Friday, 17 March 2023

Enterprise Weekend— Your Ramadan 2023 mosalsalat guide

TL;DR

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to the final Enterprise Weekend Edition before Ramadan. We’ve lined up a few essential pre-Ramadan reads for you — including a guide to the biggest mosalsalat of the month this year and a recommendation for an early Iftar outing (that, dare we say, might rival your grandma’s cooking.)

ALSO- Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those of you celebrating the occasion today, and happy birthday to The Colonel. We’re all thinking of you, Papa, today as every day.

The Enterprise Weekend Edition comes out each Friday at 9am CLT. We’ll be back on Sunday at 6am with EnterpriseAM. Until then: Enjoy the weekend.

LAST WEEK IN 3 MINS-

Last week’s news was dominated by the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank crash, from how local startups were affected to the global sell-off that sent the EGX to its biggest single-day loss in three years.

ON PLANET STARTUP- As many as 46 local startups and two VC firms (one of them global) have been said to have been banked by US-based SVB, which was shuttered by regulators after a frantic two-day bank run. Two of Acasia Ventures’ 10 portfolio firms across the MEA region were affected, while fintech fund Nclude’s Basil Moftah told us that one of the VC’s eight portfolio companies banked with SVB.

THINGS HAVE (SO FAR) BEEN CONTAINED- At least five local and regional startups were able to regain access to their deposits at the collapsed bank, Enterprise learned. Others have kept their deposits put, as US bank regulators continue to control the bank after they moved to guarantee all deposits held at SVB in a bid to prevent contagion and a wider crisis in the banking sector. Others moved their deposits to neo-banks or digital-only banks of the likes of Mercury Bank, several sources told us, with one neo-bank, Tribal Credit, launching an initiative offering accounts to SVB-exposed businesses in MENA, Mexico and the US.

IN EGX LAND- The global banking turmoil saw the EGX30 hit its biggest single-day drop in three years on Wednesday. The benchmark index slipped 4.2% during trading, its worst day since 18 March 2020 at the height of the covid-triggered market panic, and fell 11% over the course of the week, almost erasing all of its 2023 gains.

What gives? The EGX was hit by a wave of selling in a wider risk-off as investors in Europe gave in to jitters about the global banking system. A selling wave that hit bank stocks in the US (triggered by SVB) spread to Europe, where already-embattled Credit Suisse lost nearly 30% of its value in a single day. That, in turn, prompted investors to sell down positions in big-name European financial institutions. Credit Suisse shares roared back at the opening bell today, rising more than 30% before settling around +20% at dispatch time today, after Swiss National Bank said it would loan as much as USD 54 bn to Credit Suisse.


MOMENTUM ON PRIVATIZATION-

Mark April on your calendars: The Madbouly government will take to market some of the state-owned companies earmarked for privatization in its rebooted offering program in April.

More than 32 stake sales? The government could add another eight names — including banks — to its list of companies destined for privatization, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait signaled last week. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said last month that the government plans to partially privatize 32 companies by March 2024 via public offerings on the EGX, sales to strategic investors, or a mix of both.

A roadshow for military firms has begun: CI Capital has reportedly started marketing military-owned firms Safi and Wataniya to strategic investors, and is looking to sell at 10% of each company.

Our friends at the SFE have taken possession of Misr Ins. Holding. Two of the company’s subsidiaries — Misr Life Ins. and Misr Ins. — had already been named among the government’s list of 32 companies up for stake sales to strategic investors, via the EGX, or a mix of both.

ADQ may be eyeing a piece of Delta Sugar Company: Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ is reportedly in early talks with the government to snap up a 10-15% stake in the state-owned Delta Sugar Company. ADQ would buy shares owned by an existing shareholder.

IT WAS ALSO A BIG WEEK FOR INVESTMENT IN LOGISTICS-

Our friends at Hassan Allam Utilities formed a joint venture — dubbed Yanmu — with Kuwaiti warehousing and industrial developer Agility to set up and operate logistics parks in Egypt.

New container terminals in Sokhna and Dekheila: The Madbouly government signed two agreements worth USD 1.6 bn with two international consortiums to develop new container terminals at the Ain Sokhna and Dekheila ports.

ON THE ECON SIDE OF THINGS-

Egypt’s economy grew 3.9% y-o-y in 2Q FY 2022-2023 despite ongoing global economic challenges and geopolitical uncertainty, according to preliminary data from the Planning Ministry.

More FX saving measures: Egypt will withdraw from the multinational Grains Trade Convention (GTC) in less than four months. The government will save USD 58k a year on the move, which officials said makes sense because it was felt that no benefits have been garnered from membership.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NEXT WEEK-

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Will the CBE call an unscheduled emergency meeting? Several analysts are expecting the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to deliver a huge interest rate hike — possibly as much as 300 bps — in response to last week’s red-hot inflation data, with Naeem Brokerage even expecting it to call an “emergency meeting” ahead of its decision. The monetary policy meeting is currently scheduled for Thursday, 30 March.

We could be getting our largest-ever export subsidy program next week, according to reports in the local press quoting Trade and Industry Minister Ahmed Samir. The government had wrapped the fifth phase of the program in December, which saw the Export Development Fund disburse some EGP 2.5 bn, putting the total of overdue subsidy payments at EGP 42.5 bn.

Israel-Palestine summit to take place in Sharm El Sheikh on Sunday: Palestinian and Israeli officials are meeting in Sharm El Sheikh on Sunday as part of a five-party meeting with representatives from Egypt, Jordan and the US, Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Hussein El Sheikh said in a tweet. An agreement made during a first round of talks in Jordan last month failed to calm escalating violence in the West Bank.

The Finance Ministry will host the Public-Private Partnerships MENA Forum on 19-20 March at the Nile Ritz-Carlton, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

Check out our full business calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

???? YOUR MOST CLICKED LINKS-

  • The SVB crash was on everyone’s minds, with this Matt Levine’s Bloomberg op-ed on the bank’s inherent structural problems getting the most clicks.
  • The government’s planned unveiling of its largest-ever export subsidy program next week also got attention, with many of you checking out our background on the program.
  • Our review of Osteria — a new European bistro in New Cairo — seemed to garner a lot of interest, judging by the number of clicks on the restaurant’s Instagram page.
  • News that Amazon is tripling its warehouse space in Egypt this year also captured a lot of attention. (Statement, pdf)
  • A lot of you wanted to check out Karim Helal’s Linkedin profile after his move to become president of the Concord International Investments Group.

☀️ THE WEATHER THIS WEEKEND- Our lucky run of sunny, warm weekend continues — but with the risk of blowing dust: We’re in for a warm couple of days, with a daytime high of 26°C today and 23°C tomorrow, and overnight lows of 12°C. But be prepared for some wind, and maybe some dust, according to the latest from the national weather service.

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THE ENTERPRISE GUIDE

The biggest mosalsalat to look out for in Ramadan 2023

It’s that time of the year again and as always, we’re here to help you curate your Ramadan viewing list. Each year comes 30+ shows, but you’ll find comfort in a handful of familiar faces (some of which have arguably become a little too familiar). Here are the shows that will (likely) dominate many of your iftar conversations during the coming month.

Stirring up controversy before it has even aired: Mona Zaki’s Taht El Wesaya (watch, runtime: 1:07). The promo sees the actress sporting hijab and thick eyebrows, sparking heated debates on social media over her appearance, mostly built on conjecture. Zaki’s appearance does play an important role in the protagonist’s characterization — but only because her character is supposed to look like someone who can pass as a man, in hopes of using the disguise to find work. The show will air on DMC.

If you enjoy fake se’eedi accents, you might also want to check out Omla Nadra (watch, runtime: 0:55). Nelly Karim (also) plays a veiled character who is (also) a widow (also) fighting for her rights. One way to differentiate between this and Taht El Wesaya is that Mohamed Mounir is the singer and composer for the Omla Nadra theme song. The show will air on CBC.

Appealing to the history buffs among you: Khaled Al Nabawi’s Resalit Al Imam (watch, runtime: 0:46). Primarily a biography of Arab theologian Al Imam Al Shafi’i, writer Muhammed Hisham Obeya says the serial will also cover socio-political events and religious disputes that the theologian encountered in Egypt from 816 CE to 820 CE. It would be nice to think that the issues won’t be terribly familiar to us 1.2k years later, but you’ll have to keep up with the show on Al Hayah to see for yourselves.

Yousra admits that her previous passes at comedy have fallen flat — and is clearly looking for a shot at redemption with Alf Hamdela ‘Al Salama (watch, runtime: 0:30). The show follows Yousra’s character as she returns to Egypt in hopes of securing her children’s inheritance, only to stumble upon a web of family secrets. Tune in to Al Hayah to judge whether the series atones for her previous crimes against comedy.

Surprise — Ahmed Mekki is back with another season of El Kebeer Awy. While the show initially started out as a comedy about two brothers’ struggle for mayorship, recent seasons of El Kebeer Awy have seen the characters join the mafia, forcibly participate in a Squid Game competition, and… uhh… Just one second while we double-check our notes… Yup. Save the planet from a meteoroid. The series will be airing on ON Drama.

Ruby stars as a university professor running for mayor in Ibrahim Issa’s Hadrit Al Omda (watch, runtime: 1:47). As you can imagine, the history of women mayors in Egypt is not extensive. Already a compelling premise on its own, the choppy trailer seems to show Issa biting off a little more than he can chew, with each clip introducing a new storyline and new (heavy) topics, from undocumented immigration to female genital mutilation. We expect a compelling watch with sparse humor on CBC, but Edward’s fake se’eedi accent will probably source a giggle or two.

OMDA SHOW #2: Mohamed Ramadan Edition. The promo for Jaafar El Omda (watch, runtime: 2:12) doesn’t veer beyond the actor’s usual schtick — he is a manly man who does manly things, among them being a womanizer and getting into fistfights. Promises that you will be getting an authentic Mohamed Ramadan performance are fulfilled almost immediately, as he is shown shirtless literally one second into the trailer. If the MRU (Mohamed Ramadan Universe) is your jam, you can catch this show on DMC.

Amir Karara: forever young? Karara is an accomplished figure with an on-screen career spanning twenty years. And yet, in Souq El Kanto, he is set to star as a “young man” in 1920 Cairo, forced to resort to the thug life following an explosive dispute with merchants from the souq, where his father’s shop becomes collateral damage. Along the way, he falls for Mai Ezzeldin’s Greek character, whose mother stands in the way of their love. Will they use CGI to project youth onto Karara’s face, or will we just have to suspend belief? Tune into DMC in Ramadan to find out.

A rare supernatural-themed show, courtesy of Ahmed Amin: Ahmed Amin cites the Ray Bradbury novel A Sound of Thunder as inspiration behind El Soffara (watch, runtime: 1:48), but from what we’ve seen of the trailer, we’re more reminded of Adam Sandler’s Click. Amin — in his first leading role in a Ramadan show — uses a Click-esque device to control time, but this one is in the shape of a pharaonic whistle. You can give the show a watch on DMC.

What’s Ramadan without a little family drama? MBC Masr brings you two shows exploring turbulent family lives. The first, Taghyeer Gaw, stars Iyad Nassar and Menna Shalaby, whose character Sherifa struggles to deal with her mother’s addictions. More common family matters are the subject of writer Mariam Naoum’s Al Harsha Al Sab’a (watch, runtime: 2:37), which sees two couples, played by Amina Khalil and Mohamed Shaheen, and Asmaa Galal and Aly Kassem, face mounting issues fed by infidelity and desire for change following their seventh year of marriage.

We don’t know much about Yasser Galal’s Elaqa Mashrou’a, but it looks like it could be an exciting watch. The only disclosed detail we know of is that Galal plays a businessman whose stable life takes an unexpected turn. In an interview with Lamis El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 7:49), Galal teased surprise guests and shocking twists. Intrigued? Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until the second half of Ramadan to see what writer Samah Al Hariri has cooked up for us on ON Drama.

Thirty-one years after his passing, Yusuf Idris finally makes it to the small screen. Serro Al Bati’, adapted by ON Drama and directed by Khaled Youssef, alternates between the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 and contemporary Egypt. The trailer (watch, runtime: 3:18) follows the Egyptian resistance to the invasion and features a young man played by Ahmed Fahmy trying to uncover the truth behind Ahmed El Saadany’s Hamid, the “sultan” of the resistance. The star-studded cast also includes Hussein Fahmy, Khaled El Sawy, Reem Mostafa, and Hanan Motawea.

WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THIS WEEKEND?

???? AT THE MOVIES-

The untold story of African soldiers fighting for France in World War I: French-Senegalese war drama film Tirailleurs (Father and Soldier, in English) spotlights a historically overlooked aspect of World War I — the African riflemen who fought for the French as colonial troops. The film, directed by Mathieu Vadepied, follows Bakary — played by Lupin actor Omar Sy — who voluntarily enlists in the French forces to protect his son, who was abducted and thrown into the war.

The film follows a classic war film format, with plenty of immersive shots and sound design, Harper Oreck writes for The Harvard Crimson. Vadepied subverts this format by making the African soldiers — previously overlooked — the focus of the film. He also offers a critique of the sacrificial narratives propagated during times of war by showing the indoctrination that happens on the battlefield through the storyline of Bakary’s son, Birama.

WHERE TO WATCH IT- The film will be showing in Zawya Cinema today and until Tuesday, 21 March.

ANOTHER THRILLER — BUT PRESENTED IN A VERY NEW FORMAT-

This techno-thriller unfolds on a computer screen: June, played by Storm Reid, of Euphoria fame, resorts to online resources to track and find her mother (Nia Long), who goes missing while on vacation with her new boyfriend. The whole movie is filmed as though it’s a shared screen, viewed primarily through June’s laptop, giving the audience almost intrusive insight into June’s relationships. Coincidentally, this setup is very cost-friendly, with production only costing USD 7 mn, allowing the movie to earn just over six times its budget.

Acting almost as a foil to the cautionary tales presented in productions like Black Mirror or more recently M3GAN, this unexpectedly engaging thriller pays homage to the younger generation’s digital dexterity and shows how valuable a tool technology really is.

WHERE TO WATCH IT- You can go see it at VOX Cinemas at Almaza City Center and Mall of Egypt as well as Arkan, but this time, we will uncharacteristically recommend watching it on your laptop if you have access to Prime Video US. It’s more captivating to feel the movie is unfolding on your own screen.

???? FROM THE BOOKSTORE-

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is an international sensation. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling 2017 novel has caused waves in bookstores and on BookTok. The narrative sees Old Hollywood starlet Evelyn Hugo choosing an unaccomplished journalist with no career prospects to report her final interview, in which she spills the tea about her peers, the industry, her seven marriages, and even the interviewer.

Production companies have been vying for the film rights to the book after its success, with Netflix ultimately snagging them. Since Netflix is infamous for bad live-action adaptations, their announcement last year was met with online outrage from fans, who don’t trust the platform to do the book justice. The book’s full length will definitely be difficult to cover in the span of one 90-minute movie, and fans argue that a mini-series dedicating an episode to each of Evelyn’s husbands would deliver a more faithful adaptation.

WHERE TO GET IT- Rumors that the streaming platform has quietly pulled the brakes on the project are just more reason to buy the book, which you can do at Diwan or Alef.

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???? HOT AND FRESH OUT OF THE KITCHEN-

WONDERING WHERE TO HAVE YOUR FIRST IFTAR? At the risk of starting a war, Hagoga makes Egyptian food that rivals your grandma’s. Despite having 500k+ likes and almost 1 mn followers on their Facebook page, you might have not heard of this unbelievably good and surprisingly affordable restaurant. You really can’t miss regardless of what you order, but the absolute must-haves are the Roz Me’ammar (which comes with a generous dollop of eshta on top), the Tarb, and, if you’re brave, Tagin El Hagg, followed by a shot of the complimentary Whiskey El Ghalaba. Hagoga does not offer any desserts, but we’ve found that adding sugar to the Roz Me’ammar is sinfully delicious (trust us).

Head there early if you want a table right away: Located at the Madfaia Garden near Sheraton El Mattar, the restaurant is fairly large — but the demand is so high that they provide seating for those waiting in line. They don’t take reservations, so we recommend that you try to get there before 4pm. Even though delivery isn’t an option, you can order your meal to-go. But if you’re going to be there anyway, you might as well dine-in for the full Hagoga experience.

???? Per person: EGP 150-300

???? Alcohol? No

???? Outdoor seating? Yes

???? Accessibility friendly? Yes

WHAT TO LISTEN TO

A recently released podcast hosted by two ambitious business students, Abdallah Khattab and Zeyad Gebaly, offers viewers vicarious mentorship from businesspeople pioneering their respective fields. Targeting a younger audience, Eh El Kalam (on Youtube) is in Egyptian Arabic (sorry, unilingual folks).

The premise behind Eh El Kalam is making insider knowledge accessible to watchers / listeners and expelling the ambiguity and misconceptions surrounding each trade. The hosts hope to make success a more tangible concept rather than an abstract daydream by detailing the guests’ journeys and showing that success is not always linear. Guests face good-willed interviewers whose curiosity and relatability allows them to connect with their admirers on a more personal level. The six episodes feature the likes of architect Hany Saad, footballer Ayman Younis, and musician Hisham Kharma.

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM, NOW WE HERE- The episode featuring Hany Saad, a titan of architecture, sees him dive into how he was introduced to the field with no mentors or network. Despite being offered a TA position as a fresh grad, Saad didn’t see himself going down the academic route. “I wanted to be around sand and cement,” he told Khattab and Gebaly. He detailed his humble beginnings, when, desperate to land his first gig, he offered his designing services without charge and worked out of his first office: the trunk of his car. While Saad now sees his initial disconnect from the field as an advantage, he talks about wanting to reshape the industry to be more welcoming to the younger generation.

WHERE TO LISTEN- Eh El Kalam can be found on both YouTube and Spotify, with each episode’s runtime ranging from 45 minutes to an hour.

ANALYZE THIS

How do you dress for success in today’s workplace? It’s complicated.

Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde, would approve of beautiful Deega’s bubblegum-pink hair. Deega’s mom? Not so much. Her future boss? It depends. “Are you applying for a job with the circus?” her sister wonders aloud.

Deega has never appreciated the joke — not now, as she’s job hunting, and not when she was a teenager. It turns out that “Let her be — it’s just a phase” was clearly “It’s not just a phase, Mom. It’s me.” And Just Like That, the pink hair (referred to as IT by family and friends) secured IT-self a permanent spot in an otherwise conservative, natural-colored family. Deega became the pink sheep of the family.

Just as Woods waltzed through Harvard Law in towering pink heels, so Deega breezed through a top US business school. Her parents invested a small fortune in her education, and Deega delivered, coming home with a 4.0 GPA and impressive internships under her belt. The girl who means business hopes to be headhunted by big firms.

Her parents worry about their investment, though: What recruiter will agree to put a shocking pink head of hair past the first phase of screening? Every time the fresh grad mentions she’s going to stop by the hair salon, the whole family stops in its tracks in anticipation. Is this the day she dumps the pink?

As a close family friend and Deega’s cool honorary aunt, I’ve been summoned more than once to play Danny Devito in the family’s re-enactment of The War of the Roses. It goes like this:

DEEGA: Ignores everyone, her angry red eyes zoomed in on me.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM: Mom sits, an angry wildebeest. Enough smoke pours from her ears to set off the fire alarms.

ME: Composed. Praying no one ends up hanging from the chandelier.

MOM: “No respectable company will ever hire a pink-haired punk. They will never take you seriously. The guy who interviews you is going to offer you bubble gum, not a job. This pink marshmallow look shouts, ‘Come on Barbie. Let’s go party.’ It. Is. Not. Professional.”

DEEGA: “You know what, Mom? Anybody who judges my credentials by the color of my hair can go [redacted] themselves. They won’t hire me? I won’t work for hair-color bigots. Right now, as we speak, there’s an employer out there who’s not as judgemental as you are — one that would love to have my pink head on their team.”

So, what does it mean to maintain a “professional appearance” in the modern office? Can you lead a team, have a strong work ethic, be on time, and always deliver — all while sporting Bermuda shorts and New Balance sneakers? If you’re a white-collar worker in Egypt and your boss is over the age of, say, 40? Probably not.

In a world of piercings, prominent tattoos, and rainbow hair color, intimate family debates have become workplace flashpoints. A younger, digital-first generation wants to bring their “whole, authentic selves” to the office — in crop-tops and joggers if they want. At many companies, the professional grooming teams (read: HR departments and team leaders) are struggling to cope. Deega’s peers might be able to avoid taking style advice from mom and dad, but they can’t escape Mme. Affaf from HR; she doesn’t want a Schiaparelli model walking around her office — but she does want you in lipstick and straight hair if you’re going to be client-facing.

It’s tempting to blame Mark Zuckerberg and his ilk. Confronted about his bland wardrobe, the young bn’aire said, “I feel like I’m not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.” Before the second tech boom — before Facebook and the rest of the social media platforms — professionalism and professional appearance coexisted peacefully. Expectations were met, professional attire endured (sometimes even embraced), and HR personnel and job candidates were on the same page.

Work is a stage, and you’ve got to dress the part. And there’s usually a dress code that gets you through it. For many, following the dress code is a no-brainer — it’s a constant sign of respect to your coworkers, yourself, and the workplace. Or as Stanford legal scholar Richard Thompson somewhat more grandiosely suggested: “Dress codes are a Rosetta stone to decode social norms and resistance of a time and place.”

WE’VE BEEN FIGHTING OVER DRESS CODE FOR DECADES-

Skimming through the evolution of workplace fashion in the past 100 years, we’re team Thompson. Heck, we even find ourselves in the unusual position of having to quote the content mill known as Forbes, where a ‘contributor’ writes, “Professionalism and professional appearance are nuanced concepts that have become rather sensitive in nature as norms change and culture evolves.”

It has always been so: Pre-1960s, men were in suits and ties on even the hottest days of summer. For women, long skirts and dresses were as mandatory as the servile roles they were allowed in the workplace. By the 1970s, women were rocking pants (and pantsuits) into the C-suite. The power suits of the 1980s (shoulderpads seemed mandatory for men and women alike) gave way to the advent of “business casual” in the 1990s.

Before we knew it, we had a long menu of business looks from which to choose: casual, smart casual, business casual, business professional, business formal — even (you guessed it) gender-neutral.

In choosing to work in a given field, many of us implicitly accept a certain dress code. Hoodies for coders. Suits for bankers and lawyers (except, maybe — just maybe — on casual Thursdays). Yoga pants for pilates instructors. You get the point.

What if you show up on stage dressed to play your part, but decide to come back after a short intermission in a different costume? That’s when things really break down.

Nereen Salem was Miss Egypt 1989, and she rocked anything she put on — a bathing suit, a pilot’s uniform, and (later) the hijab. Little did she know that the moment she covered her hair, her career as one of Egypt’s first female commercial pilots would take a nosedive. The chairman of her airline’s board of directors fired her in 2001 after several attempts to get her to take it off. The claim: Her veil violated the company’s uniform code (nevermind that the company’s policy manual at the time made no mention of female pilots at all, let alone hijab).

Nereen won her legal battle, as did Arpinder Kaur, the first female Sikh pilot in the US and the first Sikh pilot of any gender to wear a turban on the flight deck — challenging a longstanding flying norm.

So, can an opera singer stand in full costume, staging a production of Opera Aida, and wear the veil? Cairo Opera House would say no. In 2003, officials issued a warning to members of the a cappella chorus who insist on wearing hijab during performances. (The clash of dress codes and religious freedom is too complicated to analyze, even for this column.)

It gets even more interesting when you throw in race: California’s CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) prohibits discrimination against employees (read: Black folks) who choose to go with natural hair or a hairstyle associated with their race or ethnicity. New York City also defends the right to wear natural hair — or to just leave your hair uncut or untrimmed.

(May I suggest we need a CROWN Act of our own here in Egypt? One that saves beautiful, natural Egyptian curls from the cruelty of flat irons?)

IS THERE A WAY FORWARD FOR DEEGA? FOR US ALL?

If there’s a common thread in global culture today for the under-40 set, it is, “Why fit in when you’re born to stand out?” I suspect we face many more years in which the freedom of (self-)expression clashes with office oppression.

Still, it’s hard to wonder, as we all bring our authentic selves to the office: Are you showing too much of you? Oftentimes, the answer hinges on how conservative your boss is. Erin Brockovich made her office mates uncomfortable with her law-office attire. “As long as I have one [redacted] instead of two, I’ll wear what I like if that’s alright with you,” she retorted. Erin was lucky to have Ed Masry, not Red Forman, as her boss — we know exactly where Red’s foot goes when he’s not happy with you.

The truth is, my conservative friends, that the workplace changes constantly, evolving to accommodate whatever is thrown its way. Take covid, which suddenly introduced us to a new kind of professional attire (blazers on top, PJs on the bottom) that we had previously seen only on Balenciaga runway shows.

Smart bosses know that a flexible company culture is a shock absorber — and that should extend to dress code as much as WFH. The simple reality is that a buttoned-down workplace isn’t inviting if you’re seeking young talent. It’s hard enough to get young people to work as corporate drones without forcing them to wear clothing they hate.

We can hear Deega’s mom booing us from the sidelines. She raises valid concerns. Will your clients, your regulators, or even other employees be as understanding of your all-inclusive approach? Or will you send them flying in another direction, taking with them their business, goodwill, or experience as they seek out a competitor with the standards and looks they’re familiar with? Deega’s mom interprets her girl’s insistence on pink hair not as an expression of personal freedom, but of her lack of maturity, flexibility, and professionalism.

As for Deega herself? She’s waiting for her Elle Woods moment. Her job hunt continues, and she looks forward to triumphantly proving herself an asset to any business she sets foot in — in all her pink-headed glory.

Sorry, Deega. Nothing personal. Or as Billy Crystal as Dr. Ben Sobel once said: “Don’t kid yourself, Jelly. It doesn’t get more personal than this.”

ANALYZE THIS is a regular Enterprise Weekend column by the Mother of the Resident 15 Year-old.

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

MARCH

8-18 March (Wednesday-Saturday): Cirque du Soleil’s OVO, Cairo international Stadium Hall.

9-23 March (Thursday-Thursday): Art d’Egypte’s Kaon exhibition, The Arts’ Hub, Zamalek.

14-17 March (Tuesday-Friday): TISSOT UCI Track Nations Cup, Cairo International Stadium.

15 March (Wednesday): Season 3 of Ted Lasso will be out on Apple TV.

17-18 March (Friday-Saturday): K-Festival at EGYcon X, Family Park, New Cairo.

17-18 March (Friday-Saturday): My Beloved, Rawabet Art Space, Qasr El Nil, Cairo.

18 March (Saturday): Celestial Pas de Deux: Art Exhibition by Rana Chalabi @ MASQ, Maq’ad of Sultan Qaitbey, City of the Dead.

18 March (Saturday): Ali El Haggar concert, El Sawy Cultural Wheel, Zamalek.

20 March (Monday): Ahmed Ahmed Returns to Om El Donya, Ewart Memorial Hall, AUC’s Tahrir Campus.

23 March (Wednesday): First day of Ramadan (TBC). Maghreb will be at 6:08pm CLT.

APRIL

16 April (Sunday): Coptic Easter

17 April (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

21-26 April (Friday-Wednesday): LaLiga Egypt Football Camp, Xanadu Hotel, Makadi Bay, Hurghada.

22 April (Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25 April (Tuesday): Sinai Liberation Day.

27 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC).

MAY

1 May (Monday): Labor Day.

1 May (Monday): Backstreet Boys at 7pm, ZED East, New Cairo.

4 May (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

JUNE

10 June (Saturday): Thanaweya Amma examinations begin.

28 June-2 July (Wednesday-Sunday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Friday): June 30 Revolution Day.

JULY

18 July (Tuesday): Islamic New Year.

20 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Sunday): Revolution Day.

27 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Revolution Day.

SEPTEMBER

26 September (Tuesday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

28 September (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

OCTOBER

6 October (Friday): Armed Forces Day.

13 October- 20 October (Friday-Friday): The sixth edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF).

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