Julie has been a real sport embracing the culture here in Jordan. She has even taken to wearing a head covering, or hijab, at my request. I don't want everyone looking at that cute scalp of hers and getting the wrong idea. Of course, this is a joke, and this picture was taken in a mosque where you are required to wear a gown and head covering. What a lot of people back home don't understand is that the various forms of head coverings that women wear in the Middle East are not mandated by Islam, but rather as a result of the culture of each region. The Koran talks about men and women dressing modestly only in passing. I'm told that twenty years ago hardly any women in Amman covered their heads, but as men went to Saudi in search of work, they brought back this more traditional outlook. Today Amman is still a rather liberal Muslim country, though head coverings for women like the hijab are common. I guess things would be different today if men twenty years ago went to Amsterdam in search of work instead.
miss you both!!!
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