I am so disappointed. Today, while at Jamba Juice with a friend, I watched a sweet-looking veiled woman stand outside the window to get out of the rain while she waited on the bus. She was cradling her infant child in her arms & passing the time, minding her own business. While she stood there, a scraggly looking man approached her and started to try & talk to her. I couldn't tell if he was drunk or just weird. But she was immediately uncomfortable. Visibly uncomfortable. And this guy just kept harassing her. She starts pacing and trying to shoo him away. And believe it or not, this guy tries to ask to hold her baby! Are you kidding? He's making big motions with his arms and reaching in towards her chest to take the child.
The poor woman started running back towards the bus stop to get away from this inappropriate man. The guy started yelling after her "I just want to talk." He wasn't being mean... just ridiculously ignorant of personal space and boundaries. Thankfully, just then, the bus pulled up and she got on. I almost ran outside to interrupt, but the whole thing was over pretty quickly.
This scenario made me so angry. But what made me even more angry is that it's not the first time I have seen something similar to this take place. On a number of occasions I have seen veiled women in our town be approached by men in inappropriate ways. Its not even necessarily sexually inappropriate-- just a strange, power-trippy kind of inappropriate. It's hard to describe unless you've seen what I'm talking about. The behavior I've witnessed doesn't feel like the same kind of behavior I see in ordinary male-female inappropriate interactions.
It's like some guys think veiled women are free game. They can say what they want or act as inappropriate as they want. They feel some sick power trip over them. Maybe they think they can scare them. Maybe they think its okay to treat them worse. I can't say what they are thinking. But it makes me sick. Mad. Fiercely protective.
I know many women take on the veil in order to be modest and less noticeable in public life (this is a broad generalization, and I recognize there is a lot more to it than that). But I'm sad to say that in some cases, it has the opposite affect. And that breaks my heart. I LOVE these women and cannot stand their mistreatment.
I don't have a solution. Just wanted to post my observations and vent.
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