Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

zaher omareen

examined her, because there weren’t any doctors to examine pregnant women then. –Why not? –Now’s not the time to go into that, let ’s stick to f inishing the story . . . So the point is that Om Raouf examined Salamu’s wi fe, and then addressed her as Om Salah – as if she was already the mother of a boy called Salah – and said ‘I can feel it in my waters: your son Salah al-Deen is f inally on his way.’ Om Raouf was a rel igious woman, and very intelligent, and she’d del ivered al l the babies in the neighbourhood – she knew what she was talking about. So the newly crowned Om Salah tore of f to f ind her husband and waste no time in bringing

you know? Their dad, on the other hand, wel l he was shor t, swar thy, with a big square head, and as stubborn as a mule. But the girls, my God, they took af ter their mum. Blue eyes, blond hair, lovely f igures. Of course in those days, though, a man who didn’t have a son was considered not to have any children at all! Everyone shamed poor old Salamu about it, and called him Abu Daughters. Anyway, time passed and eventual ly Salamu’s wi fe got pregnant again. –Yeah, and I bet she had another girl, right? –Hang on, let me tell you the whole story . . . So yeah, as I was saying, when she realised she was pregnant again our neighbour Om Raouf went round and

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