“Does the appearance of Saudi women on TV run counter to Islamic law?”

An interesting clip of a discussion that took place on LBC TV on 25/3/2007. The Saudi newscaster defending women’s right to appear on TV is Buthayna Nasser.

Forty women waiting in a classroom. Chairs against the walls, lined around the room. The curtainless windows are covered with badly cut white poster paper. The white-board still has May 13th English lesson on it in flamboyant handwriting. Twin towers. And then some boy’s name scratched across the board. AlKlaib.

I look at the classroom floor. It is a filthy mess with old layers upon layers of dust. Old stains. There are a few candidate cards dropped on the dusty floor. The walls are bare. The arms on the ceiling fan are somewhat warped - and I wonder how anyone could reach up there to bend them. Boys must be very destructive. The voting centre is in a boys’ school.

I guess no one is paying attention to the horrible state of the room. At least the classroom is cooler than the open hallways outside. Besides, the women are impatient for the queue to move on; they want to vote and leave. On my right, on my left, women are on the phone to their spouses, telling them to wait a while; they are still in line. One woman arranges lunch with the cook. The other woman tells her husband to come back for her in a while. Another woman asks about the children at home.

It is a Saturday and a holiday but today we are back to voting again for parliament members after a frenzied two months of campaigning that was held in check the last few days by the death of the Father Amir Sheikh Saad May 13th.

As I entered the classroom, there was an older abaya clad woman giving a lecture but all of us were oddly quiet and just looked at each other across the room. I pulled out my novel from my little handbag. I was finished with the very last chapter before I got halfway around the room. The queue moved slowly.

Tucking the book back in my bag, I cast my eyes around the room. We are a cocktail of every thing in this classroom. Young girls in cropped pants and Katie Holmes hairdos. Abaya clad women in niqabs. Abaya clad women with faces showing. Hijab wearing women with trousers and high, high heels. Women with uncovered heads. Women of all ages.

All women are relatively quiet and non-complaining. There are many, many LV handbags here today. There are many over-sized designer handbags here today as well. I think about what they might be keeping in them. They would make excellent baby-changing bags with enough room for a diaper, a change of clothing, a rattle or two, and other necessities.

In my bag, I have my mobile, my book, my camera, my documents, and ooops! I have forgotten my little notebook… the one I write my observations in! How can I make notes about everyone though with the women on either side looking on? We are squeezed together here and have to get up and move along the line every few minutes..

As I near the exit and am close to making it to the next queue outside the classroom, I talk to the woman who is monitoring our queue. I praise her for her patience and pleasant attitude despite the crowds and the long hours ahead of her. My words please her and she smiles. With her greyish blue eyes, she reminds me of a fair version of Najwa Karam.

The overall feeling is one of anticipation and quiet organization on everyone’s behalf. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a room with so many women where it was so hushed.