Even before she boarder her flight to reunite with her husband, Nicole Sherbiny was dreading her return to Egypt.
Her husband policed her clothing within minutes of her arrival. And she became visibly overwhelmed at his family home. She loves Mahmoud, but she’s not having a good time.
And just because they love each other doesn’t mean that they don’t fight. A lot.
In a sneak peek look at Sunday’s episode, Mahmoud blows up at Nicole over past wearing of short sleeves, storming off and saying that they shouldn’t be together.
It’s not a surprise that Nicole Sherbiny and Mahmoud Elsherbiny are fighting over her clothes.
That is seemingly a given. We have only seen them together for a few episodes, but it sounds like a central element of their marriage. Not a good on! But central.
It also sounds like Mahmoud sometimes tells Nicole what she wants to hear and then moves the goalpost. At least, that’s what it seems like to her. We have to consider that there may be miscommunications at play.
Mahmoud insists that he doesn’t want Nicole to “change,” except in the sense of what clothing she wears.
Obviously, anyone visiting Egypt might need to adjust their wardrobe. For example, people might want to cover their shoulders in public unless they are at a beach resort.
And being in Mahmoud’s family home requires further adjustments for Nicole. But Mahmoud’s demands go beyond all of that. In fact, they extend to Nicole’s wardrobe even when she’s not in Egypt. What?
In Parade‘s sneak peek of Season 4, Episode 6 of 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, the two are clashing over clothes.
Nicole notes that Mahmoud had previously given her his “permission” to wear short sleeves (notably, these are not actually short; they come down past the elbow) while she was in America.
In fact, Nicole cited that she had worn shorter sleeves while in the US, adding that he’d known about this. She’d worn these kinds of outfits while speaking to him over video chat. Mahmoud told her that this was not the case.
Their disagreement over sleeve length and their own memories of her US wardrobe cause tensions to mount.
In fact, Mahmoud grew angrier and angrier, eventually storming away and returning to their room.
And Nicole followed, clearly hoping to settle the discussion instead of having it loom over them forever.
There is nothing constructive in one spouse saying “yes. yes. yes” and another saying “no. no. no” like this.
Clearly, they have different memories of events. Perhaps they are both right about aspects of the discussion.
For example, Nicole might be right about what she wore — it is, after all, her clothing and her human body. And maybe Mahmoud is right in that they didn’t discuss the shorter sleeves. Hell, maybe he didn’t notice. Though he sure seems to notice a lot.
Mahmoud then tells her that he’s “serious about the clothes,” adding “no way.”
Like viewers (who have even less context for this line than Nicole was), she asks: “No way, what?”
Apparently, he’s just reaffirming his policy on how wildly conservatively he demands that she dress. Not just in Egypt, but even if she’s alone in the US.
Mahmoud asks why she “promised” him before, and Nicole replies that, before they married, she “didn’t know” how strict his expectations were. They really, really should have talked about all of this.
Then, Mahmoud says that he doesn’t think that the two of them can be together. Or should be together.
In this instance, he’s probably right. They seem incompatible.