Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman's Eight Years' Residence Amongst the Women of the EastHume-Griffith, M. E.
Philosophy
Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman's Eight Years' Residence Amongst the Women of the East
Hume-Griffith, M. E.
Arabian Peninsula -- Social life and customs; Iran -- Social life and customs
This old lady came one day to the dispensary for medicine, as she
wished to be "made strong" enough to take a journey consisting of six
hours' riding to a hot-water spring outside Mosul, a place to which
she had been in the habit of going regularly for the last 100 years
or so! She was also quite distressed because her skin was rough,
and asked the doctor to give her some medicine to make it smooth
again. Even at 110 she was capable of thinking of and longing for
a renewal of her lost beauty. Aids to beauty are much sought after
by the ladies of Mosul, as they do not at all approve of becoming
"old." It is quite a rare sight to see a white-haired woman. The
moment grey hairs commence to appear they have recourse to henna, a
dye much in request by Easterns of both sexes. Freckles are a cause
of much sorrow of heart to Mosul ladies. One girl, who was really
very pretty, was brought constantly to the dispensary by her mother,
who implored my husband to eradicate the freckles with which her
daughter's face was covered, as, if they were not removed, she might
never get a proposal of marriage. However, a man was forthcoming who
apparently did not object to freckles, for shortly before leaving
Mosul I received an invitation to this girl's wedding-feast.
There are some very pretty children in Mosul, some dark, others
fair, with blue eyes and curly hair. However, this latter style of
beauty is not as a rule admired. Mothers have a great horror lest
their children should have curly hair. If a child possesses it, the
women try by all means in their power to straighten out the curls,
sometimes even coming to ask for medicine for this purpose.
Very often, however, the children lose a great deal of their
beauty when five or six years old. Perhaps it is because their
souls at that age become tainted with knowledge of evil, and this
knowledge is reflected on their faces. It is heartrending to see
pretty little children listening open-mouthed to some horrible tale
of sin and wickedness told by a member of the hareem. It is true
there is beauty behind the veil, but, alas! it is beauty tainted
with the blackness of sin. How can lives be beautiful when the souls
within are dead?--as dead as sin and sorrow can make them. Boys and
girls grow up amidst surroundings which soon soil their souls; the
"innocency of childhood," so dear to the hearts of English parents,
is unknown in a Moslem hareem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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