wildlife, nikab, dahab, wrap-up

Yesterday, for the first time ever in Egypt, I saw a bat. Which is encouraging, because I was very seriously considering releasing a dozen or so feral bats into Cairo. There is a slight bug problem. I don’t know where I would’ve gotten the bats, though. A friend of mine named Sarah purchased a nikab a few weeks ago. The nikab (nih KAHB) is the full face veil that covers everything but the eyes. There’s a little string between the eyes to help hold it up. Nikabi women also wear long black cloaks, gloves, and stockings. So Sarah goes to the market with her good friend Waleed, who is Egyptian. Waleed says to the shopkeeper, “This is my new American wife who has just converted to Islam, and she would like to wear the nikab.” The shopkeepers showered her with praise, “Oh God bless her! Welcome to Islam, sister!” Then they went on to say, “But sister, you know the nikab is not required. You could wear the hegab and be perfectly modest.” But Sarah (via Waleed) insisted. After choosing the desired nikab, Sarah almost blew her cover. She reached into her backpack (which Waleed was wearing), took out her wallet, and handed the shopkeeper the money. The vendors were speechless. A pious, traditional man is going to let his wife handle his money? But Waleed was smooth. He said, “Listen, she has only just converted, and there are many cultural differences that are hard for her to understand. She is an American after all. We must be patient with her. I don’t want to embarrass her, so I will speak with her when we get home.” To which the vendors responded, “Oh of course! Cultural differences! Oh, yes, she really is trying very hard. You are right to be patient with her. Hamdulillah!” It was a close call. Now she wears her nikab out occasionally and records her treatment. Everywhere she goes people treat her with deference and kindness. She once went to a crowded souq, and men would clear a path for her, saying “Make room for the lady.” Sarah doesn’t speak great Arabic, but she’s never been called out, because nikabis almost never speak in public. She has even had Waleed “introduce” her to people she already knows, so she can see how they treat her as a nikabi. They act the way you might act around a nun or a priest, guarding their language, sitting up a little straighter, adjusting their clothing to make sure they’re being modest enough. Once she was trying to hail a cab, and a car with a man, a nikabi, and a little girl (about two, but fully hegabbed) pulled over and told her to get in. The man explained that he was an off-duty cab driver going out with his family, but his wife insisted that he pull over for her nikabi sister. Then he explained that he didn’t usually dress his daughter that way. “I even let her wear a bikini at the beach!” he said. But the family was going out, and she wanted to look like her mother. He realized it looked silly (sort of like a two-year-old in lipstick and pumps), but she was so insistent on looking like Mom, and they didn’t go out very often, so the parents obliged and let her wear the hegab. When Sarah goes home to Las Vegas, she’s going to wear the nikab and record people’s reactions there. She’s gonna send me her conclusions. Last weekend we went to Dahab, a beach town on the eastern edge of the Sinai peninsula. Ariela took some great pictures, which I will soon steal. As a consequence of Dahab, there is a lot of skin on my body that is the wrong color. I have always been pink, but this is all wrong. There will be no pictures of that. My dad says I need to do a wrap-up what-did-I-learn post once I’m home. I’ll do some sort of concluding entry, but I don’t know that I can really sum up a semester. It’d be kind of gross to try to smush it all into one entry. I’ll figure something out. -CSource