Opening car doors for babes

It's well known that walking the streets of Cairo can be treacherous if you don't watch out for the cars, buses, microbuses, motorbikes, bicycles, donkeys, etc.

Tonight--on my way to a bar to meet up with friends--I came across a car idling in the street and blocking my way. Expecting the male driver to get out, I walked around the passenger's side only to find two women about to enter. Both were shrouded in loose, black cloth. The elderly one struggled to move from the curb to the car, while the younger one--perhaps her daughter--hand her hands full with an infant in swaddling clothes. I reached out like a gentleman to open the car door for the elderly woman, and the younger one thanked me. But then I hesitated for a moment too long and felt as if I had violated some private domain relating to visual and audial contact with two strange woman as well as the proximity to the closed setting of a private car.

I continued on my way, ever more satisfied with the prospect of a beer, and not one block away, I came across an almost identical situation! A car blocked my way, I passed around the passenger side, and found myself opening the door for a young, modernly-dressed woman carrying an infant in swaddling clothes! She thanked me (Merci!) and sat in the car, so I closed the door and, now really feeling like a chauffeur, managed to go one more block to the bar without the same thing happening again.

This will be a sign to you: You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes...