In the office of the manager of a wedding hall in Giza, Aya Mahmoud and Eyad Hassan spent three hours figuring out how to reorganise their plans for their wedding on 3 April to match the government’s energy-saving scheme that has introduced the early closures of businesses and the reduction of public lighting.
The plans went into a one-month trial period on 28 March in a bid to manage the higher cost and lower supplies of energy as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran. They impose a 9 pm closure on all non-essential services.
Other than health services, supermarkets, and tourism facilities, all other businesses have to observe the 9 pm curfew, except for the weekend on Thursdays and Fridays when the curfew starts at 10 pm.
Government offices that do not provide services to the public are given Sunday as a work-from-home day. Street lighting is subject to significant reduction, with around two thirds of it included.
For the couple, who booked their wedding late last year, the news announced on 18 March came as a shock.
“We have been saving to get married for five years, and Hassan had just come back from Saudi Arabia, and now we have had our wedding plans turned upside down,” Mahmoud, a physician, said.
When Hassan, also a physician, safely arrived from Saudi Arabia where he lives and works, Mahmoud thought that “at least we could enjoy the moment for a while.”
“When the war [on] Iran started, I was very scared for him because of the Iranian strikes against the Gulf [countries]. I was hoping that by the time we had had our wedding and spent our honeymoon we could both travel to Saudi Arabia when the war would have ended,” she said.
“Now, we have to rework the wedding, and we don’t know what things will be like in Saudi Arabia when we arrive,” she added.
Since he arrived in Cairo in mid-March, Hassan has been consumed by following the news of the war, “hoping that things will settle down”.
“My parents and Aya were very worried for me since the strikes started to hit Saudi Arabia, and at the end of the month Aya and I are supposed to be going to Saudi Arabia to start a new life. Both our families are worried for us because nobody really knows how things could develop,” Hassan said.
It took only a few days of his stay in Cairo before a new worry was thrown into the mix, with the government decision to introduce the energy-saving plans.
“Our wedding was supposed to start at 9 pm, and now it has to end at 9 pm. We had booked an evening wedding, although it is more expensive, because the weather is so unpredictable in the early days of spring in Egypt,” he said.
Changing the plans was unrealistic because to cancel the wedding would have meant a considerable financial loss since no refund is possible. It was also impossible to delay, because of the couple’s travel plans, strained budget that could not afford to pay extra to get the booking rescheduled, and the unavailability of a delayed date.
“This is a high season for weddings, right after the end of Ramadan,” said Atef Farid, the manager of the wedding hall. He added that the post-Ramadan slot is particularly busy this year, given the fact that it coincides with Coptic Orthodox Easter and the advent of spring.
To work around the situation, Farid agreed with the couple that he would move the wedding from the closed hall to an open-air space where some adjustable shades, lighting, decorations, and air conditioning would be made available.
Because this space is not designed for hosting events, the couple would still have a smaller adjacent hall where the dinner buffet would be served and wedding photos could be taken.
Fixing the wedding plans, however, required a more complicated process whereby the bride needed to negotiate with her beauty salon about a hairdresser and make-up artist to help her with her look for the wedding.
Now she will not have either the hairdresser or the makeup artist she wanted because they were already booked for another bride-to-be.
“It is a very messy situation,” said Fatema Sobhi, the manager of an east Cairo chain of beauty salons. To overcome the confusion, she has called on former workers who had retired or were on leave to step in to help.
“But we don’t know if this month’s regulation of electricity will be extended, and we are just waiting not knowing what to do or how things will go,” Sobhi said.
LACK OF CLARITY: A source at the Ministry of Electricity said that despite the unease caused by the energy-saving plans, it is more likely than not that they will be extended throughout the summer.
Speaking on 1 April, the source said that the decision would be taken by the cabinet, not just the Ministry of Electricity.
“This is a decision that involves many other ministries and is based on assessments that involve the ministries of finance, oil, and the interior,” the source said.
He added that as far as the Ministry of Electricity is concerned, the energy-saving scheme needs to go up not down in order to cope with the energy crisis ignited by the US-Israeli war on Iran that started on 28 April and that has since been dragging on.
“This war has had two impacts on the energy market, one that relates to increasing prices and another that relates to decreasing availability,” he said.
He added that in a matter of four weeks there has been an over 50 per cent increase in the prices of crude oil and natural gas due to the war unfolding in one of the most important oil and gas production spots in the world and also to the constraints imposed by Iran on the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
There are also fears over possible hiccups in the passage of tankers through the Bab Al-Mandab in the Red Sea, given the recent intervention of pro-Iran Houthi factions in Yemen.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump gave a new warning to Iran that it would face “hell” if it did not remove all the limitations on the operation of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the threat made on his Truth Social site, Trump said that Iran had 48 hours left of the 10-day deadline he had given earlier.
“We don’t know what is going to happen, but if we were to judge by the last statement that Trump made, this war is likely to continue until the end of the month. This means spikes in the prices of energy and inevitably more energy-saving measures that may go beyond the current plan,” said an Egyptian MP who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He added that during a recent off-record meeting with other MPs, “a very senior official” said that the government was working on more comprehensive energy-saving plans that might include domestic electricity cuts, adding an extra working-from-home day to most government and private offices, and “maybe even putting a monthly cap on subsidised fuel per person.”
“It is all very tentative and much depends on the energy cuts that come in with the daylight-saving hours next month,” he said.
Late last week, after having increased the prices of all types of car and public transport fuel by around 12 per cent, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli called on the public to economise on using private and public transport in order to help the state manage the energy crisis caused by the war.
CALCULATING COSTS: According to data released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), over the past five years Egypt’s energy bill has jumped from $9.1 billion, in 2019, to $20.8 billion last year.
An informed source in the energy sector said that this increase was prompted by a drop in local production, specifically of gas due to the ageing of key gas fields, an increase in oil and gas exports, and the short-term rather than long-term purchase contracts that have been going into effect.
The source added that with the impact of the current war on the oil and gas market, “which will not be a small one even if the war ends sooner rather than later,” this bill is set to increase, “maybe significantly”.
According to the MP, “there are other unfortunate factors that add to the problem.” The first, he said, was the impact of the war “today and tomorrow” on traffic through the Suez Canal and consequently on revenues.
He added that a second issue is the fact that some Arab Gulf countries that were “planning or at least promising” investments in Egypt are now reconsidering all foreign-investment schemes due to the economic crisis that the countries are facing due to the war.
There is also “the spending these countries will have to go through” both in terms of upgrading their military security and rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the Iranian strikes that have targeted American and other facilities.
Then, he added, there is the overall global slowdown as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran, “which will certainly have a big impact on Egypt.”
On 30 March, a blog published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the ongoing war in the Middle East is sending shockwaves through the global economy, pushing up energy prices, disrupting supply chains, and tightening financial conditions, with uneven impacts across countries.
The IMF blog highlighted energy markets as the main transmission channel of the crisis, with disruptions to flows through the Strait of Hormuz triggering what it described as a historic shock to global oil supplies.
For energy-importing economies, the surge in fuel costs is acting as a sudden tax on income, straining fiscal balances and widening external deficits. The IMF warned that persistently high energy and food prices could fuel renewed inflationary pressures worldwide.
Earlier last week, an IMF report also said that the outlook for the Egyptian economy in the current fiscal year that ends on 30 June remains fraught. According to the report, a key problem that Egypt is facing relates to insufficient progress in addressing questions of sustainability for the energy sector.
HITTING HARD: Meanwhile, the increase in the prices of oil and allied currency depreciation caused inflation to rise by over 13 per cent in February. With the war on Iran, the rise from 11.9 in January is expected to increase further.
In an east Cairo supermarket on 4 April, Aida Magdi was shopping for the Easter lunch that she hosts for her children and grandchildren every year with a sense of unease at the prices of meat and poultry in particular but also at the prices of milk and cheese.
Having avoided these items for the 55-day period of Lent, she said that she was “really surprised” by the increase in prices. “I will have to change the plan and drop some items and cut down on the amounts I was planning to buy in general,” Magdi said.
Overall, over the past month there has been an increase of around 25 per cent in the prices of meat and poultry and an increase of around 50 per cent in the prices of most vegetables and fruit.
This inflation is not only hurting families but also hurting one of the most profitable businesses in Egypt: fast-food restaurants. “Now we have to close at 9 pm, and the prices of the ingredients of all our recipes have been increasing. We are losing customers due to the economic problems,” said Mounir Beshai, the manager of a downtown restaurant.
According to Beshai, most medium and smaller restaurants come out of Ramadan with limited profits, “given the fact that not many people eat out in Ramadan”. He is hopeful that the government will reconsider the 9 pm and 10 pm closure times, given the “significant losses that many businesses have suffered”.
“We are coming up to summer, the time when Egyptians working overseas come home for their holidays and want to go out. It is also the time for Arab Gulf tourism and the time that we make our best profits,” Beshai said.
“I think at least the closure hour should be extended to midnight on weekdays, as in Egypt people like to eat out late,” he added.
The Egyptian cabinet approved the delay of the curfew of commercial venues to 11 pm during the Coptic Easter, applicable from 10 to 13 April.
However, according to Saher Mustafa, a university student, “there is always a way for people to go out and have some fun even at the darkest times of economic pressure.”
Since the energy-saving restrictions have been applied, Mustafa and his friends have made a habit of meeting up next to one of the bigger supermarkets in New Cairo to spend a long evening out every other day. “We car-pool, buy some drinks and snacks from the supermarket, and spend a good evening out,” he said.
Clearly, this is not the kind of routine that most people would want to subscribe to. A driver for a smart car-service application, Mohamed Kadri said that by 8 pm he receives fewer and fewer requests. “The streets become dim, and people are hesitant to go out, especially with the inevitable increase in fares,” he said.
By 9 or 10 pm, the number of requests he receives comes close to zero, so Kadri goes home and watches television. “But now we have been hearing on the talk-shows that the government might be planning to impose domestic electricity cuts as well,” he said.
On Saturday evening, the Ministry of Electricity announced an increase in the prices of electricity for households whose consumption is over 2,000 kw per month. Some commercial and industrial sectors are also expected to be affected by the increases.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 April, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
Short link: