Habiba Ekramy and Ramadan Sohby tied the knot this last weekend, and Egyptian social media users went crazy over the union. This was unsurprising, however, considering how much Egyptians fanatically love football.
While pictures and videos were shared live from the wedding, what was also shared was a collage showing pictures of Ramadan Sobhy with his ex – fiance Menna, appearing in juxtaposition with his wife Habiba. This collage was shared alongside a caption that discussed how when Ramadan Sobhy chose to settle down and marry someone he did not choose the pretty girl – Menna – who was cute, trendy, stylish, and fit mainstream standards of beauty.
Indeed, the caption continues, Ramadan abandoned Menna and chose to marry the more conservatively dressed and veiled Habiba. The caption goes on to state that obviously Ramadan did this because given Habiba’s appearance – i.e. her dress code – she is much more fitting to fill the role of good wife, and good mother.
The caption then ends by stating that this should be a lesson to all women, and men. Guys are justified when they play around with girls like Menna, and are then justified when they choose to marry girls like Habiba.
In other words, we should all be Habiba in order to be taken seriously as potential material for respectable wives, mothers, and sincere life partners. And, for the men who choose to marry the women like Menna – according to the post – you guys do not count as ‘men’ anyway.
Firstly, there has never been any official statement as to per why Ramadan Sobhy broke off his engagement with Menna. Secondly, assuming that we are 100 percent sure that Sobhy actually left Menna for that particular reason, would we really want to marry a Sobhy?
Why would I – as a woman – want to marry a man who not only judges others through appearance, but also romanticizes this notion to the extent that he uses it to set standards for who his life partner ought to to be?
Ignoring the fact that there is no reason at all to assume a woman’s potential to be a good mother not wife from her dress code, this entire notion of the man being the one to have the power to evaluate or judge a woman’s anything. In this version of the story, where Ramadan Sobhy is this kind of man, let me tell you no one should want to marry him, and we should stop telling our girls to want someone who judges them – or any one else for that matter – in this way.
Also, stop telling girls that there is a way to dress in order to attract a certain kind of husband. Finally, stop telling girls that this pressure to conform to a certain standard of dress code reflects some sort of true underlying definition of manhood.