My Iranian flatmate now has this friend who keeps coming over for dinner. His name is Ali. And this is the funny story of how I accidentally "seduced" Ali.

I was in the kitchen cooking. Ali had just come in and we chit-chatted for a bit. However, we hadn't been properly introduced yet. Then, Mehdi, my flatmate, came in. And he said, "Oh let me introduce you. This is my friend Ali, and this is Audrey." At this point, I instinctively reached out to shake Ali's hand. Strangely, his hand sort of went limp in mine. I didn't think too much of it and we later had dinner together and a nice conversation to go with it.

After Ali left, Mehdi came up to me and said, " You shouldn't have shaken Ali's hand." Suddenly, I remembered that Ali was a conservative Muslim and I was a strange female. Opps!!!

Mehdi said that Ali was so shy after I shook his hand. Mehdi teased him by asking if he would like to be introduced to all the other girls in the flat and shake their hands. Ali, " no No NO! That (shaking Audrey's hand) was enough for my whole life!"

Alamak! Cultural faux pas...