Cracks are starting to show…I'm finding it harder and harder to turn down invitations from my female students, and my mouth is going to get me in trouble. My pretty Arabic teaching friend asked me why I didn’t go to church over Easter and I thought ‘Fuck it, lets see what happens if I tell her I have no religious belief.’ Not a good idea.
She was aghast, and proclaimed at length that how could I not believe when everything comes from God. It was disappointing and worrying, but I think I was stupid to expect any other reaction. Pretty sure she thinks I am a ridiculous and decadent heathen now. Oh well!
Similar foolishness led to a tense atmosphere in the conversation class when I bought up the subject of honour killings. Subjects have ranged from nature to love to equality, and it can just get so frustrating here to sit and listen to girls proclaiming that they are totally free and life for them in Palestine is wonderful, when they and I both know that this is bullshit. Everything always comes back to God and the Koran and there is no argument against this, so end of story.
One particularly pious and arrogant girl claimed that women’s organizations in Palestine were ‘absurd’ because there is nothing for them to do here, and this almost enraged me so I asked her about honour killings and perhaps they might be able to help there.
Everything got a little tense and she said she didn’t want to talk about it, and the consensus was that these matters should be kept within the family. Most of them didn’t really think the girl should be killed if she ‘shames’ her family, apart from the pious girl who said that stoning was permitted. (It isn’t mentioned in the Koran - just one hundred lashes - but is in the Hadith, Mohammed’s supplementary writings).
I find it hard to believe that she honestly feels this is acceptable, and would like to find a way to bring it up again. I also need to find a way to circumvent God in conversation classes. Or maybe I should just shut the hell up and nod sagely to everything.
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