FINALLY!

Good News!!! Egyptian Paperwork Completed!

I woke up this afternoon to good news. The Egyptian government approved my work papers.  Well, whatever remains of the government. This means I am now legally authorized to work as a belly dancer in Cairo. Finally! It only took, oh, two and half years and a revolution. Actually, I was contracted to dance at the Semiramis Hotel last year, but that ended sooner than it started (for reasons I’ll write about in my next post). A week after that drama, I passed an audition at the Memphis Nile Cruise. Though intent on hiring me, the boat management lacked the requisite government license to hire foreign (i.e. non Egyptian) dancers. The management promptly apply for one, after which it contracted me to perform belly dance shows at their establishment seven nights a week. Very exciting stuff, but processing the paperwork took much longer than it should have.

This is why…

First, the man I hired to process my papers has chronic sleep syndrome, or so I like to joke. He was the laziest man on the planet—the personification of sleep itself. He would have made good money processing my papers, but he just couldn’t get himself out of bed. Months of rejecting my phone calls and making up lame excuses for not starting my paperwork went by before he even began to start the process, and that only happened after I was on the brink of deportation for performing without papers! By the time I got fed up with this person and looked for someone else to do my papers, eight months and a whole revolution had gone by!

Second, due to the political events that swept over Egypt in the beginning of the year, there was no way my working papers could have been processed in a timely manner. The Egyptian government was literally trying to survive—it couldn’t be fussing with such frivolities as belly dancing. To make matters worse, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it would ban all foreigners from working in Egypt. The Ministry eventually amended that statement, stating that only foreigners who were deemed necessary for the prosperity of Egypt would be granted work permits. But that meant that the burden was now upon me to prove that I, an American belly dancer, was necessary for the prosperity of Egypt, and that I wouldn’t be taking work away from Egyptians. As much as I would like to think so, nothing could be further from the truth. Alas, my belly dancing is not necessary for Egypt’s prosperity, and it does take work away from other Egyptian dancers (I learned that the hard way, when disgruntled Egyptian dancers tried to get me deported for “taking their work” on the boat). 

Given the new policy on foreign workers, it was only natural that I would have lost hope. Imagine how ecstatic I was, then, when I learned that the foreign minister signed my papers himself! (I guess that means I’m necessary for the prosperity of Egypt lol). And that this officially made me the first foreign dancer to be contracted after the onset of the revolution.  What an honor.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the person I hired to process my papers after getting nowhere with Mr. Sleepy Head. I am eternally grateful to him for being honest, active, and totally unshakeable under pressure from certain people who have tried to make me fail (yes, one does pick up a few enemies while trying to make it as a belly dancer in Cairo. It’s unfortunate, but inevitable). I am also thankful to Mr. Safaa Farid for his encouragement, support, and levelheadedness during these difficult times.  It’s nice to know that there are good people in the Cairo dance community.