In Egypt I observed two categories of women. The first I nicknamed penguins; older and generally overweight, they hide their figures so well under dark robes they appear as broad rectangles from behind when silhouetted on the street. They tend to waddle like those arctic animals and are equally anti-social. To the remaining females I gave the handle: butterflies. They earn this title by appearing in headgear of many colors and designs, the cloth of which in a breeze spreads out and flutters like a butterfly’s wing. Some of them look downright elegant, signaling their class status by the luxuriousness of their hijab. Relaxed standards seem to apply to this Egyptian species of woman. Younger, mainly unmarried, they often show the size and shape of their breasts beneath tight blouses, while keeping the provocative skin of their arms securely covered by fabric as required by custom, baring only hands and faces. Their society permits them to wear snugly-fitting jeans. The bottom hem of a blouse might ride up to suggest curves among hips and buttocks, as in the photograph above, where vertical stripes bend in shallow curls and blue stitching undulates, hinting at an underlying voluptuousness.

If I were to give a title to the picture below, I would write: “Two Butterflies and their Hybrid Mother.”  The mom following watchfully after her children is an outlier. Shaped like a drum from the shoulders to the ground, she has added a fancy hijab to cover her hair — not as flamboyant as her daughters’ scarves but still ornamental and attractive. She has made herself a composite: part penguin, part butterfly. We can speculate about her marital status. I would guess she is a widow or divorcee with an interest in re-marriage, which is uncommon; thus she beautifies herself for a trip across the Nile River from west to east bank — destination Luxor City.

One axiom seems to emerge from this: Give women even the narrowest latitude for expression and they will adorn themselves, illustrating their strong features, making of themselves living works of art.