ABSTRACT
Upon returning from a year of fieldwork in Bahrain, I missed its landscape immensely. “Why?” asked a friend who had visited me there. “Surely, it can’t be the beaches because you can barely even see the sea – never mind use the shore – even though you are on an island. Is it the highways designed to discourage walkers? The unreliable public transportation? The dust storms that forced you to stay inside for days on end? The overbearing summer heat? The gender segregated spaces?” I missed none and yet all of these at the same time.
