Kerolos Bahgat

Kerolos Bahgat (born 1992) is an Egyptian writer and assistant surgeon at El-Demerdash hospital. He is well known for his satirical style of writing in the field of psychology, as portrayed in his book The Thought Experiment for Mama's Boy, among many others. His works were published by a number of publishing firms including Dar Toya For Publishing and Distributing and The Book Home Bookstore.

Personal life Bahgat has not always been passionate about writing. Rather, he enjoyed acting, and played a number of roles throughout his university years before deciding to stop to better focus on his education. Upon graduating, Bahgat had to find the means to ease up the physical and psychological pressures resulting from his profession as an assistant surgeon, and, hence, decided to pursue writing. Unlike his audience, Bahgat believes that writing and medicine complement one another, for writing allows him to better understand the human soul, as well as brings him peace of mind.

Education Bahgat enrolled in Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in medicine and surgery.

Career At the start of the Egyptian revolution in 2011, Bahgat found inspiration in the surrounding events and adopted a critical eye when writing about the behavioral patterns of the Egyptian citizens, as well as his own. However, seeing that his content was not purposeful, he shifted to more scientific topics. He published an article titled "The Concept of Frowning in Russian Literature," which did not gain much recognition despite the efforts devoted to composing the piece. Bahgat then decided to observe the writing styles of different writers in the field of psychology, and took notes of the comments given by their audience. He was able to conclude that readers are more inclined to engage with writings composed in urban slang, because it is easier to understand. Therefore, Bahgat laid out his writings in ironic, humorous slang, and posted his work on his social media accounts, namely Facebook, which slowly built up to his fame. In addition, Bahgat specialized in the field of philosophy.

Bahgat found in his ironic style of writing and the title of his books a way of marketing his own works. Despite the numerous claims made against his sarcastic book titles, namely those titles with the phrase "mama’s boy," Bahgat insisted on not changing them because it is that that makes the book memorable, even if readers were not purchase it. He came about with the phrase "mama’s boy" when he was sitting one day with one of his friends, complaining to him about his worldly troubles, to which his friend responded saying "quit being a mama’s boy and toughen up!" Bahgat explains that the phrase "mama’s boy" is not considered an offense in itself, but gained its negative collocation as a result of the society's perception towards hot-headed, depressed individuals. Egg Man (original title: Beidah Man), Dar Toya For Publishing and Distributing, Cairo, 2017. The Indifferent (original title: Al-La Muktareth), Dar Toya For Publishing and Distributing, Cairo, 2018. Sex Partner (original title: Al-Rafeeq Siko Siko), Dar Toya For Publishing and Distributing, Cairo, 2018. This book boldly brings to light topics, such as love and sex, to which society turns a blind eye. It enlightens one on how to understand and identify his, or her, feelings, and separate between their emotions. After initially naming the book Do not Expect Anything from Love, Bahgat changes it to Sex Partner to cover more topics beyond those limited to love. The Forbidden Experience for Mama's Boy (original title: Al-Tagruba Al-Mahdurah l-Rooh Umm-uh), Dar Toya For Publishing and Distributing, Cairo, 2020. Bahgat, who is of Christian faith, was heavily criticized for initially naming the book Islam is the Solution. While some people speculated that Bahgat's intention was to compose a parody religion book, others hoped that it was a narration of his journey as a Muslim convert. Regardless of such speculations, through the title of the book, Bahgat was referring to a group of individuals who strongly advocate a certain idea, and use force against those who oppose them intellectually. The phrase Islam is the Solution was originally a slogan used among banned religious and political parties. As a result of the instability plaguing Egypt, and the citizens’ combat against different types of terrorism, the state administration requested Bahgat to change the title of his book. Through his new title, Bahgat eliminate the process of forbidding ideas, rather work on addressing them.