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zaher omareen
said no more about it. When
Om Ahmed saw the doctor
her heart nearly stopped
beating – she got even more
worked up than she had been.
In her whole adult life, the
only man who’d ever seen
her face uncovered was her
husband. Her face froze, a
blueish tinge came over her,
and her contractions just
stopped altogether! Well,
after a while the doctor knew
that her labour had halted for
real, the baby was in danger,
and he had to try something
different to get things moving
again.
Dr Mukhtar looked around
him: there was no surgical
equipment, and no medicines,
just a basin of hot water and a
piece of cloth. And Om Ahmed
was so afraid of the doctor,
and in such extreme agony,
that she couldn’t even get any
sound out anymore.
He said to her: ‘You’re taking
your sweet time, aren’t you?’
Then he turned to the girl and
said ‘Empty out that basin of
water a second, can you, and
give it to me.’ And then, as
your granny tells it, ‘Suddenly,
before our eyes, the doctor
tied that piece of red cloth
over his white jellabiya around
his hips – like a belly-dancer’s
sash! – and picked up the basin
and started drumming on it as
he danced around the bed like
a madman, singing a nursery
rhyme in this weird falsetto:
“Oh my Indian neighbour,
come and see what I’ve got!
I’ve got a big black dog, who
wants to eat me up!” Well, Om
Ahmed was already in quite
an altered state from her
labour pains, of course, and
so can you imagine the fright
Dr Mukhtar gave her, dancing
like a woman and gyrating
his hips like a belly-dancer?