The driver was chatty in a harassing way from the beginning, but I told him I was married and tried to be busy on my phone. Then he turned off the meter and I got angry and shouted and made a big deal. He eventually turned it back on but then he started acting strange. Under my breathe I said 'this is fucking unreal.' I think he heard the f word and I'm pretty sure started asking me if I wanted to have sex in Arabic. I told him I didn't understand, and I wanted to go to the airport.
He started saying things like if we were married he would give me a baby right away. Then he said he was tired and just wanted to go to a nice place, "makan helou". There was a lot of traffic so I didn't feel completely threatened but it was starting to be late for my flight. I told him no and glared at him. I started debating whether I should get out. I was worried he would pull a move with taking my bags or if it would be hard to get another taxi. I was doubting myself and not sure about what was happening or what to do.

Then I heard him saying 'pantaloons bas', and I knew it was officially big trouble. By this time he had turned off to go to the other main road in New Cairo due to traffic. I told him no, 3aib alek, haraam. He started asking me over and over if I was Muslim. I was frantic on my phone trying to get in touch with a friend.

We drove onto the other main road going to the airport but there was less and less traffic. Then he turned off onto a more residential road. I was hoping it was the back way to the airport. We drove about 2 blocks until I could confirm that we definitely were not going towards the airport anymore. We came to a small circle where the one turn was to a deserted construction-type area. I knew then I couldn't keep debating and had to get out ASAP. I started screaming for him to stop, crying and gesturing to stop. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman become very concerned when she saw me. The taxi driver didn't know what to do so he just started driving around the circle a few times. Thank God he didn't seem to know what to do and that allowed me to attract more attention.

When he didn't stop, I started opening the door and screaming more. Two big men in a construction truck pulled in front of him and another taxi behind. Finally he stopped. The three men came over and asked what was going on. I was blubbering by then but luckily one of the guys spoke English. They asked him why the meter was so low for coming from Zamalek, and why he was going in this area for the airport. He kept on saying he wanted my money. I refused to give it to him until he took my bag out of the trunk. The men that stopped just stayed out of things. He finally opened the trunk and gave me my final bag. I told them I didn't care about the money and gave him 40 LE to just be done with it. The jerk started saying he wanted 10 more! Then the men stepped in and told him it was enough and to get going. The construction workers questioned the taxi that stopped and told him to go straight to the airport. He was a nice man that spoke English and worked in tourism before the revolution, and he tried to make me feel better for 10 minutes until we arrived at the airport.

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