After almost a year of living in a country where local women are usually covered – they occasionally take it to the next level and drape a sheer black scarf over their head completely covering their face, which is already covered by their Niqab. A Niqab is a thick piece of cotton that covers their hair attached to a thin piece to cover their lower face leaving only the eyes showing. They are able to see through this sheer scarf when it is draped over their head but they are invisible. It is still a shock to see a woman driving with a scarf covering their head! Especially when the odds are they have a Niqab AND sunglasses on beneath it. The Qatari women seem to be treated gently and respectfully by everyone even when they are unbearably rude (doesn’t happen often). Many women living here are not Muslim and so do not cover but are usually very respectful in what they wear – the general rule is to not show shoulders or knees. The largest group here is women who cover their hair with a scarf. These seem to be mostly non-Qatari Arab Muslims. I have read quite frequently that Qatari women are aware of security issues and social norms elsewhere and so usually remove their Niqab to travel – NOT on the day I left for Cairo.
Checking in for my flight to Cairo I was not given a boarding card until the last minute and was told to hurry “yala yala” to the gate. I rushed to Passport Control and thanks to my resident permit was allowed to go right through. When I got to immigration I saw a short line with a sign that said “Ladies Verification” and being a lady and a lady who has learned that the ladies lines in the Middle East are wonderful things, I stepped into that line behind several couples in national Qatari dress – white thobes, red & white Ghutras with black rope Ogaals and the women only identifiable by their oversized designer bags. The woman who was working the desk immediately waved me out of the line. I moved one line over just to watch. A couple would approach the customs agent and the man would hand over two passports and when the woman behind the desk indicated she was really paying attention – the veiled wife would lower her Niqab and show her face. The agent would look at the passport and look at her and look at the passport again and eventually process the paperwork and wave them through. This was interesting also because every other line required that each person hold their own passport and approach one at a time.
The last couple in line was the most interesting – the woman was fully veiled (sheer black over lower face covering and head scarf) and tiny. The man was slight with a long meticulously manicured wiry beard (I have heard that these indicate a serious commitment to Islam and are very time consuming and expensive to maintain). He nudged her none to gently forward although it is very unusual here to see the woman go first. As they approached the desk, he caught her arm and stepped in front of her and handed over their passports. When I realized what he was wearing – I had to think that if this was an arranged marriage and the odds are it was – her father had no clue what he was doing. The man, in addition to appearing mean had on the first “high water” thobe I have ever seen along with black nylon socks and black shoes. Thobes are the full-length white frock that men wear here and are usually elegant, exactly tailored and just graze the heel of the shoe (even when it is a sandal) like a pair of well-tailored slacks. This one was hilariously short. When the woman showed her face, I realized that she was stunning. Now, in the US, we might make the assumption upon seeing a couple like this that the marriage was all about money and the man could be a nerdy but wealthy young man but that doesn’t seem to happen here. The wealthy Qataris are very conscious of appearances. There has to be a story here!
I ran through duty free to pick up the requested four bottles for the birthday party to be held in Cairo. No time to look for tequila – but snagged the others and raced for the gate. As I was trying to jog (didn’t happen) up the steps and the public address system was calling flight to Beirut, Jeddah, Istanbul and several cities that I didn’t recognize - just for a moment I felt like I was in a movie!
The lady at the checkout counter in duty free had put plastic sleeves on the bottles but that was no help whatsoever as I boarded a first class cabin full of Qatari men in full national dress sipping Arab coffee and munching on dates (Qatar Airways fabulous predeparture service) with my duty free bag clanking - obviously full of liquor. As I put the bag in the overhead bin and it slid loudly to the back when I closed it – there was complete silence.
Something else new to me – the flight attendants in first class collected the red and white checked Ghutras (headscarves) and black Ogaals (rope coils that are placed on top of the Ghutras) and hung them in the first class closet along with the suit coats of the few westerners on board. They carefully folded them and draped them over the hangers and hung the black Ogaals over the hook with a seat tag! After a beautiful service – the flight attendants returned them - gently shaking them out so they could be properly arranged when they were put back on. Arranging and rearranging Ghutras and Niqabs here in Qatar is a national pastime!
The women in Cairo are also covered in varying degrees. The difference I felt was that in Qatar a woman in an abaya has help with the every day issues of getting things done while dressed in a full length ‘coatdress’. There is usually a maid tagging along and a driver waiting. At the shopping centers, there is always a row of Land Cruisers with young men napping with cell phones in hand waiting for Madams call. In Cairo the fabrics seemed heavier and the women seemed to trudge along – weighed down by what they have to wear while completing everyday tasks. In Qatar it is obvious that beneath the abaya the women wear beautiful stylish clothes – I did not get that feeling in Egypt. Doha has enough expats that the restrictiveness of the religion isn’t quite as in your face as it was in Cairo where two conservative cab drivers refused to pick us up the ONE time we left home with one of us in a t-shirt. The men look economically stressed and the women on the street just seem defeated.
We did not go into any malls – we hit as many tourist spots as possible and we did go to the huge inner city market – there were very few women on the streets in Zemalek (the island in the Nile where my daughter lives) so my conclusion could be way off track. I just had the feeling that women in Egypt (even women of means) have a much harder life than the women here. Regardless of the economic conditions in Egypt – it has such a dramatic history and I saw some amazing things! The Pyramids and the Alexandria catacombs are like nothing I have ever seen!
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