Kansas 'Prayer Phones'

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21. An Islamic version, sorta...

For 2 years I lived/worked in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And I think I'm remembering this story correctly..

In Islamic religious mythology, Jeddah is known as the burial place of Eve. Yes, THAT Eve...talking snake, suspicious fruit, etc.

For decades, maybe centuries, Eve's tomb in Jeddah was a popular tourist destination. You could even talk to her, via a speaking tube!

Now these people may have been mostly still living in the 7th century, but I'm pretty sure no one actually EVER believed they were talking to snake-woman Eve.

The people who "called" Eve were mostly young women recently married, with new babies, or those who wanted babies. The woman on the other end of the line was an elderly woman, often a very poor widow, with lots of experience in marriage and child-raising.

The "callers" would leave a little bit of money which was divvied up among the "Eves."

So everybody benefited - young women could ask questions about sex that they were too timid to ask their own relatives. And the older women helping them got a bit of money.

That lasted until the Wahhabi shitheads took over in Saudi Arabia - those same royal shitheads who run the country today. The site of Eve's tomb is still there today, but nobody talks to her anymore. Women pilgrims would still often go there to pray for pregnancy, though.

According to Wikipedia, things are a little different in our enlightened modern age, of course...

In 1975, the site was sealed with concrete by religious authorities, who abhor pilgrims praying at tombs.

OK, guess not...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Eve