Niqab

One day, a taxi cab stopped right outside of my apartment building and I noticed that the passenger -- one of my niqab-wearing neighbours -- was having trouble with the taxi driver. (Sometimes, the locals take advantage of foreigners, like the time they charged my neighbour 40 JD for a gas canister.) I asked her what the issue was. She said, "He wants a dinar."

I told the driver, "Look, the way it works here in Jordan is that you charge the person whatever is on the meter. If you have a problem with that, we can go to the police station or I can take your vehicle number and file a complaint. Don't pick on a woman just because she doesn't know how to defend herself." He said, "What's it to you?" "She's my neighbour", I said confidently. "She's your neighbour?", he asked. I said, "Yes." He said, "Well, you were going to prayer, right? If you're such a sheikh, why don't you give her a dinar when you come out from prayer?" I said, "Why would I give her a dinar? She's not a beggar." Just as those words came out of my mouth, I began to suspect I had made a mistake: this lady I was defending wasn't a poor, defenseless foreigner living in Kharabsheh, but a professional beggar. Without fail, she walked up to the mosque and stood there collecting handouts.

Thus, I suggest that all niqab-wearing residents of K-Town sport a circled letter, "K" on their niqabs so we can distinguish them from the beggars.