Egypt has a new leader, Mohamed Moursi, the first president to hail from the Muslim brotherhood And it also has Mahmoud, 50, whose profile is so ordinary by contemporary Egyptian standards as to make her elevation extraordinary.
With her image as a traditionalist everywoman, Mahmoud symbolizes the dividing line in the culture war that has made unity an elusive goal since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. For some, she represents the democratic change that the revolution promised. But to some in the westernized elite, she stands for a backwardness and provincialism that they fear from the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"I can't call her a first lady under any circumstances ," said Ahmed Salah, 29, a banker. "She can't be an image for the 'ladies' of Egypt."
Her image has become the subject of a rancorous debate on websites and in newspapers. A column in the newspaper El Fagr asked: How could she receive world leaders and still adhere to her traditional Islamic standards of modesty?
However, Dalia Saber an engineering lecturer, said, "She looks like my mother, she looks like my husband's mother, she probably looks like your mother." For her, Morsi and Mahmoud were what the Arab Spring was all about: regular people in power.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
