Experiment - a day in a niqab

I always wanted to try it, the full black face cover of Muslim women - niqab. Pure curiosity in how I feel myself, how people react and what's the outcome!? I did it on the first day of Ramadan. I was a bit scared to try it before, because I knew it might be dangerous. If people on streets
discover, Im not really Muslim, they might take offense and try to settle scores with me. But with some new confidence about Egypt, I was ready for the experiment.

11. July was the first day of Ramadan and I was invited to join my boyfriend Salah for the break of fast with his family. I decided to surprise them and appear in a black abaya and the full face-covering niqab. The abaya was bought some 5 years ago from Cairo downtown but never worn, but I always had the temptation. I didn't have the real niqab so I made one out of my usual black scarf, looked like real one in the end:)

I was so excited to walk out onto the street. Because everyone in my area knows me and Salah, walking hand-in-hand, they know we are together and suddenly the always typical white girl appears in a full black Muslim clothing...
Since I couldn't look straight into the eyes of people, my partner reported to me what was happening around me. (the fully-covered conservative Muslims don't make any eye contact with strangers, never give their hand to greet any man except her own and speak with a low voice).

The first bread selling woman on a street corner smiled and clapped her hand together of happiness to see me converted to Islam.
Then we moved on to a corner shop where we always get all our basic groceries and we know the family running this place by names and they know us by names. I did not hold hands with Salah this moment, but stood close to him. The father said nothing, just started speaking with Salah and the daughter smiled to me and said "mabrook!" (congratulations), I quietly thanked her. After leaving this shop I turned to Salah and asked him, how come the father hadn't
recognized me, after all, who else could it be side by side to him. He explained, sure, he had recognized me, but according to Islamic "street rules" couldn't speak with me, because I was fully covered and with a man. This was an act of respect, because he obviously thought I had converted to Islam and chosen the highest religious position of a Muslim woman - covering all of my face. I was shocked, surprised, sad the same time. The rules of the street, women and religion started to dawn on me. This is one side of what separation of sexes really means. Here, respect means no contact.
I asked my partner how do then these women go and manage to buy their daily things from the market. he replies, they either won't go alone or if the must, they cut the conversation to a minimum, change only needed information (like kilo of carrots please, how much, thank you) and don't have any eye contact with a male shop keeper.
When we are walking inside my partner's home area in Giza some people gave us weird stares. I immediately needed an explanation. I was told, because this is a very local area, many people living here are the supporters of Muslim Brotherhood. And we too were considered a Brotherhood couple, because I was fully covered any my man hadn't shaved for a while and might count for a Brotherhood guy. The odd looks came from the fact that he was smoking a cigaret as we walked and this is obviously a sin for the Brotherhood.

When I got to my partner's home, the mother looked at me suspiciously but as soon as I opened my mouth, she smiled and started laughing. She didn't take any offense! She hugged me as usual and questioned me about my motives and experience during the day.

How did I feel? Good and bad the same time. I felt liberated by the way that noone on the street was staring at me. Normally in my everyday clothes once they spot Im a foreigner, they keep staring and calling me. But this time I was like anyone else, an egyptian, a Muslim. I never felt more free and relaxed walking the street. The difference in feeling is undescribable! Then again I felt suffocated, overheated and secluded in my new clothing. The scarf before my face couldn't let me breath normally and I couldn't even drink, because limiting my scarf I would have revealed my neck and that's a big mistake. I felt very secluded because the people who knew me and used to smile to me didn't talk to me anymore. I had chosen to wear a strong religious barrier that changed absolutely everything about the way people react towards me. And since the colour of my clothes was all black I truly madly deeply felt I had been put into a black bubble.

But it chose to go into this bubble myself. I will never forget this experience and I think it was the one I really needed to understand how free and bothered I really was as a foreigner (the foreign point of view) and how respected and protected these type of Muslim woman really are (the egyptian point of view). Its a win some - loose some situation. We often argue about the freedom of Muslim women and I now know the truth is just in the eye of the beholder.