The Iraqi journalist attending the Bush press conference in Baghdad demonstrated an alternative but effective use of footwear. Saudi men wear sandals most of the time, which may not perform as well as missiles aimed at detested foreign dignitaries. But they have their own imaginative ideas about unconventional use of garments, as reported in two news items in The Arab News of 1 December, 2008.
In one incident, a prisoner sentenced to jail for drug trafficking hanged himself from the prison window while the guards and other inmates were busy praying. The man used his ‘ghutra’, the head scarf worn by Saudi men, to end his life.
In the other, more bizarre incident, a Saudi patient in his 30s went to see a doctor at a hospital. The doctor, a 56-year-old Egyptian national, refused to see him because he did not have referral papers from the hospital administration. Such impertinence infuriated the Saudi. So he locked the door of the room and began to beat the physician with his ‘igal’, the headband worn by Saudi men. Hospital staff and other patients who heard the screams of the doctor and his nurse broke the door open to save the poor doctor. The irate patient was later arrested by police. Good thing he wasn't wearing a belt.
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