member of the human race

can somebody please explain to me the concept of 'not taking photos', i really don't understand why people feel the need of rushing up to you and telling you 'no pictures'

ok i understand when you go to a museum somewhere and they tell you 'please ensure that your flash is switched of on your camera' the excuse is that the flash can affect the quality of whatever it is your viewing be it a painting, carpet etc..

fine that's an excuse of some sort but please tell me the wisdom behind preventing people from taking pictures of building from the from outside (no terrorism wise cracks please)

whats the harm?

its not like the flash is going to make the building crumble into a zillion pieces?

in Saudi there was a problem taking photos from inside the mosque, i don't understand why but fine it's a rule that i will abide by (no one mentioned phone cameras)

what i really don't get is when your stopped from taking a photo from outside the mosque? now whats that about? its not like i will develop the photo, blow it up into a massive size and start praying towards it? are they afraid that people might worship the pictures they take ????

any way i kinda got arrested whilst in madina, over what? over taking a picture of the prophets mosque from outside!!!!!!!!!!

basically i was standing with a friend and her mother, i looked towards the mosque and thought how beautiful it looked in the sunset, i hadn't brought my camera with me so i asked my friend if she could give me hers, to which she replied:

'white african you sure about this?'

me: yeh man, whats the problem, I'm not inside the mosque, I'm outside, they cant do anything to me' (last words, last words).

so i take my time with the camera, looking through the lens, trying to get the right angle, i took 2 shots, waited a bit, no one appeared and dragged me away, my friend felt more comfortable with the situation so she asked me to take a picture of her and her mum to which i gladly agreed.

so the 2 of them are posing with the mosque in the background, i took one picture when out of now where and as fast as lightening came 2 full niqabi woman who jumped us, no lie, i kid you not!!!!

i had a heart attack as well as a stroke 3 times over, cause it was so unexpected and i though some jinns had popped out of somewhere, they basically grabbed hold of my friends hand trying to whisk the camera of her, her mother was standing in their way pushing them away and i was being pulled from my scarf to the extent that i was being choked wallahi.

i kept saying in a squeaky voice 'hijabiiiiiiiiiii hijabiiiiiiiiii' looooool.

one of them must have realised that i was being strangled so she told her colleague to hold me by the hand.

all this time i was trying to explain what we where doing but no one would listen, they kept saying 'mamnoo3 al tasweer' (no photos)and they would say 'yalla lil idara' come one to the office, so we where dragged to the mosque to be taken to the office to be dealt with, wallahi my hands where shaking so much that the niqabi slodier took hold of my arm instead and said 'habeebti ma toorjifeen' darling, don't shake, like i could help it.

any ways where walking along the mosque just about to turn into the office when out of the blue looking for her shoes was my mother, she heard some commotion looks up right into my eyes and says in the most perplexed voice ever ' white african, what have you done?'

me: oh my god mama, these anti-camera ladies wont let us go, there taking us to the 'office', they are going to chop my hand off (ok crude joke but i had to put it in somehow)

mum: you silly girl you know your not allowed to take pictures in the mosque'

me: well the crazy thing is it wasn't in the mosque, it was outside'

to which my mum follows me in to the office telling the soldiers of cameras that she was my attorney lawyer (my mum).

we walk into this office where instantly the eniqabi ladies take off there niqab and some even there scarfs, sitting at a huge desk was a big lady, who looks me right in the eye, then notices my mother, stands up and says 'um white african?' (mother of white african) gets out of her desk and hugs my mother!!!!

me, my friend and her mother are standing there with utter bewilderment on our faces, we cant make head or tails of whats happening.

it turns out that the lady in-charge who makes all decision, knows my mother and gets on with her really well, you see my mum has done hajj 3 times as well as take a group of school girls each year to umrah, so she had made friends with allot of people working in Saudi, one of them being the anti camera crew.

i thought i had got away with punishment, which i did to a certain extent but i still had to have a lecture as well as sign my name in the criminal records book, seriously!!!

she took out one heavy book, opened it to a particular page, wrote down the date as well as the crime committed, then wrote my name and made me sign at the dotted line.

they took my friends camera and made her erase all pictures i took of the mosque and on top of all that i was given 1001 leaflets on Islamic stuff, mainly consisting of 'etiquette when visiting the mosque' and 'how to wear the right hijab'

i think there was a hint in there somewhere...