Friday kicks off the weekend for most of Egyptians and is considered a day of rest. Besides Friday prayer, which shuts down the city midday for a few hours, Cairenes spend the day enjoying several different activities. Among wealthier Cairenes bicycling is slowly becoming more popular as a way to get around the city’s notorious traffic. Others are more traditional and one of many coffeehouses in the city where they drink coffee or tea, play backgammon, and smoke the water pipe called shisha. The coffeehouses have long been a place for discussion, recitation or the Koran, and the telling of tales by storytellers. Hamada Elrasam speaks to Cairenes from all walks of life about how they are spending their day of leisure.
Friday Prayers in Cairo, Egypt
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Ahmed Hefny, 26, is an engineer who hangs out in the suburbs during the weekends but lives in a generally poor urban area near the Pyramids. He says “I’m not from Maadi, I’m from South Giza, but we don’t have sports clubs and I can’t afford going to one
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In the Cairo suburbs, young people enjoy a weekly exercise event on Fridays that includes running, calisthenics, aerobics and hip-hop dance. 27 May 2016, Cairo. (Photo: Hamada Elrasam for VOA)
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Enjoying traditional leisure activities, Egyptians play backgammon and smokes Shisha on Friday, 3 June 2016. (Photo: Hamada Elrasam for VOA)
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Mostafa is the ailing grandfather of five children who visit him every Friday. When he is with the children he says, "I feel like a kid. I feel powerful. I can run like my grandsons.” 3 June 2016. (Photo: Hamada Elrasam for VOA)
