On Security

As today’s other entry mentions, the Fulbright ETA crew headed to Jordan last week. One salient characteristic of Jordanian society is the apt security force. When we arrived in Amman, a suspicious metallic object was placed under the visas in our passports (tracking devices?), and we had to put our eyes up to something that looked like I imagine a retina scanner would. I didn’t really think anything of it – the security was for my safety, right? – until one evening when some friends and I experienced an odd quirk in the security apparatus.

Our third night in Jordan, before joining the other Fulbrighters at a local bar, two of my best friends here (Ella and Alex) and I decided to enjoy a bottle of wine in our hotel room. Lacking a corkscrew – we hail from Egypt, after all – we called down to the front desk and a man promptly appeared to open our wine. In the interest of not mincing words, let’s just say the situation could have looked... well, sexual, especially to someone from a country where girls don’t hang out alone with boys and most people do not consume alcohol. Even in Egypt, unmarried, opposite sex couples often aren’t allowed to share hotel rooms. So the situation could have seemed odd: two guys and a girl were sitting around in a dimly lit hotel room, listening to Kanye’s 808’s and Heartbreaks album (arguably his smoothest and slowest compilation), and drinking wine. Moreover, across the Levant nicer hotels are often venues for businessmen and politicians to host escorts. Our uncorking friend could perhaps be forgiven for assuming a ménage would soon be underway.

About half an hour later, Ella looked up and said that she saw the reflection from a mirror under the door. The mirror disappeared, and by the time Ella made it to the door the hallway was empty. I hastily dismissed Ella’s analysis of the situation – why on earth would there be a mirror peeking under our doorway? – and Alex and I suggested several possible alternative explanations: someone with metallic shoes had walked past, a service cart had rolled by, etc. Ella remained insistent for a moment or two before we all internally decided not to ruin the wine/music with silly debates.

Another half hour later, Ella pointed Alex toward the door, and this time Alex also saw a rectangular object peeking underneath, reflecting light from the hallway in a concentrated beam that caught different objects around our room. Alex started walking toward the door, the light disappeared, and by the time Alex was in the hallway our sneaky friend must have absconded into the service closet, elevator, or a nearby room. There was no uncertainty in either of their minds: a mirror had been placed to allow outsiders to see into our room. Upon closer examination of the door, we discovered that the bottom inch was sawn off (haphazardly, I might add) and that, if someone wanted to they could lay down in the hallway and see into the room. There were also mirrors placed in the entryway that allowed one to see nearly the entire room from the doorway. Lacking anything to conceal, we weren’t too worried about it; nevertheless we did finish our libations quickly and left, intentionally informing as many hotel staff as possible of our departure by asking inane questions about directions and taxi fares and whatever else we could come up with. Again, it’s not that we had anything to hide: Alex and I just didn’t want anyone deciding to enter the room when the lights were turned off.

And now, the burning question in everyone’s minds: why on earth would the hotel staff care even if we were having a threesome? I still struggle to wrap my mind around it. But the frequency with which the mirror appeared (every half hour) suggests that the hotel staff could not have been merely doing a routine check of every room in the hotel. Something was wrong with our room, and that something began when our friend opened our wine. In a conservative region of the world, perhaps sinful actions like threesomes are not tolerated by the government, or at least by certain hotel staffs. I’ve heard of opposition candidates in the Middle East being blackmailed with photos and movies taken in hotel rooms, so some level of surveillance isn’t entirely uncommon. Or maybe we just had a pervert on our hands. Yet one more mystery from our time spent in this region.