A Girl in a Jilbab

A while back I admitted to dreaming about dating a "Jilbab girl".

Well, lo and behold, not long after posting, a girl asked me whether I'd like to go out with her!! : )

Her name is Tata, she's very sharp and not a little pretty.

We actually went on two dates while I was in Indonesia. Firstly to a discussion on homosexuality and spirituality which was organised by the Jakarta Q! festival at the Goethe institute in Menteng.

The people there were really friendly and welcoming. Only difficulty was that I am a straight atheist whose Indonesian wasn't up to scratch. But I got some good vibes from the whole meet up, and reckon that those events really help the participants that struggle with these issues.

Next date we tried to go bowling, but all the lanes were booked out. We ended up having a bite to eat, a juice and a Guinness (it's weird, but I think I'm starting to prefer Indonesian over Irish Guinness ; )).

I gotta say, apart from being excellent company, good fun and forthright; I was grateful that Tata took the time to talk a little about the whole Jilbab culture, what's expected of Jilbab wearers and why. It's certainly not always easy, but I suppose that's the point - if it was easy to wear and give that much commitment, there'd be little point to it.