We went back to this ritzy shopping mall ostensibly to stock up on Nespresso, but I had also wanted a capture of one of these signs for the third floor women’s only area, where female customers can relax and shop in privacy free of abayas and headscarves. Most places where the signs were posted had security around them (to prevent unwanted men from trying to get up there – I saw one foreign man who was a bit distressed that he couldn’t accompany his wife) and thus were impossible to photograph.

This unattended sign was in a department store which also had a most interesting phenomenon: female sales clerks working there, at least in the cosmetics department! I had heard about this program of “feminization” in commercial enterprises but had never seen it being implemented. The women were of course dressed in abayas and niqab (all-covering face veil), but the entire department was staffed by them. I thought this to be a most encouraging sign that women are at last becoming part of the workforce here.

We drove our car to the mall (well my husband drove, of course)! BMW had the car for over a week and we think finally contacted the manufacturer about getting it started. They hot-wired the fuse box, which allowed them to pop the trunk open at last. It took a while to get a driver’s license and insurance and get the car registered and plated, but we now have wheels!