It was after spending 12 hours flying in daylight that I finally landed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, waking up from a slumber induced by a viewing of Being John Malkovich on my iPhone and two platters of airplane hummus, which my dad wasn't too keen about. All around my economy seat on the Emirates plane, voices in various tongues started chiming upwards, figures clad in white cloth started pulling down their belongings from the overhead compartments and rushing to the aisles, their robes hanging off their shoulders — bare midriffs of men exposed.
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