JEDDAH, 13 October 2006 — Add the fatigue of fasting in Ramadan, the pressure of shopping for Eid and a long queue for the ATM and you know that someone is going to lose their mind.
As people were patiently waiting their turn to withdraw money yesterday from an ATM at Jeddah’s Hera’a International Mall, they witnessed the other side of a pleasant shopping experience: A young beautiful woman strutted by and tried to cut in line, but the man whose turn was coming up asked her to go to the back of queue.
“But I’m a woman,” she said coquettishly.
“There are other women waiting in line and my family is waiting for me in the store,” the man replied.
The woman became aggressive and started calling him names, but he didn’t back off and gave as well as he received.
When his turn came, he stepped up to the machine, she pushed him with her hand and took his place. The man lost his temper and shoved her back. She started yelling and hitting him and he defended himself.
People tried to separate the two while an older man tried to convince the man to let her withdraw from the ATM while another man offered her his place in line.
Security men came and dragged the man away while everyone in queue backed off from the woman as she was allowed to withdraw money as if nothing had happened.
