There was a family. Husband, wife and four kids. Two older boys, a young daughter and a baby. Possibly on a holiday or maybe just taking a pause in their day to go as a group to splash in the Persian Gulf.

They seemed content, happy. The husband throwing the boys up and out of the water. The wife minding the baby on the beach, then making her way into the water, wading in with the baby in her arms. Returning to the beach to deposit the baby with the young daughter, going back to the water to take her rightful turn splashing her sons. Talking, playing. The husband leaving the water to pack up the baby and young daughter, heading to the family SUV. Honking impatiently as the wife and sons resisted leaving the pleasure of the water.

A typical family beach scene, yet the mother of the family was dressed from head to toe in a black chador, only the eyes and hands exposed to the sunlight. I had wondered just what Middle East beach etiquete entailed. Hang around long enough and some mysteries begin to unravel.