The empty bottle in the cloakroom

I'm going to tackle a delicate issue today, but one that needs to be addressed. For Muslims, this post is a message of solidarity, and of coming out and being proud. For others, it is a Public Information Service. Or possibly the solving of a mystery. It is about the empty bottle that stands forlornly in the cloakroom at work, or which your Muslim co-worker inexplicably takes with her to the cloakroom. She goes in with it, she comes out with it.

Or you might be like me, with a plastic glass, hidden furtively and filled up quickly in the sink and then whisked into the cubicle. Or you could be like some with their handful of water-soaked toilet paper, a make-shift wet-wipe for desperate times. "What will they think if they see me filling up the container with water in the cloakrooms," I wonder with dread. I usually wait till there is no-one else about before I fill up.

I often psyche myself up in the cubicle with my glass of water trying to overcome my self-inflicted neurosis by asking, What's the point of all the signs in cloakrooms that tell you to wash your hands, if your bits are unwashed, I tell myself? Does it get smelly? I try to psycho-analyse my own embarrassment. It's not me that should be embarrassed with my glass of water, it's all of those who don't have water and don't wash themselves that should be feeling shifty. (then why am I the one hiding my bottle?) Eugh!

If you are a Muslim working in an office, sharing the same issues, then it's time to come out and be proud. Yes, we use the water to wash! We like to be clean! The bottle and the glass are our symbols of progress and hygiene. Whether they remain in the cloakroom or you take them in with you, hold them high! Hold them with pride! We are the people who wash!