Journey to the Centre of the World - 3
The hazards of hunting for
women in the desert
I had been hunting for a woman all day - any woman, provided she was not a tourist, or one of our party. We had not even reached Afghanistan yet. We were still en route, at an oasis at the extreme edge of the desolate Empty Quarter of Arabia.
Tribal women in this desert, except the very young and very old, dressed in traditional flowing robes, from head to toe in black. They made one concession to modernity. Instead of a horse-hair veil, they wore a plastic face-mask which protrudes upwards from the chin like the open visor of the Black Knight. The maidens' eyes are visible, between black shawl and black mask. But they do not look at you.
I stalked some shy specimens cautiously, using what I thought would be ideal cover.
My cover was our covey of camera-wielding women travellers. Yet even they were not adequate shield for hunting the veiled ladies of the Al Aim oasis in Abu Dabu. When I finally cornered one, it was so palpably against her wishes that I was too faint-hearted to click the shutter.
In any case, hunting women in the desert is hazardous, because if you are caught at it by a real tribesman he is likely to stick you. Stick you with what, is unspecified. A knife, I suppose, but more likely, he will stick you for a fee for "damage to property."
The camel drivers of this area are very property conscious. There was a time, if you crashed into a camel on the road - and the animals were driven into the road to cause collisions - a dozen purported owners would "stick you" for a vast amount, regardless of the health of the camel. But today the law states that it is the camel-owner who must pay if his animal is involved in a motor accident - and now, whenever there is a collision, its owner isn't to be found in all of Araby.
However, the Arab tribesmen certainly do attach some value to their womenfolk.
No joke
The same cannot be said of the desert people of Kizyl-kum beyond Samarkand. On the road to Urgench, near the Aral Sea, our Uzbeki woman guide, Raisa, told us, matter-of-factly: "There are still men here who say 'A daughter is worth less than a stone. With a stone you can at least build something'." With a daughter, in this particular region, comes the trouble of getting rid of her - plus the expense of a dowry.
In some cities women were until recently regarded as not even fit to embroider the ornate cloaks and waistcoats with intricate gold-thread patterns - the mark of Bukhara and Samarkand. These status symbols were embroidered only by men.
"Women were not considered worthy of touching gold," it was explained to us.
I ventured: "In terms of domestic harmony and economy there is an element of economic wisdom in that."
It is foolhardy to make such jokes when outnumbered by hardy women on so long a journey.
The low status of women within much of the Islamic world has little to do with Islam or the teachings of the Qur'an. Indeed the Prophet (Sallal-lahu alayhi wa Sallam) was insistent on the dignity of women, and honour and respect for them. In practice, women's status varies from region to region, and has more to do with nomadic and desert life-styles, local tradition - and survival. And much to do with power, or the corruption of power, and lawlessness.
Next: Visiting a harem, and appraising foreign customs.
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