A short, sad story with no illustration
I took a late nap tonight, so let my post be a short, sad story.
We live near several beaches popular with tourists in the Summer. Over the weekend, a young woman drowned at one of them. The local paper ran a couple of lines on it: thirty year old woman, got into trouble in the water and drowned, was airlifted to the hospital, all attempts to save her were in vain. End of.
Here’s what actually happened: a Muslim family came down from London for the day. I doubt any of them could swim. The young woman went into water in her Muslim regalia — I’m not sure if it was the full niqab, but certainly a large, loose, heavy skirt. When it got soaked, the weight of it pulled her under the water. Her female relatives were afraid to come after her and the men of the party — because of awkward prohibitions about touching — stood helplessly by her body in the water until rescuers arrived.
By which time it was impossible to save her. Though the police tried, giving the family the additional upsetting spectacle of seeing her largely disrobed and handled by a strange man in a public place.
This is not the first time this exact thing has happened on this same beach.
So: the papers are not telling you things because they are desperate not to offend.
And: the group they are desperate not to offend really, really needs to know this thing, at risk of drowning.
This is all kinds of messed up.
July 15, 2015 — 9:51 pm
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