An arab friend of mine...
...through some quirk of genetics, has blonde hair and blue eyes. She blames Alexander the Great, or one of his soldiers at least. I like to think she's Lawrence of Arabia's secret love-grandchild.

Anyway, she went to study at a big mosque in Cairo (she lives normally in Abu Dhabi) and discovered that egyptian men are not exactly PC when it comes to the comments they make about western women. Yes ladies, you really don't want to know what they are actually saying in arabic when they try to chat you up on those holidays to the pyramids.

Spotting my rather devout muslim friend, blond hair, blue eyes and all, they tend to jump to conclusion that she's not an arab and, warped by the apparently easy virtues displayed by the leading ladies of hollywood films, they think they are well in there.

Although, after being given a mouthful of arabic insults and being asked if they'd speak about their sisters that way, quite a few egyptian men might now be thinking twice before doing it next time.
(inflateable, Thu 31 Jan 2008, 23:38, Reply)