Bassem Youssef attends 2014 Cairo half marathon

The 2014 Cairo half marathon was just a few days ago. New Cairo’s youngest addition, Cairo Festival City, hosted the event within its perimeters with perfect organization, abundance of security and spacious parking. Have I mentioned the amazing amphitheatre at the dancing fountain that hosted the after party? 

But one of the most amazing things that happened also, was seeing people screaming (the good kind of screaming) and marching towards a public figure, trying to take selfies with him.

'It' was a tired Bassem Youssef who had just finished the race. He got on the stage later and I thought this was going to turn into another Al-Bernameg episode, which I love, but people came here to escape our country’s politics, at least for a bit, just like everyone else. That is, until he took the microphone and surprised us all. 

“I didn’t come here today to talk about politics, I actually came to encourage people to lead a better lifestyle, a healthy one.” He told everyone about becoming vegan and the weight he lost and how happy it made him feel about himself.

Seeing an Arab public figure supporting a healthy lifestyle and tourism in his country is more than just an act of kindness. He is a role model to all the new generations and coming out like that, means a lot to our countries' culture. 

Bassem Youssef understood the power of this event to unify a nation and demonstrated his support by attending personally. And that is what matters!

By Heidi Shebaro 

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger