Gamal 'Abd el-Nasser 50 years ago: el-Hegab and بديعة مصبني

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 29, 2020 at 10:42

Dr. Pipes,

I urge readers to view this video of Nasser and the subject is: Nasser making fun of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders demand that women wear el-Higab! And yes the video includes English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIqdrFeFBk

Last, a few years ago I watched a video by an Egyptian intellectual (in the Liberal Age he would have been called "homme de letters" because he was educated at the Sorbonne and he was a very smart man) I do not recall his name now and I could not find the video on YouTube. However he was asked about the response of the Egyptian people, when Nasser addressed them on June 9/1967 to declare that the war with Israel has been lost and he will be resigning immediately. And as usual thousands of Egyptians were marching in the dark streets of Cairo demanding that he should not resign. And it seems that every sane Egyptian was saying to him/herself: Resign and good riddance.

The great homme de letters told his audience a joke that Egyptians were sharing following this national disaster. He said, and I'm paraphrasing that the girls of Badi'a Masabni (بديعة مصابني she was a Lebanese/Syrian/Egyptian and she was the owner of night clubs) also left their male clients and went on a march too demanding that Nasser should not resign and they were shouting:

نتناك بلاش

ولاتتنحاش

This is a bit vulgar but it can be rendered as: We will have sex with our clients free of charge if you do not resign!

BTW it rhymes very well.

Amazing Egyptian humor and healthy dose of skepticism in very dark times

The Egyptian Arabic word ولاتتنحاش is ولاتتنحى in modern classical Arabic and it means Do not resign.

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