The story of the police in Egypt is an amazing melodrama surpassing Shakespeare's and Marlow's masterpieces.

If you have the misfortune to pay a visit to an Egyptian police station, you would be able to witness the daily life showing how people are humiliated and degraded in the worst of ways.

Let me introduce to you the stars of the play " Egyptian Police Station": "Al-ma'mour", the superintendent, and his team of officers and policemen. "Ra'ees Al-mabaheth", the detective chief inspector, and his team of  investigators and the "Mukhbreen" or the undercover plainclothes policemen.

And now let us turn to the scene:  Stairs outdoors and inside the station, a check point on the entrance manned by two illiterate soldiers,
"Al-takhsheebah" or the temporary prison cell, also known as "Al-talagah" or the refrigerator. A small stingy and dirty room reserved specially for torturing the would be outlaws and others misfortunate guests, two clean rooms suitable for "Al-ma'mour" and his crew, in addition of two more rooms for "Ra'ees Al-mabaheth" and his group.

Two citizens engaged in a quarrel.  Shouting, kicking and boxing, their altercation ultimately land them in the police station. They enter the officers' room  but it is empty, so "Ameen al-shortah", a middle level rank policeman; higher than the soldier and below the officer, begins to question them, using a foul language peppered with curses thrown at them and their mothers!

The crafty guy checks his pocket, catches a note of five or ten pounds, bends it and passes it covertly into the hand of "Ameen al-shortah", no sooner does the transaction take place, miraculously the treatment changes, while he buys his way out; his opponent will be accused of all the crimes till he apologizes, repents and kisses the hands and feet to be allowed to leave the station alive.

A solider enters carrying lunch from the nearby "Kababgy" or the expensive "Shish kabab restaurant", and hands it to his majesty "Ameen al-shortah" (street beat policeman).  Daily, or twice daily, free of charge, meals are religiously delivered to the officers and "Omanaa al-shortah".

The well known  wealthy merchant enters the police station, goes upstairs to meet "Ra'ees Al-mabaheth". There he relates the story of the abandoned land which is situated on one of the crowded streets in the district, people say that its owner has died in prison without any relative to inherit him. Others say that  the owner has left the country and has immigrated abroad while many others are engaging in similar rampant rumors.  The most important thing is that the well known rich merchant already has a contract purchasing the land from its owner before his mysterious disappearance.

Everyone knows that it is a forged contract, but when four or five hundred thousands Egyptian pounds are transferred to the accounts of "Ra'ees al-mabaheth", "Al-ma'mour", and "Ra'ees al 7ay", the government's senior engineer of the district will authenticate the contract and validate it. The wealthy merchant then would start building on the land. Shops and cafeterias on the first floor, and small rooms to be used as workshops on the upper floors.  A process which may take four to five months and the net profit would yield four or five million Egyptian pounds, and  perhaps even more in some areas.

Inside "Al-takhsheebah", or the temporary jail, you can notice twenty or more prisoners.  They have just a small hole around the back corner of the tomb like room to be used as a toilet.  After just five or six prisoners have used it, the hole is clocked to the rim, so the rest of  prisoners are forced to relieve themselves on the surrounding floor as an alternative toilet. Six or seven prisoners have been there for thirty or forty days, and they are still waiting!  Waiting under the mercy of the officers. Their only crime is to have been caught walking the streets without carrying their identity cards, "Betaqah - Shakhseyah".

These miserable guys have failed to prove their identity and they are consequently waiting for a solider or "Ameen shortah" to go to the security center to check their identities; a process which normally takes an hour or two, but no officer has given such order. They must pay the price of their sin of walking in the streets without I D cards.

 Six or seven other prisoners are waiting to be transferred to prisons, courts, etc. Two or three "Morshedeen" (informants) are hanging around the station. Their job is to eavesdrop on the others and then to report to the officers what they have heard.  Finally, there are on the scene, a few drug dealers, who are selling illicit  tablets, opium and other drugs to the prisoners.  This is a small, but lucrative business on the side to support the security men.

Before you think to pay a visit to a police station in Egypt, remember to fill your pockets with handy cash, so you can overcome your opponents and imprison them, engage in dirty business, or at least buy drugs to help you cope with the smell of the scattered feces on the floor.