The Egyptian president was also headed, a’shoe polisher’ who dressed as a man for 47 years for his daughter.

There is an Egyptian woman who has lived in a male costume for nearly half a century. Raising a daughter alone needed to earn money, but when there were no jobs available to women, she chose to live as a man herself. On the 8th, Kyodo News reported the story of Sisa Abu Dau, 70, who polishes shoes at the bus terminal in Luxor, Egypt.

Shisa usually wears a turban on his head and wears an Egyptian national costume for men. Kyodo News Agency said, “If you even have a cigarette in one hand, you look like a man at first glance.”

The money he receives after cleaning a pair of shoes is 2 Egyptian pounds (about 145 won). Working all day in men’s clothing, we earn thousands of won with our money.

He was also an ordinary woman when he was young. I got married at the age of 20 and had a daughter. But three years later, her husband suddenly died of a heart attack, and Shisa’s life changed.

There was no right way to raise a young daughter right away. But when I remarried, I was worried that my daughter would be abused. It was because of the local circumstances where domestic violence was rampant.

Moreover, 47 years ago, when Sisa lost her husband, few women worked outside in conservative Egypt. It was dangerous, but I couldn’t find a place to give women a job.

It was the men’s chief who Sisa chose. He wore men’s clothes and went to the construction site like her husband to make bricks. Colleagues who noticed that Shisa wasn’t a man also said that they closed their eyes after learning about his sad situation.

She even married her daughter while working at the construction site, but Shisa did not stop working. While growing date palms on a farm, he settled down as a shoeshine at a bus stop more than 20 years ago.

During the half-century that he unintentionally worked as a man, the culture of Egypt changed a lot. These days, the government has stepped up to encourage women’s labor. Shisa was also selected as the’Representative of Working Women’ in 2015 and received a commendation. At the time, the President met with the current affairs and raised him up as a’great mother’.

However, the labor participation rate of local women is still only 20%, and the income of female workers is only a quarter of that of men. Kyodo News Agency said, “In the index of gender equality, Egypt is ranked 134th out of 153 countries.”

Reporter Seo Yujin [email protected]