Tarbeya 3askareya is now being applied on private universities in Egypt. What’s that? It translates to military education which is exactly what it is. It shall be applied to all male holders of Egyptian passports, even ones exempted from the compulsory military service, are currently enrolled in the Tarbeya 3askareya educational program. We talked to some people taking the course this summer, and this is what they have been experiencing so far.
1. EGP 185 on a T-Shirt
Unlike public university students, private universities are required to pay EGP 185 for uniform t-shirts and caps, making them look ridiculously like school kids.
2. The “farafeer game3at el khassa” mumbo jumbo
“The commanding officer made a joke about how kids like us only like the sun in Sa7el and Marina,” one of the guys told us. There is no physical exercise so far, they started two weeks ago.
3. Watching documentaries about how great the Egyptian army is
Since there is no physical exercise, they make them watch documentaries about how the army kicked ass in 6th of October war and all what the army does for our country and how we can’t survive without them. “One of the videos had the Dark Knight OST as background music.”
4. “El Geish wel Sha3b 2eed wa7da”
And of course, hours of lectures on how the army is from the people and for the people – because there is nothing else to be done.
5. Quran references
The commanding officer said that we need to destroy the Jews because it was written in the Quran that they are going to be obliterated. Very convincing. “There were lots of Quran references,” another guy told us. “They even opened with it after taking our names and over 80 percent being obvious Christian names!”
WE SAID THIS: “Good luck” ya gama3a!