Bare below the elbow policy

I was in Dermatology Clinic with Prof G. My colleague and I arrived a few minutes early, so we filled in the time with small chat. He asked us about our SSCs, UKFPOs and etc. I was removing my wrist watch when he bombarded me with an unexpected question.

"Why are you not following the bare below the elbow policy?" I could feel his eyes burning through my unrolled long sleeved pink cardigan.

"Oh, I only rolled up my sleeve when I have to see a patient" I replied.

"Why are you not following the bare below the elbow policy?" He repeated the same question as if he did not hear my answer the first time. This time, he repeated it rather sternly.

"I couldn't bare my elbow because of my religion. That's why I only roll up my sleeves when I have to examine a patient," I explained.

"I don't care about your religion," He said nonchalantly. He continued looking at me disapprovingly. I felt challenged.

I was about to open my mouth to defend myself. I started saying, "But the other.." And I just stopped right there. I bit my tongue. Trying to refrain myself from saying things that I would regret later. Thankfully, I managed to keep my mouth shut just on time. I realized that if I continue to argue with him about this matter, the Professor would either chuck me out of his clinic or maybe would put me on his blacklist, if he has any. Acknowledging the fact that he is more superior to me, I finally surrender and rolled up my sleeves up to my elbow without uttering any word. I felt naked then.

The first few minutes after that incident passed by awkwardly. I was trying to calm myself and tried to plaster a smile on my face. I tried to act as if I was unperturbed by this even though deep inside, I was silently protesting.

I could not see how bare below the elbow policy can cut down infection. For those who are clueless about what I am rambling about, this policy was created just recently. All of the health professionals working in UK MUST not wear anything below the elbow. Watches, jeweleries and let alone long sleeves shirt is a BIG no-no. Apparently they allow transmission of infection from health professionals to patients to take place, hence this policy supposedly is able cut down the risk infection transmission to patients.

I've heard rumors implying that there is lack of evidence supporting this so-called fact. Yet, despite that, these people are still very much keen to stick with this policy.

At the end of the day, we are the one who are at loss. We, the Muslim women staffs. We are insisted to expose a part of ourselves which is NOT allowed to be shown to others except to certain people. We are forced to go against what was being told in the Quran ie to cover everything apart from face and hands. We are basically forced to do something that we do not wish to do. Now, wait a minute. I thought we are living in a country that emphasis the importance of human rights? So much of human rights, huh?

I still remember, in the very same clinic, a patient kept challenging Prof G about his management plan. After the patient left the clinic, he said to us "Now, that's someone with an unrealistic expectation. She keeps wanting to do things that I told her not to do. That's not good," And I don't know if it was just me being paranoid or if he actually did gave me a threatening glare when he said that.

All in all, it was a good clinic despite what happened. A lot of interesting cases. All of the patients presented with different problems which contributed to the variety of cases. Which is good. He did complimented me and my colleague at the end of the clinic though. Which is definitely good. Hehe.