Habiba El Shiaty about her life in Cairo, Egypt
Habiba El Shiaty loves her family and so it is only fitting that her name, translated from Arabic means ‘’The loved one’’. The born-and-raised in Cairo sophomore student has three sisters and is already an aunt, her favorite after classes activity is to go home and spend time with them. She studies at the American University in Cairo (AUC), majors in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), and minors in Psychology.
‘’So far psychology has been more interesting to me, this is what I see myself doing in the future. I like it a lot more than IMC but my parents would call me crazy if I pick psychology as my field of work.’’ Even though she is expected to work in the family business along with her three sisters, she is determined to follow her dreams and work in the field of child-psychology for a few years after graduating.
Habiba describes studying in AUC as an experience that exceeded her expectations. She appreciates the diversity of the university and the variety of knowledge she has gained in the past two years. The only downside she mentions is her drawn-out commute to campus which keeps her from being part of student clubs and other extracurriculars. ‘’I live very far away from campus and traveling takes a lot from my day, with bad traffic it takes me two hours or more to get to campus. On a good day, it might take me only 40 minutes to get there but it really depends on the situation on the road.’’
In addition to her dream to become a child psychologist, Habiba also focuses on self-development. ‘’I love asking myself what am I doing wrong, what am I doing right, what can I do better. I would say I am very loving and caring, I also have a sense of empathy and even though I do bad things like gossiping, I still know that at the end of the day I am a good person’’.
Habiba says she developed her moral compass through her upbringing. As a family person, she enjoys being surrounded by relatives and she appreciates all traditions that require the whole family to be together. Ramadan and the feast after it are traditions that she looks forward to every year because she gets to travel and be together with distant relatives.
Habiba does not regret staying in Cairo. She had the opportunity to study abroad but chose to stay in Egypt because she cherishes her culture and feels deeply tied to her roots. Her favorite part of it is that Egyptian people are very open, respecting all people no matter their religion or ethnic group. She also appreciates Egyptian sense of humor: ‘’I like that we don’t take ourselves seriously. We always make memes about everything very quickly. When a political figure is giving a speech you open Facebook and you see hundreds of memes already. It’s very entertaining.’’
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Emanuela Kerencheva is a Sophomore student at AUBG majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications and Business Administration. She found a new friend in the face of the subject of this story.
