Other People's Stories

Normally, Harry and I have so many things to share with you we can't fit them into our time to blog. But recently we have heard a couple stories from other people we just have to share.

1. CSI Dobby

A lady Sadie knows from jazzercise class, Karen, had the following experience. She and her family were asleep one night on the second floor of their home when they were robbed. In the morning, once they realized the laptop, camera, and cell phones were gone, they called up the police. The policeman asked for their location, and Karen told him the neighborhood, compound name, and the landmarks (we don't have street addresses here). He said the cops were on the way.

Two hours later, Karen gets a call from said policeman. What neighborhood are you in? Where is your house? We can't find it. She gives him the same information again, hears a pause, and then, OK twenty minutes. An hour later she gets another call from the same guy. Where is your house? What neighborhood? She tells him again, and he says, why are you not outside looking for us? She informs him her husband has been waiting in the front yard for almost three hours. He says OK and finally the police team shows up half an hour later (this house is not in a remote area but in a well-known gated compound in the middle of the expat part of town).

Once the police finally arrived, after three hours of supposedly looking for the house, the investigation began in full force. As Karen put it, her house was swarmed by about fifteen men in their white Khandoras, looking for fingerprints, evidence, etc. Very CSI. None of them introduced themselves, so she and her husband just stood there until the guy in charge came up to ask them questions.

But this guy hardly spoke English. So he sent another guy off to find an English speaker. The "English" speaker arrived, listened to his boss, turned to Karen, opened his mouth to speak, and then said he could not translate and dashed off to get another "English" speaker. This process was repeated two more times until they got to the guy who could actually act as an interpreter for his boss.

So the questions begin, etc. And Karen is informed that the family all need to give samples of their fingerprints so the police can figure out who the thieves are. Karen says no problem, we will come to the station with you now. But no, this is not possible. Her husband and sons can go to the station. But for women, there is only one station in Dobby where women can give their fingerprints. It is on the other side of town in the middle of a major industrial area.

At this point, rather than losing her cool like I would, Karen calmly gets out her map and says, no problem, just show me where and I'll go this afternoon. The guy looks at the map, points to an area of about two square kilometers and says there. In Dobby, this is NOT specific enough. Karen could be lost for hours. So she politely asks, please, sir, what street? By what landmark? The guy looks at the map, calls a couple colleagues over, they look at the map, discuss, look at the map again. Then he turns to Karen and asks, how long have you been here? She is confused but replies, three years. And the fellow says, I have Italian friend. He has been here for one year and knows everywhere in Dobby. How can you not know where this police station is? And walks off.

If you are not already laughing, let me just point out, as Karen did to us: How audacious! This guy is a policeman, and he could not tell Karen how to get to the police station (this is after it took three hours for them to find her house)! Moreover, he had the balls to blame her for not learning where everything is in Dobby at the same time he could not point out where she needed to go. Poor chap--maybe he was just having a bad day.

2. Not Beautiful Enough for the Scarf

We had the pleasure of spending Christmas day with the friends of one of our friends (and Harry's colleague) having what I think was a "British" Christmas at a restaurant. The day was really nice, and we had the chance to get to know some people outside of the legal circles here in Dobby. One family spent six years living in Saudi Arabia--Riyadh--about ten years ago. And the wife/mother of this family had the following, hilarious, anecdote to share.

Mrs. P arrived in Saudi with her husband a couple years before the birth of their son. Saudi women are required to be completely covered, but Western women are required to wear the shayla, or black head-scarf only. Apparently there are morality police walking around everywhere enforcing these clothing requirements.

Now Mrs. P did not make a special effort to conform with the rules, carrying her scarf with her rather than wear it. This was common practice among her friends too. One day she was in a shop with her mates when a morality policeman came in, saw these ladies, and pointed at all of them except Mrs. P telling them to put on their scarves (which of course they did). Mrs. P was really excited that she "got away" with not having to put on her scarf. She continued to avoid wearing it and no one said anything to her for almot two years.

But during this time period, Mrs. P started to wonder, why are they not telling me to wear my scarf? After pondering this for some time, she came to the following conclusion: she was not beautiful enough to require covering. If the point of covering up is to prevent beautiful women from tempting men, then no one was asking her to cover up because she did not present any real threat of temptation. While we were all laughing at this somewhat rational but also completely ridiculous logical conclusion (Mrs. P is quite beautiful now, so she must have been a real babe then) Mrs. P pointed out that at the time she actually believed herself a bit.

So one day, when coming up an escalator into a market (and pregnant), a morality policeman spotted her from the top, pointed at her and yelled "scarf" ("hijab"). And Mrs. P said Yes! Laughed out loud, pulled out her scarf, and did a little dance up the rest of the escalator. This freaked the policeman out of course, but Mrs. P was finally content--now she was a beautiful, threatening temptation too!