There is a fierce battle on Facebook and other social networking sites over a woman's right to wear the burkini (Islamic swimsuit) on beaches and in swimming pools.
You see pictures of them on hotel beaches, with comments calling them ugly and accusing them of tarnishing the image of Egypt and destroying tourism.
Counter comments accuse those who are against it of being racists who confiscate freedoms and foment immorality.
Meanwhile, several restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment deny entry to veiled women.
It has become a battle of life or death for both parties of the conflict.
The battle over a few centimeters more on an outfit takes place while Egypt’s budget deficit is more than LE250 billion, a boat that sank in the Nile in Warraq claimed the lives of more than 30 people, the garbage piles are growing higher and higher, more than ten million Egyptians suffer from Hepatitis C, slums sprawl, poverty bites, crime rates increase, education falls and the rule of law collapses.
All this has divided society into people who believe or fantasize that they live in a country full of achievements and successes, and others who live on revolutionary hopes and wishes, while the nation is falling into an abyss.
How can we move forward if our main battle now is the bikini versus the burkini? We have become the laughing stock of the world. We are all racists who pretend otherwise. What would the history books recall of this time period we live in? What would our children say?
Had we been so enthusiastic in defending democracy, our country would have been in a far better situation today.
God help Egypt.
