After writing that long blog post about harassment in the Middle East, guess what happened today? At 11:30am, I was walking back to my apartment because I left something for my colloquial Arabic class there. A van full of shabab pull up next to me and yell in my ear. Not yelling words. Just screaming. In my ear, so loud it hurt. And then they speed off, laughing hysterically out the window at me.
I wanted to cry. Between being stressed about school, being homesick, and writing that blog post about harassment yesterday, I was feeling murderous. I got what I needed from my apartment and rushed back to class. Hala noticed me in the hallway and could tell something was up. She asked me if something was wrong. As I shook my head and said no, I burst into tears.
Hala took me into her office for ten or so minutes and just hugged me and let me cry on her. She reassured me that it had nothing to do with me. I was wearing jeans, long sleeves, a scarf up to my neck, and nothing tight, and I look Jordanian. It's the shabab, she said. She gave me a few standard, "They're not going anywhere in life," and "They're scumbags" (she used slightly stronger language though) to make me feel better. I went to class after, but I still had a difficult time talking without crying.
Nothing so far has affected me as much as this. I was talking to Lauren about it after, and she said that she's been having a hard time dealing with the harassment lately too. It sucks. As much as I love being abroad and enjoying Amman, I'm ready to come home. Just have to stick out the last couple tests, papers, and weeks.
But moving on to the title of this post. Obviously, what happened earlier today sucked. However, on the bright side, all of this harassment business has finally given me a topic for my anthro research paper! (Which I was supposed to have turned in a rough draft for last week, oops, haha) I'm going to interview a professor at the University of Jordan, and then two men and two women about their experiences and opinions. Then I'm going to speculate all I want for ten pages about the causes of such ubiquitous harassment of women in the Middle East.
I had been trying to think of a topic for this paper for weeks, and I could not think of anything. So thanks, scumbags in the silver van, this paper will be dedicated to you and all the woman you've harassed in your lifetimes. At least you've had one positive effect on the world, because who knows if you'll ever make another.
I wanted to cry. Between being stressed about school, being homesick, and writing that blog post about harassment yesterday, I was feeling murderous. I got what I needed from my apartment and rushed back to class. Hala noticed me in the hallway and could tell something was up. She asked me if something was wrong. As I shook my head and said no, I burst into tears.
Hala took me into her office for ten or so minutes and just hugged me and let me cry on her. She reassured me that it had nothing to do with me. I was wearing jeans, long sleeves, a scarf up to my neck, and nothing tight, and I look Jordanian. It's the shabab, she said. She gave me a few standard, "They're not going anywhere in life," and "They're scumbags" (she used slightly stronger language though) to make me feel better. I went to class after, but I still had a difficult time talking without crying.
Nothing so far has affected me as much as this. I was talking to Lauren about it after, and she said that she's been having a hard time dealing with the harassment lately too. It sucks. As much as I love being abroad and enjoying Amman, I'm ready to come home. Just have to stick out the last couple tests, papers, and weeks.
But moving on to the title of this post. Obviously, what happened earlier today sucked. However, on the bright side, all of this harassment business has finally given me a topic for my anthro research paper! (Which I was supposed to have turned in a rough draft for last week, oops, haha) I'm going to interview a professor at the University of Jordan, and then two men and two women about their experiences and opinions. Then I'm going to speculate all I want for ten pages about the causes of such ubiquitous harassment of women in the Middle East.
I had been trying to think of a topic for this paper for weeks, and I could not think of anything. So thanks, scumbags in the silver van, this paper will be dedicated to you and all the woman you've harassed in your lifetimes. At least you've had one positive effect on the world, because who knows if you'll ever make another.
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