I was once riding the train on my way to university in Minya.
I was wearing boots that were mid-leg. They looked a lot like those combat boots which recruited soldiers wear.
I was alone on the train, no one was sitting beside me.

A few of those young recruited soldiers came and sat in the seats next to me.
When I saw that all of them were sitting around me, I wrapped myself tightly in my mother's shawl.
She had given me one of those huge shawls that you throw on your back, a bit like a poncho: a huge rectangle of fabric covering the back and extending to cover the chest but divided so it falls down the front into two slimmer rectangles. I just wrapped myself in it, covered my head and even my face. I kept to myself in the corner, stuck to the window.  

They kept looking at my boots and saying: "It’s a man, it’s a guy! He's in military clothes, he's wearing military clothes!"
"I'm going to pull that cover away to see if it’s a guy or a girl."
I was all curled up on myself, afraid someone would pull away the shawl.

They were making fun of me all the way, "It's a guy, it’s a guy. He's in the military. He's a soldier like us..." and stuff like that.
I didn't respond to them at all as I got off the train. I didn't even speak to them.
I just unwrapped my mother's shawl from my body bit by bit, folded it, carried it on my arm and got off.

But I was upset; why does any of them need to know whether I'm a guy or a girl?
Why am I or the boots I'm wearing your concern? Am I always an easy prey just because I'm alone and not with a man?