Islam and its influence on Middle Eastern Culture, and life in the Middle East

Friend’s Experiences in the Middle East and Middle Eastern Culture

Kevin Wu

            When I interviewed my friend Mahmoud, I was surprised to hear his perspective on Middle Eastern culture, his experiences living in the Middle East as a child, and his views on the current situation and future of the Middle East and America.

            One interesting thing I found was that in the Middle East, neighbors are often like family, as opposed to here in the United States where they are a lot more impersonal and formal. In America, you may say hello to your neighbors or help out every once in a while, but that is almost as far as that relation goes. On the other hand, my friend recalled that when he was living in Egypt he would often drink tea with his neighbors or eat dinner with them which is not something that we often see here in the United States. And this communal bond does not only extend to your neighbors but even to the workers in the area and the local policemen whom he refers to as “uncles”. According to him, the children in Egypt were a lot more open as opposed to the children in the United States who often “closed themselves off”, which to him was one of the major changes that he had to adjust to when he first moved the United States.

            Another aspect that I found both interesting and admirable about my friend’s experiences while living in Egypt and being raised in a Muslim family was the fact that he was taught to respect everyone and not to see people differently because of the color of their skin, their religion, or any other factors. In his words, there were a lot of Christian Egyptians with whom he “got along fine” with. I was more expecting there to be a lot of tension among the various ethnic or religious groups. In addition, to him, Islam is not only a set of rules and restrictions that Muslims have to follow. Rather he treats it as a guide in life and as a source of advice in times of adversity. In Islam, there is a saying that “living in this world is living as a traveler, and you gather your resources and treat everyone fairly so they’ll treat you well in turn and you move on with your life”. Since this world in his view is made up of “temporary things”, he views Islam as a way to properly navigate this world. I find this world view both unique, enlightening, and really emphasizes the important things in life.

            What I was most surprised to find out was that women in the Middle East are not always repressed, but rather treated almost like “queens”. Speaking of his and his mother’s experiences back in Saudi Arabia, where he was born, he recalled that his mother was not allowed to drive. By Western standards, this would be an unjust and sexist restriction. However, instead of driving herself, his mother was driven everywhere by a chauffeur. In another example, he and his mother would often visit his friends’ houses and he would describe these houses very luxurious and the women there as wearing fine jewelry and clothing. So, in his view, women in the Middle East are not as brutally repressed as Western media often portrays them to be, rather, they are often treated like royalty. In addition, I found out that women were expected to stay home and raise the kids while the men worked. Through further conversations that Mahmoud and I have had, I gained further insight into Middle Eastern culture and Islam in particular. What I found quite interesting was his view that the hijab was not a symbol of the repression of women, but contrarily, empowers women since wearing the hijab is not an obligation, rather is an option to follow their culture. Thus, the Western assertion that all women in the Middle East are repressed is not entirely founded as it arises mostly from cultural differences, which ties back to the question we were presented earlier this year: Do Muslim women really need saving?

Audio Interview: https://youtu.be/WY4fXziVEF8