The Arab father has often been approached through the figure of the patriarch, the man who enjoys unlimited power and who rules his children and wife with an iron fist. This view has endured over time and has been reproduced in media and scholarly work. Surprisingly, this reductionistic and simplistic perspective has not been countered by serious scholarly discussions that account for the multiple meanings and practices that the category “father” encompasses. Drawing on ethnographic field work and textual analysis of media representations, this paper aims to contribute to the study of fathering in the Middle East by looking at three modalities of fatherhood in Egypt. First, the paper explores the figure of “the father of the nation.” While Egypt, the country, often has been depicted as the mother who should be cherished, loved, and protected, successive Egyptian presidents have presented themselves through the figure of the father, the head of the family, who cares, provides, and protects, and who expects respect, obedience, and deference. This notion was challenged by the January 25th Revolution but it has been reincarnated by the current regime and its supporters, and it is circulated in popular media to legitimize the power and rule of the current president. This figure continues to be directly challenged by two other modalities of fatherhood. The first is the working father, who spends most of his time and energy struggling to offer his children good education, adequate housing, and enough food. This father is present/absent in the life of his family. He cares and provides but is rarely able to afford the time to be with his children. This modality of fatherhood articulates a critique of the ability of the “father of the nation” to care and provide. The second modality, the grieving father, presents a direct challenge to the claim of the national father to be able to protect, putting his legitimacy of the national father into question. While the media often show mothers and sisters mourning the loss of their loved ones, recently fathers have also more visibly expressed their mourning and advocated for the rights of their deceased children. By juxtaposing these three modalities of fatherhood, this paper seeks to counter any simplistic understanding of the figure of the father and to highlight the need for us to think of fatherhood as a concept that varies across time, space, class, and age.