I’m not talking about love here. You can’t control that and it’s part of being human. But I’m talking about affectionate behavior which is common in some groups and aren’t in others and traditionally, I think although I could be wrong, Somalis are a group that weren’t strong in that department. Even if I was to ask my parent about their parents and grandparents, they’d tell you that hugging, or even sitting close was a common site. We can’t blame ‘Wahhabism’ for this as cultures such as the Khaleejis tend to be a lot more family oriented despite them being a lot more affected by those teachings.
Like I said, heard plenty of stories from my parents and frankly other relatives who are old of people hugging, holding hands, kissing and so forth in their youth. In fact, what my great grandmother said to those two cousins is pretty wild, not gonna lie.

Let's not generalize and be ridiculous, walaashay. Somalis are human at the end of the day. And, frankly, it's a little ridiculous to compare us to Khaleejis in this respect when we were historically over and over noted by the same gaalo you're referencing to be much more freeing and chill toward our womenfolk. I've read text after text pertaining to how Somali men did not tend to police and control their women the way Arabs do and were generally chill about them exposing their shoulders and whatnot the way you see in those old engravings and photographs.
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If you've seen Khaleejis being openly affectionate that's definitely something recent. These people were more cold in public than us and far more controlling toward their womenfolk. In Burton's book, which you've read, there's a part where he notes a Somali guy who'd studied in Arabia and been influenced by the teachings there and that this guy seemed fixated with how covered the Somali girls of their travel party were and he admonished them for speaking to men who were not mahrem whereas Burton noticed the other Somali guys did not care and even made fun of him for how he was behaving.