Dear-oh-Dear

I had two experiences this past weekend with Arab men. One was funny (I thought) and the other...not so much.

Man 1:
I was on my way to the Western Wall for Rosh Hashanah with my friend Brit (Sidenote: for future reference, even if Rosh Hashanah lands on a Friday, it doesn't count. They don't celebrate on the Sabbath...so nothing happened when I was there. Much to my dismay). We get out of a friend's car and here's the conversation that happened:

Man with missing teeth and one sandal: Miz! Miz!

(I keep walking thinking he's trying to sell me something.)

Man: Miz! (runs in front of me) Miz! You wan' a VERY rich huzbin?! You marry me, you be VERY rich. Lots of monies.

It's anticlimactic, but this man cracked me up and I love that this happened.

Man 2:
This one isn't as funny. I'm actually still recuperating from this.

I spent all of last Saturday walking up and down the Mt. of Olives looking at Christian holy sites (like the Garden of Gesthemene and the Virgin Mary's tomb) with my friends Peter and Brit. Since it was the last day of Ramadan, but still Ramadan, there were NO restaurants open for us to eat in. So the three of us walked to the Old City to have lunch in the Jewish Quarter. After being ripped off at a restaurant, we decided that the fastest way back to the Mt. of Olives was through the Muslim Quarter.

The three of us started walking through, and as we got further in, it became more and more crowded. --In case you didn't know, after the month of Ramadan there is a HUMONGOUS celebration called Eid. It's like Christmas and Thanksgiving had a baby...and then that baby is on speed. With glitter.-- And we're back. Peter, Brit, and I are walking through these small, small streets in the Muslim Quarter, in the middle of the Old City, on the eve of the biggest holiday in the Muslim religion. People are everywhere. Buying things, talking, laughing, singing, etc. We turn onto this street, and from what seems like out of no where, and the crowds become so bad we can't move. We're all packed, hundreds of us, in this street. It was like being on the subway in New York or the El in Chicago, during rush hour. It was so claustrophobic and hot and uncomfortable.

On this particular day, I was wearing a flowey hippie looking shirt. It was still modest enough to wear in the area, but the collar was a little more loose in the front and back (I'm telling you this for a reason. Not just to tell you what I was wearing). All of a sudden, I feel something REALLY hot on my back, near my neck. My first thought it that someone had a plate of food or something that I was leaning on. Then I realized that what I was feeling was someone's face. More specifically a nose. Smelling my back and neck. There was a little man rubbing his face on my neck and smelling me.

Shock.

I try to get away, but there is NO WHERE to go. I'm stuck. So I lean forward as far as I can. For the 20 minutes that we were stuck in this alley, this man rubbed his face on my back and smelled me 3 times. Then when I finally saw an opening with Peter and Brit waving at me to come to them, I feel a hand grab my butt and go up.

I'm sorry to say that I froze. I know that if I were not in that situation I would think that I would yell at him or hit him or something, but I didn't. I froze. I just wanted to disappear. I felt so invaded, I couldn't even function for good hour after that.

I told this story to a couple of people here and everyone has said the same thing. If I weren't a Western woman, this wouldn't have happened. EVERYONE has said that there is no way in hell that this man would have done this to a Muslim woman. He would have been strung up if he would have done it to one of his own. Apparently, it is common for the pervs to just go after Western women instead. I know that there's a thought that women have no right in Muslim countries (which is right in some cases), but what most people don't know, is that women in Muslim societies are sacred. Completely and totally sacred. I take that back...MUSLIM women are sacred. Everyone else, including me, is someone to take out your pervy fantasies on.

*sigh* Another part of traveling I guess.