This month there is a marhajan, or festival, happening in
Muscat. It’s like a fair in the Middle East mixed with a heavy cultural and
country pride exhibition. There are two parts of it. Two different locations.
The one in Nisim Park focuses more on the carnival aspect of the festival, and
this is the one that I had the opportunity to go to with my family yesterday.
It was very fun, and the kids all had a blast playing on all of the rides.
Then today I had the opportunity to go to the other marhajan
with my conversation partner from my school. The entire night in Arabic, and it
was great. Speaking is still difficult, but I understood most of what was
happening. Understanding is really getting better. Conversing is too. Conversations
are easier then short topic changes.
At the marhajan I was reminded of something I was talking
about the other day with some friends. I’m not one to further preconceived judgements,
but there are in fact troubles that the Middle East has with women. Being here,
although in respect it’s much better for me, I can perceive little things that
just show how present it is.
Things develop , though, and as much as the existing
problems surface, little moves can be seen, too. An example of this is dress.
In recent years, there have been apparent shifts in dress. Abayas, look
fitting, black, floor length jacket/dresses, are what almost all women wear in
Oman. There have been changes being made with many starting to have splashes of
colors and belts. At the marhajan, I even saw a few women wearing white. It’s
all a process.
Last night, though, I was reminded of some of these
problems. The most prominent of which was probably when we drove home from the
marhajan. It was dark, and to get the main road back to Muscat, we had to drive
down a dark dirt road. There was no founded reason to be scared, but Haifa, my
home-stay sister, and I were rather… unsettled. It was just me, Haifa, and her
son Laith. I drive on dark roads all of the time in America, and there was no
one that could have hurt us. We were in a car. No one made us afraid, but the
environment was present. It’s the atmosphere here. My host sister even told me
that this is why it’s not good for women to drive alone, and chastised our
brother Mohammed for not coming with us. Just differences.
It’s all things to think about.
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