Three Swedish Women in Cairo: A Swedish Family’s View of Egypt from the 1930s to 2011
سويدية في القاهرة Between the 1930s and 2011, Swedish writer Anne Edelstam tells the story of her family in Egypt through the novel “Three Swedish Women in Cairo.” It begins with her grandfather, who worked as a judge in Egypt’s Mixed Courts, then her mother, who spent part of her childhood in Cairo, and finally Anne herself, who spent her youth in Cairo in the 1970s. The book presents the views of three different generations on Egypt across the eras of Kings Fuad and Farouk, then the reigns of Abdel Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak, up to the January 25 revolution of 2011. The novel appears sympathetic to royal-era Egypt, critical of Abdel Nasser (under whom many foreigners left Egypt), and appreciative of Sadat and his policies. Responding to this observation, the author said she did not write about the Nasser era because her family had already left the country. She admired Sadat’s peace initiative but realized that the economic Infitah (open-door) policy was not in the interest of t...