Across the Pond: Qatar National Day Celebrations

Qatar National Day is December 18, so we celebrate at school on the 17th. Several weeks before National Day, banners will begin to be hung from buildings throughout the country that have the picture of the current and former Emir. As a school, we also hang the banners and then have an entire day celebrating Qatar. On this day, students and teachers are encouraged to wear the national dress and we have an assembly where students perform dances, songs, etc. As a year group, we had rotations where each activity connected with Qatar/arab culture. My rotation was musical chairs to Arabic music.
This year, Mark and I went and bought the national dress to wear on National Day and to have as a souvenir. It was an interesting experience wearing the abaya, as I even wore the hijab that covered my face and hair. In Qatar you see a few different ways that women cover; Qatari women will wear the black abaya (covers clothes) with hijab (covers hair), some wear the abaya, hijab, and cover their face with either a black cloth or the older women wear a metal face plate (not sure the technical term). Other Muslim women from different countries will wear similar things, but it will be colorful or they will just wear the hijab to cover their hair and wear conservative clothing.
My class consists of about 8 or so Qataris and the rest are predominantly Indonesian, Malaysian, Egyptian, South Korean, Filipino, etc. So, they are used to seeing women wear the national dress, but many are not used to their parents wearing it, especially for those who actually showed up on National Day. It was an interesting experience wearing the abaya and hijab as I got a better idea of how people look at you and treat you. Several teachers thought I was a parent before I said anything. My kids didn't even recognize me when I came up to the line-up in the morning, and they were all in complete shock and a bit scared. I'm not going to lie, it was entertaining to see their reactions. I had several students tell me they wanted me to take it off right at the beginning and wanted to be able to see my face again. Some students just looked at me and laughed, as they couldn't believe it was me under there.
Other students came up to me in the morning and spoke Arabic to me thinking I was an Arabic teacher wearing national dress that day. There was one student in secondary who came up and told me I wasn't Qatari, because I have green eyes and not brown. I was impressed with how observant he was.
Overall, students and teachers appeared to feel uncomfortable and honestly, I did as well. I didn't like covering my face and can tell you that it gets very hot wearing it. I can only imagine how the women do it when its 85 degrees + outside. I thought it was interesting to see how others reacted and were a bit stand offish, and it makes me think of how I am when I am around women who are completely covered. I am happy to talk to them, but make sure they initiate the conversation, as I typically don't know who it is.

It was a great cultural experience and gave me new perspective.