Review of Doa al karawan

Amna, Hanadi, and their mother are village women who are forced into city life when their cruel Uncle Gaber casts them out of the village. The characters they encounter in the city are a revealing mix of urban professionals and seedier individuals. The professionals (the chief of police, the engineer) represent the new technocratic upper class of Egypt, responsible for modernization, urban planning, and bureaucratization. In the chief of police's home, Amna transforms from an illiterate village girl in hijab to a literate young woman in Western dress. In the end, the oppressive, misogynistic Uncle Gaber is arrested in the city, proof that his village code of honour does not apply in the modern urban context.