Sometimes the continued holding of hands is experienced, especially after very warm greetings, or as the friendship grows.

• The holding of hands should only be performed by people of the same gender.
• It is never appropriate for a man and a woman who aren’t married to hold hands.
• A male holding hands with another male is perfectly normal, and there’s no context within Afghan culture that makes this a strange or weird scenario. The holding of hands while walking is also normal.
• An American male rejecting the offer of holding an Afghan male’s hand will almost certainly jeopardize the friendship, and this will be taken as a personal rejection of the Afghan.

Greeting someone of the opposite gender.

• If an Afghan woman is with her male family member (i.e. husband, father, brother, etc.), you need to discern how warm they want an American male to be with their Afghan female relative.
• If the Afghan woman reaches her hand out to you, then you should feel comfortable to greet with a handshake, but you probably won’t hold hands since you’re of opposite genders.
• If the Afghan woman does not reach out her hand, it would be best to keep your hand to yourself as well. A friendly hand over the heart or wave would likely be sufficient.
• If an American male encounters an Afghan female without the presence of her male family member(s), it would probably be best to not engage her. It would be better for the American male to fetch a female family member of his family (i.e. wife, mother, sister, etc.) so females can engage females.
• American males should be careful not to stare at Afghan women, and American males should be careful not to display any behavior that could be misconstrued as flirting.

Eating

• Halal is a must.
• The Layihmon Asian Grocery store in Owensboro has quite a bit of Halal foods and snacks.
• Be sure to look for the Halal symbol on packaging to verify that it’s suitable for Muslims to consume.
• Just the presence of pork can be repulsive.
• Alcohol is a major haram (sin).
• Never reject a cup of tea.
• Doing so could be considered a personal rejection.
• Afghans who belong to the Pashtun people group consider “three cups of tea” (three separate social engagements involving tea) as the sign of a real friendship.