Show me what you wear I'll tell you who you are

Caramel is a 2007 award-winning Lebanese film. The director, Nadine Labaki is also the main actress in the film. According to IMDb, a popular online database of information affiliated with visual media, that Caramel won five awards including the Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards and was nominated for five others.



The film features the daily lives of five different Lebanese women. Layal, Nesrine and Rima work together in a beauty saloon. Jamal, a woman in her forties is a regular customer of the saloon. Throughout the movie, we see her trying to make herself look younger and convincing herself and everyone around her that she could still be a part of the advertisements’ world. The fifth character is Rose, an aged woman who never got married because of her devotion to take care of her mentally disabled sister, Lili. Rose finally gets to find the love of her life and yet she chooses her sister over her happiness once again.



Throughout the film, we see the direct confrontation between tradition and modernization in different scenes. This is manifested in the opening scene where Layal was making (home-made) Sukar (sugar), a traditional means, which is used for waxing. Then, right after that scene, we see that the saloon has a lot of modern equipment.



The choice of music in the film also emphasizes the clash between tradition and modernization. We see Layal driving her car ¬– a symbol of modernization – while listening to traditional, old Lebanese songs. The wedding song Layal and Jamal were singing to Nesrine in the saloon as a way to celebrate her upcoming wedding. In addition, the music that was played during Nesrine’s wedding was consisting of Mawwals – songs that are typically played in traditional Lebanese weddings. The music in all these scenes bring out the role tradition and culture plays in these characters’ daily lives.



The interior design and the décor in the different houses displayed in the film also demonstrate the clash between tradition and modernization. These houses played an important role in giving the audiences specific ideas about the characters. The architecture of Bassam’s house, Nesrine’s husband, was very traditional with the penthouse and the well. On the other hand, Salah’s (Layal’s married boyfriend) house, we see the aquarium and the modern furniture. One can immediately notice that modernization is the emblem of a highbrow culture in Lebanon. How your house looks like or what car you drive are expressive of which class you belong to, the elite, educated class or the traditional middle-class.



Fashion is also a part of this picture of tradition versus modernization. We see the younger characters more associated with modern clothing. Rose and Lili represented the older generation with their old-fashioned skirts and dresses. On the other hand, we see Layal being the most fashionable among the five women. Fashion seem to signify someone’s status in this movie as well – the more modernized clothes; the higher social class. Upper class people are the ones who wear stylish and elegant clothes.



One can see how music, furniture, fashion are used in movies to indicate of the clash between culture and tradition on the one hand and between modernization and westernization on the other hand.

The love story of the modern world

As I sat in sociology class last week viewing random clips of Bollywood movies and dances, I realized that dancing and singing were extremely vital for a Bollywood film. In about every few minutes of a scene, the stars burst out into song and flash mob dances.

My focus is on a musical number preformed in the Bollywood movie ‘Love Aaj Kal’ titled “Aahun Aahun.” The title of the song has no specific meaning, however the song lyrics themselves hold more meanings to love than you could think of.

The movie’s plot is of finding your soul mate. Where the two lead characters were a couple and then decided upon a mutual separation and then to remain friends. As Meera, the female lead goes to India and Jai, her boyfriend remains in England they seem like they have both moved on.

At the same time, in parallel to Meera and Jai’s love story, Veer, a traditional love believer was narrating his story and how in the olden days they loved with respect.

The song Aahun Aahun is played in the theme of Aam Janta (meaning "common man') and Pratigya, in which Veer Singh represents Pratigya, while Jai represents Aam Janta. Each shows his different way of love, but both conclude that love has never changed. It shows that, even though, people these days try to make themselves believe that love is just an infatuation that goes away with time and that there is no such thing as "true love" or "soul mate", in their hearts they still love each other with that passion.

I guess what I’m trying to convey here is that there is a mix in culture and tradition. The old versus the new in Bollywood is what we’re studying nowadays in Sociology class.

Bollywood is being westernized and that’s what you can see in the clip.

Tradition vs. Modernity – Bollywood

About six or seven years ago, when I lived in Canada, if I spoke about Indian movies to my Canadian friends, they would automatically assume that all Indians wore traditional clothing all the time, or that the people would ride on elephants or run through fields or even live in villages. Although these are stereotypes, Bollywood classics did portray these kinds of images in their movies, that is, before the age of modernization.


Sociology has taught me a lot about the functions of societies, and has also made me more analytical of why and how societies function the way they do.

When I used to watch Indian movies before, I would appreciate the themes of tradition and family values. Although Indian movies have always been “Masala” movies – containing a variety of genres in order to appeal to a broader audience – they would address domestic problems such as arranged marriages, the role of women in their households and issues of status and caste.




At the present though, Bollywood has been pumping out movies with lots of special effects, hyperbolic plots, modernized views of Indian women, and has lost some of its traditional taste. I understand that the Indian movie industry has to keep up its pace with Hollywood and the ever-increasing rate of improvements in technology, but in terms of audiences these industries differ significantly.


While people of all ethnicities, religions, and ages watch Hollywood movies; it’s largely Indians who make up the audience of Bollywood movies. Another thing that differs vastly between Hollywood and Bollywood is the average length of movies. Hollywood’s movies are about an hour and a half, or two at the most, but Bollywood’s movies can last for three hours or more.

Why? The number of songs and dance sequences that are incorporated into Indian movies take up a large amount of time. This creates a distinction between Hollywood and Bollywood.


Modern day Indian movies still do incorporate songs and dances, but they are meant to help narrate the plot of the movie. Nowadays the plot of Indian movies seems to involve a lot of foreign back-up dancers and settings in cities like New York or London. The Indian actresses who are cast in these movies are light-skinned, super-skinny and really don’t represent the majority of Indian women. The same can be said about Indian actors – buff, light-skinned and usually portray men of the upper class.


Along with an evolution to plot, types of songs – which have now started to include lyrics in English – and physical appearance of actors, even the type of clothes that are worn in Indian movies today differ significantly than the traditional garb worn before. Before, saris – a type of traditional Indian garb for women – would be worn fairly modestly; today saris are being designed in a very “modern” way. But to maintain some dignity to the Indian culture, the elders of a household, mothers and grandmothers, are generally wearing saris in a respectable fashion. This also highlights the differences between generations.


An example of a fairly recent Indian movie that I’ve watched with a totally modernized and untraditional plot is Dostana, which means friendship. The storyline focuses on how two Indian men attempt to rent an apartment, but have to share it with an Indian woman, and in order to move in with her they have to pretend to be gay. Eventually both the men fall in love with this woman. The entire movie is shot in Miami, Florida and has the running time of 146 minutes. One of the songs in the movie is called “Desi Girl”; the word “Desi” means the dispersion of Indians in different countries, or away from their homeland. Although this song shows preference to the fact that the woman is Indian, it highlights that she is Desi. She is quite westernized in the way she dresses and thinks. This might be a subtle message encouraging Indian women to move abroad.




Is Bollywood becoming too westernized and degenerating the moral values of the Indian culture? Well, I’ve stopped watching Indian movies mainly because I see a lot of Hollywood mirrored in Bollywood. I used to watch Indian movies because of the unique plots and because of the originality of the stories.

However this is my personal opinion.

Bollywood does seem to be doing well for itself in India, with millions of viewers watching movies everyday. Then again, it could just be people wanting some air conditioning for three hours.

Modern (Not) Versus Traditional

Since this week’s reading was about family, I decided to observe the socialization found in my own family. In class we discussed how in most societies there is a stereotype of the father being the breadwinner and the mother being the one who stays home and takes care of home-related topics. In the U.S, this has become less common and moreover, many countries are moving farther away from this ideology. In my blog post, I will talk about how being brought up in an Arab home has affected the way I think when it comes to family related matters.

In my own family, I notice that my parent’s roles are alike in some aspects but are different in others. For example, both of my parents are employed however, they have very different household responsibilities. My father is the one who provides us with a house but my mother turns it into a home. My father provides us with a quality education by enrolling us into the best schools but my mother comes home from work and helps us with our homework. Simply put, my father pays bills and my mother pays attention.

Growing up in a semi-traditional, semi-modern Arab family, I formed specific assumptions concerning what my role would be as a wife and mother and what my future husband’s roles would be as a husband and father. I know that as an Arab woman I am expected to know how to cook, clean and take care of the children at a minimum. Additionally, I am expected to work since more and more women of my generation are entering the workforce. I am expected to marry a man of the same social status as that of my own family or higher. My future husband is expected to have received an education equivalent to or higher than that of the one I did. He is also expected to be a workingman who can provide for his family by ensuring a house for them, good education for his children, and a comfortable lifestyle in general.

     

After taking a closer look into my own family, I realized how I am influenced by the modernization found in my generation yet still connected to my Arab roots. Societies are in fact shifting away from the old stereotype of the male being the breadwinner and the female being the home caretaker. However, they are not completely letting go of their traditional views.

A Sepration: Hearts and Houses Divided

A Separation is a 2011 Iranian movie drama movie written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. The film received the Golden Bear for Best Film, won the Golden Globe Awards Best Foreign Language Film.

The Iranian movie, “A Separation,” captures the drama and real life suspense of the modern society as it evolves around the changing role of both controlling men and assertive women. The movie questions the great phenomenon and duality of class, religion, culture, modernity and tradition.

A separation evolves around a secular-modern and open-minded couple, Simin: the wife, and Nader: the husband. However, their conflicting differences lead to filing for a divorce. Simin wants to move abroad for a better future for her daughter, whereas, the Nader is unwilling to relocate because of his fathers ill condition.

The movie starts by when Simin is trying to convince the judge to let her divorce her a bank-clerk husband, Nader. However, the judge turns her down when she explains that she wants to leave the country in order to have a better life for their daughter. The judge questions her, “What are the conditions that you don't want to live here and you don't want to raise your children here?” Following this scene, the director hinges on the question and portrays the obstacles they’re faced within the Iranian society.


Simin tends to be an open-minded and independent woman, as she leaves the house, rather than agreeing to her husband’s decision. As a result, Nader is forced to hire a nurse to take care of his ill father. We are then introduced to another side of the Iranian community: the religious, poor and holy. Social inequality and cultural clash becomes evident when Nader hires a nurse for his father, Razieh. For instance, Razieh calls her religious leader and asks permission on whether she could help out the old man, without having her husband informed of her job in first place.

The movie emphasizes on culture, social inequality and religion between the increasing poor and rich citizens. Cultural differences are greatly evident by comparing Simin’s and Razieh’s life. Razieh tends to satisfy her husbands needs and is scared of her husband finding out about her job, whereas Simin is more independent with making her choices. Plus, their non-material culture is evident through their clothing, as it is another symbol to portray women in Iran. The more rich and open-minded women dress more freely, whereas, the poor and oppressed women wear black Chadors. In addition, social inequality is evident as Simin’s husband is a bank clerk, whereas, Razieh’s husband is unemployed.

Weddings in Doha

Family in any culture is very important, it is what shapes up a person. As a Qatari, family always comes first. Recently I attended a family wedding. At the wedding, I thought it would be a great idea to talk about the family relations and how weddings are set in Doha. There is so much to look at in weddings in Doha.
The first thing that I realized was the way the people were seated based on their age and their relation to the bride and groom. The nuclear family and the extended family sat at the very front next to the stage. However others were seated based on their age too. The older the person was, the closer they would sit to the stage. Out of respect the youngsters would let the elders take the good seats to get the best view.
In Qatari weddings, the men and women have separate weddings. However the women’s wedding has much more details. In a women’s wedding, loud music is played with a dance floor in the middle for the young girls to dance. This wedding that I attended was a marriage that was endogamy. Both the groom and the bride were related to each other, and were both from the same social group. However an exogamy wedding does not happen often in a culture like Doha. People tend to marry people from their same group.
Families in Qatar in most cases go with the Breadwinner system

; the husband works and earns the money to support his family. In the wedding, the groom enters the woman’s wedding for around 30 minutes and he leaves. When he enters, the women who are not related to the groom have to immediately cover up. He enters the wedding to take pictures with his wife on his wedding day and with his relatives as well.
When the groom leaves the wedding, the bride leaves with him as well. Women then uncover and the dancing continues. The close relatives usually stay till very late at night, however friends mostly leave early.

My big fat Arab wedding

Family and marriage are two aspects that are very important in most cultures. In most societies marriage is defined as being a group’s approved mating arrangements marked by a ritual, such as a wedding ceremony, that indicates the couple’s new status to the public. Many people are familiar with the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It revolves around two people overcoming their cultural, racial and social class differences and getting married. The family portrayed as the Greek family of the bride, in the movie, reminds me of Arab families quite a lot. The large, loud and opinionated extended family that somehow always comes as a package.

Most of the time people tend to get married to others who are similar to them in age, education, social class, race, and religion. When someone decided to break that norm and get married to someone with different customs, both partners will receive some form of cultural shock when they meet both the nuclear and the extended family. Exogamy is often not encouraged in Muslim families, as they believe their sons/daughters should marry within the social group in which they belong to, and continue to pass on the traditions and customs of Arab cultures.


This summer my cousin got married to an English guy, who she met while she was studying in London. A small number of the groom’s family and friends flew out to Amman to attend their wedding. The wedding incorporated traditions from both sides of the bride and groom’s traditions.

At the beginning of the ceremony there was the Arab norm of the bride and groom’s nuclear families standing at the entrance to greet their guests. When the bride and groom later arrived they came down an aisle separately and were accompanied with their best man and made of honor, and bridesmaids. My younger cousins even had the roles of being flower girls and the bride’s niece was the ring bearer. After the newlyweds had their first dance together, the Arabic traditions began to kick in. There was the traditional palestinian zaffeh, where men dressed in traditional clothes play instruments and dance Dabke, and later on there was a belly dancer in the center of the stage.

I talked to the groom’s dad and asked him what he thought of the whole ceremony, he was really surprised with the large number of family members and how close everyone was to one another. Having a belly dancer and a Dabkeh dance at a wedding was also an experience that was quite foreign.

Society’s Dissatisfaction with Aberrant Beauty!

Every individual is judged by his or her aberrance from the norm of beauty; that’s when sociological imagination appears to explain the nonconforming behavior. Humans act by their nature, and we all are actors who play our role in life. The question of to whom we offer respect is controlled by the social status. Individual achievement that we create and personal choice to present who we are, are the way to define our self, such as graduating, having a respectful job and achieving a dream. We define each other by how we look and by what we do. Everything we do adds to our status in society. Difference must appear so we can define each other. We are born with blue or brown eyes, rich or poor, and with given names. God gives us His blessing by creating us as a human being so the life circle continues.

According to the author, poet, and playwright, Rabindranath Tagore, “Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.” How do we define beauty? In my country perfect skin, wide eyes, tan color skin, and curvy body are defining the main ideal of Arabic beauty. Beauty obsession becomes a large issue that societies suffer from. There are strong pressures on people to be perfect because they want to present who they are in a fake way and accept being treated by the way they look. But yet there is a bright side of this beauty.

Make up, beauty salons, latest trends, jewelry, latest handbags, latest shoes and latest hair cuts are the main material culture, which is a favorite and hot topic these days. When I talk about these topics with my friends, we get excited and a lot of debates start. Qatari culture is really concerned about the appearance. Girls are wearing the latest model of abaya and boys are wearing the bright new Thoub. Male beauty in Qatari culture is taking on greater emphasis, although not as strongly as women’s beauty, but quite fair. Qatari man likes to wear new watches, new sunglasses, new cufflinks, and new soles. Also, they often go to the barber to shave their beard or get a hair cut.

People’s choices of custom and clothing are depending on society to present their cultural tradition and values. Qatar is a nation with high culture, in which there is luxury and splendor because of high income that came from the gas and modernity. With the rising economy Qatar’s modernization included the clothing for both men and women. The cultural values are still in the society. Furthermore, people kept on developing without forgetting their religion and tradition. For example, Qatari women still cover their bodies and they translate the old customs into a new design of body and hair covering. Wearing the abaya is not for religious matters because there are Muslim women who are covering their bodies without the abaya in other countries. However, Qatar society expects Qatari women to wear the abaya in order to be loyal to the country’s tradition.

What happens when thinking of beauty goes too far?
On weddings

At wedding parties Qatari women exaggerate their make up and wear the latest designed dress. Lack of confidence and fear of not getting accepted in the society led the women to spend a fortune on the wedding supplies, such as the latest wedding dress, famous make up artist and hair dresser, which causes a series of problems for men and increases the number of unmarried women because women demand a high dowry to arrange their imagined wedding and men can’t afford it.


“An estimated report presented by Abdul Aziz al-Ansari, the director of the Marriage Bureau located in Doha, stated that nearly 50% of the Qatari women are unmarried…. The biggest hurdle in arranging a partner is due to the high dowry demands by the bride's family” (Himadree, par.2, 4). Women obsess over beauty, exaggerate, and have a strong feeling to be perfect that has led them to never experience the beautiful touchable moments that they will get to when they marry. In role conflict women can take a role by their actions, being mature and balancing their beauty needs. Is it worth it to spend this amount of money? This depends on the goal that they want to achieve.


Religious point of view
In Islam wasting money is forbidden, yet some people do that, and guilt may cause an ongoing series of problems. The ideal society is built on the human relations and their organized interests. Also, it is characterized by its ideas, values and morals, law and systems, which establish boundaries and stop these problems from happening.



Work cited
Himadree, C. “ Spinsterhood Among Qatar Women On The Rise. “The Muslim Woman. 19 July 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.

Al Khor: A serene coastal city in Qatar

As Qatar’s capital city, Doha, grows massively in its population and development in the last couple of years, other cities of the country are becoming sort of more “ignored” or simply, left out.



Although it is true that capital cities around the world provide most of the facilities that tourists ─or even citizens and residents─ look for, some people , like I and my family, still like to go on road trips to other neighboring cities in the country every once in a while to have a break from Doha’s vitality and noticeable cultural diffusion. One of the cities we often go to is Al Khor “Alkh-OR” City, up in the northern parts of the country. For this city being only few kilometers away from Doha (around 50 kilometers north), Al Khor City is not like Doha City at all. It is totally different from the capital city in a variety of ways. For instance, it often rains more in Al Khor than here in Doha. The wet season in Al- Khor City keeps it leafy and green throughout the whole year. As a result, people who visit this area often see plants and animals that are not seen elsewhere in Doha or in any other southern part of the country.

Besides its uniquely magnificent weather, the architecture and other material culture in Al Khor City are biased more toward the Qatari heritage and innovation. You will often see a lot of traditional Qatari houses as you drive down the streets of the city. And as you approach the coastal regions of the city, you will notice traditional fishing boats almost everywhere along the shore. The fishermen subculture is highly noticed in the shore regions of the city as well.

One of the other beautiful things in Al Khor City is that you hardly see or get stuck in traffic jams in the morning or during busy hours in general. This is of course; a big advantage of not arriving late to school or work, as well as its major advantage of having road accidents.

Shining the light on Al Khor's non-material culture, the norms and beliefs of the people who live in this city (mostly citizens) does not differ from the ones of people who live in Doha. It’s just that a one may notice that non-material culture more easily in Al Khor than doing so in Doha, since that the sociology of Al Khor City has a little bit less of multiculturalism.

Qatar Unified Imaging Project (QUIP) Maps Qatar's Cultural Heritage

How is Commercialization and Urbanization Impacting the Culture of Doha?


Two days ago, I heard about the QUIP research project, which holds great relevance for the research culture of Qatar as well as the broader community of people that are interested in the history and cultural traditions of this country – including the awesome members of this cultural sociology class! The project is spearheaded by Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQatar) and is funded by the Qatar National Research Fund. I would like to think of it as a cross-cultural collaboration between an American design school VCU, Qatar University, and the British-based University Of Exeter, which boasts the highest collective expertise on gulf studies that includes anthropology, history, Islamic studies, sociolinguistics, material culture and many more. I met with Tammi Moe, lead Principle Investigator on this three-year project. Over a huge plate of French fries and three liters of soda, Mrs. Moe was able to provide me with a substantial wealth of information regarding this stimulating research project. I was particularly interested in the aspects of the research that include cultural diffusion, and the impact of commercialization and urbanization on Qatar’s cultural heritage.



Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

Heritage informs nearly all fields of research because it allows us to understand our humanity. We can look at material and non-material culture to identify what we value as humans. In the stories we pass on from generation to generation we communicate our essence.


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

The objects of material culture and the practices of non-material culture show our values and are meaningful to understanding humanity. Games we played as children, our mother's recipes, what we captured in a photo, traditional dancing, music, objects of veneration are different expressions of our cultural heritage.


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

It's how we participate in shaping the value of these objects and practices that informs other disciplines from sociology to design. That is why I found QUIP to be a vital and crucial project. It will help guide the interpretation of researchers around the world by creating access to what is important in Qatar's culture.


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

These values and belief systems are easily over shadowed by what is currently being emphasized, the highly visible consumer and brand name culture that the world's attention is now focused on. We become distracted by the glitz and glamour and forget what the true values and beliefs of this society are and this has placed the material and non-material culture of Qatar at risk.


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

Pearl Diving ­­– A cultural object that belongs to Qatar’s heritage. As Griswold defines it, this cultural object is a “socially meaningful expression” of Qatari tradition, and “tells a story” of this people’s way of life and means of living.


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

Commercialization and urbanization have shifted the cultural focus from traditional to modern consumption – from barely surviving to ultra luxury. The urban sprawl has introduced “the other” into the closely guarded fareej forcing the neighborhoods of Qatar to spread apart. So much so that there is a project underway to rebuild the “heart of Doha” displacing merchants that provided reasonably priced goods, to over-priced merchandise.



A lot of very interesting entries on Qatar traditional activities are found on this blog.

There are grassroots efforts to preserve traditional architecture but so much has already been destroyed in the push for rapid advancement.


source (up): VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives (Both pictures taken at Souq Wakif)


Check out this website that portrays the background and changes of Qatar.

Examples of the Transmission and Reinterpretation of Culture:

It used to be that shopping occurred in the living rooms of neighborhood women and Souq Waqif. Now we have brand stores in large shopping malls.


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

In explaining how the cultural heritage of Qatar is fading and being neglected, Tammi Moe referred to an article in the Guardian newspaper, saying " Although this is an interesting article it completely neglects the true "cultural heritage" of Qatar and the surrounding Gulf. It focuses completely on modern events and forgets about the people of Qatar that have struggled to live here before the discovery oil. Qatar's heritage and culture is rich in many ways and we must maintain the cultural memory through modern vehicles."


Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives

Overshadowing of culture:

For example the following pictures depict the literal overshadowing of modern architecture. The new designs overpower and diminish the essential historical and cultural monument:-

Source: VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives (Both images of Qatar National Museum)

Old mosque architecture/ Modern mosque architecture:

source(up): VCUQ Photo Gallary Archives




This change also includes "cultural diffusion"- a process where cultures adopt parts of other cultures. Qatar is adopting modern styles of architecture from other western cultures.

Fingers crossed, this project will build the research materials so that sociologists, anthropologists, and scholars can study and explore Qatar’s rich and very existent culture. Hopefully, QUIP will map cultural indicators and document them before they are lost forever.

Many thanks to the fabulous Tammi Moe for allowing me access to these super cool photo archives. Also, for her time, help, generosity with information, insightfulness, and of course - the irresistible fries.