Last night, Hamoodi and Hemo had their friends come over for some home cook Arabic dinner. They started their cooking at 11:30PM. Neither of the above sentences is a lie :)
I was excited at this because
1. I got to taste Arabic food!
2. it was really impressive to watch 4 guys cook!
They let me help them to wash the rice. That's all. They did all the peeling and grating carrots, chopping beef, slicing tomatoes, squeezing lemon, washing, and the cooking of the sauce. I thought I was only going to observe how they cooked it and go to bed. But I couldn't sleep because I wondered about the end product. So I stayed up and waited with them. And in the end, I ate with them, at 3AM. What an experience!
As I was talking to Mahmoud, one of their friends, I realise that many of the impression we get from media about conservative Arabic countries are twisted. But I am not sure if they actually know what is written about them in those mainstream media, because they have relatively poor English. That is what worries me - if it is wrongly portrayed with intention, neither the subject nor reader will know. And that is probably why the gap between us is getting wider and mutual understanding seems like a fairy tale.
For example, women were not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia (I think they recently passed a law to allow women to drive). It's actually a privilege for the women because they get to be chauffered around by the men. And as a son, if his mother asks him to drive her (sometimes the sisters may come along too) to shopping mall, they cannot say no to their mother. If their sister wants to go out but he is not free, she still has other brothers to go to. Generally they have big families. In some cases, even if the guys dislike going to shopping mall, they will still send the women there upon request, and the guys will stay in the car while waiting for the ladies to finish their shopping. Only a tiny percentage of women demanded for freedom to drive while the rest accepted the culture well.
They agree that their country gives little freedom to the people. But those restrictions are there for a good reason. Take alcoholism. Yes they don't have the freedom to drink. But they think it is a good ban to begin with. Because drinking alcohol is bad for health, not to mention it is ultimately a sin in their religion. Period.
I always thought Arabic countries will take their stand to help the Palestinians at anyway possible. I was wrong. It is easier for them to come to Malaysia than to travel to other Arab countries, he said. For some of them: Palestinians who were born and raised in Saudi Arabia are not considered as citizen in either country. First is because Palestine is not a recognised country so Palestine does not have 'citizens'. Second is because, well, the other Arab countries don't really welcome them. In Mahmoud's case, he gets to come to Malaysia with a passport he receives from Egyptian government with a blank space at the nationality column. And strange enough, even though the passport is from Egyptian government, the latter itself does not appprove the validity of the passport.
And about Taliban. Taliban is everywhere, he said. And the reason the Taliban will always exist because each of the member has lost their father or brother or son to the American soldiers. They're in to 'kill those who kill'. Say, if a village was bombed by the American soldiers and someone lost his father during the casualty, he will want to join the Taliban to fight back. And if he dies in the war, his brother will want to join the Taliban to revenge for his brother and father. And the US will add more troops because the Taliban is still there and kicking. It is a vicious cycle. If only forgiveness, reconciliation, mutual respect and understanding come easy for both parties.
It is something very relevant to ponder upon and pray about especially during this Christmas. Don't you think so?
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