In all my years in the Middle East, I had never seen happen what I saw last week: a small child ran up to his mother, a woman wearing full abaya and niqab.
BUT. It wasn't his mother! His mother was a different woman wearing full abaya and niqab, nearby. The woman the kid mistook for his mother gently shepherded him in the right direction.
I always thought this must happen all the time. As a friend pointed out on fb, this happens all the time even when mothers and fathers aren't covered head-to-toe. I myself remember many years ago pulling on the pants leg of a man at Costco to get his attention. I thought it was my dad. It wasn't. Adults sometimes look the same from the waist down when you're a kid and can only really see that far up.
But I assumed this mother-confusion with abaya/niqab was more common, because only the eyes are showing. Who knows if it actually is - I'm just glad I saw it happen in person for once!
BUT. It wasn't his mother! His mother was a different woman wearing full abaya and niqab, nearby. The woman the kid mistook for his mother gently shepherded him in the right direction.
I always thought this must happen all the time. As a friend pointed out on fb, this happens all the time even when mothers and fathers aren't covered head-to-toe. I myself remember many years ago pulling on the pants leg of a man at Costco to get his attention. I thought it was my dad. It wasn't. Adults sometimes look the same from the waist down when you're a kid and can only really see that far up.
But I assumed this mother-confusion with abaya/niqab was more common, because only the eyes are showing. Who knows if it actually is - I'm just glad I saw it happen in person for once!