Ghalia and The Very Faraway Dream

(1)

“Ough I really hate this life,” she said with a great exhaustion.

Ghalia was laying on her pinkish bed, like a lonely sneak in a spacious desert, a sneak which is so peaceful that does not have an intention to bite anything. A sneak that  wearily goes in circles trying to fulfill its natural obsession. Ghalia, as any “single” girl in her age of twenty-seven, was craving for the simplest right that she deserves, the right to love, to be loved, and to make love…

She never can stop blaming herself about being born in such a society, the society of the two extremes: Traditions and modernization. Since an old time, Arabs societies were almost stable when it comes to the way of living. “Live to marry” and “marry to love” were the two correlated rules of living that can bring happiness to the world. The religion, in turn, came to confirm these two rules. The critical change had existed just before the generation Ghalia was born, about the late 70′s. Now, it becomes hard to get married at an early age because of being among a global village that virtually altered the rules of marriage. Most of the people on this planet come to agree that the late twenties is the ideal period of marriage; However, they can make love as much as they want as soon as they are sexually active, treating it as a biological human need. Differently, Ghalia’s society sees having sex before marriage as a taboo that would overspread the society with an ugly obscenity. The religion established that rule of prohibition and provided a very fair solution for that, as of the saying of the prophet Muhammad ” O you young people: Whoever is able to get married is urged to do so”. Actually, this advice carries over the fact that once a person is sexually active, he or she is urged to get married. And knowing that young people usually cannot get married easily, marriage should be very eased and simplified at the same time in order to meet their needs. Therefore, it was not of surprise if a couple of teenagers get married at the times of the 20thcentury and before. By living on that manner, people seemed to be comfortable with it as long as it does not hurt their reputation among other tribes, and does not violate the honoured traditions their ancestors had “planted” in the ground of heritage, beside the tents and the trees of palm..

 

 

(2)

 

 

“Marriage,” Ghalia said once to her close friend Sara, “is a mysterious miracle”. We just keep dreaming of it men and women, children and adults, singles and even marrieds!” Sara put a little smirk on her face. She knows exactly what made Ghalia saying that. She also remembers that day when both girls went on a head-to-head conversation at the college cafeteria, which, for no surprise, ended with a fight that split them for a while because of the same dilemma: Marriage. Indeed, Sara was trying to warn Ghalia from the likely disaster that she thought confronting Ghalia’s personal life. Sara didn’t like Ghalia’s new fiancé for reasons that Ghalia thought they are flimsily unreasonable. Ghalia thought Ali was a fairly good guy, who is definitely able to put her on the horse of love and go along with her to the land of milk and honey, just like the fairy tales. He was kind of an interesting person, and that what Ghalia admires because she thinks his uniqueness definitely leads to the ultimate happiness.

Sara sighed, looked at the other side of the cafe. “You really want to marry this guy, don’t you?” She asked while she was looking away. “Well, personally, I don’t see anything preventing me from doing that, plus I am in the need of someone to look after me” Ghalia replied, guiltlessly . “But what about me? “, Sara mumbled like she was talking to herself. Ghalia went crazy as she heard that. “Don’t tell me that you are making this whole fuss because that damn thing between you and me? Wake up girl you .. are not a teenager anymore, you are already 23! What happened between us must be forgotten, period. Hey, are you listening? “. Sara was anxiously holding her tissue, hiding her little face from other people, looking down almost all the time. “But,” Sara said, “We seemed so happy in the past. You Ghalia were enjoying it. I always notice you smile when we get together. Why now everything changed? ”. Ghalia barely understood what Sara was saying to her, as Sara’s voice was gone because of her tears. “Sara, what happened before was a horrible mistake, and now it’s time to solve that mistake really”. “A mistake!?” Sara moaned, “You should have said that way before, not this time, not after I fell in love with you!!”. Sara gathered her stuff quickly, took her scarf, and ran away. 

 

(3)

 

 

This day is exceptional, literally. Every single detail in it must be considered as unique. It seemed that God hands were there preserving the great day. Finally Ali kept his word and came to Ghalia’s house to ask her father for her hands. Ghalia was acting rediculously as she couldn’t believe that was really happening to her. Happiness causes people to be crazy sometimes. Love is crazy anyway. Ali, on the other side, was acting like crazy too. No doubt he was so nervous. Lots of things were roaming in his head about how Ghalia’s father would react, but as soon as he remembers Ghalia’s beautiful eyes when he saw her befhind the window one night, all the fear fades away completely..

His fears actually were coming from many streams; the fear from the public reaction was the most. People used to get married at an older age than Ali’s and Ghalia’s and they would see their marriage as a childish mistake, eventhough they both are 23 years old. Also, his father disagreed at the first with the idea of getting married with Ghalia’s family because he thinks that Ali should marry a girl of their people and their tribe; However, he seemed very unable to stop that marriage because that young love was way defeatable !

 

 

…

 

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