From my seat at the Costa Café in the Dar Al Shifa Hospital, I read the morning Kuwait Times, or the ever popular Arab Times. The man that serves me knows me by now as I am one of the so called regulars. In fact because I wear a staff ID badge from my school indicating that I am staff, the server thinks I work at the hospital and therefore I, as staff, get a discount on my coffee. For some reason, likely to solidify my staff status, I may have mentioned in passing to him that I worked in cardiology.
He brings me my latte and the English edition of the newspaper. The Canadian election came and went here and the Earth did not move, but I sense it didn’t register on the Richter Scale in Canada either. I read of Senator Obama’s victory and I think I felt a tremor. The Earth did do a small wobble on its axis. Most of my senior students seemed very pleased for his victory and I think I am now one step further in understanding the American electoral college system.
When I worked in the Young Adult Program at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener I often went across the Street (King) to the Tim Horton’s in the lobby. Now I spend some time, away from my school, at the Costa Cafe doing the same thing while catching a break from the isolation of my school. Should I sit in the staffroom and drink instant American Nescafe coffee, I would be forever sitting alone as no staff member ever actually goes there for a break or otherwise.
At the Costa last week a Kuwaiti mother and daughter pair invited me for dinner at their home. This type of invitation is dangerous I have been told, as their intent is often to get connections in the West to aid immigration or marriage prospects. Certainly not being Mormon or Islamic I was not at the Costa that day to find a second or third wife. Under present Kuwaiti laws (Sheria) I would need my wife’s permission and I sense she is very firm on this point.
So, I sit at the Costa and people watch. It still amazes me how many Arab Women cover completely while their western looking husbands are wearing T-shirts and sporting designer sunglasses. At the same time some women are also dressed in western ways. Everything here is in contrasts. How is it that only seeing the eyes of a woman can be so seductive? Perhaps the hijab is not doing its intended job, or I just have a very good imagination.
In one article I recently read about the wearing of the hijab the author, a Muslim woman wrote, “…to ask me to go out without my hijab would be like asking a nun to go topless.” Now there is an image to horrify the soul. The same author states that the hijab is a gift from Allah and it offers the opportunity to be closer to Allah. It symbolizes a commitment to piety.
The Qur’an actually states, “Say to the believing man that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands…”
According to this quote men have the responsibility for their own actions (right!) to keep their illicit desires in check. Muslim women cover for God and for self. Theoretically, the hijab is not worn for men. However, from where I’m walking in the mall and on the streets and at this café here today, I think that in theory and for true believers this may actually be true 5% of the time. Personally, I have the feeling that the covering is used not so much for religious purposes, but for cultural ones in which men can dominant their wife or wives. The covering literally masks the women’s identity to the point they are more like possessions than loved ones. As a Western male and thinker I find highly problematic this whole ideal of lost identity and the inequality of women.
Here’s another example in which a woman has no identity here. Women may not have their own bank accounts, not even Western women. My wife does not have an account here! Although men in their generosity and benevolence may let their wives use their bank or credit cards, each time such a card is used in this way an automatic call is sent out to the husband’s mobile (cell) phone to keep him informed. Now there’s culture and technology merged to control and “cover” the women. In contrast Kuwaitie women can both drive and vote. I think only a half vote and they don’t drive well.
My final point on covering is this, actually a rhetorical question. Have you ever seen a veiled woman eating spaghetti? I rest my case.
Close to where I sit at the Costa a little Kuwaiti child plays with a battery operated toy, that irritating character that looks like a purple dinosaur, Barney, I think. The child then kicks the toy across the lobby while his veiled and covered mother patiently fetches the toy for her over indulged son.
Back to the newspaper and I am pleased to read that Hiliary Clinton will be the next Secretary of State.
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