Haboobi, aroohlak fidwah : Relational Challenges among Men and Women in Asking for Money

This paper examines ways and strategies wherein interlocutors gain face in asking for money interactions in an Iraqi context, namely the University of Basra. To this end, 40 Iraqi EFL and Translation teachers at the university level were randomly selected. Following Arundale (1999, 2006), the researchers adopted the notion of face as an interactional and relational phenomenon which is conjointly co-constituted regarding meanings and actions in talk-in-interaction. Some acts are inherently threatening face and others incur potential threats in certain contexts. The data were taken from an open ended questionnaire plus interviewing some of the informants, and analyzed to investigate how participants achieve face in such a sensitive issue, i.e. asking for money. The findings showed that even in close relationships, requesters tend to justify their asking for money. Furthermore, female requesters were more sensitive, more cautious and more indirect in their asking for money than men. If those females plan to borrow money from men, they will commence their interaction with nice, juicy words. Refusing to give money will definitely result in a relational damage with a potential face threat that terminates the interaction.