This is the lunar month of Ramadan, a time of spiritual renewal marked by fasting and other forms of self-control for Muslims around the world. This year it coincides with a female Afghan friend’s last minute preparations for higher education outside of Afghanistan. She has worked toward and waited for this for years. She’ll be studying close to the equator in a city hotter than Kabul, but also one where she will be freer.
A bit of her new freedom of expression takes the form of celebrity style sunglasses. How glamorous she looks, I think. But in Kabul walking with a female friend, she’s gets stares, car honks, and then a man following them. Afghan men wear these things, but they tease the women who do so. “She’s wearing plates of salad on her face’, is one taunt.
More seriously, she is accused of canceling their fasting. Because the woman has aroused inappropriate feelings in the man, she is in the wrong. And the man says this looking directly at her rather than with gaze down as is dictated by custom.
My friend’s companion said, “The glasses are great, but I don’t want to lose you. Please take them off.” So they are packed up with all her belongings for her new life as a full-time student taking her place in the university’s program for leadership training. Watch out world.
dirtroaddocs 
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