Image: Matthias Toedt/DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
Of the 9.4 million licensed vehicles roaming the streets of Egypt, 2.5 million are in Cairo and Giza alone, according to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). With these cars crowding the already bustling streets of Cairo, and the impossibility of finding a decent parking lot, a new phenomenon has spread like a cancer from Cairo to Alexandria: the ‘Soyas.
The Soyas are parking attendants, mostly unlicensed and often aggressive towards drivers simply looking for a place to park their cars. The Soyas have turned into a parking mafia, seizing unclaimed parking areas and forcing parking fees on drivers.
