Luxor4u

23 Vintage Photos of Egypt’s Golden Years

By Mohamed Khairat, Founder, EgyptianStreets.com

Egypt in the 1900s was a different place. Egyptian cinema was the third largest in the world, Cairo was a city that foreigners dreamt of spending their holidays exploring, Egyptian music flourished and shook the world, Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together as neighbours, and women had freedoms that were unheard of in many other countries.

Egypt was a place of liberal spirits, unhampered by sectarian and ethnic prejudices. The rights of men, women and children were championed.

Yet, all that has changed, and often may Egyptians forget the Egypt that used to be. Here are 23 photographs of vintage advertisements and other images that will teleport you to Egypt’s ‘golden years’ and show you an Egypt you may have forgotten ever existed.


http://egyptianstreets.com/2014/04/05/e ... ge-photos/

Times do change...

Times do change, but backwards...

Not much different to Iraq or Iran in those days..
I have to agree with the Doctor.. When did it all go wrong ?
.
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OR is this just the Advertisers at work ?

Bullet Magnet wrote: is this just the Advertisers at work ?

Oh yes, of course. )

Thanks Bennu, very interesting, especially the photos of women. Makes me wonder about village women, were they also as seemingly free? Thanks again

I often wonder what it feels like to see your daughter or granddaughter confined when you know the feeling of fresh air on your skin.

Why do you think women get Harassed in the streets ?

It's Coz we is stoopid and we cant fink for ourselves or control the serpent. It's de Wimmin'z fault, not ours...

Thank you BENNU

Bullet Magnet is right, however Lebanon should be added as the current standout western style country in the Middle East which might not be saying much given Syria, the overflow into Lebanon and Jordan and Tunisia etc. Not a lot of time for pranks on the beach nowadays.

But of course 'western style' tells you something about why it ended and anyway this western style way of life was only for the secular elites in Cairo and Alexandria and even there many of the high living were wealthy expats. Western lifestyles were imported and very different to the bulk of the population.

Oddly socialist military dictatorships in Syria and Lebanon kept western ways - especially Lebanon, but now under its current corrupt democracy, which gives more power to secular Christians than they would get under a pure democracy. Maybe that protects western ways for some. Also having Christians as a large minority might also have an effect elsewhere, although in the case of Egypt your average Copt can be very traditional.

Syria has always been a dictatorship which may have protected the western lifestyle group but I assume that group is small - but I really don't know..

Egypt, which I know a small amount about in the 40's and 50's, had western style elites under the King. The King was widely seen as decadent and western so there might have been some effect. After the expats were driven out people say that things changed. Lifestyles may have also changed because of socialism because Nassr was not a man 'easily corrupted'. Famously he died with almost no money. On the other hand he wasn't worried much by the opinion of the traditionals because he didn't rule through the ballot box so maybe western ways continued. A move to more traditional lifestyles under Sadat and Mubarak may have something to do with the increase in democracy with traditional views having to be taken account of. The fact that both Presidents were western oriented didn't seem to have much effect on growing conservatism.

Iran is the spectacular stand out. A strong pro Western ruler, secular, looking to build a capitalist economy, an urban elite indistinguishable from the West, was thrown out and replaced by a religious dictatorship and a reversal of values and lifestyle. The short version seems to be that he imposed his western ways and ignored the values of the people. I think that there was also quite a bit of west hating because the King was seen as a western lacky.

Part of the changes in life style may also have to do with ordinary resentment by lower classes towards secular Western style elites, their power, their corruption and their monopoly on abused power. Increasingly the west is seen as the enemy so those who ape their ways run a risk. A part of the change to more traditional lifestyle may also about bigger movements within Islam with some experts plotting a resurgence or a more exluvist, less tolerant and more radical version. This version of Islam shades from dislike to hate of the west and its safe to assume that includes a lot of our lifestyle.

In any event I know of few countries where the gap in values and lifestyle between the top, upper middle and the bottom is so great as in Egypt. There might be countries where there is a big disparity in income, China and India, but not a major difference of fundamental values.

I've promoted before the website http://www.egy.com for just about anything you would want to know about the elites and super elites up to Nasser. Some great photographs.