For the Well-Dressed Fellah

Like Turkey's Kemal Atatuerk, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt has been determined to force his country into the 20th century by ridding it of the relics of the past. To an extent, he has succeeded. Skyscrapers have risen to replace block after block of slum huts in Cairo. Few city kids now roam the streets barefooted. At Nasser's behest, almost no one wears the little red fez any longer. He has even managed to reduce the number of beggars that once plagued tourists.

But one habit Egyptians cannot kick is the galabiya, the loose, ankle-length cotton garment that looks like a nightshirt and acts as an air conditioner of sorts in Egypt's sweltering heat. Fellah (peasant) and townsman alike have worn the flowing gown since the days of the pharaohs, and no amount of cajoling by Nasser's Ministry of Culture and National Guidance has been able to convince Egyptians that they should switch to that restricting jacket-shirt-and-pants that those strange, perspiring foreigners seem to prefer.

But Nasser is a tenacious leader, and once again his government went on the attack against the galabiya. State-operated cooperative stores put on sale 420,000 officially approved cotton suits consisting of trousers and jacket, retailing from $1.50 to $3, half the price of the average galabiya. To make the new attire more enticing, the suits come in grey or blue, or gaudy, striped red. In support of the anti-galabiya campaign, the state-controlled TV, press and radio have started a Madison Avenue-style campaign, with songs and commercials extolling the virtue of jackets and pants: they don't get caught in machinery, they make bicycling more comfortable, running easier, and are symbolic of the modern, industrialized Egypt that Nasser is constructing. Carried away by the spirit of the moment, one fiery journalist wrote: "The galabiya does not suit the age of the rockets. If you rise above the earth, its ends will fly unless you put them between your teeth."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.