90 Generalisations about the Islamic world and me

When in 1966 I made my first trip east hitchhiking, I was struck by the division in the Muslim world between the realm of men and of women. As a foreign traveller I would only meet men. Men peopled the street and kept shop, men talked to strangers and offered rides. It was a men’s world. It was not much different from what I was used to in my own country. Except that in my own country I as a woman was supposed to participate publicly in this state of affairs. In the Muslim world women didn’t have to participate or were not supposed to. I walked around in public spaces as a curiosity, a brazen anomaly: young, blond and foreign. Finally it was obvious to the whole world who I was: not fitting in. I felt comfortable with it. And just like at home it seemed difficult to reach out to women. However when I met women it was on their own terms and always without the meddlesome intervention of men. What a relief! At the time Muslim men seemed lost. They roamed the streets and they roamed in their heads. They didn’t seem to know who they were and what they were supposed to do to be themselves. On the international platform there was a Cold War going on with both the US and the USSR trying to convince the Muslim men their side was the one to follow to get the best, most and happiest. Popular culture was flown in from America and Europe and made them question their own culture. Pan-Arabism was urging them to become ‘modern’ or miss out. The Muslim men were cranky and unsure and were feeling more and more insecure. On the other hand this cultural, political and moral upheaval all passed by the majority of women. As they didn’t have to participate they could stay themselves and stayed comfortable in their own culture. In the West they tended to call Muslim women ‘backward’ but I loved their self-confidence and conviction. Something I lacked myself as a thoroughly modern girl.