Faces of a Revolution #7: Safeya's Tears – Cairo, Egypt. From the series In the Shadow of the Pyramids (2005-14). Taken on a Canon EOS 400D (now succeeded by the Canon EOS 850D) at 250mm, 1/500 sec, f/7.1 and ISO200. © Laura El-Tantawy
"I definitely still connect more with my roots as an Egyptian, but there's always been a bit of something that I feel I have to justify for myself, that maybe you lose some of that when you live far away for so long. I've felt that when I go out on the streets here to photograph. A lot of times people ask me, 'Where are you from?' Then starts this conversation: 'I'm from here'. They're like, 'Oh, there's no way you're from here. Maybe you're from Tunis or Lebanon, but you're not Egyptian.' I think when you leave a country and live somewhere else, the way you carry yourself changes. I always dress the way you'd see an Egyptian dress, when I speak Arabic I think it's normal Egyptian, but I think they are picking up on these subtle changes. 'No, you're not Egyptian.'"