Reflections On International Women's Day (8 March 2011)

The hotel I am in seems to cater to a mix of nationalities, from young Indian couples on honeymoon still wearing their henna patterns and many beautiful bracelets, Europeans here for the sun wearing very little and local people with the women wearing the traditional head scarf. There are also a few women here dressed in the full head to toe black covering, including the veil over the face. Not sure where they are from as the local women just seem to wear the head scarf, with modestly covered arms and legs. One taxi driver was telling me that we Europeans leave at the end of May and Arab nationals arrive for the rainy season from June onwards. His words, not mine, "in June and July, everywhere is black".
I muse on this as I watch a young couple here on holiday. He is cool in his fashionable jeans and open necked shirt, she is completely covered from head to toe including her face. You can just see the bottom of her probably very trendy jeans and sparkly flipflops, but nothing apart from her eyes in the slits in the veil is visible. She has a very trendy bag over her shoulder. They take pictures, but what memories will they be if you can't see her smile?
There are also two other girls dressed the same, but one sports a jaunty black trilby on the top of it all, perhaps her nod to some open sign of her individuality.
It does seem hard to me looking from the outside to understand. Why does he have the freedom to both look and feel cool in this hot climate and she not?
But who am I to question these cultural differences? If she were writing this blog perhaps she would be saying the same in reverse. Looking at Western women with often inappropriately short skirts and low tops, does anything go in this heat? How can she sit there she might ask, a woman alone, drinking wine? Why do they flaunt themselves so might be another of her questions..... Would she be envious of our freedom or shocked at our appearance?
But the sad thing is that today of all days, on International Women's Day, our cultures seem further apart than ever and I am not sure either of us will ever understand.

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