Is she a disgrace?
Yassir Harib; 9/10/08
This is a familiar scene that is witnessed every time you enter a commercial center. A Gulf man is walking along and a Gulf woman, dragging a number of children, is following him at a distance of a few meters. You might assume that the people have no connection with each other until they exit the mart and approach their car. Then and only then will you twig that this is a married couple with their children. The woman might be the mother or sister of the man. When I see such a scene, I ponder it for a long time in a desperate attempt to understand: Why does the man wants to escape from his wife? Or why does he apparently want people not to know that she is his wife? The man will usually walk quickly when he sees a group of men sitting at a café in order not to tie him to the woman walking behind him at a distance. He will not care if the men stare at the woman. His main concern is that these men do not think that she is his wife or relative. In contrast, you see a non-Gulf person taking his child by one hand and holding his wife by the other. Regardless if the woman is veiled or not, he will proudly walk side by side with her or at least he will not escape from the eyes of other people or feel ashamed if they link the two together.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=115269&d=9&m=10&y=2008
Tags: Marriage, Saudi Arabia