Ya Haram!

Today we had class outside, on the shady walkway where couples do their thing, girls smoke, and generally things get crazy. So of course we were bound to see some extraordinary sights. Actually it basically was the best thing ever. There was a guy and a girl, in jilbab and hijab (jilbab is the long coat thing) and they were totally touching each other, and a few times I could have sworn they were going to start making out. They were all holding hands, and poking each other, and stroking each other's faces... So mish munasib (not appropriate) in public. Or, really at all. Okay, so this is becoming a gossip column. But actually it is an interesting social observation...we were asking our teacher about it and he was telling us that a lot of times things like this happen when a girl is told "no, no, no" all the time at home by her father or brother or whoever without discussion or explanation, and then she goes out of the house and finds someone who will talk to her or whatever, and gets herself into this haram relationship. It's really sad actually, because then she is looked at as less respectable, our teacher even used the word 'gabia (stupid), even by us. It was interesting to see how a lot of us reacted to it - like how could she do this, she's compromising her morals, you can't do that in public - whereas in the states (well first you probably wouldn't see someone like her) PDA, or any physical contact, between guys and girls is totally 'adi (normal). Weird, how we've gotten so used to this societal norm. Going home is going to be quite the reverse culture shock.