After an eight-hour day at college, I step down my bus and hear "Masha Allah! Masha Allah! Masha Allah!" chants thrice and look around to notice an old man gawking at me.
A perverted smirk and a shameless stare added to the malevolence of his appearance.
I felt the urge to throw my 900-page book at him, or whack him with my hand-bag but it wasn't his fault. You see, I must have provoked him. Covered from head to toe, with only my face and hands exposed, I was displaying too much of 'meat'.
Moreover, why did I feel disgusted? 'Masha Allah', when roughly translated means "God has willed it." It's used to express appreciation of what you see while reckoning Allah's intentions. It's also used for the purpose of keeping the evil eyes away. How thoughtful of him to sexually harass me in undue holiness! How thoughtful of him to ensure I didn't become a victim of anyone's evil eyes!
Besides, after a mentally-draining day, and exhaustion oozing from every pore of her face, a girl wants to be complimented on how she looks. And it should be very flattering to receive such appreciation in public from a random man her father's age walking down the street ...
04 November, 2006
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9 comments:
Hmm...
this reminds me of when I was with a local friend in mall of the emirates; he accidentally stood on a teenage-womans abaya on the escalator and she began crying and shouting at all of us /:
Walla you made me laugh at how you described the whole thing even though I feel sorry you went through that but to make you feel better let me tell you that that Mashallah is better than "Astakhfur Allah" . One man with a beard asked for Allah's forgiveness simply because I made him sin by my long shirt and trousers. Only my hair, my neck, my hands and my feet were showing that day.
There are wee bit souls out there with quite a bit of "oppressed" emotions
Isn't it funny that you find it appropriate to smack an old man..what about the rest of The Dudes who hang out at the malls? It doesn't stop at just "Masha Allah!" does it?
archer14: of course it doesn't stop here. The point is, no one cares about sexual harassment in this country. It's usually blamed on the female. She's accused of provoking it. Sad, sad, sad.
Sorry I can't make a judgement on this until you've posted your pic.
ali: The question is, what thrill do these men find in making a woman feel uncomfortable?
DG - "Do you really think Islam or any religion encourages this type of behaviour by some perverts?"
I think the issue here is, some peverts use noble religions such as Islam to meet their hidden agendas - which is truly sad. This was the same story when the church "hijacked" christianity to meet self serving needs - apparently some presidents (no guessing required) continue that tradition today.
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