Dating : Dating as an Arab woman

“The car chase:”

Women are allowed to drive in my country (just in case you’re wondering.) Of course, the men see this as an opportunity or a way to meet a girl and yes, it works a lot of the time. The way it works is, a guy sees you and is interested. He follows your car until you stop for him and allow him the chance to speak to you. If you don’t want to stop for him, you must fully ignore him until he gets tired of following you around everywhere and decides to look for someone else to play this game with. And vice versa. Girls do the “car chase” too, by the way. Let me give you an example. 4 years ago, my best friends and I were cruising around in the car, trying to decide what to do for the day. For some reason, a lot of the men see this as a sign that they should follow the girls wherever they go. As if me and my friend being in a car, minding our own business screams “COME GET ME!!” The example I’m about to give you is no different. We were cruising, listening to music, doing our thing when we noticed a car following us. My friend was feeling particularly annoyed that day and decided to stop and see what this guy wants and give him a piece of her mind. He approached the car and asked her for her contact details. She gave him her contact details even though that wasn’t her initial intention because she thought he was handsome. 4 years later, they are still together and in a serious relationship. Now, usually it doesn’t work out this way because there is an underlying assumption that if a girl stops her car for a guy, she is somehow immediately classified as a “fling” or “nothing serious” because she stopped, which means she’s easy and has done this before, which means that she can’t be a good wife or a good mother and role model for the future and imaginary kids. Ridiculous, I know but this is our reality. The men in my society want to have the freedom to do this but at the same time don’t want to allow themselves to see this approach as going anywhere because at the end of the day, they will go to their mothers who will choose their wives for them and all of these car chases are a way to entertain themselves at our cost. Did they ever think how annoying and inconvenient it is for a woman to go back home with a car full of guys following her? I doubt it. This is extremely common in my society because of the restrictions of meeting someone the “normal” way. Men feel the need to hunt us down and I personally hate it!