Mansour was what
might be described as a middle class Saudi with western leanings but a strong
reliance on his faith. So he tended to understand me and my sense of humour and
I had by this time been in Saudi long enough to more or less understand him. When
Syb arrived back out I had taken him home and introduced him to her, we had a
cup of tea made the Arabic way which impressed him, then, much to our surprise,
he suggested we go to his home to meet his wife. This should be seen in the
context of the time and of Islam, wives did not meet other males outside the
family.
We were naturally
flattered. When we arrived at his home both of us were ushered in to the family
lounge and introduced to Fateeha his wife and the children. Syb and Fateeha
immediately took to each other and learnt over the next few weeks to converse
with each other in a half English and half Arabic. We all seemed to integrate
so well from that moment on we became members of his family and whenever we
visited we all used the family lounge, the only exception was when non-family
men or women visited, and then we used to split into the two lounges. Mansour’s
extended family was very large and we were introduced round “This is my brother
from another mother” was not unusually his father had had many wives but no
more than four at a time as was required by Islam.
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