First off, I have to say, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this pic. I think it represents Omani culture so well. For anyone who thinks that the Omani people are behind a millenia, well, they're not. And for anyone who thinks we've escaped our traditions and can do anything, well, we haven't. And in most things, no one is 100% convinced that they should leave off a tradition, even if the general consensus is that it is disliked or a hardship on part of the cultural population.****
Done from that, where I live, the Beduoin occasionally come to town. Ones from Dhofar even, but usually from the Interior, like Al Wusta.
In Muscat, I have noticed, that accidents usually happened and are caused by young Omani guys trying to show off by driving cars in ways they do not know how to drive, and taxis cutting people off.
Where I am from, most of the taxis drive very politely, with good road sense. Maybe because they are poorer, and their car means alot to them? I don't know. Or maybe because their mothers taught them common courtesy does not disapear behind the wheel of a vehicle. Traditional manners are a big thing here. Women can go first, old men go first, regardless of road signs. This causes accidents I am sure, with folks from out of town.
But the biggest causes of accidents here, seem to be the Beduoin. I am not trying to stereotype, but they drive like they are still in the desert, oblivious to signs or road customs [the Dhofari ones don't count as they seem more used to the roads having to have come so far to get here]. Whenever there is a big livestock sale, you are likely to see the local roundabout in a heap of smashed cars, as some young Bedu lad from Al Wusta has cut across the rounabout in a pick-up filled with goats and cut everbody off. Those who swerve to avoid him mash other cars. It happens every week on the livestock days in the Souq.
My husband is used to this as he lived with the Beduoin in Al Wusta when he was younger, so we've always given a wide berth when we spot a certain styled musayr (head wrap) or truck, but really, I wonder what can be done to change this?
***
BTW, I saw the cutest looking young Beduoin woman the other day at a local gas station stop. She was wearing her black birqa, a blue jalabiyia (full length dress) and black ghabah, but she was wearing an ENORMOUS Gamboo3a (hair puff claw hair clip) and as much as I am against the Gamboo3a for religious reasons, she looked super cute. I've never ever seen the Gamboo3a in the Interior, on Nizwa women, or on Beduoins (to say the least!) but she was just so individual and stunning, mashaAllah, that I couldn't help but stare.
Personally, I think the Gamboo3a as it is worn by Dhofari girls, and most Omani and Emirati girls, with hijab and niqab is pure ridiculousness. It really doens't look pretty to have a balloon or egg shaped bump on one's head, especially the VERY TOP of one's head. I think it is fashion, for sure, but not style, or taste, and certainly irreligious, because it does make people stare, even if it is the norm, because it is sooooooooo against nature. But I guess I can understand it with Gashwa (the full veil without eye slits I have seen in Emirates) as it doesn't look odd, and stylistically, though I could never rationalise it religiously, it really balanced out the long shape of the Beduoin black birqa from Oman.
Random, random, I know. Forgive.
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