In my village, as in many such villages, women would beat the clothing of their husbands with heavy wooden bats against a stone base. At night, I could often hear the sound of women pounding away at the clothing coming clearly across the quiet night. When I first started to do this, I just wanted to imitate something that had sparked a memory. After I got going at it, I realized how many sounds were like that—women chopping vegetables on a cutting board, women walking in high heels, etc. As I started to do it, I got wrapped up in it. It started to make me feel calm and relaxed. I realized that it must have had a therapeutic value for so many women who were forced to sublimate all of their feelings in a stressful, repressive way. After a while, I really began to enjoy it. |
