units eventually put the riot down; the whole thing started between four and five in the afternoon (remember, the men had the day off and doubtless started drinking early) and ended by eight. What may be the nearest thing to a photo of the scene: From the Australian War Memorial collection. Caption: "Cairo, burnt buildings and carts possibly the aftermath of the riot later known as the Battle of the "Wozzer", which took place in the street known as the Haret El Wasser near Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo 2 April Good Friday 1915."

The lady (well, woman anyway) in the foreground in what might be a nightgown invites speculation. I'm pretty certain she's not a man in a galabiyya.

Now, some accounts, including eyewitness ones, from those who were there. Oddly enough, more of those on guard duty who put down the riot seem to have written about it than the participants.

Another view of the post-riot damage is at right.

An account from a website dedicated to the Australian Light Horse:

First Wassa (also Wozzer or Wazzir), the appellation given to the first of two unheroic riots in the Haret el Wassa (the brothel quarter of Cairo, Egypt) involving troops from Australia and New Zealand. The initial incident occurred on 2 April 1915 (Good Friday), after units of the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) received news that their period of training was at an end and that orders had been received for them to embark for long-awaited action. Causes of this disturbance reportedly lay in a desire to exact revenge for past grievances arising from dealings with the district's denizens-such as diluted liquor, exorbitant prices, and high rates of venereal infection-although wild rumours of stabbings of Anzac men by locals also appear to have played a part.

Trouble began soon after 5 p.m. when soldiers began evicting whores and their pimps into the street, and tossing their possessions out after them. Bedding, furniture and clothing-even pianos-were thrown from windows of buildings several storeys high. These materials were piled in the road and set alight. The town picket, drawn from the Australian 9th Light Horse Regiment, came on the scene and tried to clear the men out of the houses being attacked. Five arrests were made, although the crowd-growing larger by the minute refused to let these men be taken away, snatched rifles from some of the troopers and threw the weapons onto the fires, and succeed in freeing four of the prisoners.

British military police (MPs) were summoned, about 30 arriving on horseback to choruses of abuse and a shower of stones and bottles. An ill-advised effort by the MPs to gain control by firing their pistols, supposedly over the rioters' heads, resulted in the wounding of four men in the throng estimated at 2,000-3,000. This only served to further inflame matters, and forced the police to hastily withdraw. Efforts by the Egyptian fire brigade to douse the bonfires were also frustrated, its hose-lines being cut, its members manhandled (especially after they turned a hose onto the crowd), and the engine itself finally pushed into the flames.

Left to themselves, the more unruly elements began to loot some shops and put the torch to a Greek tavern. Shortly after 7 p.m. a second fire engine arrived, this time under cavalry escort which exercised extreme tact, and the various fires were tackled while a still sizeable crowd looked on. Since the `Wassa' was close by Shepheard's Hotel, where the Anzac commander had his headquarters, armed troops had also been called out. After the  Lancashire Territorials (non-regular British troops who were popular with the colonials) were drawn across the road, the rioters wisely began to disperse and order was eventually restored by 10 p.m.

A formal inquiry was convened the following day under Colonel Frederic Hughes, commander of the AIF's 3rd Light Horse Brigade, to investigate the causes of the riot and establish responsibility for its outbreak. Many New Zealand officers attempted to disclaim that their men had played any part, although the evidence of their presence was quite conclusive - the officer leading the Australian picket was adamant that `New Zealanders predominated'. In any event, nine-tenths of those present had been merely spectators. Apportioning blame was next to impossible, however, with few of the 50 witnesses able (or willing) to provide precise information. As the number of men injured by the MPs' bullets (three Australians and one New Zealander) was roughly in proportion to the size of the respective contingents, it could be said that the ‘honours' were about equally shared. So too was the damages bill of £1,700.

The Lancashire troops were the 42nd East Lancashire Territorials.

From a letter by Jack Jensen, from Wasley in South Australia, written in England recovering from wounds in Gallipoli:

The last few days we had in Egypt I shall never forget as three nights running there were riots in & about Cairo. On good friday there was a big row in one of the main streets in Cairo. I think I told you once before that Cairo is a very immoral place in fact they say that it is the worst town in the world. Some streets there are nothing but brothels & houses of infamy where every possible vice under the sun exists. Of course some of our men had been going to these places & had got diseases of different kinds & as a (what?) our chaps had a grievance against these places. Finally to finish up with one of the Manchester soldiers who were also stationed in Egypt found his sister in one of them. She had left England as a servant to some lady who had taken her to Egypt & left her there. I dare say you have heard of that sort of thing it is called the white slave traffic here in England. Anyway this girl went from bad to worse until finally she way found dancing in what they call a Can-Can hall that is a dozen or so women dancing perfectly naked in a big hall & exposing their person to every kind of indignity both by themselves & also the onlookers. It is just as well that I cannot tell you everything that goes on here as it would only grieve you. This Manchester chap managed to have a talk with his sister & tried to get her away. She was only too willing to go but the people she was with would not let her & they threw the brother out of a window as a result he was in hospital for nearly a week. When he got right he came in the camp & told our chaps & asked them to help him. At first they could not find the girl again but at last she was found in a particularly vile house. This was a day or two before Good Friday & that day being a holiday about 500 of our chaps & some New Zealanders & English troops went in to raid these houses. When they got in there a good many got drunk & they were joined by a great many more also drunk so the affair ended in a riot. They got the girl out first & then set fire to the houses. The affair started about four oclock in the afternoon & was kept up until nearly midnight Shops were raided & windows broken everywhere. I was on guard that day & we were called out to go & stop it but only twenty of us could do nothing against nearly two thousand. They had a fire in the street & were throwing the furniture out of windows two & three storeys high on to it. Some of us went in & tried to put it out & a chair came out of a window three storeys high & hit one chap & nearly killed him. We carried him away & a few minutes after piano came out of the same window & fell with an awful crash on the pavement. All the strings seemed to break at once & it went off like a cannon. After that the Military Police charged the crowd on horseback firing their revolvers into them but the crowd threw broken bottles & stones at them. One policeman got badly hit & one eye cut out with a broken bottle & two of our chaps were hit by the revolver shots.

About eight oclock five hundred Manchester troops came with fixed bayonets & were told to charge. They charged alright but they wouldn’t go for our men so they gave them rifles & our chaps threw them on the fire. Then they turned & ran & our fellows followed them up with sticks A while after the South Australian Light Horse came but the horses wouldn’t face the fire & smoke A little after eleven oclock the Westminster Dragoons came. They looked all right as they were coming down the street with all their swords drawn & their horses going straight through the fire & smoke. This very soon cleared the street & then we went for the houses & took everybody prisoner that we found. We got about fifty Australians & some New Zealanders.

The girl who was the cause of all the trouble was sent to England. She was taken charge of by the Y.M.C.A. The men in camp collected over forty pounds to pay her passage & expenses back to England Of course the money was handed over to the Y.M.C.A.

Next night a riot started in the canteen of the Abbasieh camp. Somebody caught an Arab who was employed at the canteen making water in a tub of beer. The Arab was at once pulled & half killed. All the beer casks & tubs were broken & spilt & all the groceries & goods stolen & the place burned down.

The guard was called out again but by the time we got there everything was over & the camp was quiet except for the fire still burning.

On Sunday evening the New Zealanders burned down a picture show. The man had advertised a boxing match & doubled the admission & then showed just the same pictures as he usually did. So they burned his place down.

The "Manchester" troops Jensen refers to are presumably the Lancashire Territorials mentioned in the earlier quote as being more popular with the ANZACs than British regulars; before the British government started messing with the historical counties, Manchester was in Lancashire.

You can also find the original contemporary diary of Australian War historian C.E.W. Bean on the Australian War Memorial site; Diary Number 3, including the Wozzer (which at one point he calls the Wozzy), is here.This has gone on too long and transcribing a PDF manuscript would take me all night, but it's there if you want more detail. His account of April 2 begins on page 25 of the PDF link.

At right, troops in evidence in the Wasa‘a after the riot, via Australian Light Horse Studies Centre.

Now, for the sake of completeness, I should note that there was a second Battle of the Wozzer fought on July 31. This was a much smaller affair, and took place after most of the ANZACs were ashore at Gallipoli.It also has its own website, The 2nd Battle of the Wozzer, complete with some of the testimony, so I'll just refer you there. The medallions at the top of this post are from his site.

Source here

Now, a discursus on the area in more recent times, in case any of my readers want to visit the scene.

When I first went to Cairo back in the 1970s, Ezbrekiyya still had traces of its former glory, though once the Opera house burned down it was less of a draw. Nearby Cafes and bookstalls surrounded the gardens.

When the new Azhar Flyover was built, I think sometime in the 80s, the south side of Ezbekiyya was dominated by its on-ramps and nearby Midan al-Ataba dwarfed by the highway. But the area to the north, site of our story, has changed less (though of course Shepheards has been gone since 1952, two revolutions ago). I've scanned in a section of a Survey of Egypt map from the late 1960s. It's in Arabic, but so for non-Arabists who nevertheless know Cairo, here's a brief guide:

The large street with a tramway down the middle at the right is Clot Bey. The street running westward and intersecting Clot Bey at the lower right corner, today the extension of Naguib al-Rihani Street east of Gumhuriyya St. was the old Wajh al-Birkat street. Gumhurriya (then Sh. Kamel) and Clot Bey reach the northwest and northeast corners of Ezbekiyya a couple of blocks south of the lower edge of the map. The big building complex in the right center of the map is the Coptic church of Saint Mark, formerly Cairo's main cathedral, now replaced by the big one in ‘Abbasiyya. The north-south street through the middle of the picture, running from Naguib al-Rihani to Clot Bey, is Al-Kanisa al-Marqusiyya, named for the church which is on it. If you'll look between Naguib al-Rihani (Wajh al-Birkat then) and Qabila street to its north, you'll see a small back street, the third to the right counting from Al-Kanisa al-Marqusiyya. The print here is too small to read, but it is Darb al-Muballat. The original brothel attacked and burned in 1915 was at number 8, Darb al-Muballat. I don't know if the street numbers have changed; today's number 8 is on the west side of the street. It's a pretty staid neighborhood today, or was the last time I saw it. Illegal brothels were cleaned up in 1916 and prostitution made illegal in 1924. (Therefore there was no prostitution in Egypt during World War II when Cairo again filled up with foreign troops. After all, it was illegal.)

The overall area from Google Earth  (copyright Google):

And Darb al-Muballat today (again, street numbers may have been changed so Number 8 may not be in the same spot, and the copyright is Google's):

The 99th Anniversary of the "Battle of the Wasa‘a"

Yesterday was the 99th anniversary of the so-called "Battle" of the Wasa‘a (or as they pronounced it Down Under, "Wozzer"), when Australian and new Zealand troops stationed in Cairo and about to ship out for Gallipoli, systematically trashed the Red Light district of Cairo. It resulted in fires, destruction, and the British Army intervening to stop the largely inebriated ANZACs.

Back in 2011 I wrote a lengthy discussion of this notorious event, placing it in the context of  the toleration of prostitution, the history of Cairo and the locations involved. It includes photos, quotations from memoirs and diaries, and a newspaper clip. Though I'm a day late in marking this 99th anniversary, those unfamiliar with the story may want to take a look at that account.

Shereen El Feki's "Sex and the Citadel": a Landmark Book, and a Few Quibbles

[This post on a book about sexuality in the Arab world deals with mature themes and quotes some explicit language, so be advised. It's also a somewhat longer post than usual.]

Shereen El Feki's recent book  Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World is getting a lot of (deserved) attention lately, and for good reason. I'm a little late in joining in because I decided to finish the book before commenting (I'm old-fashioned), and my comments here are meant as a supplement to, rather than a reiteration of, the previous reviews. It aspires to be a tour d'horizon of sexuality in the Arab world, and given the formidable obstacles to researching that subject, it largely succeeds. It does not claim scholarly credentials as sociology or anthropology, but offers raw data for those fields; as its perhaps too cute title invoking Sex and the City and its suggestive cover art (more on this below) suggest, either the author or her publisher are trying to draw a Western audience. But it deserves a Middle Eastern audience as well.

I don't usually "review" books here (lest my personal comments be confused with The Middle East Journal's  proper scholarly reviews), but this one is making a lot of waves and, while I generally can just say you should read it, the pedant in me wants to raise a few quibbles about some historical and linguistic points, as well as review it in the broadest sense.

It's certainly not the first book on sexuality in the Arab world. There are general works such as Salah al-Munajjid's Al-Hayyat al-Jinsiyya ‘ind al-‘Arab [Sexual Life Among the Arabs] (Beirut 1975) (in Arabic); Abdelwahab Bouhdiba's La Sexualité en Islam (1975; English edition Sexuality in Islam, 2004); Joseph A. Massad's scholarly but contentious Desiring Arabs on homosexuality (Chicago 2007); a number of works by Samir Khalaf on prostitution, sexuality, and related issues; and numerous shorter studies by sociologists and anthropologists. But most of that material is aimed at an academic readership, or is difficult to access, in languages other than English, or burdened with social science jargon-speak (arguably, also a "language other than English"): and to her credit, she quotes al-Munajjid and Massad and interviews Bouhdiba at some length.

She has not aimed this book at a strictly academic audience. El Feki, who is half-Egyptian and half-Welsh, but was raised in Canada, holds a doctorate in immunology and has worked in HIV/AIDS education and was a Vice-Chair of the UN's Global Commission on HIV and the Law,  but has also been a journalist for The Economist  and Al Jazeera English, and has been a TED Global Fellow. She brings her communication skills to bear in explaining this complex subject to a non-academic, mostly Western, audience. Though her fieldwork is mostly in Egypt and Tunisia (with a bit on Israeli Arabs, the Palestinian territories, and a dash of the Gulf), her breadth is rather comprehensive: marriage, temporary or "summer" marriages, divorce, virginity,  spousal abuse, female genital mutilation, sex education, birth control, abortion, prostitution, homosexuality, and so on. It's engagingly written with wit and even humor (where appropriate, and anger when required), and a keen eye for the illustrative anecdote. She uses her expertise as a health professional but mediates it to a popular audience through her background as a journalist. The book is accessible and readable, though I have a few qualms that certain features (the topic most of all, but also the cover art and some of the language), will unfortunately guarantee the book's unavailability in the countries that most need to read it.

I'm not sure I need to argue, or El Feki needs to prove, that the Middle East is hardly a sexually well-adjusted place. Young people find themselves as mature, educated adults with few job prospects and therefore little prospect for marriage or, if they do marry, any hope of affording an apartment to start a family life on their own. Hence marriage is deferred well into adulthood, but other outlets for sexual expression are taboo. Virginity for women is sacrosanct, homosexuality criminalized. Society may look the other way on male use of prostitutes, but that too is taboo. If young elites are frustrated, more traditional classes suffer from older and more disturbing practices: child marriages, "temporary" marriages, female genital mutilation justified as "female circumcision." Most of us in the field know this, but like Middle Eastern societies themselves, we don't talk about it much, leaving that to the activists. She  addresses all these issues, and her role as a health educator gives her access to interview and sample real experiences not accessible to most of us.

An important sub-theme of the book is the great contrast between the candor of Arabic erotic literature in the Classical Age and the prudishness of today;  the theme recurs throughout the book and is of course not all that new, as she is well aware: she herself relies on Al-Munajjid and Bouhdiba (heavily on the latter, whom she interviews). She has brought it up in many book tour interviews. It also is a major theme of Salwa Al Neimi's 2008 novel Burhan al-‘Asal (2009 English translation The Proof of the Honey), a bestseller in Europe and in Arab countries where it wasn't banned (the Francophone Maghreb  and Lebanon: banned everywhere else). El Feki does not cite Al Neimi, at least in her bibliography or index, but the novel was an account of the erotic life of a female Arab librarian fascinated by the richness of Arab erotic literature of the classical age. I want to return in some detail to this question of the contrast between classical Islamic literature and today, since it's an area where I think that I may possibly have some comments to contribute as a onetime classical Islamic historian.

The book is a serious if at times subjective piece of reporting and analysis; but the tone is not heavy for the most part, except for the more depressing subjects like female genital mutilation or the grim prospects facing many prostitutes. gays, and other sexual outsiders in the Arab world. A blog post can't really do justice to the breadth of the coverage.

This is not a dour piece of social anthropology or feminist theory. This engaging accessibility of the book is one of its strengths, in a field where much of the literature is scrupulously academic and detached, and I emphasize it here lest readers be put off by a review like this one (supposedly a positive one, and [language warning]  using NSFW language) by  Rachel Halliburton in The Independent,

Sex and the Citadel is not, as El Feki – a trained scientist – warns, either peep show or encyclopedia. It owes as much of its zing to Foucault as to fucking. Taking the French philosopher's assertion that sexuality is "an especially dense transfer point for relations of power," El Feki has meticulously analysed what makes Arab society tick. The sexual climate, she declares, "looks a lot like the West on the brink of sexual revolution." Many of the same "underlying forces" are there, not least the struggle toward democracy, and a large youth population with different attitudes from their parents.

She's right that it's neither peep show nor encyclopedia,  but I fear the "owes as much of its zing to Foucault as to fucking" is inspired more by clever word play on the part of the reviewer than by the book itself. Foucault is only mentioned two other times in the book, other than for the quoted remark, neither time particularly substantively. Of course El Feki is not responsible for Halliburton's characterization, and I guess Halliburton was saying this is a "serious" book; but if, like me, your eyes glaze over when someone brings up Foucault, don't worry. It's much more about fucking. (Hell, it's a book about sexuality. What else would it be about?)

Like her reviewer above El Feki herself is not reticent about calling a spade a spade, or in this case fucking, fucking, and she also uses explicit language in quotes or when the context seems to justify it. In what follows I'm not censoring her: I'm an editor, not a censor. If such language offends you, please feel free to go put on some pleasant music (maybe madrigals: definitely not rap) and return after the post is done. My apologies to those offended, but dashes and asterisks cheat the author of the power of her word choice (for words do have power), and look silly to most everyone who reads modern literature or watches films and cable TV. Occasional NSFW language from this point on.

The strong language is used sparingly and judiciously but unapologetically. It's by no means omnipresent, but because it's sometimes used for rhetorical or shock effect it appears in some of the passages most quoted by reviewers. 

I can't begin to summarize all the information and anecdotes in the book, so let me turn to the area where I actually have some kind of knowledge: her discussion of the classical era of Arab literature and its erotica. She laments the lost era of Arab erotic literature, an age when sex manuals were written by religious scholars. In this she echoes Bouhdiba, whom she interviews at length. As she notes:

There is a long and distinguished history of Arabic writing on sex— literature, poetry, medical treatises, self-help manuals— which has slipped out of sight in much of the Arab world. Many of these great works were by religious figures who saw nothing incompatible between faith and sex. Indeed, it behooved these men of learning to have as full a knowledge of sexual practices and problems as they did of the intricacies of Islam. There is nothing academic about their writing: with surprising frankness, and often disarming humor, these works cover almost every sexual subject, and then some. There is precious little in Playboy, Cosmopolitan, The Joy of Sex, or any other taboo-busting work of the sexual revolution and beyond that this literature didn’t touch on over a millennium ago.

Bouhdiba sees this sexual open-mindedness as part and parcel of the intellectual blossoming of the age. At their zenith in the early Abbasid period, the Arabs were a confident and creative people, and open thinking on sexuality was a reflection of this. “It was not a coincidence that at the height of Islamic culture there was a flowering of sexuality,” Bouhdiba says. “It is a synthesis of all domains. The rehabilitation of sexuality is the rehabilitation of science within the rehabilitation of Islam.” Today, however, there is a deep vein of denial that these elements are connected, and plenty of people who want to pick and choose their history, taking what is now considered the respectable face of the Arab golden age— science and technology, for example — and leaving the rest behind. But Bouhdiba believes these facets are inseparable.

It’s easy to read too much into Arabic erotic literature. Did its openness really represent society at large, or just the notions of the sexually sophisticated elite? After all, many of the most famous books of Arabic erotica were written for rulers. Bouhdiba is convinced that these books say something more broadly about the spirit of the age. He invokes religion to illustrate his point: “These elites were never denounced by the masses; their societies accepted them more or less, maybe not actively but passively. It’s a little like Sufism, which represented an elite but was eventually accepted. (pp. 13-14: all page numbers are to the US edition.)

But the passage on this subject which has been most quoted by far (by many of the British reviewers, by the Atlantic, and a few other American reviewers willing to print "bad" words) is the last paragraph of the following passage, which I quote in its fuller context:

For example, new participants will use min orali (Hebrew for “oral sex”) and orgazma instead of the respective Arabic terms, jins fammii and nashwa jinsiyya. “When you say the word, to be able to say the word freely, it’s fifty percent of the work,” says one woman, a social worker from Haifa.“Why [do] I choose to speak about a dick in Hebrew not in Arabic? It must show something about my attitude toward things.”

Some participants lack even this choice, because they simply do not know the Arabic for many of the topics under discussion. Part of Muntada’s name— Jensaneya, which translates to “sexuality”— is a relatively new coinage that is not widely used, or even understood, by Arabic speakers. Even more basic terminology is problematic; until attending Muntada’s training courses, some participants were simply unaware that there are, indeed, Arabic words for female genitalia, having been taught to consider such subjects shameful beyond discussion. Even for those who do know some terms in Arabic, it is often in language so crude as to be unusable off the street.

This is a far cry from the days of the Encyclopedia of Pleasure and the golden age of Arabic writing on sex. One tenth-century book, The Language of Fucking, for example, mentions more than a thousand verbs for having sex. Then there are the seemingly endless lexicons for sexual positions, responses, and organs of every size, shape, and distinguishing feature. That linguistic wealth is long gone. (p.151.)

She has herself cited this in interviews as well, and while her point is absolutely correct, the pedant in me wishes she'd chosen a different book to cite. Not out of prudishness, but out of accuracy. My own discussion is going to require some scholarly discussion of Arabic words for sex. In fact, I feel an obligation to do this at some length. I'm not trying to titillate here, but if you are likely to be offended please stop reading. And bear in mind I'm doing some pedantic nit-picking here; the book still deserves the widest readership possible.

 This particular book is described thus in her footnote:

23. In Arabic, this book is known as Kitab al-Nikah fi al-Lugha, by Ibn Al Qatta’ (as detailed in Al-Munajjid, Al-Hayat al-Jinsiyya ‘ind al-’ Arab [The sexual life of the Arabs], p. 142.)

First, if this book survives at all, it is unpublished. Secondly, while she has clearly chosen a translation into English that grabs the reader's attention, her own notes translate Nikah differently elsewhere. For example, in her bibliography we find:

“Kitab al-Nikah” [Book of marriage]. In Translation of Sahih Muslim. Translated by A. H. Siddiqui. Available at http://www.iium.edu.my/deed/

Indeed, Nikah is the standard word in Islamic law and elsewhere referring to sexual intercourse, within or outside of marriage. She herself says elsewhere in her text:

The same word in classical Arabic, nikah, applies to both marriage and sexual intercourse; in Egyptian street slang, niik, an abbreviated form, means “to fuck.” Sex outside these regulated contexts constitute zina, that is, illicit relations— an offense that crosses the line of acceptability (hadd) in Islam.  (p.32)

The definitions are basically right, though nik is not "Egyptian street slang" but a classical Arabic word with cognates not only in other Semitic languages and also in Ancient Egyptian and Berber. But let me come back to that. [And strictly speaking, nik does not mean "to fuck"; it's either the imperative form of the verb or a participle, "fucking."] If she really needed to cite a work with "fucking" in its title one could suggest one by none other than the great medieval polymath Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, author of one of the most respected commentaries on the Qur'an, who wrote (among several works on sex), one that survives, has reportedly been published in Iraq (though I haven't seen it), and that is known as Kitab al-Ik fi Ma‘rifat al-Nik, which can be translated as something like "Book of the Thicket in the Understanding of Fucking," with none of the ambiguity about nik vs. nikah. (Bear in mind: El Feki's translation of nikah as "fucking" is not wrong; it's just not the only choice. Nik would be another matter, since today at least, it implies a taboo word and is best translated as such, while nikah could as easily have been translated as "intercourse" or "sex" or the like.)

The assumption that nik is a "slang" version of nikah seems fairly common among many Arabic speakers. Much work still needs to be done on Arabic etymology, but these are two different words, though semantically related. The root of nikah (نكاح) is ;نكح that of  nik  نيك  is naka ناكَ.

And the latter has its own entry in Ibn Manzur's 13th century classical lexicon Lisan al-‘Arab لسان العرب which means it certainly isn't slang. While the entry says it is equivalent to nikah, it has a full grammatical structure, even a form VI (reciprocal) verb تَنايَكَ (roughly, "fuck each other"):

نيك  النَّيْكُ: معروف، والفاعل: نائِكٌ، والمفعول به مَنِيكٌ ومَنْيُوكٌ، والأَنثى مَنْيُوكة، وقد ناكَها يَنيكها نَيْكاً.
والنَّيّاك: الكثير النَّيْك؛ شدد للكثرة؛ وفي المثل قال: من يَنِكِ العَيْرَ يَنِكْ نَيّاكا وتَنَايَكَ القوْمُ: غلبهم النُّعاسُ. .وتَنايَكَتِ الأَجْفانُ: انطبق بعضها على بعض. الأَزهري في ترجمة نكح: ناكَ المطرُ الأَرضَ وناكَ النعاسُ عينه إِذا غلب عليها. 

So there.  I'm already using enough four-letter words here not to try to translate the whole thing, and I hope the Arabic doesn't set off blockers across the Arab world : it's from the Lisan al-‘Arab, found even in Saudi libraries! [I will note that ناكَ المطرُ الأَرضَ literally means "The rain fucked the earth" and is a nice fertility image. The second example, ناكَ النعاسُ  عينه "Sleep fucked his eye," doesn't work as well, in English at least.]

Added later: I should have noted the well-known coloquial though grammatically formal common obscene proverb نيك واستنيك ولا تعلم زبك الكسل‎ which is a X form verb and means something like "Fuck and seek after fucking and do not teach your penis laziness."

What's more, while the similarities between nik and nikah might mean they descend from different dialects of pre-Islamic Arabic, nik is probably the older root: a proto-Semitic or proto-Afro-Asiatic root something like N-[vowel]-K, with the vowel usually a  or i. In Semitic languages, it seems absent in Hebrew and Aramaic, but it is found in Akkadian/Assyrian/Babylonian, with meanings relating to copulation and illicit sex. It occurs in Old South Arabian and modern South Arabian languages such as Mehri. (Not sure about Geez or Amharic: anyone?) Beyond the Semitic languages, it's found throughout the Afro-Asiatic group. N-vowel-K (probably NAK) was the standard word for copulation in Ancient Egyptian from the pyramid texts down through Demotic and is found as late as in Coptic in the sense of fornication. (The hieroglyphic includes an erect phallus, but I figure I'm in enough trouble in this post for so much strong language without reproducing it here.)

[Much later: If I got away with saying "fuck" so much I may as well show the hieroglyph. In for a penny, in for a pound (or in other words fuck it)]:

Cognates appear in Berber and, I'm told, Chadic. So one might argue that not only is nik not "slang," it has a reasonable case to be made for being the oldest "dirty word" on earth, at least that's still in use. There's a doctoral dissertation waiting to be written. I'm sure people had words for fucking long before the invention of writing (or none of us would be here), but this one looks very old. Really fucking old.
 

Perhaps I'm overreacting or showing off here, probably a bit of both. I'm fairly sure El Feki was mainly aiming for shock effect with translating the title as The Language of Fucking. While she doesn't use profanity excessively, she does use it for effect on occasion. Sometimes it's a play on words as (p.111): "Across the Arab world, female virginity — defined as an intact hymen — remains what could best be described as a big fucking deal." That works by playing on the double meaning of the word, in both its sexual and intensive sense, and sticks in the mind. As early as page 7, referring to Gustave Flaubert's visit to Egypt (a perhaps dubious choice, rather like using Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a typical example of travel writing in America), she notes that "Flaubert proceeded to fuck his way up the Nile." It makes the point memorably, and Flaubert's own description of his travels fully supports the characterization. In context the language is appropriate to the theme and used for effect. (He documents his whores in some detail, and with apparent pride and explicit detail). To be blunt, in an age when "fucking" is often used by many speakers merely as a sign that a noun will follow or just as a place filler, she only uses it in its original sense, to mean, well, just plain old-fashioned fucking. (With the arguable exception of the just quoted remark about virginity still being a "big fucking deal," but that still partakes of the original meaning in a double entendre.) It's almost refreshing in a curious way. (And maybe not all that "old-fashioned," but still used in its original sexual, not multiple other meanings.) There's an ancient story about someone who was shocked to hear  "bitch" used for a dog; these days some innocents may be surprised to hear "fucking" used for copulation.

While I don't think most mature adult Western readers will find the book's contents or language that  objectionable (at least if they've read this far without calling the Religious Police), there are a few qualms that I should note, since they will turn some readers off without even opening the book. Like the (sometimes) strong language, the title, Sex and the Citadel, while it is a clever enough play off Sex and the City, may be off-putting for some readers, and may seem clever to some and flippant to others. The cover art will deter sales of the English edition in the Arab world. This is the American cover:
As Brian Whitaker noted in his review for the Lebanese website Now:

Discussion of Arab sexuality today is often over-simplistic and when I first saw Sex and the Citadel on Amazon's website I feared the worst. Its title – a play on the popular TV series, – seemed awkwardly contrived and its cover showed a pair of Islamic crescents arranged to look like female breasts (though I'm assured that's only for the American edition).

He's quite right: the stars and crescents shown as breasts only appear on the American edition, and the image just seems gratuitous, using what is usually understood as a symbol of religion to imply female breasts. (Imply? More like portray.)  But I'm really not certain the other covers are much better:  (Or are they worse?)  Umm ... yeah. Okay. One's a woman's naked body in calligraphy (apparently of various rude words) and the other is ... (clears throat, blushes) also pseudo-calligraphy.To my perhaps dirty mind, it is perhaps the most offensive of the three.

See what I mean? They're probably more offensive than the crescents/breasts, but at least took an artist's time to create. Of course, El Feki may not have chosen the cover art, or may have preferred an in-your-face message, giving the finger (or other body parts) to the Arab patriarchy. (But I don't get that sense from her text.) If an Arabic translation ever appears (and it's needed) none of these covers is going to pass muster. But then, the explicit subject matter is also going to be an obstacle in the Middle East market.  Since we're already using candid language: In an effort to draw a Western audience, and given her clear disdain for Middle Eastern prudishness, covers which essentially send a resounding "Fuck You!" message to the audience who most need to read you are not well advised.

I do hope you'll understand these quibbles as just that: quibbles, and forgive the sexual and linguistic candor I don't normally use on this blog. This is an essential book that deserves a wide readership. But this book needs an Arabic edition that (even if censored, euphemized and sanitized) makes its message acceptable to those who need it most.

It's the 98th Anniversary of the "Battle" of the Wasa‘a

Today, April 2, marks the 98th anniversary of a forgotten landmark in Cairo history, the "Battle of the Wasa‘a," or as the Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) troops who constituted one side in the battle pronounced it, "the Wozzer." The other side in this poorly-remembered battle in the First World War were the denizens of the houses of the Red Light District in the Egyptian capital. The ladies of negotiable virtue and their madams and pimps became the targets of the Aussie and Kiwi troops preparing to ship out. Just 23 days later they landed at Gallipoli.

After the "Battle"

In 2011 I wrote a rather lengthy historical account,  "Historical Discursus for April 2: The First Battle of the Wasa‘a or Wozzer," which went into considerable detail about legal prostitution in Cairo, the Red Light district during the Great War, and the background and details (some of which are a little fuzzy) of the "battle." I refer you to that longer article if you haven't read it. The area where it occurred is a pretty quiet area today, though increasingly encroached upon by flyover highways. The last ANZAC vet died in 2002 and the legendary "battle" has faded into oblivion. At a time when Cairo is more puritanical than ever, the days when pitched battles between soldiers and the proprietors and patrons of whorehouses could lead to riots and fires seem remote indeed, and they are. But it's also a reminder that the excessive puritanism of the present day was not always present (though many of the inhabitants of the district were not Egyptian but European, Sudanese, etc.) The costs were high: the venereal disease rates among British and ANZAC soldiers soared in a pre-penicillin age, despite alleged health monitoring of the houses, at least the legal ones. But it was a moment the soldiers remembered, at least to each other, and a piece of the story of the tragedy of Gallipoli as well.

Cultural Fusion We May Not Have Needed: "International Topless Jihad Day"?

As humorist Dave Barry used to say, I am not making this up: "4 April is International Topless Jihad Day!"

That is a real, genuine report (though I'm not sure about "serious") from Huffington Post UK and, as you might have predicted, #ToplessJihad now has its own hashtag on Twitter. 

Everyone who never expected to see "topless' and "jihad" used together please raise your hands. I thought so. Do you suspect someone misunderstands the meaning of one or the other of these words?

(For the sensitive or easily offended, please note that some of the quotes cited below in this post use mild slang referring to female breasts, and at least one other stronger offensive word.)

The call is coming from Femen, the Ukrainian feminist protest group who keep showing up to demonstrate topless, but they are capitalizing on the story of Amina, the 19 year old Tunisian girl who posted topless pictures of herself on the Internet. (Egypt's "nude blogger' Aliaa Elmahdy has also recently joined forces with Femen.)

Now, first of all, Amina's story has been wildly sensationalized in the West.  If you must see the pictures, go to my earlier story and follow the links. After her public protest, the usual extreme Salafi sheikh showed up to make the usual Crazy Sheikh "Fatwa" (not an Islamic fatwa but the Western press term for "anything we can get some lunatic sheikh to say to the press"). A "senior sheikh" named Adel Almi that few have heard of kindly expressed the opinion cited at left and, according to Al-Arabiya, urged that she be stoned to stop the alleged contagion. (And indeed, some other Tunisian women have indeed followed suit.)

Though some of them seem to have been deleted, there was a lot of early Twitter chatter about saving Amina, who variously "faces stoning to death" or "could face stoning" for her toplessness. Now, even if you don't much like traditional Islamic punishments, stoning is for adultery, not for topless photos, and both the Qur'an itself and all the Islamic legal schools citing the Prophet himself require four actual witnesses (absent a confession) to the actual act of copulation. Outside of an orgy this is improbable; those stoned for adultery usually are said to have confessed. And besides:

Besides, according to Wikipedia, Tunisia hasn't executed anybody for anything since 1991 and the new government has pledged to abolish the death penalty.

Also, Tunisia's beach resort towns cater heavily to French, Italian, and German tourists and some of those ladies forget to wear tops at times. This isn't really an option for Tunisians, but I'm not sure who's checking passports of topless bathers. (Interesting job, if it exists, though.)

And, just to drive the point further home,  Tunisia not only tolerates but the government regulates prostitution. I am hesitating to say as some sources do, that prostitution is "legal," but it is regulated, though limited and restricted, and the prostitutes reportedly have government IDs. No other Arab country has this level of government tolerance of prostitution; though otherwise Tunisia ranks highest in the Arab world on women's rights issues, it sometimes gets criticism on this one.

So let's say the fears for Amina's being sentenced to death by stoning are a bit exaggerated, but if the government isn't about to harm her, extremists might. Aliaa Elmahdy left Egypt and is living in Europe as a result of her protest. Amina's lawyer (self-identified, anyway) denied she was in a psychiatric institution, as some were claiming, and insisted she was safe at home.

But a major criticism of the Aliaa Elmahdy case was it got more attention than the "virginity tests" and Samira Ibrahim's resistence to them (as a hijabi conservative Muslim she was in many ways more revolutionary than Aliaa). And the sexual assaults and rapes in Tahrir got less attention than Aliaa Elmahdy, at least in the world media.

Others are saying something similar about Amina:

Before returning to the "topless jihad" day, let me add that while I support the right of protest, including protest that calls attention to sexual discrimination and abuse, I'm not sure Femen's idea of topless protest is the right one in the Arab world. Sure, it gets plenty of attention in the West. Amina has one topless picture with a cigarette and with the Arabic slogan "My body is my property; it's not anyone's 'honor' " written on her abdomen, and another in which she is topless, with two raised middle fingers, and, in English, "Fuck your morals" written on her body. (Subtle, huh?) (And as I've noted before, protesters are often more comfortable using English profanity than Arabic, as the Arabic here, though on a naked torso, is innocent enough.)  It surely does get attention, but does it preach to anyone but the already converted? Or does it just (as some Arab feminists fear) fuel the most misogynistic and atavistic fears of a conservative patriarchy and thus undercut women working on real issues of survival and opportunity? Before you fight for toplessness, protecting women (even in hijab) from groping and assault seems a higher priority. I know I don't exactly have standing to hold an opinion here, of course. Nor do I wish to see her or anyone silenced. But many Muslim women may see "Fuck your morals" as meaning "Fuck your religious beliefs," and how far does that differ from "Fuck you"? It will alienate many.

Now, for the whole "topless jihad" thing. Femen's Inna Shevchenko explains the call to "topless jihad' (Note: This gives a last name to "Amina"; I neither know if it's correct nor do I approve of publicizing it if it is)::

We have appealed to the world for support and the world has answered! The fate of the Femen Tunisia activist Amina Tyler has shaken up and united thousands of women across the globe. Amina's act of civil disobedience has brought down upon her the lethal hatred of inhuman beasts, for whom killing a woman is more natural than recognising her right to do as she pleases with her own body.  

For them, we now see, the love of freedom is the most dangerous kind of psychiatric illness, one demanding radical forced treatment in the spirit of fascist punitive medicine. The 'Arab Spring', for the women of  North Africa, has turned out to be a frigid sharia winter that has deprived them of what few political rights and liberties they enjoyed.

Stoning and flogging, kidnapping and rape, forced psychiatric treatment and other sorts of physical and psychological torture are what the new Sharia Caliphate has in store for women . . .

. . . Religious dictatorship begins by enslaving women but a woman's act of self-liberation is the first step toward destroying the sharia regime.  Topless protests are the battle flags of women's resistance, a symbol of a woman's acquisition of rights over her own body!
Femen declares 4 April the day of relentless topless jihad against Islamism!  

Show solidarity with brave Amina Tyler from Tunisia!  Come to the embassy of the Republic of Tunisia and protest topless, with "My Body Against Islamism!" written on your body, take a photo of yourself, and post it on your social network page, as well as on the Femen Facebook Fan Page at facebook.com/Femen.UA.

This day will mark the beginning of a new, genuine Arab Spring, after which true freedom, freedom without mullahs and caliphs, will come to Tunisia!  Long live the  topless jihad against infidels!  Our tits are deadlier than your stones!

Are you certain about that last part? Of all the words I've seen applied to female breasts, "deadlier" is one I'm not really sure I'd have thought of (or want to).  Also, I thought "freedom without mullahs and caliphs" came to Tunisia some time back, and stones weren't in play, but then I've seen Tunisian resort beaches, and perhaps Inna Shevchenko hasn't.

If a whole lot of people in the West want to take their tops off to support Amina on April 4, hey, I certainly won't complain, it's their right, but I doubt if it will change anything.  And I doubt if we'll see much solidarity in the Middle East itself. Sometime in the next few days (when I finish reading it) I plan to review Shereen El-Feki's new book on sexuality in the Arab world, which directly addresses some of these issues. But I feel it really comes down to the question of audience: Aliaa Elmahdy and Amina are great fodder for the Western media, but the women on the front lines are out there fighting in Tahrir Square and elsewhere against harassment and rape. Luck and safety to Amina, but more power still to the women at the front lines.

Historical Discursus for April 2: The First Battle of the Wasa‘a or Wozzer

Amidst all the revolution and turmoil, it may be time for one of my occasional historical meanderings on little-known subjects. Tomorrow, Saturday, April 2, marks the 96th anniversary of the event known, to those who've ever heard of it, as the Battle of the Wasa‘a, or Wazza, or, Down Under, the Wozzer. Though it took place in Cairo, few Egyptians know about it; unless you're an Aussie or a Kiwi you probably don't know it, and even then only if grandpa was unusually candid. Hence, one of my wanderings down the forgotten (and somewhat censored) side alleys of Middle Eastern history. And side alleys are definitely involved.

Brace yourselves. This one requires a lot of historical background.

If you are, or have ever been friends with or worked with, an Australian or a New Zealander (I've worked with both), you will know ANZAC Day, April 25, the shared national day/remembrance day of the two great nations Down Under, memorializing the day the ANZACs (the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps in World War I) were thrown ashore under Turkish guns at ANZAC Cove on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. April 25 is, in both countries, the analog not only of Armistice Day/Remembrance Day but also a bit of the Fourth of July, for it was out of the crucible of World War I that both the Aussies and the Kiwis found their modern national identities. Though it marked a signal defeat, that was not the fault of the soldiers but of their utterly incompetent commanders, who were from neither of the countries involved. I will not at the moment comment on the degree to which the incompetence of the bloody Pommy Bastards British High Command led to unspoken disdain for the motherland and their growing independence of their colonial patrons. Except to say that the occasional ANZAC Day parties to which I was invited rarely mentioned the Turks at all, but rather Mother England.

April 25 will never be overshadowed, at least not soon, in the national mythology of either nation. But many of the veterans of the ANZAC Corps, now presumably gone (the last US doughboy from WWI just recently died, but I'm not sure about the last ANZAC [*See below]), remembered another "battle" in that same month: on April 2, 1915, a mere 23 days before the debacle of Gallipoli, the ANZACs fought another battle in the Middle East, this one in Egypt. No Turks were involved. It was remembered by those who ever spoke of it as the "Battle of the Wasa‘a" to be scholarly about it, or in the speech of our Australian cousins, the "Battle of the Wazza." Or, even more colloquially, "the Wozzer."

*[Updated: The last ANZACs: the last Australian Gallipoli vet, a Tasmanian named Alec Campbell, died in 2002. Though a Gallipoli vet, he didn't land there till November 1915. The last Aussie and the last Kiwi to land on April 25 died in 1997, and Australian Jack Ross, who enlisted in 1918 but never left Australia but still served in the Great War, died in 2009 at age 110. Good on them all.]

Neither as glorious nor as bloody as Gallipoli, the "Battle" of the Wozzer may, however, have been almost as stupid, and even more pointless in its objective, and it certainly was something only a few veterans spoke of very much. For on the eve of their great sacrifice at Gallipoli, the Australian and New Zealand troops violently trashed the Red Light district of Cairo. On Good Friday. And their own troops, along with British military police, were called out to stop their destruction of the neighborhood.

The ANZAC units, Australians and New Zealanders, a great many of whom had never been far from their own hometowns before, found themselves in Cairo. Because Britain's own troops were tied down on the Western Front, and the Indian Army in "Mespot," (Mesopotamia, Iraq), the "colonial" troops were sent to the Middle East, where they would play major roles in both the Gallipoli and Palestine campaigns. Australian films like Gallipoli and The Lighthorsemen have helped make them known in the Northern Hemisphere.
The ANZACs were trained in camps near the Pyramids (photo). So, not unnaturally, they spent their free time in Cairo. Below right is a photo of a tram overflowing with Australians, including on the roof.

It would be nice to say they spent their time sightseeing, but they spent their time the way many soldiers have in many wars, drinking and seeking women, especially of the sort whose virtue was negotiable.

Lest you approach this tale with a "boys will be boys" snigger, let me deliver the downside up front: though tolerated houses of prostitution were supposedly subject to medical checks, the rate of venereal disease during the war was enough to create major problems for the British and colonial forces. ANZAC units reported an average incidence of VD across the Corps as 12%, or one man in eight; one unit is said to have had a rate of 25%. And penicillin hadn't yet been discovered.

Cairo in 1915 was rather different from the Cairo of today. Many of its residents, whether foreign born or Egyptians of foreign ancestry, claimed the protection of foreign consulates under the system of "capitulations," under which they were subject to the laws of their protective country, not of Egypt. Disputes with Egyptian nationals were settled in a system known as the "Mixed Courts." This naturally created complex jurisdictional issues for law enforcement.

Sir Thomas Russell (Russell Pasha), was the British Deputy Chief of Police for Cairo, later becoming the Chief. (Egypt, until the war nominally Ottoman but under de facto British rule, was declared a British Protectorate when Turkey joined the Central Powers.) Russell's memoir, Egyptian Service, 1902-1946 is a very readable view of the British era from the inside. (His wife, Lady Dorothea Russell, wrote a readable guide to the Islamic monuments, a predecessor of later works by Richard Parker and Caroline Williams). As a police officer, his memoir deals a lot with the seedier side of things, including prostitution and the hashish trade.

Egypt had developed a licensed brothel quarter in the late 19th century, where the houses were nominally subject to medical inspection. Beyond the licensed quarters, there were areas where prostitution was semi-tolerated. Even when, in 1916 (the year after the events described here), a crackdown was introduced, the capitulations got in the way. Russell Pasha:

One particular house of some size and popularity defied Bimbashi Quartier, our chief detective officer, and myself for months by ringing changes on the nationality of the padrona [the Madam]. Police could not enter a foreigner's house without the consent and presence of the Consul or his representative. When we arrived with the French consular cavass to demand admission from the French padrona, the spy-hole in the front door would be opened and a husky voice announce that Madame Yvonne had sold the business to Madame Gentili, an Italian subject, without whose Consular representative we could not enter. Next week we would arrive with the Italian cavass to be met by another change of nationality by the padrona. Picqued beyond the ordinary, Quartier one night assembled seven Consular cavasses at the fast-closed door, and one by one the fictitious landladies were defeated, entry gained, and the law enforced.

A linguistic note: "Bimbashi" is not detective Quartier's first name. It's a Turkish rank which in the Egyptian Army and Police was equivalent to lieutenant colonel. (Though binbashi today in the Turkish Army is a major.)

Now, to further set the scene for the Battle of the Wozzer, we need to introduce the Red Light District of the Day (or the Red Blind Quarter as it was known). The area may come as a surprise to those who know Cairo today, since it included the once-elegant colonnaded street of Clot Bey (named, ironically given those VD rates above, for the French doctor who introduced European medicine to Egypt in the age of Muhammad ‘Ali), and other streets to the north of the Ezbekiyya Gardens.

Back in Ottoman times, Ezbekiyya had been a lake, and the area to its west was mostly flood plain; Bulaq was an island. Under the Khedives Isma‘il and Tawfiq in the late 19th century the area to the west was filled in and became the Ismailia Quarter, what today we think of as downtown Cairo. (Midan al-Tahrir was originally Midan Ismailiyya.) The Ezbekiyya Lake became the Ezbekiyya Gardens, formal gardens with promenades, surrounded by the foreign consular quarters and the big foreign hotels, including the famous original Shepheards, burned in 1952, opposite its northwest corner. (The later Shepheards was placed on the Nile instead.)

The area to the north of Ezbekiyya was known as Wagh al-Birka, "fronting the lake," because it was once the site of palaces and villas on the lake. The name itself actually needs a little note as well. Literally, the original name was named وجه البركة (Wajh al-Birkat in Arabic) which normally would be pronounced, in Cairene dialect where the jim is pronounced as a hard 'g', as Wagh al-Birkat. But in this case, the jim acquired an sh sound, so that the usual pronunciation was Wish al-Birkat. In fact, the engineer and planner of much of modern Cairo, ‘Ali Pasha Mubarak, in his street-by-street masterwork on Cairo, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya al-Jadida, actually spelled it that way: وش البركة.

Ezbekiyya remained fashionable, with Shepheards being the HQ of the ANZAC command (who may or may not have known that in 1798 Napoleon had his headquarters just to the west)

The general area of the Wajh al-Birkat and the streets to its north, though once fashionable, were also in the area where the new city of Cairo and the elegant foreign hotels rubbed up against the older quarters of town. It led to unusual juxtapositions: one reason the military command could respond so quickly to the riot we're about to describe is that they were in Shepheards only a couple of blocks away; just north of the area under discussion sat the main Coptic Cathedral for Cairo (the church is still there, but it was replaced as seat of the Coptic Pope by the new Cathedral in ‘Abbasiyya in the Nasser era). It was also an area where the tolerated brothel quarters around Clot Bey and the Wajh al-Birkat merged into a more unregulated area known as the Wasa‘a, literally the "wide area" which apparently once referred to the old fish markets when the Nile came much farther east. The actual "battle" in question started in a street called the Darb al-Muballat, but most of the troops knew the whole area as the Wasa‘a. Or, since the ‘ayn would defeat them, as the Wazza or the Wozzer. As Russell Pasha put it, the Wajh al-Birkat

. . . was populated at the time with European women of all breeds and races other than British, who were not allowed by their Consular authority to practice this licensed trade in Egypt. Most of the women were of the third-class category for whom Marseilles had no further use, and who eventually would be passed on to the Bombay and Far East markets, but they were still European and not yet fallen sso low as to live in the one-room shacks of the Wasa'a which had always been the quarter for purely native prostitution of the lowest class.

He tells us the area was "ruled" by a "king," "a huge, fat Nubian named Ibrahim al-Gharbi," who dressed in women's clothes and wore a white veil.

Now, we come to April 2, 1915. The ANZACs were getting ready to ship off to the Greek islands of Lemnos and Mudros to prepare for the Gallipoli landings. According to some of the accounts I will be quoting below, there had been some incidents leading up to the "battle," but since April 2 was Good Friday, there was no training that day and large numbers of men had leave. So all the resentments came to a head.

Depending on the version, and there are many, the immediate provocation was one or more of the following:

• Anger over the extremely high rates of VD, already mentioned;

• An Englishman was trying to rescue his sister from one of the houses;

• Claims the beer was watered or even stretched with urine;

• A New Zealand unit was outraged because one of its Maori soldiers was rejected by a girl as too dark-skinned;

• Arguments over price.

Perhaps it was some combination of all these, or just the imminent deployment.The fight began with an attack on a house at Number 8, Darb al-Muballat, for whatever reason. Soon sofas were burning in the street, a piano came crashing out a window, and as many as 2000 ANZACs were torching brothels and fighting with natives and each other. Both mounted British military police and Australian units eventually put the riot down; the whole thing started between four and five in the afternoon (remember, the men had the day off and doubtless started drinking early) and ended by eight. What may be the nearest thing to a photo of the scene: From the Australian War Memorial collection. Caption: "Cairo, burnt buildings and carts possibly the aftermath of the riot later known as the Battle of the "Wozzer", which took place in the street known as the Haret El Wasser near Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo 2 April Good Friday 1915."

The lady (well, woman anyway) in the foreground in what might be a nightgown invites speculation. I'm pretty certain she's not a man in a galabiyya.

Now, some accounts, including eyewitness ones, from those who were there. Oddly enough, more of those on guard duty who put down the riot seem to have written about it than the participants.

Another view of the post-riot damage is at right.

An account from a website dedicated to the Australian Light Horse:

First Wassa (also Wozzer or Wazzir), the appellation given to the first of two unheroic riots in the Haret el Wassa (the brothel quarter of Cairo, Egypt) involving troops from Australia and New Zealand. The initial incident occurred on 2 April 1915 (Good Friday), after units of the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) received news that their period of training was at an end and that orders had been received for them to embark for long-awaited action. Causes of this disturbance reportedly lay in a desire to exact revenge for past grievances arising from dealings with the district's denizens-such as diluted liquor, exorbitant prices, and high rates of venereal infection-although wild rumours of stabbings of Anzac men by locals also appear to have played a part.

Trouble began soon after 5 p.m. when soldiers began evicting whores and their pimps into the street, and tossing their possessions out after them. Bedding, furniture and clothing-even pianos-were thrown from windows of buildings several storeys high. These materials were piled in the road and set alight. The town picket, drawn from the Australian 9th Light Horse Regiment, came on the scene and tried to clear the men out of the houses being attacked. Five arrests were made, although the crowd-growing larger by the minute refused to let these men be taken away, snatched rifles from some of the troopers and threw the weapons onto the fires, and succeed in freeing four of the prisoners.

British military police (MPs) were summoned, about 30 arriving on horseback to choruses of abuse and a shower of stones and bottles. An ill-advised effort by the MPs to gain control by firing their pistols, supposedly over the rioters' heads, resulted in the wounding of four men in the throng estimated at 2,000-3,000. This only served to further inflame matters, and forced the police to hastily withdraw. Efforts by the Egyptian fire brigade to douse the bonfires were also frustrated, its hose-lines being cut, its members manhandled (especially after they turned a hose onto the crowd), and the engine itself finally pushed into the flames.

Left to themselves, the more unruly elements began to loot some shops and put the torch to a Greek tavern. Shortly after 7 p.m. a second fire engine arrived, this time under cavalry escort which exercised extreme tact, and the various fires were tackled while a still sizeable crowd looked on. Since the `Wassa' was close by Shepheard's Hotel, where the Anzac commander had his headquarters, armed troops had also been called out. After Lancashire Territorials (non-regular British troops who were popular with the colonials) were drawn across the road, the rioters wisely began to disperse and order was eventually restored by 10 p.m.

A formal inquiry was convened the following day under Colonel Frederic Hughes, commander of the AIF's 3rd Light Horse Brigade, to investigate the causes of the riot and establish responsibility for its outbreak. Many New Zealand officers attempted to disclaim that their men had played any part, although the evidence of their presence was quite conclusive - the officer leading the Australian picket was adamant that `New Zealanders predominated'. In any event, nine-tenths of those present had been merely spectators. Apportioning blame was next to impossible, however, with few of the 50 witnesses able (or willing) to provide precise information. As the number of men injured by the MPs' bullets (three Australians and one New Zealander) was roughly in proportion to the size of the respective contingents, it could be said that the ‘honours' were about equally shared. So too was the damages bill of £1,700.

From a letter by Jack Jensen, from Wasley in South Australia, written in England recovering from wounds in Gallipoli:

The last few days we had in Egypt I shall never forget as three nights running there were riots in & about Cairo. On good friday there was a big row in one of the main streets in Cairo. I think I told you once before that Cairo is a very immoral place in fact they say that it is the worst town in the world. Some streets there are nothing but brothels & houses of infamy where every possible vice under the sun exists. Of course some of our men had been going to these places & had got diseases of different kinds & as a (what?) our chaps had a grievance against these places. Finally to finish up with one of the Manchester soldiers who were also stationed in Egypt found his sister in one of them. She had left England as a servant to some lady who had taken her to Egypt & left her there. I dare say you have heard of that sort of thing it is called the white slave traffic here in England. Anyway this girl went from bad to worse until finally she way found dancing in what they call a Can-Can hall that is a dozen or so women dancing perfectly naked in a big hall & exposing their person to every kind of indignity both by themselves & also the onlookers. It is just as well that I cannot tell you everything that goes on here as it would only grieve you. This Manchester chap managed to have a talk with his sister & tried to get her away. She was only too willing to go but the people she was with would not let her & they threw the brother out of a window as a result he was in hospital for nearly a week. When he got right he came in the camp & told our chaps & asked them to help him. At first they could not find the girl again but at last she was found in a particularly vile house. This was a day or two before Good Friday & that day being a holiday about 500 of our chaps & some New Zealanders & English troops went in to raid these houses. When they got in there a good many got drunk & they were joined by a great many more also drunk so the affair ended in a riot. They got the girl out first & then set fire to the houses. The affair started about four oclock in the afternoon & was kept up until nearly midnight Shops were raided & windows broken everywhere. I was on guard that day & we were called out to go & stop it but only twenty of us could do nothing against nearly two thousand. They had a fire in the street & were throwing the furniture out of windows two & three storeys high on to it. Some of us went in & tried to put it out & a chair came out of a window three storeys high & hit one chap & nearly killed him. We carried him away & a few minutes after piano came out of the same window & fell with an awful crash on the pavement. All the strings seemed to break at once & it went off like a cannon. After that the Military Police charged the crowd on horseback firing their revolvers into them but the crowd threw broken bottles & stones at them. One policeman got badly hit & one eye cut out with a broken bottle & two of our chaps were hit by the revolver shots.

About eight oclock five hundred Manchester troops came with fixed bayonets & were told to charge. They charged alright but they wouldn’t go for our men so they gave them rifles & our chaps threw them on the fire. Then they turned & ran & our fellows followed them up with sticks A while after the South Australian Light Horse came but the horses wouldn’t face the fire & smoke A little after eleven oclock the Westminster Dragoons came. They looked all right as they were coming down the street with all their swords drawn & their horses going straight through the fire & smoke. This very soon cleared the street & then we went for the houses & took everybody prisoner that we found. We got about fifty Australians & some New Zealanders.

The girl who was the cause of all the trouble was sent to England. She was taken charge of by the Y.M.C.A. The men in camp collected over forty pounds to pay her passage & expenses back to England Of course the money was handed over to the Y.M.C.A.

Next night a riot started in the canteen of the Abbasieh camp. Somebody caught an Arab who was employed at the canteen making water in a tub of beer. The Arab was at once pulled & half killed. All the beer casks & tubs were broken & spilt & all the groceries & goods stolen & the place burned down.

The guard was called out again but by the time we got there everything was over & the camp was quiet except for the fire still burning.

On Sunday evening the New Zealanders burned down a picture show. The man had advertised a boxing match & doubled the admission & then showed just the same pictures as he usually did. So they burned his place down.

The "Manchester" troops Jensen refers to are presumably the Lancashire Territorials mentioned in the earlier quote as being more popular with the ANZACs than British regulars; before the British government started messing with the historical counties, Manchester was in Lancashire.

You can also find the original contemporary diary of Australian War historian C.E.W. Bean on the Australian War Memorial site; Diary Number 3, including the Wozzer (which at one point he calls the Wozzy), is here.This has gone on too long and transcribing a PDF manuscript would take me all night, but it's there if you want more detail. Perhaps I'll transcribe it for a future post.

At right, troops in evidence in the Wasa‘a after the riot, via Australian Light Horse Studies Centre.

Now, for the sake of completeness, I should note that there was a second Battle of the Wozzer fought on July 31. This was a much smaller affair, and took place after most of the ANZACs were ashore at Gallipoli.It also has its own website, The 2nd Battle of the Wozzer, complete with some of the testimony, so I'll just refer you there. The medallions at the top of this post are from his site.

Now, a discursus on the area in more recent times, in case any of my readers want to visit the scene.

When I first went to Cairo back in the 1970s, Ezbrekiyya still had traces of its former glory, though once the Opera house burned down it was less of a draw. Nearby Cafes and bookstalls surrounded the gardens.

When the new Azhar Flyover was built, I think sometime in the 80s, the south side of Ezbekiyya was dominated by its on-ramps and nearby Midan al-Ataba dwarfed by the highway. But the area to the north, site of our story, has changed less (though of course Shepheards has been gone since 1952, two revolutions ago). To avoid any copyright issues from Google maps or Google Earth, I've scanned in a section of a Survey of Egypt map from the late 1960s. It's in Arabic, and on a Friday night I don't have time to caption it in English in Photoshop, so for non-Arabists who nevertheless know Cairo, here's a brief guide:

The large street with a tramway down the middle at the right is Clot Bey. The street running westward and intersecting Clot Bey at the lower right corner, today the extension of Naguib al-Rihani Street east of Gumhuriyya St. was the old Wajh al-Birkat street. Gumhurriya (then Sh. Kamel) and Clot Bey reach the northwest and northeast corners of Ezbekiyya a couple of blocks south of the lower edge of the map. The big building complex in the right center of the map is the Coptic church of Saint Mark, formerly Cairo's main cathedral, now replaced by the big one in ‘Abbasiyya. The north-south street through the middle of the picture, running from Naguib al-Rihani to Clot Bey, is Al-Kanisa al-Marqusiyya, named for the church which is on it. If you'll look between Naguib al-Rihani (Wajh al-Birkat then) and Qabila street to its north, you'll see a small back street, the third to the right counting from Al-Kanisa al-Marqusiyya. The print here is too small to read, but it is Darb al-Muballat. The original brothel attacked and burned in 1915 was at number 8, Darb al-Muballat. I don't know if the street numbers have changed; today's number 8 is on the west side of the street. It's a pretty staid neighborhood today, or was the last time I saw it. Illegal brothels were cleaned up in 1916 and prostitution made illegal in 1924.