Sunday 1 August 2010

The Day Before Eid

The day before last Eid, my friend rang me. My friend Sadia.

"RedBerries, do you think it's okay to marry someone from a different culture?"

I automatically assume some guy from a different culture has proposed to her.

Needless to say, I am wrong. After several minutes of me explaining there are several pros and cons of marrying outside your culture...she interrupts me.

"RedBerries, would you marry an Arab?"


"...."


I'm lost for words. Who is this mysterious Arab man who is expressing an interest in little 'ol me? My friend is elusive. She pushes for a response. I answer in the affirmative, but re-iterate that there's a whole range of factors that I would take into account, and that my answering in the affirmative by no means implies that I am interested in this mysterious Arab man. She finishes the conversation by letting slip that he's on the ISoc committee.

I get home.

I log onto FB. I can think of no other place to start.

I go through the profiles of the small number of boys that are on the committee. I use the word 'boys' and not 'men' because they are all at least a year younger than me. And there is only a small number of them because out university is quite small. This obviously makes my life easier.

There are two Arab guys on the committee.

TWO.

2.

I don't think I've had a proper conversation with either of them.

This concerns me.

This concerns me for the whole of Eid day, as well as the days following it.

Once again, I am thrown into an all-familiar frame of mind. What did I say? What did I do? What is happening in these interactions that I have with random guys that lead them to believe I am interested in marrying them? What am I emanating that gives the impression that I am marriage material?

Needless to say, I am having the strangest feeling of deja-vu. [See Islamic Event Dating]





[I would just like to add, this whole post was initially meant to be a parody of 'The Night Before Christmas", but I failed miserably on the first draft, trying to make everything rhyme...so I gave up. That, my friends, is not a life lesson I would like you to take home.]

2 comments:

b.p. said...

Salam, Thanks for the support on my blog! May Alah reward you! AMEEN!

Also, i think that is wonderful that someone ha expressed interest...maybe you are just emanating that you are a good Muslim girl...that is often enough (and best) to get a good Muslim guy interested!

Jaz said...

happy ramadan!