Autobiographical comic about a belly dancer in Egypt
Mark Frauenfelder
Luna of Cairo is an excellent comic written by a woman who works as a belly dancer on a riverboat in Cairo. She gets frequently harassed by men (once a couple of young men sprayed tear gas at her and her friend,” just for fun”). Crime is rampant, too (“daily fights, kidnappings, muggings, rapes, murders, and rising sectarian violence). Yet she stays because she loves to belly dance. It’s illustrated by Leela Corman.
In 2008, Luna left New York City on a Fulbright scholarship to write a book about dance in Egypt. She holds a master’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and a B.A. in journalism and political science. She is fluent in Egyptian Arabic, Spanish and English.
