“I had to dry my hair after taking a shower..”
A sly glance and a nudge.
“Why?” And then the knowing look and an array of hints that I must have needed to wash because I was tainted from having sex.
“No!” I protest in consternation, with a weak embarrassed smile to even be discussing this private topic much less proving my stance on the matter.
It’s OK when octogenarian aunties make such searching comments, more for their own thrill I believe, thinking someone has been doing something so racy yet “halal” (of course I am talking about conjugal sex here).
But when women at work make brazen comments and smirk about morning showers, they are being sleazy and inquisitive beyond the limits of good manners.
“Had a long night? Lot of work, huh?”
No amount of exclamations that one takes a daily shower to feel good, clean, blah blah blah etc etc… will convince your female colleagues that you have not been indulging yourself in a night full of carnal delights or a morning quickie before leaping out of bed and into the “douche” as the shower is commonly called here.
God forbid that you leave the house or come to work with slightly damp hair. That may reveal that you are freshly finished from some unnameable intimate deed after which you needed to purify yourself . Women who wear the hijab need not worry about this. In fact, they can wash their hair as many times as they like during the day and not be questioned about their sex lives, as long as their hair remains under cover.
Women delight in talking about the excitement of ghusl or washing after sex. One woman who was living in an apartment in her husband’s family home, revealed how she had to tip-toe and shower off as discreetly as she could after sex in the middle of the night. “It is embarrassing now that the girls are old enough to understand, ” she breathed, eyes dancing in conspiratorial delight. I looked at her deep in thought. Were her daughters such light sleepers or of such an inquisitive nature as to listen for the water running in the parents’ bathroom? If so, did they have the ability to interpret what was happening? Like mother, like daughter then.
Naturally, though, I share the same attitude. I have been forever infected with the stamp of sexual fascintation. It wears off on one after a while. When I see women strutting around with wet hair, I think to myself: “Shameless, vulgar hussy! What is she flaunting!”
On a final note, I can never forget Rasha (not her real name) who told me this story once but it always comes back to me at the oddest moments like such memories do. She had just come from the beauty salon having had full makeup applied and her hair styled for a wedding. When she walked in, her husband was so taken aback by her beauty, he pulled her into the bedroom and ravaged her then and there. With a triumphant look in her eye, she said she had to shower after and went to the wedding after applying her own make up and doing her own hair over again. Her smug look insinuated that he was worth every penny spent.
Note: Yes, I wrote this after coming out of the shower too.
