On the bus… people are determined to ask!

I got on the bus, and the morning traffic was stifling, and everyone was looking at each other as if calculating how many layers they were wearing.

An elderly woman next to me said in a loud voice (as if she were yelling from afar):
— “Aren’t you hot, my girl?!”

I laughed to myself:
— “How about we ask the weather? And if they say I’m fine, tell me!”

A young man standing behind me the whole way was staring at me, feeling like he was going to conduct a graduate research paper on the reasons for the popularity of the abaya.
Every so often, I looked out the window and said to myself:
— “If I were wearing jeans, they would tell me to wear loose-fitting clothes… and if they were loose, they would say it’s not hot? Is there a choice that would satisfy people at all?”

One of the girls said to her friend:
— “She looks like she just came out of a religion class!”

And I thought:
— “I wish… I was going to learn patience!”

At every stop, someone got off and someone got on… and the same question was repeated:
— “Aren’t you bored? Who’s wearing that? Don’t you want to dress like other people?”

If there were an award for the most frequently asked question on public transportation in Egypt, this sentence would definitely win.

I got off the bus, a firm conviction deep inside me:
“Any girl who wears Islamic clothing on public transportation… has a driver’s license, not a car!”

Have you also faced provocative or strange questions on public transportation?
How did you react? Did you respond, or did you just smile and let us know?

Tell us about the situation that made you laugh (or provoked you) and let the girls know they’re not alone amid all the questions!