I grew up in the Shubra neighbourhood of Cairo, one of the city’s largest. People were always extremely kind, and everyday interactions were always polite, as they were across Egypt as a whole at that time. 

I learned to greet my neighbours with a smile. When one of them was ill, I would go to ask after them. However, after the January 2011 Revolution, everything changed. People seemed to be putting up barriers between themselves and others, as if they were erecting defensive lines to avoid any problems. 

At that time, I thought it was due to the circumstances of the revolution, when we saw people forming neighbourhood-watch groups to maintain security. 

In a scientific study published in January 2020 in the NILES Journal for Geriatric and Gerontology published by Beni Sweif University and the National Institute of Longevity and Elderly Sciences, researcher Nagwan Ahmed Assem says that Egyptian society was exposed to a number of economic, social, and political changes following the revolution and that these had effects on personal behaviour.

Her article, called “Social and Economic Changes after the January 2011 Revolution and their Effects on the Egyptian Personality,” says that the revolution led to changes in interpersonal behaviour.

Today, when you ride the Cairo Metro, you may well find other passengers looking as if they are in a state of depression and hardship. They may be absorbed in their own problems to the extent that they only think of them without considering others. 

People may be aggressive towards each other, even if something happens accidentally. Nevertheless, even in this gloomy atmosphere, it is still possible to find especially young people trying to spread joy to those around them. 

Some young people on social media may offer each other flowers or personal messages, even if they do not know each other. They may give a girl a flower with a note that says “you are beautiful” or sketch a passer-by. Such gestures can cause expressions to change radically, with smiles replacing frowns. 

While I was contemplating these social changes, I watched a video on Facebook featuring a young man sketching Metro passengers without their noticing. When he had finished his drawings, he would give them to them, and their facial expressions would change into smiles and surprise. 

One of the videos showed an old lady sitting next to her husband lost in her thoughts. Her facial expressions indicated a long life filled with hard work and struggles for her children and a home she had maintained for many years. But after a simple sketch from an unknown young man, her gloomy expression was transformed into a pure smile, as if she had received the biggest prize in the world. 

I kept playing the video over and over again to enjoy that wonderful smile, which was a hundred times more beautiful than the enigmatic smile in the famous painting the Mona Lisa, today in the Louvre in Paris. It made me want to find this young man who brings joy to passers-by. I eventually found him to be full of surprises.

Islam Attiya, 25, from Abu-Qurqas in Minya, 250 km south of Cairo, has a degree in law, but he decided to do what he loves and brings joy to his life by studying art. Due to a lack of financial means, he could not enrol in the Faculty of Fine Arts, so he chose to study art alone and in his own way. 

He studied under the guidance of professors through private courses without his parents’ knowledge, as he was aware that they would disapprove of his pursuit. 

He worked alongside his studies to cover the cost of the courses. Sometimes, he had to ask friends for financial help when he needed to attend an expensive course. All this was also at the expense of his other work in law, which he never loved. 

 “What has happened to the arts scene over the past few years is a result of many influences, the most important of which is social media. This has given anyone, regardless of their expertise, the opportunity to say anything at all on any subject. In the past, people usually obtained information from the mainstream media. Today, there are many other options,” Attiya said.

“Amidst all this chaos, I tried to find opportunities to make art. The idea of going out and drawing in the streets occurred during an art course I attended. The trainer asked students to draw between 70 and 100 sketches a day, on the condition that they would not use photographs from the Internet or take pictures using mobile phones. The idea was to draw real characters from life within a limited time.”

“That’s where the story began. I asked myself where I would find people to draw, and the answer came in the shape of the Metro. On the Metro, people are forced to sit or stand still until they arrive at their stations.”

“I took it upon myself to draw faces within two minutes, and I loved to share people’s reactions on social media, whether they were supportive or critical of my drawings. My goal was to link art with laughter and the sense of humour shared by all Egyptians.”

Attiya has some telling stories of his career as a sketcher on the Metro.

“I remember once I was with a friend in the Metro, and there was a man sitting in front of us with distinctive facial features and a white beard. He seemed troubled and lost in thought. When my friend pointed him out to me and I started to sketch him, he stopped moving as if he had noticed my presence and that I was drawing him. However, when I finished the sketch and handed it to him, he didn’t pay any attention.”

“I called out to him, and he turned to me, and I realised that he hadn’t been aware of me at all. When he took the drawing from me, he looked at it for a long time, and as he was about to get off the train, he thanked me, saying ‘you changed my mood. I was thinking about things that were weighing me down, and you came to save me.’”

“At that moment, I’m sure I felt happier than he was. It was he who changed my day with those words,” Attiya commented.

Attiya adds that his videos have become very popular on the Internet.

“One of the videos became a trend overnight featuring a Sudanese sheikh I had drawn. When I handed him my drawing, he laughed a beautiful laugh that touched the hearts of everyone who heard it,” he said.

The man said that “I come from Sudan, now in the midst of a war, but you have brought joy to my heart.” The phrase was shared extensively on social media, and Attiya said that “I was amazed by the reactions of Sudanese people to the video. Someone even sent me a message saying that ‘you have extinguished the tension between the two peoples.’ At that moment, I realised the role art can play in bringing people closer together. On that day, I made an entire nation happy.”

Attiya mainly draws men’s faces, explaining that “drawing a girl requires focus and stability as their features are more active. This is unlike the faces of adults, which are filled with wrinkles.” 

“Whenever I give a girl a drawing, she says ‘this is not me,’” he said. Some girls do not like to be drawn, while others ask for more pictures.  

“I love to draw faces on the Metro and put smiles on people’s faces,” Attiya concluded. “Even a simple drawing can transform the situation of people for the better. 

This is the true role of art.”

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly