Class in Lebanese

Lebanon is one country I consider myself quite familiar with; I’ve been visiting Lebanon every summer since I was a kid. But, this year was the first time I actually visited Lebanon by myself, for the sole purpose of discovering it on my own, not just to visit family. I grew up in a culture that is very politically involved and knew quite a lot about the political situations in the Arab world, which means that I was quite aware of the different political and religious sects in Lebanon. But of course, it’s very different when you realized all these things for yourself.



Lebanon has been under a very shaky government for a while now, and has been through many, many different wars, all related to the different sects within the country. Even though there are numerous political parties in Lebanon, most of the parties play very small roles in the government itself. However, whether you were a Sunni Muslim, Shiaa Muslim, Christian, Palestinian or Syrian, all these parties play a big role in your involvement and interactions within the country.

Being a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, I always realized how racist many Lebanese are against Palestinians. Like I mentioned in one of my previous post, "Will they ever belong?", Palestinians cannot work outside refugee camps and suffer from many unequal treatments in Lebanon.

Well, in this trip to Lebanon I realized that this society wasn’t only considered racist to Palestinians, but any person of color, African, Indian or Nepalese, was automatically listed under the lower working class minority. This makes them one of the minority groups in Lebanon, being singled out for unequal treatment and collective discrimination.




During my trip, I bumped into a Sudanese friend of mine who brought this subject to my attention. This was her third visit to Lebanon and she stated that most people automatically thought she was a maid or a worker. “I've been to so many countries and never in my life have I ever been subjected to so much ignorance and discrimination,” she said. She also said that everyone, including maids and workers, only spoke to her in English and were so shocked that she could speak Arabic.

I witnessed this myself when I walked into a mobile shop with the same friend. As we tried to enter the store, one guy stood at the door of the shop and gave my friend very cruel stares as if she wasn’t supposed to enter the store. It took him some time to finally move out of our way and let us in. When she asked the guy in the shop for a sim card, he didn’t seem to understand what she was saying, even though she spoke very clearly. However, when I asked, he seemed to understand exactly what I wanted and helped us right away.

This isn’t a topic that people really speak of, however many organizations and groups have been trying to make people more aware of this. IndyACT launched the “Anti Racism Movement” in Lebanon in 2010. They started this movement in 2010 and one of their reasons was that many people were being discriminated against and “prevented from entering [shops] because of skin color or prejudice and definitely because of the weakness and/or indifference of civil society actors in dealing with these phenomena and the absence of a criminalizing and binding law that affects these racist practices in Lebanon.”



In nearly every country in the world, there is always a connection between race/ethnicity and class. People in Lebanon are definitely stratified according to achieved characteristics, like their incomes. Class plays a huge role in a person’s social stratification and socialization into the society. In Lebanon, a person of lower class could be discriminated against and treated unfairly. If I was to talk about the Asian and black workers in Lebanon, I would say that they are stratified into both caste and class systems, where their race and their achieved characteristics definitely play a part in their lifestyle. Since the society in Lebanon has its ways of categorizing by race, and because of an Asian or black worker’s expected income and obvious race and ethnicity, it is pretty hard for one of those workers to move up the class system and be assimilated into the Lebanese culture.

Cai Guo-Qiang Gunpowder's Project impact On Qatar

From November 2011 through December 2011, I’ve been working with Chinese Contemporary Artist and Curator; Cai Guo-Qiang, hosted by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar. Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppressive, controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China.















While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale and the development of his signature "explosion events". While I was participating in this project, I noticed that sociology has a very huge impact on the process was running on through the whole project. At the beginning, there was a huge discussion of hosting the Gunpowder Project here in Qatar by engaging the young generation with it, however, Mathaf has broke the norms by introducing the Gunpowder Project in Qatar. Everyone who heard about the huge explosion that is going to be held in Qatar got worried about it, however, the advertisement around Doha Town helped people to get engaged with the process of the project and actually people signed to participate in this new norm happening in Qatar.















From day one, I’ve been noticing many sociological aspects from culture, mcdonaldzation, to individuality vs. collectivism. Even though, it’s Cai’s individual artwork, he broke the norm by involving us the audience from China and Qatar, in his project by assigning us tasks to complete his work as a group instead. I found that he had assigned each participant with specific tasks and everyone would be working with efficiency, calculability, predictability under his control, which symbolize mcdonaldzation. On the other hand, the gender and ethnicity was not a problem with him at all. There were many people from this region and foreigners too collaborating in his project, which is a morality's gesture from him. By hosting here in Qatar I believe, he had a huge impact in spreading his culture through his Artworks by attracting the audience and engaging them to spread and share his values. I learned from this experience that, culture could be extent through many various ways rather than the old fashioned techniques; it needs only an influential vision and strength to accomplish the intention.





It's All over the News!!








The Project's Conclusion.

Differences in cultural sexism

In Qatar, the locals can be categorized in practicing a recognized common ethnicity: for example, they share similar religious beliefs, the Arabic language, the style of clothing among many other things. In the Middle East some aspects of this ethnicity are shared, especially the language and religious beliefs. Many of the similarities between Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries are dissolving and forgotten as Qatar becomes more open to Western countries. Assimilation happens in Qatar because of this openness to the Western world, which involves exchanging cultures, beliefs and blending, thus forming the new Qatar into a new cultural system.

Rights of the genders are a debatable issue. In the earlier days, men and women were having different rights in the Gulf region, which resulted in the segregation of the sexes. In the 20th century, with modernization, Qatar witnessed a social mobility, which enabled both the genders to begin to have similar rights and were considered equal. Women in Qatar now have the same rights as men, in relation to work, vote, study, and drive. However, there are still some inequalities between male and female in the Arab world. In Qatari culture the men are responsible and are the ones who take control in hard situations. Also, men having more freedom: go out and stay up late without having to give excuses; while, women having less freedom, have to ask permission if they would do anything.

Clothing is another area that is more controversial for women than for men. Actually, the Qur’an (the Holy book of the Muslims) says the genders are equal and does not require women to cover their faces. Islam does not promote sexism (Parker, par.2). However, interpretations of Islam differ on the clothing of women, especially concerning the hijab. For example, when I went to Saudi Arabia four years ago, I went to some shopping mall, and I was shocked that everyone was looking at me. Finally, one woman came to me and said, “Cover your face!” I was wearing an Abaya and head covering (Shela) because in my Qatari culture it is optional if you wear face covering (Niqab) or not, but I was crossing their cultural boundaries by not wearing the Niqab, so I felt awkward and suspicious. As a result, I began to overgeneralize, and to assume that all of the Saudi society was like that. I became prejudiced. On the other hand, they considered me deviant because I was violating their cultural expectations.

Here’s one of my personal experiences of the deviation of the ethnicity among the various countries in the Gulf region itself. My relatives who live in Saudi Arabia were wearing the black cloves; head Abaya (a one-piece Abaya that covers the head), and Niqab. They are different, and their culture and gender expectations are different as well. There are huge differences between our freedom and theirs. Saudi girls are supposed to cover their hair and face in early age, where as in Qatar it is optional if you cover them or not. When my relatives came to visit me in Qatar, despite being knowledgeable that women here were allowed to drive, they were shocked because they didn’t realize that many women actually drive. Also, they were impressed by seeing my colored designed Abayas. In their point of view, it is against their culture to wear designed Abayas. One of them told me that it is not good to wear them, because they will be considered attractive to men, but mine was loose and it covered my body, and I didn’t see anything wrong with my Abaya. They also go to single-sex schools and gender-segregated work places. Their culture segregates the sexes, and women don’t have a chance or choice for driving because it is against their government law.

I think the change there will be really hard because people are entrenched in their culture, religious interpretations, and gender expectations. Women there bound themselves from the fear of the society and its pressures. Here are some of the instances where cultural sexism is witnessed. Although the influence of social mobility is embraced in some countries, with time, there are many windows that still need to be created and opened in the more conservative countries, especially in the Gulf.



Works Cited:
Parker, Kim. “Women, Islam, and hijab: Emory university. Fall 1996. Web 30 Nov. 2011.

A Sociolog-ized Mind

When watching the world through the silver screen, many don’t notice how our minds are being subjected to social change. We are all being brainwashed through those mediums we call ‘entertainment hubs.’ How? Well, when watching a children’s show, or even a Disney movie, are all the characters the same? I never noticed how racial stereotypes could be implemented so early on in the human brain until recently.

Watching Aladdin earlier today, I’ve noticed the start of the movie was of eastern music and then when the lyrics started, it all made sense. The movie is portraying Arabs as those who are greedy, living in tents and are in tolerant. The lyrics go:

“Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

When the wind's from the east
And the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night

Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways

Arabian nights
'Neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes”

In other shows also racial stereotypes and profiling has a big impact on our minds as human beings. We have become used to it being a normal thing when trying to understand the characters in a film or show, that we forgot we are being racist. Lets take on another approach. The comedy movie “Harold and Kumar” stars two males, both equally American, yet what they go through is simply due to their ethnicity. Harold goes through an episode where Asian’s are considered to be smart and would do anything besides have fun. That is not true, but many think it is. Kumar, on the other hand, gets a ‘random’ security check at the airport and is perceived to have possession of illegal drugs and weapons. Watching all this in the movie, many just laugh at the irony, but we never notice how it is not funny when it happens in real life.

In sociology, we learn that there is a reason to why things exist in the world. We learn how people can be treated differently due to certain characteristics or features. We learn that it is not always aware of how much sociology is around us. I bid this day very productive, I learnt that sociology has shaped my life and learning it as a subject, only opened my eyes to things I never imagined are happening to me. You should take a step back and look at your life that way too.

A Different Perspective.

Ethnicity and race are fundamental in a person’s upbringing. Speaking a certain language or having a particular nationality may seem like ordinary facts about an individual, but in reality, they define where you come from, teach you about your history and come with a set of traditions that one would likely follow throughout their life and pass on to the next generation. People become so accustomed to their way of life that exploring an alternative one is much easier said than done. I was born and raised in Qatar; and being surrounded by men in thobes and women in niqab and abayas was and still is completely normal to me but I never had to wear one like some Muslim women choose to do. It wasn’t until I tried it that I realized how different my day became.

Although there are a few female students who wear the niqab in Education City, the majority of them do not. This factor makes them the minority in this particular setting, not that they are singled out or discriminated against, but that there are fewer students who wear it. This is where we see pluralism take place as well. They still attend classes and go to some of the top American universities in the world while maintaining their culture. To some extent we see absorption assimilation take place too, with Arab women adopting the English language among other things. Certain differences I noticed were that people I would often run into, like fellow students or security, made less or no eye contact if we happened to cross paths. Small talk was also avoided in situations where I was used to it on a daily basis such as a simple “how are you” from Bateel workers or a “Good morning” when entering an elevator. I think the purpose of that was to show a sign of respect because people assume they are complying with Islamic customs when doing so, however it could be seen as a form of segregation.

Initially I thought wearing a niqab would make me feel more comfortable but it was the complete opposite. Most women who wear it are probably very relaxed because they’re in their element, I’m sure they would feel just as bizarre as I did if they were to change into jeans and a t-shirt and carry on with their day.