Degraded Smiles!

As an Arabian woman, I was self taught by watching, and living in, our society to walk around with a serious frown across my face-just like everyone else. This expression, I believed, would shield me from any unwanted random acquaintances. It would also ward off all those uninvited male egos that I would pass by in the streets. So I took that expression with me to the UK. On my first day, I was walking to the superstore nearby. My eyes were fixed straight ahead and my eyebrows were cross, my walk was that of a woman on a mission: just to isolate myself as usual. Halfway through, an elderly British couple stopped me in my tracks and asked if anything is the matter with me. I smiled and said “No there isn’t why?” “You look very troubled young lady”. I laughed it off and kept going. Once I reached the supermarket, while I was hunting for milk, again on a mission, I was stopped by a young man this time. “Smile!” he said. I did. “Are you ok?” “Yes I am”. Ever since that day, I learned to smile when I walk because, well why not!?” I came back to Palestine with a huge smile on my face. Unfortunately, I would walk around looking either like a clown or way too inviting for my fellow Palestinian men. It is a shame how a friendly facial expression has been degraded in our society and replaced by a frown for the social norm.

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