a safety valve for Yemen and is a source of outside money. But millions of unemployed youths remain in the country.”
Right. I remembered hordes of young men hanging around the streets and souks in Aden with nothing to do. A surefire recipe for trouble, and a fertile ground for Al Qaeda recruiters.
Buck finished up with love and marriage; divorce is easy for men—just say, “I divorce thee” three times—but nearly impossible for women. Pre-nups—marriage contracts—exist and are enforceable, unless you get an asshole judge like I did.
Buck switched to the subject of clothing. “Ninety percent of the population wears traditional Arab dress that probably hasn’t changed much since biblical times.” He advised us, “Buy a set of traditional clothing for yourselves.”
“Why?” I asked.
He replied, “Just for fun. Or you might wear it when wandering around the streets and souks.” Buck confessed, “I often dressed as a native when I left the embassy.”
I inquired, “Do you have a picture you can show us?”
He smiled, then described to us the native Yemeni attire. The men wore headgear called a thob or shiwal, usually white, and in the north they dressed in a white fouteh, a robe, and in the south the men wore a white sarong. Underwear optional.
Sometimes, I recalled, they also wore a ratty Western-style sports jacket over their robe, the pockets stuffed with khat and magazines of the metal variety. They all wore sandals, and the whole country needed a pedicure.
Two things a man never left home without were his dagger and his rifle. The right to bear arms in Yemen seemed to be an obligation, and ninety percent of the males over the age of about fourteen toted an assault rifle, usually an AK-47, capable of taking out all his friends and neighbors in a few seconds of automatic fire. Oddly, though, there was little random gun violence or crime. I mean, everyone was packing, so you thought twice before you walked into a store and said, “This is a stickup.” Everyone in the place would blow you away. Right?
Non-random gunplay was another matter. Most people who got whacked got whacked for a reason. Usually something to do with politics, or honor, or a business dispute that couldn’t be settled over a khat chew. Also, Westerners were rarely robbed at gunpoint. If you got a gun stuck in your back, you were not likely to hear, “Your money or your life.” Instead, you’d hear, “Come with me.” The purpose of kidnapping Westerners was not only money, but also a way for the Bedouin tribes to embarrass the central government and/or extort favors or services from them, which was a common pastime of the tribes. These abductions were called “guest kidnappings,” and kidnap victims often reported that nothing was taken from them, except maybe an admired watch or piece of jewelry that should be offered as a gift while you were waiting for the ransom money to arrive. Your food and upkeep isn’t free, you know. And you were getting an authentic experience.
When I first got to Yemen, I was, I admit, a little taken aback by the sight of almost every male carrying an assault rifle. But after about a week I didn’t even notice it—in fact, what caught my attention were men without rifles. Who were these wimps?
Anyway, Buck was done with menswear and we moved on to ladies’ wear. Almost all the women wore the balto, like a burqua, an all-encompassing cloak that, like the first Model T Ford, came in any color you wanted as long as you wanted black.
Buck then moved on to the subject of veils. He said, “Very few women show their faces in public, and those who do are often harassed by fundamentalists.”
“Because they’re ugly?”
“No, Mr. Corey, because it’s immodest.”
“Right.” I wondered if I was going to get a cultural awareness certificate in my personnel file.
He continued, “As for Western women”—he looked at Kate, who is from Minnesota—“you are not required to wear a veil, but you may feel more comfortable on the street if you cover your face with a hijab, a head scarf that can also be wrapped around your face.”
Kate stated, “I have no intention of covering my face.”
Buck nodded in solidarity with his compatriot, but advised her, “It’s best to wear a pantsuit with long sleeves, but it has to be loose-fitting.” He informed us, “There have been reports of Western women traveling in the rural villages who have been jeered at and even had stones thrown at