Bizarre in the Bazaar

Nouran Salah is on the move.

Among spots of news coverage over the years, and even a TEDx Talk at French University in Egypt, she made an appearance to the world in the documentary The Engine Inside, which debuted in 2023. It chronicled the lives of six people in different communities around the globe who were using bicycles – consciously or subconsciously – to improve the world around them.

Nouran’s story came from Cairo, Egypt, one of the busiest metropolitan areas on the planet, where chaos is abundant in the streets, and bicycles aren’t. A lack of infrastructure makes it hard for anyone to ride around, but for women, social stigmas attached to cycling make it even harder.

Nouran sought change. Despite cultural headwinds, she began riding. A lot. The confidence she gained then turned into initiative. She started the Cairo Cycling Geckos, a group of women who ride in the same quietly defiant spirit, including in larger organized events every year. They’ve grown steadily in numbers, rolling through the streets of Cairo and its suburbs. What began as a question became its own answer: Women had a right to ride, no matter what tradition told them.

A year after the release of the documentary, we caught up with Nouran to see what’s changed in her life and in her country, and what hasn’t.

“I believe in a brighter future for women in this country.”

Nouran Salah

Q & A

Cannondale: Tell us about yourself.
Nouran: I am Nouran. I used to be an interior designer, but I quit my corporate job. I was always very involved in health, fitness, and wellness fields, and I've always been an instructor on the side when it comes to those things, so I decided to make it my full-time job. I have my own agency, called the Flâneur Agency, where I organize yoga retreats and adventure trips. I'm also the founder of Cairo Cycling Geckos. So, yeah, that’s it about me: I'm all about movement in all forms.

C: Can you give us a recap of how you started getting into cycling?
N: I cycled ever since I was young. My parents were very keen about us knowing all the basic types of sports that would help us in life. So they taught us how to cycle, how to swim, how to ride horses, how to shoot a gun, all that stuff. We were taught so many different sports, and cycling was one of them. We used to go to the beach every summer to use the bikes because it wasn't really common to use them in Egypt. That was up until I was maybe 12 or 13. And then for some reason, I didn't cycle again.

But then my wanderlust began when I was 19. I started cycling in Europe. So every time I travel abroad – and I used to travel a lot, every single year – I would cycle and do all my tours with a bike. And then when I was 26, I realized, “Why am I only renting a bicycle when I travel abroad? Why I don't do that in Egypt?”

So I called my dad and I asked him, “Do you think it's fine to buy a bicycle and to use it? Because I don't understand. No one is cycling.”

And he said, “I don't know. The infrastructure is not the best. We don't have any cycling lanes and people drive crazy. There are no driving rules.”

And I said, “Dad, if that's the issue, I'm just gonna buy a bike.”

He was like, “Yeah, go! Go ahead!”

And yeah, this is how I started cycling. And ever since, I never stopped.

“When you’re mentally strong, you can grab from the stars.”

Nouran Salah

C: How have you seen attitudes change towards women riding bikes in Egypt? Are they evolving?
N: Of course. I started my initiative in 2016 when I decided that I have to do a revolution to make a change in this country, because you never see a woman on a bicycle. And I guess I went to the extreme. I went to the areas where women are super covered.

But then, by 2019, this is when we started to realize the change. All the areas where we cycled and all the areas where we commuted to, they got so normalized to seeing us on bicycles. There were no comments anymore. There wasn’t any verbal harassment. People are not making a fuss of you because you are on a bicycle. Nobody's jeering you, nobody's even looking at you. You are just on a bicycle. So, yeah, the attitudes completely changed. I remember the first time I was on a bicycle [in Cairo]. It was like a circus.

“I think the reason where I am right now in life is because I decided not to listen to what people say.”

Nouran Salah

And the only reason why I was able to do these things is that I didn't believe in what people believed in. When I was told riding a bicycle would break my hymen, I didn’t believe that. And yeah, this applies on everything. Like if you live alone, then you are a prostitute? You can say whatever you want. I mean, if I keep following everyone's opinion about me, I'm not going to achieve anything in my life. I think the reason where I am right now in life is because I decided not to listen to what people say.

C: How can people support your cause?
N: There are so many ways! We are very happy when people donate old bicycles, or buy brand new bicycles, or even donate money to the cause. We get a lot of donations through Western Union from abroad for people who really, really love the project, and they're still supporting us today, for the past eight years. The cycling community in Egypt is growing. It's not big, but it's growing.

C: What does the future hold for you?
N: That's super unknown, but I'm sure it holds a lot of adventures and challenges and huge, huge bumps on the way.

It holds a lot of promises towards a better future for women because I believe this is my purpose in life; to make this world easier, safer, and accessible for women in all aspects. This is why I quit my passion, which is arts and design, and decided to concentrate on health and wellness.

I believe it has a profound effect on women and how it boosts their confidence. When you believe in yourself, especially when you do like bike riding or yoga sessions – like really tough yoga sessions, when you unlock really complicated poses or very difficult moves – you feel like you're getting stronger. What reflects on your body totally reflects on your mind. When you feel physically strong, it makes you mentally strong. And when you're mentally strong, you can grab the stars.

I believe in a more bright future for women in this country. I'm not going to stop fighting. I'm not going to stop writing. I'm not going to stop nagging about the change I want to see in this world.