My Rant!

Day before yesterday I stopped and offered an old lady a lift. She was trying to flag down cars in Yarmouk at 2pm in the blazing heat. She got in and said she wanted to go to Salmiya and asked if it was out of our way (my daughter and our housekeeper were in the car too). I said no, even though it was the opposite direction to where we were going. But it felt good to help someone out.


As I drove she chatted away, she'd worked here for 25+ years for a Kuwaiti family who were on holiday and she was off to azza (condolences given during a 3 day period when someone dies). She said the taxis are expensive and the bus route is not convenient. And then she immediately got on to religion she wanted to know if I was a Muslim because it was much better for me if I was. She, then, asked my daughter who said she was. She asked the maid who proudly said she was a Christian. Horrified look on Egyptian lady's face. The old lady didn't let up and asked my daughter if she prayed, fasted, etc. She told me that if I'm a good Muslim and pray to Allah he will grant me a son. Does this all imply that if I am not wearing hijab, not Muslim and not praying then I would not have a son? I got the impression she would have been more grateful if I'd been wearing hijab. Took her right to the door of where she wanted to go. Not quite the fuzzy, feel-good feeling I was hoping for. 


This is the third time in a week that my daughter has been quizzed on her, and her mother's piousness. Just the other day she was asked if she and her mother prayed by her Kuwaiti friends and their parents at their home. I found this an odd question to an 8 year old. And if I don't pray 5 times a day does this make my child a social pariah?


I was telling someone of my fabulous daughter's voluntary work with the disabled kids and how she is learning to play guitar and they said "Ahh, is she praying?"


Listen well...I will be judged and rewarded on my good deeds and so will you. Of that, I am sure. Especially to the hijabed lady who once flipped me the bird when I tooted my horn at her for cutting me up on the road.

And...

Yesterday, I was returning an item to Ikea. The assistant asked me to have a seat until he checked with the supervisor if they can exchange an item. I sat and waited for about 12-15 mins. Then the assistant called me over, as I approached him a woman stepped in front of me and told him she needed to return something. He politely told her that I was first and he would be with her in a minute. She launched into him saying that she was first and he should serve her first. He told the woman that I had been waiting sometime. Again she said she was first and he should serve her and not me. The assistant attended to my item exchange. Now all this was going on in front of me in English. Followed by mutterings in a Kuwaiti dialect. Of course, I didn't remain silent. And I told her I had been waiting patiently for over 12 mins. To which she replied "I'm not talking to you, go back to America." WHAT! "Well I'm English and I'm not going anywhere. How rude!"

Along with abayed women barging into us whilst walking into the mall, general disdain from 99% of the female employees at a ministry complex, frequent comments, and the staring.

Reasons, perhaps, why more Kuwaiti men are marrying foreign women is that 'some' of the Kuwaiti women are so full of self-importance. It is ugly, very unladylike and downright narsissistic.


Time for a holiday me thinks.


Usually, I try to ignore all this but there is always the last straw on the camel's back. It is not about religion or east and west, it is about social etiquette and humanity.