Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of Cairo

Singerman spent years living in "popular" (i.e., poor) parts of Cairo and came away with a fund of knowledge. In "Avenues of Participation" she explains many of the subtleties of everyday Egyptian life and then, with great verve, shows the significance of these patters for the government. Perhaps the most fascinating of her explanations have to do with marriage. As every resident in Cairo will testify, the subject of marriage comes up in conversation almost hourly. Singerman shows why: because marriage involves not just a man and woman but also their entire families; and because it has huge implications for their social, economic, and even political lives. "Parents organize their savings and consumption strategies to be able to finance the marriage of their children, sacrificing their material comfort for the future of the family-not unlike parents in the United States who begin saving for a child's college education as soon as he or she is born."Singerman explains how, on a national scale, the drive to finance marriages has profound implications for the state. The jam`iyat, a huge network of informal savings associations, keep most capital out of the state's hands; the preoccupation with saving a penny here and a penny there causes many Egyptians to live so close to the edge, they depend on subsidized food-making it difficult for the government to cut subsidies; and the millions of Egyptians who emigrate to countries like Libya and Iraq earning money for marriages tie the government's latitude in conducting foreign policy. Middle East Quarterly, June 1995