The bent rule
The photo opening this post is interesting because of the story behind it.
For the past four months, I’ve been living in a city where 70% of the population is African Muslim. I came here for work, collaborating with a team of European specialists, which made it easy to ask them about the many striking things I’ve encountered during my time here. I want this blog to focus on photography, but I could share some truly wild stories about what I’ve seen in this place. I’m leaving for good next week.
When I first arrived, I spent hours walking the city and noticed that most houses had their windows covered or shut tight all day. I assumed they were empty, but that seemed odd given the sheer number and the high real estate prices I’d looked up online.
To cut a long story short, those houses aren’t empty. Muslim families live there, and the reason everything is sealed shut is that the men don’t allow their women to be seen by other men when any part of their body is uncovered. So, to let women move around the house in regular clothes, the solution is to keep everything closed and rely on artificial light. Windows only open for ventilation when the women are fully covered or out of the house.
And that brings us to the photo. I took it in a part of the city where only Muslims live, and, naturally, everything is shuttered. But I guess this family’s beliefs don’t say anything specific about underwear, and what’s not explicitly forbidden is allowed. The world is more livable thanks to the gray areas.