A Cairo Crime Family Took Us Inside One Of Egypt's Most Desperate Slums

I recently visited one of Cairo's most desperate slums.

Before I got to Egypt, I had never heard of the place, which is called Dar al-Salam. And I was only able to venture into it because I was accompanied by a member of an organized crime family.

I learned about Dar al-Salam from a man named Sonny, whom I met one night in Cairo's violent Tahrir Square.

Sonny had done what few Egyptians could manage: He had escaped Egypt. After growing up poor, he had become a mechanic, run a successful business, met a Japanese woman, and emigrated to Japan. He had only now braved a return trip to Egypt to visit family and friends. 

Sonny invited me for dinner at his family home in Dar al-Salam. It was Easter.

At dinner, Sonny talked about growing up in Dar al-Salam and living next door to one of the most powerful organized crime families in the area. Some of these family members would end up being our guides through the neighborhood. Without their approval, I was told, my excursion and photography would not have been possible. 

Dar al-Salam is a Cairo suburb most non-Egyptians have never heard of.

I would have missed it too but for this man, Sonny, who grew up there and happened to be taking refuge in my hotel during a Friday night riot in Tahrir Square. He invited me for dinner in Dar al-Salam that Sunday.

We arrived in Dar al-Salam before dinner. We heard this was a former factory.

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