The Meaning of Waiting

Victoria Brittain

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781849430517
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783198412
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Eight women tell their stories – using their own words – stories of the unseen fallout of the war on terror in Britain. These are stories of real women, from cultures as varied as Palestine, Senegal, Jordan, Libya, St John's Wood, and the English Midlands. They all came to the UK as refugees, or married refugees here. After 9/11 the world they loved here vanished almost overnight. One after another they were engulfed by isolation and private terror.

Characters

Alexia	French/Senegalese
Sabah	British/Palestinian
Yasmine	British/Jordanian
Nour	British/Palestinian
Wendy	British
Amani	British/Libyan

Woman A

Woman B

Woman Z

Backdrop of images of completely veiled women in black in what is recognizably London. Outside Regents Park Mosque on a Friday just before prayer time. Edgware Road restaurants with men sitting outside, smoking hookahs, reading papers, talking. Women in black veils are walking by, with lots of children, stopping at fruit and vegetable shops with produce piled high on pavement.

Intercut images of East African embassy bombings, 9/11 New York, London 7/7, and, very briefly, massed London policemen, and police cars and vans. Silent.

Black.

Lights go up and onto a woman in dark long coat with white head veil, SABAH, sitting as though at a kitchen table. At the front of the stage, on the side, is another,ALEXIA, fully veiled in a dark brown robe and face veil. She is sitting in the doorway of her flat. Each one speaks to the audience as though the other was not there.

ALEXIA: It was about six in the morning and my husband was in the living room because it was nearly time for prayer, they came, and one lady in a suit switched on the light and I wake up. I turned for my hijab……. I want to know what happened, and she was telling me, just wait a minute. I didn’t understand anything, I heard voices, and there was people walking and they was talking with my husband.

My husband came to the door and they didn’t let him into my room. He asked me to pack up his bag, and I tell him, ‘What happened?’ And he tell me, ‘They coming in to arrest me.’ And I say, ‘Why?’ I start to really panic. He says, ‘They are arresting me on suspicion of terrorism.’ At this time I didn’t understand good English, I didn’t understand anything, nothing. So I am starting to cry, and he said, ‘Just make my bag.’ And then, they left,.…… they took him.……, they handcuff him, and they let him just tell me, ‘Bye.’

SABAH: I hate to hear knocking on the door. My heart leaps and knocks, and I remember that time when the police came in the night after my husband was away. There were dozens of them, everywhere, upstairs, downstairs.

My Mum, that night……..she was completely white, no colour, when she saw these police inside our house, in the middle of the night.

I never like to see police after this experience, I remember it whenever I see them.

They took us away, to a hotel – all my little children in their night clothes, so scared and not understanding, none of us understanding, anything.

One thing I’ll never forget is how the people there looked at us, when we came into that hotel with police. They looked……as though we were criminals. It was horrible. I couldn’t bear my Mum to be living this.

* * * * * *

(Speech very different in these flashback stories – fluent, keen to communicate, no hesitations.)

ALEXIA: I was born in France, but we used to go to my country sometimes, to Senegal. That’s where I became muslim – just me and my sister, not the rest of the family.

My father had many wives, five wives – it’s the custom in my country, not just for muslims. The French one lived in her house in the countryside in France. The three Senegalese lived in the same house, like sisters, I called them all Mum, all the same care for us children and we same like sisters, sisters. We were always happy together.

I used to play basketball – that’s what I liked, I really liked. I’m tall, so I was really good.

And it was nice here in England, you can wear a scarf and noone looks, it’s not like France, its too hard being muslim there. I take my scarf off when I go on the Eurostar to visit my Mum.

I met my husband at my friend’s house – it was love – he has a beautiful face, and always smiling and laughing. And it was easy for my family to accept, you know, my father had one Algerian wife too.

SABAH: I was a school teacher in Jordan, I loved my job, and the children loved me. I was always a very happy girl, but I was also careful about my life and my family. Even then I always used to think about Allah and what he would want from me. He was always there for me in my life, in my thoughts. I started to wear the scarf when I was fourteen, although my father tried to stop me, he said it was too early and I would probably change my mind. But I insisted, I knew what I wanted. I went on the Haj with my Mother – that was a very special time for me..

I knew that I wanted to marry a man who was very special, very pure, very good. My husband’s sister knew me from the school, and my family, and when he came from working in Pakistan, wanting to get married, she asked for me, and he came to visit my family. I saw him, and I liked him. He’s a Palestinian, like me.

When I got married, he was staying one month in Jordan before he went back to Pakistan. We stayed at his mother’s house, and he made this new bedroom for me, all white, new bed, and with pink on the curtains. I told him it wasn’t important, I could sleep on the floor, but he wanted to do that for me. My mother was so happy when she came and saw that room. He would be loving and kind with me.

After I was married I started to cover my face too, as well as wearing hijab. I always like the feeling, – it’s a very nice feeling.

My father didn’t want me to go so far away, to Pakistan, but I told him, I have to be with my husband now, I have to go with him, however far away it is.

I taught school there too. Then we had to leave – all the Arabs were leaving suddenly – and we came here to England, as refugees. Why England? We thought it was safe.

I had a very long wait for my first child, then God gave me four more, three boys, two little girls. My life.

I always knew how much my husband loves me, and the children. This is my life. I love my husband so much, only God knows how much I thank him for that.

YASMINE and NOUR enter, they are in black robes and veiled, but take them off as they start to speak. They are not aware of the presence of each other or anyone else.

YASMINE: When I was a ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Guantanamo Bay
• Control orders
• Characters