drug abuse, urfi marriages and Aláa al Aswany

A couple of weeks ago, i had a blogpost on social taboos and the new project against drugs by Amr Khaled, with Shaábola joining in as poster boy for the project. Now al Jazeera english, everywomen had a programme on the 25th of April on another aspect of drug abuse. The number of drug abusing men is increasing in Egyptian society according to the show, one reason being the dire economic situattion. The show looks into the effect this has on the women living with these men, who becomes the de facto sole breadowners for the entire family.

The second is about the practice of Urfi marriages, the current attempt on stopping it, the spread of the practice among young couples, as a substitute for ¨real marriages¨, which has decreased. The effects it can have on the women when the relationships fails, it´s written by Carolynne Wheeler for the Daily Telegraph.

Last, but in no way the least, the New York Times Magazine has a six page feature on dentist/author Aláa al Aswany, who became famous for his bestselling novel the Yaqoubian building, and right now his new novel, Chicago is available in english(AUC Press), french and german translations. I practically read Yaqoubian from cover to cover, only stopping for meals and sleep, my terrible flu that kept me in bed at the time helped, but i have to agree with the readers who made it the most read book in the Arab world on this side of the 21 Century, so far.