I am very uncomfortable with how people choose to categorize others here. I went to get my son's pants tailored (shortened) today. If my son had a non-Arab/Muslim name, I'm sure I'd avoid half, if not all, the questions that strangers feel no inhibition to ask. Or maybe I should just pretend I don't understand as much Arabic as I do.
The seamstress began her line of questioning with the benign, "Do you have any other children?" A common question in the States. When I answered "no", she then asked quite bluntly, "Why?!" I have no idea how to say "divorced" in Arabic, I should learn it, it is always a conversation-stopper here. But no, not with this woman! I tried to describe the word through other basic words in my Arabic vocabulary. She finally got it. Then the next question almost knocked me off my chair..."What religion are you?" "What religion was your husband?"
A friend has recommended I develop a "script" for these conversations. The thing is, the conversations almost never follow a patern which I can follow. But, I have been imagining ways I can add an element of surprise to the conversation....what if I told them I was no religion, or Buddhist - I wonder what reaction that would cause in this mono-theistic-centric culture. I just am not comfortable with religion being the identifying lense through which all are categorized here.
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My experience of living in another country is so off the scale compared to yours, and yet I still end up with little scripts to answer people's tiresome questions. And having lived in the Southern US, I've also been grilled on my religious preferences!
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