The design researcher Fred Meier – Menzel wears a very special ring on this picture, which belongs to her since 1993. It is a very large ring, a Shiite prayer ring reserved for men in the Arab world. But Fred did not know all that when she saw this ring for the first time.

She discovered it in an antique shop in Bangkok. She noticed the powerful strength that emanates from this ring from the very beginning. “A patriarch’s ring,“ she thought at his sight. For a long time crept around the display where the ring was exposed, tried it on, looked at it, and finally left the shop without it. At that time, she simply could not afford? such a luxury. Later her friend returned to the antique shop and gave her this ring as a present during her stay in Thailand.

The ring is so special for Fred, because it is a kind of friendship ring.

Until today she feels the connection to the friend who gave her this ring back then. But from the beginning on she has also noticed the power that emanates from this ring. She still chooses carefully the occasions when she wears this ring. As already said, it is a Shiite men’s ring, which has often caused irritations. Fred has lived in Cairo for many years, where she taught as a professor at the German University. Although she had a certain fool’s freedom as a foreigner and a European in Egypt and was not expected to follow all the conventions and country customs, she was occasionally given stolen glances because this ring was held by a european woman’s hand. She has only be resented a few times for wearing that ring: once an Egyptian tailor has been very worried, almost angry, that Fred was wearing this ring on her finger. He almost gave her an instruction manual on how to deal with the ring, because he could not prevent her from wearing it.

The wonderful foto was taken by photographer Caroline Otteni, who provided it to me for my blog. Thank you very much, Caroline.