Spinsters at 30

The 2nd story discusses another important aspect of Emirati culture, spinsters. I loved the way he portrayed the character, a working lady that thought highly of herself. He also implicitly points out that she is educated yet believes that her "luck" has prevented her from getting married. He sums up the state of many young Emirati women who despite being successful in other aspects in life still regard marriage as the major indicator of their happiness. He describes the inner conflict that the character undergoes through the part where she reflects on her life at the traffic light and starts to cry.

I'm amazed that he was able to summarize so much information about the character in such a short story. He explains her inner conflicts, jealousy from her married and pregnant sister, resentment and sympathy for her paralyzed mother, selfishness in her conversations with the man she's in a relationship with. Yet he missed out on one important topic, the hypocrisy that many women that form relationships fall into. He describes for the married man who tells his mistress that he loves his wife and children, but misses highlighting how women condemn and judge each other if they fell into relationships with foreign men outside a formal frame and how many would work very hard to ensure that it remains hidden from the rest of society. Not to mention how contradictorily men boast about it, sometimes despite that they're married.