90 Day Fiance: The Other Way viewers watched Mahmoud’s Tell All tantrum with discomfort and alarm.
Nicole sat there in tears while Mahmoud stormed off, yelling an expletive-laden rant into the camera and then at his phone.
Long before that, Nicole and Mahmoud’s ugly fights and obvious compatibility issues had fans perplexed. And then he humiliated her at the Tell All.
So … are they actually still together after that mess?
Before we get into what came after they filmed the Tell All (they filmed in March, by the way), let’s look at their history.
Nicole Sherbiny didn’t come to Egypt for Mahmoud Elsherbiny. She wasn’t looking for a husband. But she found one while she was there.
Egypt was new to her, but living somewhere and vacationing there are extremely different. Trying to live with Mahmoud permanently led to some serious culture shock.
There were day-to-day inconveniences, many of which stemmed from Mahmoud refusing to move out of his mother’s house.
Living there meant that everyone shared one bathroom. A bathroom that was also a shower.
It was, obviously, a nightmare for Nicole’s morning routine. Especially since she basically had to stay in all day, every day.
And that was because, in Mahmoud’s family and even his neighborhood, the gender roles are intense and pretty miserable.
Mahmoud even balked at the idea of Nicole meeting his friends. These are close, lifelong friends.
They did meet. But only once. Nicole’s only real outings for most of her time in Egypt were with Mahmoud or his family. And sometimes that was just in the form of running unfamiliar errands.
Another issue for Nicole was the noise.
Whether it was the high traffic of family members coming in and out of Mahmoud’s mom’s apartment or the hustle and bustle of the market, she felt overwhelmed.
Nicole has obvious sensory issues and became overstimulated multiple times on camera. Being in unfamiliar environments that she cannot control made that worse.
Nicole did go to a meditation class — since Mahmoud forbade her from taking a yoga class, lest a man see his fully clothed wife while she stretches.
There, she finally made a friend — which turned out to be very significant. Because Nouran was a fellow Muslim woman and an Egyptian.
She really helped to highlight what numerous fans had pointed out all season on social media — that Nicole’s core problem was not with Egypt. Not really.
Nicole’s real problem was her husband.
Within minutes of her arrival in Egypt during Season 4, Mahmoud was already policing her clothing.
Remember, she arrived wearing multiple layers, a high collar, and more or less dressed like an aristocratic vampire nun. It was still “too much” (or “too little”) for Mahmoud.
Unfortunately, he continued to pick fights with her over her clothing all season long.
That’s not Islam’s fault. For Muslim women, covering one’s body is a personal choice. It’s also not Egypt’s fault. Egypt’s expectations of clothing are only about as strict as your average American high school’s, and normal swimwear is common at beaches.
This was all Mahmoud. As he explained, he didn’t want anyone seeing his “wife’s muscles.”
Mahmoud, who had never had any kind of real relationship before Nicole, proposed to her within days of meeting her.
They married after one month.
He made it clear that he felt that “allowing” her to dress as she did was an indulgence. And it seemed like something that he hoped that she would grow out of.
The burkini is not a legal requirement in Egypt or a religious requirement for Muslim women.
It was, instead, something that Mahmoud insisted that she wear, starting shortly after they married.
To Nicole, it was miserable. And it became a symbol of how she saw other Egyptian Muslims free to live their lives … while Mahmoud insisted that she live differently.
This led to upsetting, tense, and even public fights between the two of them.
In fact, both Nicole and Mahmoud admitted to the camera that they had numerous other fights off-camera.
So no, this was not a selective editing trick. This is a toxic marriage full of more fights in a few years than a healthy couple would have in half a century.
Mahmoud almost seemed to have a breakthrough in the final episode before the Tell All began.
Nicole was still in Egypt, and he noted that he would “get so mad” at the idea that some other man might see Nicole’s arm.
She suggested that maybe he could interrogate that anger instead of, you know, making it her problem. Nobody’s holding their breath for Mahmoud to have an epiphany, but gee, it sure would be nice to see.
Oh, Mahmoud — of all people — also had a bit of a cheating scandal. More like a pre-cheating scandal, but it wasn’t great.
For a guy who didn’t want his wife to meet his friends, make friends outside of his family, or bare her sinful lust-arms in public, he was awfully friendly with some international women.
Nicole explained that he basically started flirting with a scammer who was trying to offload some computer equipment. That it’s inherently silly doesn’t change that it’s unbecoming of a married man — and hypocritical.
Given Nicole’s inescapable misery, the two slowly decided to turn it into escapable misery — with a spousal visa to the US.
The plan is to bring Mahmoud home with Nicole, and see if they can find a healthy balance where they can both be happy in the US.
(Donning our tin hats long enough to suggest that perhaps this was their plan all along, and that they could have been on Before The 90 Days just as easily as they are on The Other Way. But honestly, who cares?)
Mahmoud’s more level-headed brother, Ahmed, suggested that Mahmoud will be in shock. Ahmed has traveled internationally, while Mahmoud is so set in his ways that even other ways of doing things in Egypt seem unthinkable to him.
There are plenty of Muslim communities and mosques in America. But there is also bigotry, which could be a problem for Mahmoud.
More likely, though, is that he’ll experience culture shock. People will dress how they want, Nicole will be his breadwinner, and all of their existing marital problems seem unlikely to magically evaporate.
At first, Mahmoud seemed to be on surprisingly good behavior at the Tell All. He even complimented how beautiful Nicole looked — when she had one arm entirely bare.
But after some fairly medium-spicy-at-most questions from a castmate, Mahmoud flipped out. (Again, even other cast members of the franchise pointed out that Gabe’s questions weren’t “that bad”)
He ripped off his mic and stormed away. Actually, he ended up storming off twice. He yelled at producers, yelled at Nicole over the phone, and kicked some trees.
However, despite all of this, it appears that Nicole and Mahmoud are still together.
Weeks after the Tell All, they were being all lovey-dovey over social media.
Obviously, this could have been trickery to maintain their NDA. But we somehow doubt it.
Nicole is living in the US and likely still awaiting Mahmoud’s spousal visa. When it comes, if it has not already, it’s unlikely that she’ll rush to announce it or keep us up-to-date.
Why? Because many fans suspect that Nicole and Mahmoud will film again for a new season.
Mahmoud’s journey to be with Nicole in the US makes them likely candidates for 90 Day Fiance Season 10.