10 September
Today, more visitors came for the Eid holiday marking the end of the Ramadan. This time, it was my host brother’s two friends. The whole place was cleaned and vacuumed, and two tables were set with food for guests. I was trying not to eat anything; for fear that there would be some huge meal involved later (after last night’s foodisaster at the relatives’ house). I sat with Umed, my host brother, and the two male visitors in the living room for at least five hours, talking in Tajiki (that is, me in Farsi, them in Tajiki) as we watched TV. This was a very interesting interaction because, being a woman, normally I would not sit with a bunch of men, but because I’m American and older, it’s different. I’m the so-called third gender.
In fact, I am the same age as my host brother, and he has two children. All his friends are in a similar life setup. From what I can tell, it doesn’t appear that they wear wedding bands in Tajikistan, and it just as we…
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