Little rants · Social critic · Social Issues

Oh Yes! I Told Her Off And I Am Not Sorry I Did!…

jacquelineobyikocha

There are loads of shopping malls over here in Dubai. Huge Ones, Medium Ones, Small Ones and with them come hordes of humans from all walks of life.

We went shopping for a no-frills plain white shirt for my daughter, which is required for a school programme (last week it was a red one, for flag day, I wonder what it will be next week) and mid-way trawling the shops she needed to use the ladies.

We duly went to the ladies and I felt it was also better to do a little tinkle just in case, luckily like every standard up-to-date mall, rest-room convenience is easily accessible and over here, they do a very good job at keeping it spick and span.No selfie zone

As usual, the ladies-room is filled with women; young and old, re-doing their scarves, patting and brushing their hair, dusting their noses, powdering their faces, pouting their lips and squinting their eyes as they apply the required make-up mask. It is really a bee-hive of femaleness.

My daughter came out and I observed that her skirt was somewhat askew, so I had tried to adjust it a bit and that required a little lifting to straighten the lining.

From the corner of my eye, the not so young lady stood in front of the mirror directly in front of our view (we were caught in her reflection) after all her primping, she started pouting her lips in all manners of contortions and NO! you don’t say, went clicking happily on her phone, taking pictures in the TOILET.

I counted to 10, telling myself to just go, but the little imp in me refused to let go of the bone.

I told her “my dear lady, I don’t think that taking photo shots in the restroom where other ladies are milling around is a proper thing to do!”

She stared at me in disdain. I don’t know if she understood English or not.

I proceeded to explain better in sign language gesticulating all over the place, asking her to check if her pictures had caught people in the rest-room and to delete it.

She simply went into a tirade of Arabic and left in a huff.

I also went into a tirade of Igbo (my native language) and left in her wake in a huff.

These selfie absorbed moments can get ridiculous at times.

How smart is a human who takes pictures in a public rest-room where you have so many other users? Why not wait until you get to your private bathroom and then you can say all the cheese and contort all the pouts required? :/

I don’t get it! I think rest-rooms should come with big signs of ”No Photography Allowed.”

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Published by jacquelineobyikocha

A wordsmith with a vivid imagination, an eager mind and a burning desire to carve out tales. As I journey with my muse to that land of all possibilities and self discovery, I hope my personal evolution will serve as a beacon of inspiration for anyone who chooses to stop by.

60 thoughts on “Oh Yes! I Told Her Off And I Am Not Sorry I Did!…”

    1. Absolutely ridiculous. These days when I am out and about, I try to avoid taking pictures that involves people and if per chance a human is caught in it, I actually tell the person or let it go. Sometimes it’s unavoidable but not it the toilet for crying out loud.

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  5. Hi Lady,

    Well done! I believe in speaking up when people decide to be silly.

    The toilet is a really ridiculous place to take a photograph

    The visual image of that tirade in Igbo really cracked me up. XD

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      2. That would be lovely. I hope we will be around because we are considering using that time to go to some of the neighbouring emirates for the holidays. Not sure yet but we will see how it goes.

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    1. I think they tend to relax in the bathrooms because outside their faces are hardly smiling. Not the first time I observed the bathroom hub of a thing though, just that something in me just couldn’t take it this time around.

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  10. There are many women in the Emirates who don’t want their pictures taken, especially uncovered in a bathroom. You were spot on in calling her out. At the university where I taught in Saudi Arabia it was haram (forbidden) to even have a camera on the women’s campus. She was being more than disrespectful.

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  14. Wow…you did the right thing. That was very selfish of her to take a pic in that manner and yes, she should have waited until she was in a private restroom. A no photography sign is brilliant.

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      1. I don’t take many selfies so I don’t get it. I just don’t quite understand why some people need so many pictures of themselves on a daily basis…but I realize that these pictures are getting posted on social media which is another reason why there should not be any taken in a public restroom. That’s just tacky. I wonder where your friend lives?

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      2. She lives here. A new friend. She surmised that maybe it is due to the fact that the ladies don’t have the opportunity to show their faces which is hidden behind their scarf, so in the bathrooms they just go gung-ho. Meanwhile when we just moved here in July, I was in a spa when two ladies came in and were snapping away in their full robes. I think my senses were just lulled that for minutes I couldn’t speak, but when they saw my look they moved on.

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  18. Ah, I agree with you completely!! That is so absurd and ridiculously rude! I’m so glad you did say something to her, I’m sure she got your meaning and hopefully will think twice next time!!

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  19. Dubai is truly exciting with everything artificial and sparkling, if she was a tourist I could see how one can easily get too absorbed wanting to capture every scenes on camera – best way to do this could been to wait until the area is empty of users, or if there is a couple of people around ask for permission that she wanted to take a photo of tiles or design.

    This does not excuse her action in anyway and of course when indicated one is not too pleased with her action, the best thing to do would have been to present what she had captured so to make feel at ease neither you nor your daughter was in it.

    I liked that you said something, she’s likely to think about this in future.

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      1. I seriously hope she reflects and realize she was way off. Do you in private or a public private setting but have some compassion for a rest room where woman fix their clothes. You a picture unawares post it on social media and you have a girl in the background with her panty showing. The picture goes viral for the wrong and the is the one who goes through the emotional burden.

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