weird:staying in room with boyfriends... - Cairo Forum (2024)

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I am afraid there is no other choice. You must use your English passports if you want to stay together. Not only that, but try even not to mention that your boyfriend is an Arab. Anyway, to get the Egyptians’ discounted accommodation prices, you need more than a birth certificate. You need a passport or a national ID card. A birth certificate doesn’t say you are an Egyptian. It only says you were born here, or that one of your parents is Egyptian. As you might know, neither of those 2 conditions is enough to make you an Egyptian citizen.

There is a law that bans all none married couples from staying together in same hotel rooms. However, the unwritten part of the law says it applies only to Egyptians and Arabs. The Adab Police is not for that though. It is the kind of police that deals with prostitution and “our kind” of what you call in Britain “anti-social behavior”.

thanks so much darsh!! uve been a great help

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Question For Darsh

Hi Darsh,

I read your reply to egyptianna regarding unmarried couples staying in hotel rooms together.

Would the same apply to a couple(Irish/Egyptian) staying in an apartment and is there some kind of papers/certificate that both people can sign which will authorise them to stay in the same room together ( a friend of mine in Sharm mentioned something about this)?

Any advice you have on this would be greatly appreciated.

The law includes everywhere, but the unwritten part of it says: they don't give a dam about apartments. So, if you are not in a hotel, don't worry even if you were both Egyptians. If you are in a hotel, just book the room with any non-Arab passport.

I have encountered same problem, I called hotels to check that my Egyptian boyfriend can stay and told a strict 'NO'.

I dont' think anyone should waste money booking a room as when you turn up it's quite likely the Egyptian will be turned away regardless of one non-Egyptian passport.

Does anyone know of a hotel who will bend this rule??

sounds like a bloody stupid rule to me - it's none of anyone's business who stays where with who is it? they shouldnt care as long as they get the room fee in their pockets.

Well so far have had about 10 polite 'no' replies to my emails asking if it's ok for ny Egyptian friend to stay in my room. Many said you can book 2 rooms if you like. It's a national rule I believe. Maybe if we turned up at the door things might be less stringent, but in response to an email I suppose they would have to say no coz it's the law! Made me feel a bit like a trollop I had to say though for even asking in the first place !!

Well, things are not as simple as "they get the money so they shouldn't care".

Egypt still has a traditional conservative society and it is still widely unacceptable for unmarried couples to stay together. I am not saying I am with or against that. I will keep my opinion to myself, but I just want to tell you that this is how most of the people here think. So, as you say in Britain: "when you are in Rome, speak Italian"

However, as I said in my previous posts on that issue, the rule doesn't apply to western tourists because there is an understanding that their culture is different and that there is a need to be flexible to keep tourism flowing, but the government would not be able to have the same flexibility with Egyptians coz the social pressure resulting would be simply too much for the authorities to handle.

Finally again, if you have an Egyptian boyfriend, just rent an apartment. It is even cheaper than hotels.

Apartment would be good but am there for 4 nights only, so don't think that's an easy option, usual min. is 15 days I believe.

In truth I agree it's a quite sweet old-fashioned rule with decency in mind by our standards, but it's not too long ago at all that a similar dim view of this 'racy' behaviour would have been made known to you fairly quickly in Ireland (my home) and UK a few years before probably.

I get the feeling from email replies that they feel they have done their bit in enforcing the rule by asking me to book two rooms not one, and they probably (I hope) turn a blind eye thereafter which room you arrive out of in the morning etc.