Assalaamu alaikum(peace be upon you),

I have just visited your web page with the lesson plan for children to learn greetings, polite phrases and actions around the world.

I have one comment though in relation to Egyptian greetings and Middle Eastern greetings in general. While men will cheek kiss other men and women will cheek kiss other women, no woman of a good family would cheek kiss a man, even if it is a friend of long standing. She would be considered a woman of loose morals.

Among the more conservative Muslim women and the ultra orthodox Muslim women there would not even be eye contact and certainly no hand contact. In fact, when an ultra conservative Muslim woman makes a purchase she allows the salesman to put the change on the counter and then picks it up as opposed to setting it in her hand, thereby ensuring no physical contact. Many orthodox Muslim women do not answer the telephone in their homes just in case it is a man on the other end, so the man does not hear their voice.

Most Egyptian women do work outside the home, however, and greetings are exchanged(not kissing). Besides the traditional Islamic greeting of "assalaamu alaikum", there is the extended "assalaamu alaikum rahmatullahi wa barakatu". The first being "peace be upon you" and the second being "may the peace and blessings of God be upon you". In Egypt there is also a series of morning greetings which are heard and many times lead to a contest of who can give the best greeting. Someone will say "sabah el kheir"(good morning) and then may receive the response "sabah el noor"(morning of light) the exchange continues with the first person saying "sabah el foul"(morning of jasmin flowers" and receives the response of "sabah el eishta"(morning of cream, this is what the British call clotted cream or Devon cream which is served on sweets). By this time the two participants are laughing at their out linguistic cleverness.

I hope this helps you in updating your web page and this lesson plan.

Masalaama(peace to you),
P-J Mohamed
PJMMondial@aol.com