Fatma Almutawa
ID 45792
Wearing “Abaya” or dark clothing is considered as a social norm in Kuwait during Muharram because it is a religious timing especially for Al shia. Therefore, I decided to wear a witch costume during my family reunion which took place on Thursday 19 Sep2019. My costume included a grey wig, fake beard, witches’ hat, a witches’ broom, magical wand, and a cape. Fortunately for me, my family lives with our grandmother thus; my mother could not have predicted what I was planning ahead. However, my bedroom is next to the adult females and in front of the young females Diawanih so once I leave my room there is no going back. At 8 pm I had finally escaped my room after 15 minutes of hesitation. Once I stepped outside my room, one of the children and my young female relative “Zahra” saw me and laughed. However I could not let them distract me since I was about to make my theatrical entry to the adult females Diawanih. I walked in on them like a royalty with a huge smile on my face, then, I paused to give myself a chance to observe their astonished faces. They were smiling in shock; they even took a while before they said anything. I took the opportunity to greet my aunt “Zahrah” she looked at me in fear and said: “ bism Allah alruhmin alrahim habibiti shnw hdha?” meaning in the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful, darling what is this? I laughed. My grandmother was smiling as she noted to me that wearing a beard was meaningless since you could obviously tell I am a girl. As I was walking close to my mother I saw her face and it was flushed red, she was smiling while covering part of her mouth as if she was about to burst either from laughter or embarrassment. My aunt “Huna” thought I was so brave that I should consider a career in acting and that I looked very funny. As for my other aunts, they were just discussing how children in schools enjoy seeing people in costumes.
After that, I had to go to the young females Diawanih. I entered, they did not say anything for a while they did not even crack a smile but their eyes spoke to me and said: “What the hell?!” However, later on, they made fun of my costume saying I looked like the old guy in the KFC logo, the wizard in the movie The Hobbit, and Santa. This time I waved my wand at one of my young female relatives and asked them if they noticed that my wand releases glitter. My relative “Raqih” was not having it, she looked at me with a death stare for about half a minute trying not to crack a smile as she took the wand off of my hand and violently waved on my face and laughed about it.
When I was about to go to my male relatives Diawanih my mother laughed while grabbing my hand and told me not embarrass myself as I have already had and asked me to take off my costumes. I listened to her; however, I was not going to let that chance slide so I waited until it was dinner time. Only one of my uncles and three of our young male relatives showed up. When they saw my costume they did not hesitate to laugh telling me I look like the wizard in the movie Harry Potter and my uncle almost immediately asked me to hand him my wig as he took off his hat and revealed his bald head while he was trying it on. All of us laughed hysterically in shock.
Later on, I asked them about their first thoughts when they saw my costume. They asked themselves what the hell was I wearing? why was I wearing it? and some were annoyed that I took a very long time just to wear it. My mother said that she did not even recognize me until she saw my pants, when she realized it was me, she slightly slapped her face with both of her hands saying it was“ fashla” repeatedly as in embarrassing. Some children thought I looked scary. As for Zahra who first saw my costume, thought that I was going to perform a magical show in the young females Diawanih, she did not think that I would be crazy enough to salute my aunts while wearing it.
I noticed in this experiment a pattern when they first saw the costume they were shocked, then they laughed, commented, and made fun of the outfit, but later they would want to try it on especially the wig, the beard, and the cape. as for the children, they would fight over everything even the wand and the broom. I think wearing Abaya is a reminder for people to sanctify religious times by doing good deeds, avoid sinning and to respect and take these times seriously.
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