What Is Being Polite?

Kissing the parents' hands is acceptable in our society. Christians even kiss their clerics' hands whenever they meet with them on streets or anywhere else. Kissing people on their cheeks as a way of greeting is totally fine between people of the same gender, but not between men and women. If a woman or an elderly person enters a place where all the seats are full, some guy would stand and let them sit in their place.

In southern Egypt, smoking for women is still unacceptable. As well as that, people usually don't call to their female neighbors with their own names. Instead, they call to them by one of their children's names, often of the eldest boy. For instance, people in our neighborhood call my mum 'mother of El Hussainy'.