Qatar Confessions: Secret Taboos

By A.K.Aaron

Claire Aaron has mysteriously disappeared in Qatar, a Middle Eastern superpower. This tiny desert peninsula jutting into the Arabian-Persian Gulf is the setting for Qatar Confessions, a multicultural fiction series influenced by imaginative reality. After an exhaustive search for his missing and pregnant wife that uncovers few clues, Claire’s husband publishes a portion of her research in a desperate effort to locate her.
Each book in the series contains a collection of twenty narratives that will inspire you to look at life through a different lens. These provocative sketches reveal powerful and touching first-person viewpoints that create an ornate tapestry of life tortured by societal taboos. Take an odyssey into a complex world you will find both captivating and at times, shocking.
In Book One Secret Taboos, you will discover hidden reasons for a young bride’s honor killing, understand a medical student’s inner conflict with cousin-marriage and feel one woman’s emotional pain from polygamy. You will experience the entanglements of a forbidden love affair, explore the female strengths of the famous 'Vagina Stadium', learn the horrors of a Nigerian mother’s personal account of female genital mutilation and gain an understanding of the power of the evil eye. These are just a few examples of the compelling stories shared in this series.
This essential travel anthology of Qatar offers vital visitor information and expat business insights while illuminating cross-cultural intrigue that explores the fragile limits of truth and fiction. Do you want a rare peek behind the Arabian Gulf’s veil of secrecy? The Qatar Confessions Series will give you that and more. It is a cultural expose’ on steroids!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abaya Books
• Release date: May 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9780997535600

Book preview

A.K. Aaron

Qatar Confessions

Secret Taboos

ISBN: 978-0-9975356-0-0

This ebook was created with StreetLib Write

http://write.streetlib.com

Table of contents

Prologue

Marriage Taboos

Chapter 1: The Marriage Knot Sarra

Chapter 2: Kissing Cousins Fatemeh

Chapter 3: Blind Bride Hussah

Chapter 4: No Hymen, No Husband Bella

Chapter 5: Polygamy and Me Muzah

Expat Views

Chapter 6: Expat in Qatar Beth

Chapter 7: Scapegoat John

Chapter 8: Clean Qatar Jacob

Chapter 9: Cuban Connection Isabella

Chapter 10: The Vagina Stadium Ursula

Secret Thoughts

Chapter 11: I Hate You Expat Alia

Chapter 12: Set Me Free Khalid

Chapter 13: Secret Love Maryam

Chapter 14: Blood Money Rita

Chapter 15: The Evil Eye Aisha

Sexual Taboos

Chapter 16: The Cut Beyond Cruel Adeola

Chapter 17: Chastity Lost Misha

Chapter 18: Gay Cure Abdullah

Chapter 19: Third Gender Maseo

Chapter 20: Stoned Safan

Epilogue

Glossary

Bibliography

Web Resources

Notes

© Abaya Books 2017 All rights reserved.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher, Abaya Books, abayabooks.com, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. This book is a work of fiction. While names, businesses, places, events, and incidents may be real, they are the products of the author’s imagination and used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. For dramatic and narrative purposes, the book contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue. The views and opinions expressed in this series are those of the characters only. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Qatar Confessions, Secret Taboos, and Qatar Confessions, Extreme Taboos, Book II are available from all good eBook retailers, eBook subscription services, and digital libraries worldwide. Qatar Confessions Forbidden Taboos, Book III is coming soon.

Warning: Some of the content of this book contains graphic and adult subject matter. Reader discretion advised.

Prologue

Claire disappeared on March 3, 2017, the same day she had planned to travel to America from Qatar. I first learned that something was wrong when Jane, one of our neighbors in Qatar, texted me. It was a brief message that urged me to contact her. I stepped out of my business conference and called her.

Jane was frantic. Something is wrong. I know it.

I tried to remain calm to encourage her to do the same. Go on Jane. Take your time. Please.

There was a slight pause before her response.

I saw a taxi come to pick up Claire. The driver waited over half an hour, and I heard him honking his horn. Then he left without a passenger.

Her voice was shaking as she continued the story, I saw Claire yesterday, and she told me you were in New York on business. She said she would be flying out today to see you and her family in the States. It seemed strange when the taxi came, and she didn’t take it. Something didn’t feel right to me. So, I went to your villa and peeked in the front window. Her suitcases were there, inside the door. I saw her purse hanging on the kitchen doorknob. I knocked and yelled several times but no Claire. I felt something was wrong, so I called the police.

She paused to catch her breath and then said, I am so worried about Claire. I am sorry I didn’t have your cell phone number. John gave it to me when he got home from work. That’s when I texted you.

I planned on calling John later and thanking him. He and Jane had been great expat neighbors during our time in Doha. Thanks, Jane I will call you as soon as I learn more.

I called Claire’s phone. No answer. I texted her. Still no response. I called the police. They didn’t divulge much but said they wanted to talk with me as soon as I returned. I booked a ticket on the next flight to Doha.

The subsequent investigation found little evidence. Claire had never made it to her departing flight. The airlines confirmed that to the police. An officer met me at the villa upon my return. He walked me through our home.

Do you see anything out of place? He began flipping through a small spiral notebook. Our villa seemed much the same as when I had left. Her suitcases were inside the doorway of our home, just as Jane had described. A cup of coffee was on the kitchen counter, half finished. There was no sign of Claire. Her purse hung on the kitchen doorknob, but her cell phone and laptop were gone. I walked over and grabbed her handbag to go through it.

We searched her bag already, said the officer. Her cell phone was not in it. It seemed strange having the police going through our things when neither of us was home. According to the officer, there was no sign of foul play. As I walked through the rooms, everything appeared to be in order. But our villa seemed empty and hollow without Claire's presence.

No, everything seems in place, I told him. Maybe if things had been missing the whole interchange with the officer would have been more meaningful.

Our team went through your villa carefully. They found no blood or evidence of a struggle. He folded his notebook and slid it into his shirt pocket. Almost as a second thought, he said, And we canvassed your neighbors. No one in the compound reported any activity out of the ordinary.

He added, We found no activity on either her credit cards or bank accounts. Her last call according to phone records was to a Dr. Kim, a physician on Salwa Road.

Only weeks earlier Dr. Kim had given us the exciting news of Claire’s pregnancy. After months of stressful fertility treatments, our dream of starting a family would become a reality. Dr. Kim had worked a miracle, but now Claire and our unborn child were gone. Had something happened with Claire's pregnancy? Claire missing her flight from Doha baffled me. Had she been ill? Or had she already left the villa when she called Dr. Kim? The time of the call made no sense.

The officer headed toward the door. I have to report back to the headquarters. I will follow-up. And he left.

I called Dr. Kim’s office. No answer. Even stranger, no answering service or machine picked up the call. The phone just kept ringing and ringing. Strange for a professional office. Dr. Kim was one of Qatar’s leading fertility experts, having moved from South Korea to Doha in 2011. She had built a successful medical practice treating clients from throughout the Gulf region. We went her office several times during Claire’s treatments. Why was her office not open now? Two hours later I called again and still no answer. I decided that I would wait and call the police in the morning to inquire about the location of Claire’s last call. I dreaded the idea of going to bed alone without Claire. What could have happened to her?

The next morning I heard a knock at the front door.

It was the officer from yesterday. We could find no new information from your neighbors. However, I did speak to one of your colleagues, and this person said he saw Claire having dinner with another man earlier this week. The officer lifted his eyebrows as he spoke the words. His expression had changed.

They were dining at the Sheraton Beach restaurant. His eyes were fixated on my face perhaps waiting for me to provide some defining reaction to the news. They were alone.

There was a long pause. Is it possible your wife was having an affair?

I wouldn't dignify his question with a response. A woman dining in America with a man other than her husband would not receive a second glance; however, in Qatar, women usually don't go out alone at night, and national women rarely are seen without their husband or male family member as a chaperone.

It seemed clear to me that the officer suspected Claire had a secret lover and had left me.

What is the possibility her unborn child is not yours? he asked tucking his pen in his front shirt pocket next to his notebook. I wondered if he was questioning this because I was nearly twice her age. Idiot.

Claire would never go out on me, and she would never leave me. Never. Claire and I shared a magical love. We brought out the best in each other. The age difference never mattered to either of us. Our dream was to have a child and start a family.

The policeman was way off-base. I tried not to show my disdain. I offered to take a polygraph test to prove my innocence in her disappearance. I knew that lie detector tests were not admissible in court and that taking the test wouldn’t eliminate me as a suspect, but positive results might focus the investigation elsewhere. He nodded in agreement and called his central office to make the arrangements.The test took longer than I imagined, but the police finally told me that I had passed. After the lie detector test, the police removed me from the suspect list. I was relieved because now they could focus their attention on finding what happened.

Two days later, the Laurel-and-Hardy-scripted police investigation came to a premature pause. They said until there was new evidence, information surrounding Claire's case would be kept in the missing person's division. The report of my wife having dinner with a man, other than her husband, must have prejudiced the investigation. I asked them again if they had determined the location of her last phone call. They said they would let me know.

Angry with their lack of attention, I sat down to collect my thoughts. I realized that every minute I lingered reduced my chances of finding Claire. I needed to take the lead and search for my wife and our unborn child alone. I would not waste another moment on speculation.

⁓

Our life together as a couple had been happy. We met while Claire studied anthropology in college and fell deeply in love. While living in Doha; I worked as an engineer on a major hotel development while Claire collected oral histories of people for a book she hoped to publish. Throughout our marriage, Claire and I have dedicated ourselves to building our future as a family.

When we moved to Qatar, Claire seemed pleased to have found such a vast number of different nationalities living in the country. The desert peninsula proved a smorgasbord of research possibilities for a cultural anthropologist. It was there in Doha that Claire first probed what factors motivated people’s actions more: religion, culture or tradition?

When a colleague of hers doubted the validity of an American writing about