Cultural Shackles of the Feminine Experience

 Laila Hussein, a young woman in her early 20’s who used to live in a highly conservative household in the buzzing city of Cairo, Egypt, rebels against her family values and moves out of her family home. Laila shares her story, a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking series of events consisting of limitation of freedom, erasure of individuality, and cultural oppression in a refreshing fashion.  

We discuss our shared female experience in living within the cultural borders of the Middle East, and deeper into the borders of Egypt, then Cairo, then the borders of our own homes, discussing the differences and similarities of what femininity, culture, and family means to us.  

Laila Hussein is a dear friend of mine, and while I have lived some of the important events in her life, she tells her story in a refreshing and mature way, like I’ve never heard before.