A short story from the series of 1001 nights of "NOT your Scheherazade" by Samar Zughool.
“The Strike of Mecca”
A short story from the series of 1001 nights of "NOT your Scheherazade" by Samar Zughool.
In 2011, I was in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, with my mother. I did not go there for answers; I already had them, but I went in my search for closure! For any closure!
In the yard of the black stone, a male-dominant voice crapped over the microphone.
"Women shall move to the back, for men to pray in the front".
My mother and I looked at each other and started complaining and objecting, a woman spotted us from nearby, and she came to us and approved our dissatisfaction.
" I come from Morocco, I am a professor, I am a holder of a PHD degree, and I did not work this hard to pray behind any man! I am not praying behind any man today!" - She said.
She sat on the floor and asked us to join her for a strike! My mother and I joined her immediately, and more women joined us in a strike on the floor.
It was a moment of glory of a satisfactory sensation, an orgasm I never felt before. But in a few minutes, the policewomen arrived with sticks and splatted our crowd.
On that day, I did not pray, but today for the woman who self-identified as “ A woman with PhD from Morocco” and the pure great peaceful and powerful soul of my mother, I pray, I pray but in my own way!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the 1001 Nights of “NOT your Scheherazade by Samar Zughool”,
This text-video story is part of the 1001 nights of "NOT your Scheherazade" series of performances and stories by Samar Zughool.
This series presents ten different stories in each performance as a reflective process.
By gathering recipients' reactions in a collective journey, the performer will eventually make the "NOT your Scheherazade" book of 1001 nights, each night referring to one story or tale.
The book, "The 1001 Nights of NOT Your Scheherazade", is currently in progress based on its series of experimental performances, and it may become one day an alternative to overcome the misogynist, patriarchal, and Orientalist book so known as “The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights.”