Happiness First - Egpyt

Every single woman we met in Egypt greeted us with a warm smile, her yes glittering with genuine welcome. At first we mistook this for real happiness. We soon realized it was joy at having some companionship. Underneath, many of the women we spent time with were feeling depressed and lonely.

Amal’s love affair with her husband is over. She is swamped with the kids, and misses the sense of purpose she felt when she used to teach at a local school.

“I’m not the same Amal anymore.”



We started to call it the before and after effect. Every married woman wanted to show us almost unrecognizable pictures of herself engaged or getting married. You can see Negla, beautiful and glowing with happiness during her engagement. Then look at the picture we took, just 9 years later. As happiness has gone, it has taken with it glowing skin, glinting eyes and shiny hair.

For Egyptian women, beauty and happiness are inseparable. Over and over we heard that beauty can only exist if happiness is there first. Marawa, one of the few women still deeply in love with her husband, put it this way; “You can’t be beautiful if you’re unhappy.” Compare this to the opposite ‘outside-in’ western view that, “If you look good you feel good.” In Egypt, the feeling comes first.

Challenge: Help her find happiness. Beauty will follow.