ABDULLAH Abdel Hamid opened his ferasha shop 30 years ago. Most of his clients are individuals who want him to provide the furnishings for wedding parties. But he also gets requests from tourist villages and embassies to provide them with furniture and even cutlery and crockery for special occasions. “Of course, the furnishings a ferasha provides for wedding parties are the same as those for funerals,“ says Abdel Hamid. “Often a client comes to me for a funeral and then, a few months later, for a wedding.” A ferasha is a shop that caters for funerals, wedding parties and rallies. It's a thriving business, with these shops providing such gatherings with chairs, tables and large marquees, capable of holding many people. Traditionally, a ferasha provided these furnishings for funerals and wedding parties, but now they've started to cater for other events too. Abdel Hamid, who owns a ferasha store in Islamic Cairo says there's far more to his job than simply arranging a few chairs and tables in a row in a marquee. “We have to arrange things in a decorative manner. We also have to be very tactful, especially when it's a funeral and people are obviously grieving,” he adds. “Of course, the furnishings for a wedding party are more elaborate because we have more time to prepare and everyone is in a festive mood. For example, a couple recently asked me to run up some brightly coloured covers for the chairs for their wedding party.” Ferashas also do good business with Media Production City in 6th of October city, providing, for example, the furnishings for the sets of TV shows, and the Cairo Opera House, providing, for example, furnishings for a religious soap opera or folk arts performances. Few people realise that there are 30 different kinds of chairs a ferasha's customers can choose from. The owner of a ferasha shop has to initially make a huge financial outlay on the furniture he buys to rent out. He also has the salaries of his workers to think of and taxes too. According to Abdel Hamid, the global economic crisis has had a negative effect on his business, while many people these days like to hold their wedding parties at the halls built onto mosques for this purpose. Others prefer to hold their wedding parties at social clubs and Christians at churches. Those involved in the fersha business expect their trade to pick up as Egypt is set to go to polls twice – later this year to elect a new parliament and in September 2012 for presidential elections. “During the election season, we usually get orders to supply furnishings for rallies,” said Abdel Hamid.
