\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>My turn came. I sat on a purple chair, in front of a woman wearing a purple hijab. In fact, the store had a purple hue. I calmly explained my request and provided the phone number of the land line of the apartment. She languidly typed on her keyboard. \u201cCan I see your ID?\u201d I provided my ID. She entered more information. She looked at me dully. \u201cWhose name is this phone number registered to?\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cMy father\u2019s name. (Recited his full laqab [chain of names] \u2014 his name, his father\u2019s name, his father\u2019s father\u2019s name, his father\u2019s father\u2019s father\u2019s name, the family name \u2014 I think I limited myself to 5).<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cThis name is not registered under that phone number. What is your name?”<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I provided three names. My name, my father\u2019s name, the family name.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cNo, that\u2019s not it either.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cOK, try my uncle\u2019s name, I think he pays the bill.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>I provided his name, his father\u2019s name, his family name.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cWhat do you mean no?\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cThere is another name entirely on this account.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cYes, no Eltantawi, no uncle\u2019s name whatsoever.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cThat\u2019s not possible. We\u2019ve had this phone number for 20 years.\u201d (I only slightly exaggerated. This is a requirement.)<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s a female name.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I provide my mother\u2019s name. Her Qur\u2019anic name, her father\u2019s name, her family name.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I provide her nickname, her father\u2019s name, her family name.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
I call my uncle and explain the situation, putting him on speaker phone. Maybe I have the phone number wrong? He confirms that I have it right. They go back and forth. Suddenly I think of something and say to my uncle, \u201cDo you think it might be the girl who rented the apartment for one month?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The writer’s visit to a Cairo internet store to renew her internet service proves to be an out of body experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":27524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2893,8,51],"tags":[2896,215,374,555,627,2894],"coauthors":[2133],"class_list":["post-27493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-day-in-the-life","category-column","category-tmr-weekly","tag-ancestors","tag-arab-culture","tag-cairo","tag-egypt","tag-family","tag-technology","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Telecom](\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/telecomegypt-courtesy-ceo-business-africa.jpg\")
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The purple girl looked slightly less bored. I was onto something.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cWhat is her name, Uncle?\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Uncle hangs up and calls my cousin and calls back and provides a name. Her name, her father\u2019s name, her family name.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The purple girl confirms that this is the name registered under our phone number.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I say, \u201cWell of course you must change this back to my father\u2019s name immediately. He owns the apartment and the phone line.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cYou will have to go to the Central to see about this.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I lost consciousness. I didn\u2019t faint \u2014 my physical body was still present, but the person that I understood to be \u201cSarah Eltantawi\u201d left my body and was replaced with what I think is an ancestor. \u201cI\u201d \u2013 what I had always previously thought was Sarah Eltantawi \u2014 watched this new person do the following:<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>She stood up, waived her slightly shaking finger in the air, and, in a passionate embrace of patriarchy, exclaimed, in perfect, non-American accented, non-halting Arabic, first in a low voice, then in a pitch that steadily rose\u2026<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cYou dare to change the name of MY FATHER TO THE NAME OF A STRANGER OFF THE STREET????????\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>All fell silent in the store. Purple girl\u2019s eyes flashed with recognition of the gravity of the crime committed.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cShe came in with papers, ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cPAPERS???? PAPERS TO CHANGE THE NAME OF MY FATHER, THE GUARDIAN OF MY FAMILY\u2019S DWELLING, PROTECTOR OF THE PHONE LINE, TO THE NAME OF A GIRL FROM THE STREET THAT WE DO NOT KNOW????? PAPERS????? WHAT PAPERS ARE THESE????\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The other girl rushed over and explained to me that the \u201cgirl off the street\u201d needed to come and disconnect the phone line.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cSHE IS IN AUSTRALIA.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cYou can take this up in the Central.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cUPON GOD, I WILL NOT LEAVE THIS LOCATION UNTIL THE NAME OF MY FATHER IS RESTORED!!!\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>My uncle is still on speaker phone. I think I hear a chuckle. In the midst of my soliloquy, he had made some phone calls. He told me to turn off the speaker phone and go into a corner and talk to him. I obliged. He said that while my performance was somewhat amusing, technically, the \u201cgirl off the street\u201d had done nothing wrong. In any case, he has somehow solved the problem and I needed to leave the premises and meet him at the bank.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cBut I swore upon God!\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cOK, that\u2019s great. Now leave the store.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I hung up, and informed them that I would be leaving now, but that this situation VIOLATED THE VERY BASIS OF MORAL STABILITY.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I believe now that *I* \u2014 the person that I am used to claiming as myself \u2014 am back in my body. I assess the situation. On one hand, I know I was in the midst of a battle between Honor and bureaucratic rules, and I had chosen the right side. Plus, it wasn\u2019t *me* fighting this honorable battle, it was an ancestor that had taken over my spirit. Luckily everyone understands this here. What I did discover for sure is that somewhere, buried in the depths of my soul, is a woman who dwelled honorably on these Nile shores long ago, and who, if you will permit me a moment of immodesty, no doubt got the best price on freshly slaughtered chicken in the land.<\/span><\/p>\n