My wife and I used to work here in downtown Cairo, Egypt.
My wife’s work was in the legal aid clinic. She worked often with one translator, a young woman from Somalia, when preparing the cases of Somali clients. This woman wore the niqab, so my wife had only ever seen her eyes.
Then, the day before we were to return to the US, this young woman approached my wife to say goodbye and told her that she wanted to find a place alone so that she could show my wife her face.
There was no real privacy on the compound. The workspace of the entire legal aid clinic was, generously estimated, about 14 feet by 24 feet, with an adjoining bathroom. So my wife and this Somali woman went into the bathroom, saw each other face to face, and said goodbye.
Deciding to show our face to someone takes significant courage.
How do we become people who have the desire to show our face to one another?
How do we become someone of such love that people want to show their face to us?
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