The Ladies

I am living/working in a western-friendly Arab state where a steady and significant stream of ex-pats inhabiting the place have prompted the indigenous women to cover up with the black abaya and sometimes the niqab as an expression of preserving their national identity and culture. There is an ongoing, passionate debate regarding women's dress in some parts of the Arab world, with the unfortunate recent example in Khartoum of women prosecuted for wearing offensive trousers that apparently revealed too much of the female form; they were sentenced to 20 lashings each. Britney would have a tough time in those parts.

In a recent issue of The Economist, there was a short report about the contentious issue of the niqab.

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No shame in showing your face
Oct 15th 2009 | CAIRO
From The Economist print edition

An argument that never ends

IN EGYPT’S 100-year-long debate over female head-coverings, the veil has been put off and on as fast as hemlines in Paris have gone up and down. Feminists in the 1920s threw it off; by the 1970s so had most Egyptian women. But it has crept back, as a wave of religiosity has prompted many to embrace a more distinctively Muslim look. Most Egyptian women are again under cover, but adopt a range of styles, from the black niqab, often worn with gloves, leaving just a slit for the eyes, to the shoulder-enveloping khimar, to lighter novelties such as a colourful Spanish-style scarf wrapped around hair tied in a bun, leaving a jaunty fringe dangling to the neck.

Despite the argument’s longevity, the passions it stirs remain strong. In July this year proponents of the veil gained a boost by proclaiming their first martyr. Marwa Sherbini, an Egyptian immigrant, was stabbed to death in a German courtroom by the man she had brought to trial for insulting her as a terrorist, because she wore a headscarf.

But this month the veil’s opponents claimed a victory, won by no less a personage than Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Cairo’s 1,000-year-old Islamic university. While touring one of hundreds of girls’ schools that al-Azhar also runs, he happened to spot an 11-year-old student wearing the niqab—and lost his famously short temper. Not only did he order her to remove it on the spot. His university issued a blanket rule banning the niqab in all its girls’ schools, on the ground that the full face-covering is an innovation that represents too extreme an interpretation of Islamic modesty.

This was not the first attack on the niqab, a fashion widely seen as an expression of Salafism, a rigidly orthodox interpretation of Islam promoted by Saudi-owned satellite-television channels. In recent years Egyptian universities and government offices have sporadically banned niqab-wearers, citing security. But the abruptness of Sheikh Tantawi’s order, and the fact that it came from Egypt’s highest seat of Islamic teaching, stirred an outcry both from conservatives and from campaigners for civil liberties.

That storm has quieted. The sheikh now says he is not against the niqab but just sees it as unnecessary in all-female institutions. Egypt’s religious-affairs ministry says it is printing 100,000 copies of a leaflet called “Niqab: Custom Not Worship” to assure Muslims that exposure of a woman’s hands and face is not shameful.

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I have been keenly interested in the behavior and dress of my indigenous colleagues. I was initially stunned by the number of abayas in the office and while I work on another floor, the majority are on the first floor working across all departments; some wearing the veil and others the niqab. There are a few extra modest women that keep the door closed at all times so that they are not in the constant view of the men. When you enter those offices, there is usually incense burning (hence the disabled smoke detectors throughout the building). The incense is burned for purity - of the person and the work - it's also a symbol of hospitality.

From a vanity perspective, the burning incense serves the same purpose as the Celtic pommander, a locket filled with potpourri as perfume before the days of commercial deodorant. The Bedouin have likewise burned incense for many generations to dispel the heavy odor of nomadic life in the intense heat of the desert. Despite the convenience of climate control, the incense tradition remains intact in the modern workplace.

I am always looking at the hands. The henna designs applied to the hands is another art form, like calligraphy. It is applied for festivals (Eid) and special occasions like weddings. I try to remember who turns up with a fresh application, because I enjoy observing it fade and transform to a washed sepia.

The shape of the head under the veil is always interesting as many women have long hair but wear it piled on their heads, under the veil. These protrusions of stacked hair evoke further intrigue and mystique as one wonders about the texture and color of so much hair and what it might look like.

I was at an IT meeting a few weeks ago and the Deputy Director of IT, a local woman, with two members of her team seemed to float into the meeting with their black robes swishing into the room, sleeves glinting from the gold embellishments and colored sequins. They made an entrance, of sorts, not because they were chairing the meeting but because of the elegance of the entry and the individuality of each abaya's embellishment. I have noticed that the women tug on their veils which are often trimmed in decorative and opulent embellishments, pushing it forward on their hairlines or refastening it, much like a western woman that tucks her hair behind the ear or twirls a strand around a finger as a nervous tick or unconscious habit.

The retail assortments in the stores address the abaya-wearing consumer. Since the only thing that shows are the shoes, the handbag and the sunglasses, there is an inordinate quantity and range of these items, particularly obscenely expensive bags and sunglasses in the stores with big, gaudy logos. I've been encouraged to buy an abaya to have it handy as it is so convenient to throw over jeans and go out when you don't want to dress. I've been doing that my whole life with a t-shirt, flip-flops and baseball hat.

Month Milestone

So this new life is officially a month old. While it feels more familiar and things that confounded or shocked a few weeks ago seem "normal," in a few weeks, the musings herein will likely seem those of a wide-eyed tourist.

My eyes definitely popped open this week...I still have the privilege of a driver at my disposal and on the way to work, in one of those 3-lane roundabouts (we call them traffic circles in the US), we had a minor accident when a native in an SUV decided that he needed to make a right turn from the interior-most left lane of the roundabout at the last second and smacked into us, in the middle lane, and we were not turning right. We took the next right out of the roundabout and parked behind the offending SUV and waited - me for a replacement driver to take me to work and the driver for the police to see how his lot would be cast, despite not being at fault.

I received my Resident Permit (RP) the same day, a real triumph given the pace of the office agenda and all the off-site testing an applicant must undergo - - a medical test, blood-typing at a separate location and a fingerprinting exercise - - all conducted with separate facilities for men and women. The RP allows one to bank online, obtain a liquor permit (required to purchase beer, wine and liquor at a store way out of town), and facilitates other modern, mostly digital conveniences. I am told that I now have 7 days to get my national driver's license despite holding current US and International driver's licenses. I don't know the consequences but the RP has an issue date and if I am in a vehicular mishap when I start driving one of the organization's pool cars, I am likely in deep sh*t.

After reading a little tidbit in the local paper this morning about a couple's fate for conceiving a child out of wedlock, I am slightly concerned about testing the rules. The couple, a Pakistani man (21) and a Filipina woman (34), had extramarital relations in late 2007 that resulted in a child last year. The hospital reported this matter to the police and the couple were prosecuted for illicit relations and were convicted; they will both receive 100 lashes and face deportation despite producing papers at the trial that they intend to marry. I can't figure out if this is a case of making a draconian example of guest workers with little social leverage or if the lashings will actually take place. I don't think an ex-pat is subject to lashings for driving without a valid local license but perhaps I'll now bug my handler to feed me into the driver's license process.

For me, the end of Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr meant that hotel bars reopened, weekday traffic got hideous, and the tea and coffee people resumed their duties at the office. I didn't realize that a door at the end of our hallway was actually a kitchen and last Sunday, when "normal" resumed, there was a fleet of people in black and white uniforms preparing tea and coffee in porcelain cups and saucers, delivering it all morning on doily-covered trays. Despite anticipating full enjoyment of this perk, I don't much care for it and I am instead the one that asks for hot water to make my own green tea. Our small team will move to another office in a few weeks and I am reworking the kitchen amenities there with the facilities guy to ensure we have brewed coffee (leaded and unleaded) at the new spot.

When I am overseas, I take great interest in the Coca Cola product. In Latin America, for example, the Coke is made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, and tastes much better. Here, the calories are called "energy" and there are only 42 per serving, with a 330 ml can holding 3 servings, also made with sugar. I love the Arabic spelling, reading right to left "Coca Cola":

The locals and assimilated ex-Pats claim that the glorious weather has now set in ...it's only 99 degrees right now (noon) and the rest of the week is forecast to be 90-95 with lows in the 70's. I guess they are referring to the 20-degree swing and how the downward temps are felt soon after dusk. With the a/c blasting all the time, it's hard to appreciate the subtle difference but I have started to enjoy sleeping with the window open, which also means I really hear the pre-dawn call to prayer... no need for an alarm clock.

Over the Moon

Now broadcasting at midnight in the Middle East...