On a weekday night in Cairo, when most are racing house, caught in visitors, or squeezing in a single final espresso, an unusually calm exercise is going on at a café within the metropolis.
A gaggle of strangers sits along with their books open and, for 20 minutes, nobody speaks. Then the silence breaks. Chairs shift, pages shut, and conversations start.
This rhythm, 20 minutes of studying, a dialog break, repeated thrice, is the inspiration of Studying After Work, a group created by Asmaa Eltaher, a 29 12 months previous expertise skilled who determined that studying deserved a hard and fast place in grownup life, not simply good intentions. The occasion is often about two to 3 hours lengthy in complete.
“We learn for one full hour, however it’s break up into three rounds of 20 minutes,” Eltaher explains to Egyptian Streets. “It’s not full silence your entire time, solely through the studying intervals. In between, folks speak, mirror, seize a drink, or react to what they’ve simply learn.”
An Concept that Virtually Didn’t Occur
Studying After Work began from a well-recognized frustration. Eltaher had cherished books since childhood, learn obsessively in faculty, after which, like many working professionals, studying slowly light from her routine.
“As duty grows and work takes over, studying turns into more durable to take care of,” she says. She tried setting yearly studying objectives, carrying books to cafés, even switching to “helpful” work-related studying. Nothing caught.
The concept of studying with strangers crossed her thoughts greater than as soon as, however she didn’t act on it.
“I actually thought nobody would have an interest. I assumed it was a bit insane,” she admits.
What modified was an informal dialog with pals about books and busy lives. Somebody recommended studying collectively as an alternative of speaking about studying. That was the push she wanted. Every week later, she hosted her first session in August 2025.
Not a Ebook Membership and That’s the Attraction
Regardless of first impressions, Studying After Work will not be a e book membership and Eltaher is adamant about that.
“It’s not about assigning a e book or ending chapters,” she explains. “Everybody brings their very own e book. It’s about displaying up.”
Individuals may be studying novels, psychology books, enterprise titles, memoirs, typically all on the identical desk.
After every 20-minute studying interval, individuals break into dialog. The break might be so long as you need the discussions and conversations to be. They discuss what they’re studying, and often the dialogue veers into life: work stress, relationships, worry, ambition, or the easy aid of slowing down.
What emerges is one thing nearer to a gathering than a structured dialogue. “You get the variety of views you’ll anticipate from a e book membership,” Eltaher says, “however multiplied, as a result of everyone seems to be studying one thing completely different.”
Quiet, However Not Awkward
The silence tends to fret first-timers. Sitting quietly with strangers sounds intimidating till it’s not.
“I used to be afraid folks would really feel uncomfortable,” Eltaher admits. “However, it seems silence might be comforting when everybody is aware of why it’s there.”
One attendee as soon as advised her that it was their first time to go to an occasion alone. She didn’t know anybody. She didn’t even know what to anticipate, however books felt like protected firm. By the top of the evening, she was already planning to return.
One other surprising end result was the depth of the conversations.
“I didn’t plan for folks to open up the way in which they did,” Eltaher says. “However they began sharing very private issues about loss, sickness, relationships… I nonetheless don’t totally perceive why it occurs, however possibly folks really feel protected sufficient.”
Those that don’t need to communicate should not pressured. Listening is participation. Silence, once more, has its place.
Everyone seems to be Welcome
Individuals vary extensively in age and occupation, however they share one frequent battle: time. “It was born from a battle, discovering time to learn whereas working,” she provides.
“So, at the least everybody shares one factor: they’re professionals who love books, and they don’t have sufficient time for them.” Anybody might merely signal as much as attend via the Studying After Work web site.
The occasions vary throughout Cairo. Thus far, they’ve been held in New Cairo, Heliopolis, and Maadi.
One sample Eltaher can’t clarify, however laughs about brazenly, is attendance.
“Thus far, it’s largely girls,” she says, amused. “I genuinely have no idea why. The boys are very welcome.”
There is no such thing as a coverage behind it, no intentional focusing on. It’s merely how the group has shaped, at the least for now. The imbalance has turn into a operating joke reasonably than a priority, and Eltaher is hoping this may shift because the idea spreads.
Letters, Reflection, and Slowing Down
Along with weekly studying classes, Studying After Work introduces month-to-month themes. Some of the private is Letters of December, impressed by Eltaher’s behavior of writing letters to herself yearly.
“December is after I mirror on the 12 months and take into consideration what’s subsequent,” she says.
“So, I assumed, why not flip that into one thing collective, with out forcing anybody to share?”
Individuals write letters to previous or future variations of themselves. Some learn them aloud. Some preserve them personal. Others share anonymously. Alternative is central to the expertise.
“I Didn’t Know this Existed in Egypt”
For a lot of attendees, the largest shock is just that one thing like this exists in any respect.
Rawan, who found Studying After Work whereas scrolling on Instagram, says it instantly caught her consideration.
“It was good, to be sincere. I got here throughout Studying After Work by scrolling via Instagram, and it grabbed my consideration. I by no means thought e book golf equipment had been a factor in Egypt, and it made it much more likable that it was not a conventional e book membership in any respect,” mentioned Rawan Hazem.
There is no such thing as a stress, no inflexible format, simply studying quietly and along with strangers.
That response is frequent. Folks arrive curious, skeptical, or drained, and depart calmer than they anticipated.
Making Time for the Thoughts
Studying After Work remains to be small by design. A rising group of regulars kinds its core, with new faces slowly becoming a member of. Enlargement throughout Cairo, and finally past, is within the works, however Eltaher is cautious to not lose what makes it work.
“We dedicate time to the whole lot, sports activities, work, socializing,” she says. “Why not dedicate time to our minds?”
In a metropolis that not often pauses, Studying After Work will not be asking readers to disconnect from life. It’s asking them to take a seat with it, one web page at a time.
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