A Woman in Amman
It’s a very hot day at the beginning of October. The sun is still high in the sky.
I can’t help noticing three women sitting on the ancient steps of Amman's Roman theater: two older women of around the same age, surely friends, and a young girl. Muslims for sure, since they are wearing hijabs.
One of them captures my attention. One of the older women. She looks at me with dark, shiny, meaningful eyes. As a Western woman, I’m attracted by her discretion, her dignity, and her modesty. She has a sweet and profound expression in her face, but she doesn’t say a word.
“Can I take a picture of you?”
She just nods, a little embarrassed but not uncomfortable at all. She looks at me with a degree of curiosity: a young woman carrying cameras and tripods accompanied by a full crew of men.
I tell her: “You’re beautiful.” She smiles, even more embarrassed, but happy.
We were just two women: different, coming from different cultures and different worlds, who recognized something similar in each other. We were alike, but maybe in this similarity we recognized there is something we feel is missing in our own respective cultures. We can learn from each other.
+© Anna Raisa Favale