Why am I afraid to walk around with a bag that says LOVE?

Not so long ago, when I met my friend and his wife, they gave me a box of chocolates, as a gift in a gift bag with the word love printed on the outside, and after our meeting ended, I had another date with my friend at the opera during film screenings at the Cairo Film Festival, which means I might see some fellow journalists and friends there, and of course they would see my gift bag. I was very ashamed that they thought I was in love, and that my beloved brought her to me, as if they imagined that it was the lover who gave it to me, or vice versa, then this is a disadvantage, for example.

A friend told me that the first time the man she loved hugged her on the street, another man driving in his angelic car commented loudly and sarcastically, “Pick her up too”…

I arrived at the opera that day, trying not to be seen, but I actually bumped into some friends on my way out of the opera door and I was embarrassed and found myself without any of them asking me taking out the candy box and giving them some of it, telling them that it was my friend and his wife who gave it to me in order to get rid of the doubt about love… But is love really the doubt that we are afraid to stick to ourselves?

“However, it would be a scandal if one day we forget… and kiss in the street”; This sentence by Amina Jahin, in the introduction of the film “Al-Hareef”, came at the end of a series of words that confirm the normality of every other action on the street for people, even if those actions were insults, fistfights, confrontations, or even murder. All these actions are normal in exchange for any act that expresses love even if any other act is simpler than a kiss. My friend tells me that the first time the man she loves hugged her on the street, another man driving in his angelic car made a sarcastic and loud comment saying, “Pick it up too”… This made my friend angry because she did, and scolded herself whenever she remembered instead of becoming the Memory of the first touch of love and the proximity of a fond memory that can be talked about.

On the same day that I was carrying the gift bag, I heard a child in a subway car talking on the phone with his friend and telling him about a car that was destroyed in front of him by some people who were fighting, and the child answered him in an envious tone, saying, “Ma , good luck… Take a picture of me and send it to me.” on WhatsApp. I was amazed by the child’s desire to witness such a violent scene and I imagined that when that same child grows up, if he sees a man beating his wife on the street, he will react that it is a problem between a man and his wife and it is not right to we’re mixing it up. Her head on his shoulder will argue with them, because it’s not okay “on the street”, as it happened in a famous incident a few years ago that spread on social media, and as it happens every time my friend travels with his wife to their rural town, so how can ordinary people sitting next to each other, holding hands, sit in the transport without the driver scolding them and arguing with them?

I found myself, without any of them asking me, took out the box of chocolates and gave them some, I told them that my friend and his wife gave them to me in order to remove my doubts about love. … But is love really the doubt that we are afraid to stick to us?

Love has an image that disgusts me in our country

Wife: I love you.

Husband: What does love have to do with what he says? Come on, I want you.

This dialogue is from the Egyptian drama “The Kitchen”, written by the writer Mohamed Adel, when the husband invites his wife to bed. And it is perfectly fine for a man to see that intimate relationship between spouses is something that has nothing to do with love, and by the way, that man may not be bad, but he may love his wife, but his concept of love that he was raised on and rooted in him is what made him put love on one side and relationship on the other side, and he is the same man who will never be able to express his love for his wife in front of others.

During recent times, more than one horrible incident has occurred in the streets of Egypt, in Cairo and other provinces, until every street in Egypt has witnessed an incident more terrible than that elsewhere. What is more confusing and terrible than killing and taking lives is that some of these incidents were justified in the name of love, so it was said that so-and-so killed so-and-so because he loved her, and she rejected him, and the strangest the thing I could hear at the time was that love is a justification for killing and a justification for harm. For me, a lover does not kill or harm, as we say that a lover does not hide his love and is not ashamed of it, so why am I ashamed?

What is more confusing and terrible about this matter than murder and soul loss is that some of these incidents were justified in the name of love, and it was said that so-and-so killed so-and-so because he loved her and she loved him. rejected, and the strangest thing I could hear at that time was that love is a justification for murder and a justification for evil.

Why am I ashamed?

When I walk in the streets and roads and see a young man embracing the hand of his beloved, or two others looking into each other’s eyes while standing on the Nile Corniche in Cairo or on the seashore in Alexandria, or hearing a friend of mine utter words of love to her lover in front of us, in at those moments a dreamy smile crosses my mouth. And I secretly wonder: Why are these expressions not a natural and normal image of love that no one is ashamed of and that no one criticizes? Maybe everything mentioned about the hateful image of love in our societies and the ways of insulting lovers aroused in me that feeling of shame from the feeling of love. I do the same thing and I am afraid to be one of those who express love.

Yes, I was really happy, because what that man did convinced me that acknowledging love and expressing it in any way, whether from a man or a woman, requires strength and courage, and that strength is not enjoyed by many.

Love is a force that not everyone is capable of

I recently witnessed one of the most beautiful manifestations of love I have ever seen; One of the business owners I used to work with, a man with a strong personality, and his life has gone through many problems that I think anyone would have a hard time with if he wasn’t so strong, and he’s still going through problems until now, and he’s a man of conservative origin. This man stood in front of everyone, his brothers, his employees and other business owners, and asked for his girlfriend’s hand in front of everyone. That day, I felt my heart filled with happiness, which was visible on my face, and everyone warned me about it and asked me in amazement: Why was I so happy even though it didn’t concern me?

Yes, I was really happy, because what that man did convinced me that acknowledging love and expressing it in any way, whether from a man or a woman, requires strength and courage, and that strength is not enjoyed by many.

Expressing love does not diminish a person’s self, but on the contrary increases his value in front of people and in front of himself, and I can tell that to myself before I tell you that I can love and express my love without shame.

* The article expresses the point of view of the author, not necessarily the opinion of Raseef22