In a traditional Moroccan hammam, bathers share the same sources of heat and water. Roxanne Brame's 2018 University of Washington dissertation records women crowding around the brma, the bathhouse's hot-water cauldron, waiting for water to be released. Disputes could arise over whose turn it was to scoop the water.
This was not a straight line running from a doorway to a counter. It was turn-taking at close quarters, created by the need to share a limited supply of hot water. Washing may feel private, but in a communal bath it becomes tied to other people's time. Across very different lives, the feeling of waiting one's turn for a shared resource is familiar. This article stays with the women's documented wait for hot water and does not claim evidence for every kind of treatment wait in a hammam.