Women wearing the traditional niqab is not an uncommon sight here in Kuwait (although it's equally common to see women who just wear a veil to cover their hair or no veil at all). However, last week I had my first 'interaction' so to speak with a woman wearing a niqab and it made me wonder:What on earth will I do if I become friends with someone wearing a niqab and we agree to meet, say at a coffee place??
The obvious solution would be for me to come early and wait for her to find me (I stand out a lot). But seriously, what would I do? Would I be able to recognize her by her eyes? By her eye make-up? Or by the half-hidden shape of her body? The tip of her shoe that becomes slightly visible when she walks? Her perfume?
Now some of you might think that's never going to happen - that I will not possibly be friends with someone wearing a niqab since we would have nothing in common and our worlds would never meet. Well, I'm not so sure about that - maybe it's just a stereotype some of us in the West unfortunately have that women who are completely covered (in public that is) must by default be oppressed by their husbands, forced into covering themselves, have no rights, be close-minded and from strictly religious (dare I say fundamentalist) families. The woman I met last week was all the opposite - an American citizen, fluent of course in English and in Spanish due to family heritage and now in Arabic since she has married a Kuwaiti man. She has done her Master's Degree in the USA and went on to do a PhD, she is in no way restricted to her house, has her own very strong opinions and is free to go wherever she wants. And she has converted to Islam by choice. Now, who says I couldn't be friends with a woman wearing a niqab?I really don't want to get myself into the debate about whether women should or should not cover themselves - that is not for me to decide or debate - I am just stating that here it is completely common and it seems that nobody puts more into it than if I am wearing a cardigan or a sweater - it's just a shell.
It did make me realize, however, just how much importance I place on people's entire faces, on their facial expressions on watching their mouth when they talk. Maybe it's like when people lose one of their senses - like blind people having extraordinary hearing - and I will be much better at 'reading eyes' because all the other 'disturbing elements' are covered. What I can say for sure is that I have truly understood the concept of smiling with the eyes and luckily I have gotten a lot of eye smiles so far.
Picture on the right from www.muslimbase.com/
Hej Ea, i have to say that the point you brought up about the eye contact was something that was in my mind but never really thought too deep about. I give very high importance to eyer contact and facial expressions when i converse with someone, but the unavaliablity of it would definitely be kind of difficult for me for some time. But i guess you will become more perceptive towards the different tones of voice used and more subtle movements of the eyes. I would say it would be quite interesting if you would document more of your ¨findings¨ or observations. :))
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the post made you think - and I believe you're right in that you learn to become more perceptive towards the smaller movements and such. I'll make sure to share other observations - I observe something new every day here, so it should not be difficult :)
ReplyDeleteYou just need to get a good tele lense Ea, then all the pictures you want to take will be possible :-) Although you might stand a bit more out in the crowd with a near 1 foot lense ;-)))
ReplyDeleteWell, see, it's not purely a technical problem. In Kuwait it is illegal to take pictures without a license! So theoretically I would be in big trouble if the police or other authorities saw me with a camera (tele lens or not). That's also why I try to be discrete and keep to the more touristic spots - it's not only that I am afraid the locals would get really mad at me - there's more at stake.
ReplyDeleteApart from that I would love to have a tele lense :-) maybe it should be on my wish list...
That would make it an interesting read! And i am really surprised that taking pictures is illegal.. Is it under any special context or just in general? I would feel real handicapped if it was the latter :(
ReplyDeleteOh your 小兄弟 comes back from Zurich tonight! :))
Jessie, it is actually a quite general thing (of course nobody checks what you do in your own house, though). What I have since found out is that taking photographs is actually becoming somewhat trendy among the younger Kuwaiti (affluent) population and so many youth have large cameras that they carry around. I have also met some other foreigners here who take pictures regularly and seem to have found ways to do it without upsetting anyone.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that as long as you do not photograph public buildings (particularly relating to government, ministries etc.), the Emir's Palace or anything resembling military installations or power stations - and stay away from taking photographs of their women (and to some extent their children) you should be fine...I guess it helps to look like a (stupid) tourist :))