Yeah, right…

My teacher was in a weird mood today. He started out asking about various relationships that appear to be common in the US but are all but illegal here. Many Yemenis are curious about this, they find it odd that relationships, especially sexual ones, between the sexes out of marriage are tolerated in the US. The news that there are no laws against them comes as a surprise to many. He then went on to ask if they were Harram in Christianity. I didn’t really know how to respond. Christianity is complicated, there’s that whole forgiveness thing, and the “rules” are subject to wild interpretations.

Then he started to ask about same sex marriages in the US. He was one of many who thought that the entire US was swamped with guys wanting to marry each other. After clearing that up, he thought for a second and asked why men and women want to marry people of the same sex. It seemed odd to me that he would ask, but I did my best to explain. He thought a little more and asked me, “But how do two women have sex?”

There are some things I won’t do, and explaining lesbian sex to someone is one of them. Google will give you plenty of results if you’re interested in that sort of thing… Arab men are not known for their amorous capabilities, let alone their knowledge of female anatomy. I have friends that have tried to talk about sex with some of the men here. Those conversations didn’t get very far because they were met with shock and disbelief when they told the Yemenis that women can have orgasms… It’s a sad thing to be a woman out here…

Anyway, my brief attempt at explaining the motivation of women for doing things to each other didn’t get very far. My gut feeling is that sex just isn’t seen as being about the other person out here. You do sex for pleasure, you get married to have sex. Yes, you need a woman for that, but it is her “job.” Like I said, I think that’s the underlying problem and not understanding what women could get out of it makes some sense if you come from that world view… It’s all very sad…