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THIS COMPLICATED, COSMOPOLITAN CITY IS HOME TO A READING PUBLIC THAT IS AS DIVERSE AS ITS STREETS
Tourists, historians, and archaeologists flock to the Nile to gaze and wonder at the past. Yet Egypt is looking to the future, striving to catch up and share in a global information society. Leading the endeavor is First Lady Suzanne Mubarak with her campaign for literacy, reading, and information for Egypt's children.
Cairo's libraries serve a reading public that is as diverse and complicated as the city's streets. Male patrons arrive in suits, jeans, or the long white or brown galabiyas. Some of the female patrons arrive in short skirts, dresses, or jeans, while others wear the bright, covering scarves and long skirts or the...