How do you tell whether or not somebody is married? Typically, I would peek in a unevasive way at the ring finger and see if there is a ring or at least a sign of a ring.As I got to know today, that's not the way one would tell the difference between a married woman and a single woman in Afghanistan.
Today eight o'clock in the morning, with a slight hang over from Friday-night-social-sceneKabul, but otherwise fully motivated, I embarked on my newest project: learning Dari in one of Kabuls' few language schools. After obligatory question about name, country of origin and organization I work for, the forth question was "are you single"? A bit offensive to start with (though most of the readers might know about my slightly unsuccessful relationship history anyhow), but more than feeling offensive I wondered how she could tell. Do I look that desperate? Or like somebody who enjoyes the advantages of single life? The answer confirmed neither nor: it's my eyebrows who told ... As I got explained, Afghan women don't plug them as long as they are single, but once they are engaged or married, they plug them.... So to all girls who read this, plug your eyebrows if you want to be taken for a married woman! Funnily enough, I actually used to plug my eyebrows, but have to confess that over the past months, I got a bit lazy on that; other things to worry about :)
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