Cairo nightlife returns after a month of early-closure measures

Egypt lifted early-closure measures on Cairo after a month of the famously late-night city being forced to shut down by 11pm.

Cairenes are used to sitting at cafes until the small hours, but energy price spikes from the Iran war pushed authorities to impose a curfew, and dim or shut off streetlights, one of several such efforts to preserve fuel worldwide.

It hit the capital’s economy badly — “All of [Cairo residents’] work is done at the coffee shop,” one owner told Reuters — and led to a revival of COVID-era speakeasy tactics, with ’ahwas closing shutters and keeping an eye out for police. Residents are welcoming the return: “The streets were really depressing for the past month,” one told Bloomberg.