عيب!

I don't really care that much about عيب (shame), which is good because I am always doing things deemed عيب. Walking around with wet hair, which apparently means you just had sex( even at 10am), leaving my apartment in my pjs (longs pants and t-shirt) to buy bread for breakfast, even laughing loudly in the street: these are all عيب and I am guilty of all of them. Even after hearing about the sex-wet-head thing, I still don't take the time to dry my hair after the gym or when rushing out of the house.

My friends both love and hate this about me. I have the guys in laugh riots when I swear, since it is rare to hear girls swear here, but I say those same words in the micro, as I have heard many guys do, and hands race to cover my scandelous mouth. This also happens when I laugh. My friends desert me, backing way, whispering, "People are looking!"

Maybe its the effect of New York, where people will loudly discuss their sex lives, medical ailments, politics, and bowel movements in public, but I could care less what the people of this micro or that random street in Mezzeh think of me.

A lot of the عيب concern has to do with الجيران, those nefarious busybodies who could ruin your life, the neighbors. This I understand. The neighbors have a big effect on your life, since traditionally and still, they are your social circle, and a bad reputation could limit who you marry, whether your shop is patroned, and whether anyone will help you when bleeding on the side of the road.

But I don't understand why people freak out when we are in a completely different part of town where the chances of someone they know in the city of 5 million happening to be in the same place are slim. Drinking juice with friends, in an area of town 2 micros away from Jerimana, I was describing my role in the muselel with Basil Khayat: "So we flirt in this bar, and dance, and then I'm in his apartment drinking wine. So basically, I'm a whore." Ruba freaked out, and didn't want to let me finish my drink. "No one's even looking," I said, as indeed those nearby were much more interested in their drinks than my declared whoredom. I probably didn't allay her concerns by saying, loudly, "I'm just a whore in the muselel. Not in life, the role in a muselel. In life, I'm free."