Making Niqabis Laugh
A Munaqqaba, or "Niqabi (image)" for short, refers to a woman who wears a veil covering the face.I like making them laugh.Whenever I spot a woman wearing niqab (sometimes over a dozen times a day here in Philly), I have this incredible urge to make her laugh. There is nothing more wonderful than seeing a niqabi's eyes scrunch up in a moment of laughter. My first experience with this sort of situation was on a bus to Bahariya Oasis, about 5 hours southwest of Cairo in October of 2002. I had "stowed away" on a sold-out bus, hoping for the best. The man collecting tickets seemed a bit frustrated, but I paid him well. Since I didn't have a ticket, I was forced to sit on the floor. I was positioned at the back of the bus, crouched on the ground, falling in and out of consciousness. Earlier I had heard the occupants of the back seats speaking about me... "the foreigner," in hushed tones, thinking I didn't understand. All of them were men, except for a niqabi with her husband directly to my left.
It was relatively early on in my stay in Egypt, and so I was experimenting with ways to "open bridges" to meet the average Muhammad on the street, instead of hanging out with the upper-class of Egyptian society at the American University in Cairo. One of the easiest ways to do this, of course, is to surprise them and then make them laugh. I began to rustle around, making a bit of noise, and stood up while making sure everyone's eyes were on me. I slowly pulled out a Qur'an.
"Enta Muslim?!"
"Aywa, ana BAKISTANI!"
They roared with delight. I turned to the niqabi, and I was greeted with the tell-tale signs of laughter: scrunched eyes. It was the only part of her face I could see. This opened the doors to multiple conversations, an invite to dinner (it was Ramadan), and a whole lot of laughter. The largest man of all was the first to insist that I sit in a proper seat, and he would not take no for an answer. For the next few hours, the men in the back rotated turns standing, while allowing me to sit. That's Egyptian hospitality for you. Another eye-scrunch occurred in Philadelphia, while at my morning line assistant job. She drove up to drop her son off to the school, and I opened the door to let the kid out. I was excited to find a delightfully smiley niqabi! I don't remember exactly what I said but I got a good chuckle out of her-- a nice good comin'-straight-from-the-tips-of-your-toes chuckle. I didn't even need the eye-scrunch to tell! The easiest niqabis to make laugh in the U.S., in my humble opinion, are the African American niqabis. In my experience they are much more laid back than the immigrant-niqabis who rarely return my salaams.
