Veiling Ceremony

I join "Hunter" and "Meadow" in the living room. It’s late afternoon and they are so tired from fasting. On the television, teams of super-powered Asians battle one another with yo-yos on basketball courts in Blazing Teens 2.

The heat here isn’t like the mugginess of the South East or the dry warmth of the South West. I’m going to take a bit of a risk here and say, just for the record, you have never been this hot. There’s no reason to get defensive about it, it’s just the simple fact that heat like this just does not exist in North America. Because of this, each room has its own air conditioning unit that is attached to the wall near the ceiling which can be turned on with a remote. Walk into a room, turn on the air. Exit the room, shut it off. Because of the heat, you do not see people outside their homes during most daylight hours, i’m not entirely convinced that you can survive out there and that isn’t a joke. So where do all these hot and starving people end up when bored of their homes? The hypermarket of course!! The masses might not be able to eat, but that definitely doesn’t keep them from shopping for food. Every time I have been to a grocery in the past week it has been packed. Perhaps being near food provides the sort of solace that comes next to eating it.

Today (September 4, 2009), before leaving for City Center Mall I decided to put on a hijab. Now, you all know me, you know about any bra-burnin- liberal-feminism-kick that I uphold and I would love to talk to you more about that later. But, as Westerners choose to confuse, I am not talking about the oppression-of-the-Middle-Eastern-woman-as-represented-by-the-color-and-coverage-of-her-traditional-attire, I am talking about a fashion statement. That being said, I purposefully refrained from wearing hijab for my first few days with the family so that it was understood that wearing said scarf would be a conscious choice on my part, not just something I figured I should do so I may as well do it. Once properly wrapped and pinned, I met "Carmela" in the foyer and immediately she took my hand. Smiling, smiling, smiling she told me how beautiful I look, and took me into the living room where her husband is sitting.

"Tony" just bout exploded with happiness. He explained that hijab is not representative of Muslim women alone as many think, is the national costume for Omanis and I look so wonderful, thank you for wearing it, thank you thank you. "Tony" tells me then that he would like to purchase an abaya for me, “out of [his] own pocket”. I tell him “la, la, it is too much money”, “no, it is not too much, I want to buy it for you”… it was amazing, the response was beyond celebratory, kinda like when… actually I can’t compare it to any event…

you can bring home straight A’s or get your name up in lights or win a frickin black Ferrari and your parents will never be as excited and happy as mine were in that one moment.

Except maybe when you are born.

Maybe that’s kinda what happened. And that's super scary.