This Is Not a Mirage

Shiites and Sunnis spend a day at the beach. No, it's not the beginning of a bad joke — it’s the latest good news coming out of Lake Habbaniya, a seaside town several hours outside of Baghdad. For the first time since the sectarian war erupted in 2006 Iraqis from all neighborhoods, return to the beach.

Sunbathers are enjoying a respite from the area, which is traditionally threatened by suicide bombings and missile attacks.

Aya Alshemari, a 22-year-old college student who, despite the fact that she was wearing a modest T-shirt and jeans, was drawing the gazes of dozens of male beachgoers tells the New York Times, “I’m here to get away — from the bombs in Baghdad, from the sound of generators,” “We’re here to have a good time. There’s no difference between Shiite and Sunni. We are all Iraqis.”

Although women show little more than their feet, most of them would like to bare a bit more, after all, isn't that what the beach is for? Single women are limited to the section reserved for families, while single men are able to mingle freely in their own area. And if one of them should stray, police officers are on deck to restrict any possible flirtations. But as in the rest of the world, boys will be boys.

The Times recounts the kind of human interaction that defies age, time, race — any discerning quality:

With the air turning a foggy yellow color because of a nearby sandstorm, a lanky young man from the male section, wearing a blue tank top and black shorts, caught the eye of a young woman sitting in the family section.

Mr. D. J. was spinning “Al Agruba,” by the Iraqi singer Hussam al-Rasam:

Mother, a scorpion bit me

Oh Mother, if you’d only seen her

God created her to be gorgeous

A kiss from her

And everything would be perfect.

After half an hour of long-distance flirting, the young man, Laith Ali, came up with a plan.

He asked a man who was sitting in a truck for a scrap of paper and wrote something. He then walked slowly along the beach, seemingly unaware that he was headed toward the family section. Keeping his head lowered, he avoided the attention of a group of distracted policemen.

He moved toward the young woman, who was looking off in the other direction. And then, as if by accident, he dropped a piece of paper and walked away.

For a few minutes, nothing happened.

Then the young woman stood up and walked a few yards toward the water. She stopped and picked up a piece of paper in the sand.

She opened the note, read it and smiled.

From a distance, the young man was watching.

“I told her she is beautiful,” Mr. Ali said softly. “And I gave her my phone number.”

If only everyday, were a day at the beach.

Photo courtesy of bbjee, via Flickr