Watch stories of women facing patriarchal challenges + Read Sherlock, but make it Masry

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Empowering stories of women who refuse to give up: The women-focused show Ela Ana made waves with the release of its first season last year, and the show has had a subsequent seven installments since. Each 10-episode installment tells the story of a woman or a group of women who face challenges — often related to the patriarchy — in Egyptian society, with the series being praised for its frank portrayal of thorny issues, from narcotics use, to [redacted] assault, to inheritance laws. The installments feature some big name stars, with Jamila Awad playing a young woman living with vitiligo who hides her condition from her fiancé in one series, and Yosra El Lozy playing a woman who unknowingly has her life exposed on social media in another.
The most controversial and hard hitting is the “Banat Moussa” installment, which shows how far the patriarchs of an upper Egyptian family will go to prevent their deceased brother’s daughters from receiving their rightful inheritance. The series is available to stream on WatchiT.
⚽ It’s the international break, so there are no league games going on.
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For electronic music fans, Cairo Jazz Club 610 has its latest Impulse Thursday night coming up tomorrow at 8pm. Copenhagen-based DJ Denis Horvat will play back to back with Amsterdam’s Colyn, after a warm up set from Egypt’s Aly Goede. Info on how to reserve is on the event’s Facebook page.
Striking a very different musical note, Makan is holding a concert at 8pm tonight featuring the Mawaweel band, and folklore singers Abd El Rahman Balalh and Sayed Emam.
The “Back to Egypt: A Brazilian Collection of Photographs” exhibition is running at Zamalek’s Gezira Art Center from 3-30 November, from 10am-2pm and 5pm-9pm (except Friday). The exhibition features 19th Century photos of Egypt from Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II’s private collection.
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Sherlock, but make it Masry: Modern adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved Sherlock Holmes stories have boomed in recent years. Among the earliest pretenders to the author’s throne is Nicholas Meyer, whose Holmes-inspired novel and film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was a hit in the seventies (as were the two eighties-era Star Trek films he directed.) Now Meyer is back on the case with the genius crime-solver and his physician sidekick—this time in Egypt, no less—in his latest novel The Return of the Pharaoh, released yesterday.
Egyptology, my dear Watson: Set in the era of British occupation, colonial cliches abound in this murder-mystery-meets-Mummy-Returns romp. Complete with disappearing English dukes, exotic dancers who moonlight as spies, sandstorms, and a cameo from the real-life British Egyptologist who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb, Meyer’s jam-packed plot promises kitsch if nothing else. “Meyer paints a vivid picture of a former and less established Egypt, acknowledging the pillaging of artifacts by Western countries like Britain and France,” according to the Associated Press. Gold-standard reviewer Kirkus is less kind: “A rousing adventure that has little in common with the Holmes canon except for some proper names.”