Diaries of a Bride To Be: Reading the Fatha, Part One

So my lovely, relaxing trip to Luxembourg was over and months passed with Yassine continuing to visit here and there. Meanwhile, I was getting caught up with work and daydreaming about if I could ever take more holidays to Luxembourg ever again.

Little did I realize that the clock was ticking and Yassine’s parents had already booked tickets for them and his three siblings to come to Cairo months in advance!

I started to get into super planning mode around mid-July (they were set to arrive in the beginning of August) and started looking into hotels, transportation and recreation, just like your typical tour guide would.

I even wrote everything down on paper, planning with my mom that we would stay in Cairo the first two days and then spend the rest of the week in Marina (every Egyptian’s summer destination—around three hours from Cairo.)

Somewhere in the middle of all this planning and building up to the big week, we all decided that it was time for Yassine and I to read the Fat-ha to make our relationship official in front of the whole family.

For those who don’t know, the Fat-ha is a pre-engagement step that Egyptian Muslims do to let the world know that this couple will be getting engaged soon.

I honestly never understood the point in it and it took me ages to explain to Yassine what it is. But in the end, tradition is tradition.

So basically, both dads get together in a small gathering with close family members and the guy’s father asks the girl’s father for her hand in marriage for his son. Her father agrees (usually), the zaghareet and applause begin and everyone reads the Fat-ha (a small chapter from the Quran).

After a LOT of stressing out for no reason, trying to plan the perfect program and having nightmares that Yassine’s family would hate Egypt and be bored out of their minds, the long-awaited day came.

They arrived at 2 am (yes, AirFrance have amazing flight times) and my older brother Sayed was kind enough to come with me to pick them up from the airport.

It was kind of hard for me to look my best at two in the morning, but I tried nonetheless.

The family of six was happily waiting for us outside: 3amo Rachad (the dad), who always has a huge smile on his face, which I love, Tante Eman (the mom), very French and very calm, Myriam (the sister) and Lina and Marwane (my favorite twins!).

I super excitedly hugged all of them (except Yassine because that would just be awkward with everyone there).

We split into both cars and I had his mom, dad and sister with me. I had already planned several conversation starters beforehand to avoid awkward silences (phew!) – all the usual questions about the flight, their hometown, if they visited Egypt before, what I had planned for them, etc.

It went great! We dropped them off at their hotel, made sure they were settled and went home to pass out until the next day.

For the first day, I planned to take them to breakfast, Khan el Khalili and then a felucca ride (good choices, huh!). We used a mini-bus to get around. Yes, my dad booked a mini-bus for the week. Super embarrassing, but actually very practical!

So we were on our merry way in “bus el sa3ada” doing our tour. Meanwhile, everyone at the house was running around preparing everything, especially the first lady of worry and tension, my mom, of course. I was so glad I wasn’t there!

After we were done, I took them back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner at my house that night.

I was a little nervous from the beginning of the day, but the nerves really hit their high point when we were all waiting for Yassine and his family to walk through the door and meet my family for the very first time.

WE SAID THIS: Stay tuned for part two!