View original postYes, it's the first time. It's not that usual here in the Netherlands, not even in Rotterdam. In fact, it was part of a big controversy in politics here the Netherlands, where our Minister for Integration (yes, we used to have one of those...) was refused a handshake by a Salafistic imam.
Okay then.
View original postThere may be many Muslims in Rotterdam, but Hijab-wearing is not standard as far as I understand, certainly not in women with a higher level of education. And I know no-one with a Niqaab. I may have seen a handful during my years in Rotterdam. My piont is: I have interacted with many Muslims in my life, but none were really conservative. Well, except for one, but he was more of a giant <insert bad word> of a man, than a true conservative. He participated in a debating contest years ago and refused to eat lunch with the other contestants (including his fellow students), because "you Dutch people smell and I get ill when I have to smell what you call food." I was nearly convinced he was making a joke.
You do realize the hijab is a simple headscarf, yeah? I don't know about percentages here either, but a majority of Muslim women does wear a headscarf, surely, and I should expect it to be the same in the Netherlands... less so among the highest-educated ones, true, but still enough of them.
Can't say I often see niqabs or burqas, either.
View original postMy new colleague came from Iran, which might explain a few things for some, were it not that we already have 7 Iranians working here, and none of them are as conservative as this colleague. None even wear Hijab.
This is reminding me of a documentary on Flemish television a couple years ago in which a reporter travelled through the Islamic world and debunked some stereotypes among the way... one of the better ones was when he addressed a woman in niqab in Iran and she turned out to have lived for years in Britain, was quite westernized. Iranian women are definitely not necessarily so conservative.
Again, though, do you actually have more evidence for this woman's being so conservative than merely her hijab and her not shaking your hand? Leaping to conclusions wouldn't matter much if it was just some woman you randomly met, we all make some generalizations like that until/unless proven wrong, but if she's going to be working in your office...
View original postI think the issue for me may not be the handshake itself, it's working with a religious conservative. I'll have to find a new way of interacting with my colleagues and I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about that. I was raised atheist and if my father had his way anti-theist. I'm much more tolerant than him, but it does influence you. As I mentioned to ADG: that says more about me, my preconceptions and my views, than it does about my new colleague.
You're in healthcare research, right? Does her religion really enter into that that much?
I have to say this site and the internet in general have helped me quite a bit to get to know deeply religious people - in real life I didn't know many either, still don't really. In the end it does not make much of a difference in most aspects of life, if you show some basic sensitivity for their beliefs. Just like with anyone else.
View original postI did tell my wife that we will now know about the start and end of Ramadan again. During our years in Rotterdam, this was part of normal life, but when we moved here we were surprised to hear Eid al-Fitr had been a week before. My wife seriously felt robbed of nice things to eat. 
Yeah, I work in business with Middle East customers... that also helps to be attuned to the calendar.
Well, that's new: I was refused a handshake today
- 21/11/2013 09:31:32 PM
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Really? First time ever?
- 21/11/2013 11:12:39 PM
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Re: Really? First time ever?
- 22/11/2013 07:53:48 AM
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Re: Really? First time ever?
- 22/11/2013 09:31:46 PM
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Re: Really? First time ever?
- 25/11/2013 07:11:38 PM
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I'd recommend against jokes in a foreign language
- 22/11/2013 01:32:41 AM
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Two things
- 29/11/2013 07:39:05 PM
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