Since its inception in June, the monthly Use Your Imagination series has been gaining in popularity. If you are new to the blog, this monthly series will have me starting a fictional story that has some connection with Saudi Arabia. However where I choose to stop the story is where you get to pick up and continue. It has been enjoyable and interesting to see the different directions a story can take with the perspective of so many viewers.
This month’s story focuses on a traditional Beduion girl and her family. Most of what I have written in this fictional post has been drawn upon typical experiences of a Beudion family and their life. I look forward to see where YOU now take the story. You can take it to a conclusion or take it to a different point where someone else would pick up from and continue the story.
Nourah was a young Beduion girl in her early teens. She and her family lived on a traditional small farm in the desert 
near an oasis. Naturally the marriage of Nourah’s mother and father was arranged for that is simply how things are done with her Beduion family. In addition to Nourah, who was the eldest in the family, there were 4 more girls and 2 boys. Seven children were viewed as an average size family. The family lived on a small farm and everyone had their regular duties and tasks. Because Nourah was the eldest child and having entered her teens, most of her tasks concentrated on assisting her mother in the house. By the time she was 13 years old Nourah knew how to cook and bake and clean a house as well as her mother. She also learned how to make so many products the family used daily spanning from goat cheese to soap! Nourah was also responsible for looking after the younger siblings as well when her mother was busy. The younger girls helped Nourah and her mother with laundry and sweeping. The boys in turn would follow their dad where they learned how to take care of the small herd of camels, the goats, the chickens and tending to the small grove of date trees their father had planted and raised. They were a close family who in addition to working together also prayed together five times each day as a family with the father acting as the Imam for them.
The family lived a simple yet comfortable life. Most of their food was home grown. They got their milk from both the female camels and goats and fresh eggs each day from the hens. The father usually sold or traded some of his camels each year. His camels were of an excellent quality and always in demand. The proceeds of such sales would allow the family to obtain other necessities they needed to buy from the local souk (marketplace).
Nourah’s mother was a simple woman. She attended school where she studied the Quran until nine years of age. After that her father decided she was too old to go to school anymore. Nourah’s mother had tattoos on her face across her forehead and on her chin which was typical of the women in the family tribe. The tattoos were a ritual indicating a woman was viewed as old enough for marriage and also that the tattoos added to her natural beauty. Nourah’s mother told Nourah that soon it would be time for Nourah to get her own tattoos.
When Nourah turned 14 years old a significant event happened in the family. The father decided it was time to acquire a television and satellite dish. All of sudden the world opened up to Nourah’s family. None of the family had ever traveled further than Qassim from their small farm in the desert. Now they were seeing and learning about places the world over and nothing like they had seen before. Nourah’s mother and father enjoyed the regular shows about Islam which they watched daily in the evening. During Ramadan they discovered as a family the special Ramadan programs and especially enjoyed Tash ma Tash. One night Nourah was unable to settle down and sleep so she went to the salon and turned on the television. It was that night that she discovered LBC and the programs featuring Arab music, fashions and dance.
Now Nourah had never been excited about getting the tattoos on her face like her mother. She was afraid of the process and did not like the idea of marking her face. And after watching the beautiful Arab singers, models and dancers with their clean unmarked faces on LBC she was even more determined that she did not want her face tattooed. Although she did not know differently she just felt inside of her that it was a process that was not right for her.
And now you get to continue the story. What happens next to Nourah and her family?
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Simple! Tattoo is forbidden in Islam. Nourah asked a learned religious man in her tribe to advice her parents. They learn more & more about Islam then on – and started reading the beautiful arabic Quran every single day.
Nourah sang the Quranic verses beautifully. So much more superior in beauty & wisdom, than the arabic singers on TV. Her siblings enjoyed her reciting the Quran, the family all loved the Holy Quran more & more as they discovered its true miracle.
Came one day, Nourah was taking water from the well. A handsome people of the book who was riding his horse around the valley heard Nourah’s singing the beautiful Surah. He was mesmerized. He went to help her water her sheeps & Nourah smiled shyly at him.
His father came & Nourah said “Father, this man helped me.” The man introduced himself as Moses and he said he was visiting ther beautiful area while he is in Saudi Arabia for shooting a National Geographic documentary. “Oh!! Like on satellite TV!” Nourah exclaimed. “I loved NG! I saw a blonde American woman perform hajj on it – masha Allah” His father invited Moses to dinner & they had friendly welcome for him.
Moses was still mesmerized by Nourah’s Quran recital. She also seems smart & capable, something Moses found astounding. Eventhough Nourah didn’t want to tattoo her face, but she had a scar from a fall while chasing her sheeps as a child. Moses find it odd that he still find her beautiful even with the scar face.
Nourah is too young to be married. Her father saw something between Nourah & Moses, and by Allah’s Will his heart loved them both. Moses is learning Islam everyday from the family. One day her father proposed to Moses an engagement. “Wait 8 years, and an additional 2 years. Insha Allah, I’ll give my daughter to you”
Time flies by & Nourah is now 24. Moses has waited for her for a decade, In the month of Shawwal, the were maried in happiness. Moses had ventured in a filming business – making documentaries in the Middle East & Nourah became its CEO.
Carol,
This time it is an imaginative story, not based on a real life event –
Noura couldn’t bring herself to get a tattoo, eventhough the women in her tribe said it made one look beautiful. Then one day she saw a party of men and women come in a jeep with cameras. They said they came from Europe and were making a documentary on the Beduin life in Arabia. One man in the group had a large floral tattoo on his back and arms! His tattoos were colourful and took many ornamental shapes. Noura had never seen men in her tribe having such large colourful tattoos. He said he got this tattoo done to decorate his body – this was a kind of fashion some people followed in Europe and America. From his tattoos Noura got ideas – she asked her local tattoo maker if she could get an Islamic calligraphic tattoo of some Quranic verses. The tattoo maker engraved a beautiful tattoo on her back, her forehead and her lower arms. The calligraphy was in such a style that the verses took the forms of moon rising behind palm trees and different kinds of arabesque designs as one sees in the ceiling decorations. Noura was the only one in her tribe to get such a beautiful and fashionable tattoo and other women looked at her with envy!
The documentary making team was especially impressed with Noura because of her typical Beduin charms, the lilt in her voice and the special tattoo she got herself done! Noura appeared in many shots of the documentary, talking about her Beduin life, singing some Arabic songs she learnt from the TV, engaging in her daily chores and showing off her tattoo.
In the process of filming Noura a kind of close friendship developed between the man with tattoo and Noura. They would talk for long hours about each other’s cultures and Noura gradually developed an attachment for him. Finally, the filming process was over and it was time for the team to leave. Noura was very sad that her friend with tattoo was leaving. He assured her that he will keep in touch and they could talk over phone. After they departed, for many days Noura eagerly waited for the man to call. But he never called. She was very depressed about this – not so much because he didn’t call, but more because she realised for the first time in her life that men can forget a beautiful friendship and they may not always mean to keep the promises they make. She would wait for his call, eventhough she knew he won’t call. This went on for a long time, without her family realising anything about it.
Finally, one day her father got a marriage proposal for Noura from a Bedoin man. Her father thought this was a reasonably good match and Noura prepared herself for the coming marriage – with the understanding that she shouldn’t blindly trust everything that her husband says, but if both of them carry their responsibilities it will be alright and perhaps in future, after a few years, love may also develp between them.
Two beautiful conclusions! I love it and look forward to some more here too!
Noura decided after seeing LBC that she would lead a different life than the ‘restricted’ life of her parents. She convinced her father to let her go away with her brother for college. He agreed. Her mother used to visit her and they enjoyed the movies and shopping malls so much together. Noura convinced her mother to have her tatoos removed and to have her eyes, lips, and body done to look more fashionable like the other ladies in town.
Noura’s mom returned to her husband in fashionable clothes and a new body to boot. He was so impressed and mesmerized by her that he cancelled the engagement of his second and third wives who were waiting in Bahrain and Morrocco respectively. He decided to be a model to his community by staying with his one and only true love… Noura’s mother.
(hey, it’s make-believe…use your imagination!!!)
Noura finished her degree and returned to the Kingdom wanting to change the attitude of Saudi men towards Saudi women. She was going to have her own job, her own money, and her own life along with her life with her husband. But, she would wait for the right man to come along, who understood her, before agreeing to get married.
While searching for the right job, she decided that she wanted to help produce Saudi t.v. shows to help change the old mindset of the Saudi people into a more progressive and understanding one of her fellow young Saudi sisters. She hoped that she could somehow convince them that her generation could be a very productive and powerful addition to the workforce of the Kingdom and yet still remain feminine. She had come so far from the boring days in the desert tents, and now only time would tell what her exciting future world would hold back in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. God willing, it would be a fantastic journey.
What a dynamic story Rose CG!!
Just for fun, Bedu! Really… !!! Put a few people’s stories together and then made up the rest. :
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It’s amazing how different each ending is. Just some “reality” here – the average bedu woman would be about 14 years older than her eldest child. By age 30, she would have almost no teeth due to the constant drain of calcium on her body from giving birth and nursing. Her skin would be wrinkled and dry. Her husband would probably not have another wife, as he would be too poor. She would be an old lady by age 50, have many grandchldren and great grandchildren. Her life is so hard she would probably die before her husband, (especially if from a nomadic tribe).
On the other hand, if from SW arabia (where my mom’s people are from), she would have more equity with her husband and a strong role within the tribe and household. If the tribe were lucky enough to own a vehicle she would be expected to know how to drive it. She would also be the economic brains of the family in selling livestock (not trading), and selling excess product from herds. Her husband would show pride and affection with her, and she him.
They would sit together and enjoy a cooling drink, make jokes with other older couples, and tell long complex stories to the youngest. They would occasionally be visited by imams and taliban-like zealots urging them to adopt a more salafist view. They would listen respectfully, and then laugh when their “city” guests left.
This is what would become of Nourah if she continued her path without change.
@mariam,
Thank you! I am so glad you are a regular on this blog and give us the realities that only someone inside can know.
Regards, Bedu