The Middle East Culture - Essay Example

The Middle East culture The Middle East has one of the most intriguing cultures in the context of Arab people and the Islamic religion. It is essential to highlight that the Middle East region covers the Western Asia area. It includes areas such as Syria, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and even Egypt. The main ethnic groups include the Turks, Persians, and the Arabs. Other minority groups include the Azeris and the Kurds. Studies on the Middle Eastern culture are essential to an individual in the contemporary world because the region is significantly misrepresented in the world. In this sense, films and books are critical resources for learning about the cultural representations in the area. The Middle Eastern culture is weighed down by misogyny. This occurs as the society disregards the value of the female part of the society. Women, therefore, are looked down upon as the lesser members of the society. In the Bliss movie, her society endorses her death because she is a victim of abuse. Instead of punishing the man who abuses her, her society plans to get rid of her. This shows an underlying urge for the population to do away with the females. The society, therefore, seeks for opportunities that justifies their need to purge the women and girls. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern culture confers significant advantages to the men at the expense of the women thereby suggesting an existence of inequality between two sexes. The idea of a woman as a sexual object and form of wealth emerges in the Season of Migration to the North story as Wad views Hosna as the same. In this view, a woman is an extension of the man’s identity. A woman, therefore, cannot form her own independent identity, as she perceives herself from the husband’s context. It is crucial to highlight that such a misogynistic culture eventually constrains the development of a woman. Although critics normally highlight the Islamic religion as the cause of patriarchy and misogyny, authors, such as Alaa Al Aswany inform that this is just a misinterpretation of the Islamic religious texts. The rest of the world, therefore, severely misinterprets the Middle Eastern culture as repressive on women. He explains that the ancient Islamic life viewed women as equals of men. Misogyny is thus a problem of misinterpretation of texts rather than a problem of the Islamic faith. It is essential to highlight that suppression of women often involves the suffocation of their sexuality since explicit sexual behavior is seen as immoral. A clash between the modern culture and the traditional culture in the Middle East constantly appears in the texts and films. This occurs as a new generation seeks autonomy from societal conventions and a stifling culture. An old culture endorses conformity while a new culture heralds individual liberty and creativity. For instance, Hosna, in the Season of Migration to the North story, Hosna rejects a proposal to marry a new man when her husband dies. Her father thinks that this is normal and culturally acceptable thereby forcing and beating Hosna up to accept the marriage. Hosna, in this sense, craves for her own liberty in order to attune her life towards her wishes and preferences. Her father, on the other hand, believes that Hosna may only attain a value in the society if she remarries. The struggle for individual freedom is immense and it forces characters to do extreme things in order to attract the attention of their conformist society. In most cases, individuals have to move away from their home environments to pursue activities and places that condone freedom. When Hosna is growing up, she takes to climbing trees and fighting with the boys. This is not a culturally acceptable habit for girls since women are expected to be subtle and quiet. A dint of patriarchy emerges in this context as boys have all the liberty to behave as they wish while girls are restricted to particular forms of behavior. Climbing trees is a symbol of freedom and it connotes a rejection of a society’s conformist standards. Similarly, Wadjda, in the Wadjda film protests against her society’s standards by buying a bike for a cycling race. Hosna craves for a kind of world that let her listen to her instincts. When he is finally forced to take up Wad as her husband, she eventually kills him. The entire culture, however, is constricting and boring. Irfan, in the Bliss movie, escapes monotony and the wife through a boat. It seems, therefore, that elements like marriage are just a way of conforming rather than a guide to the individual’s satisfaction. This is closely related to the idea of resisting modernity. The texts perceive modernity as a Western idea. This explains why the capitalistic mode of life is represented as a modern way of life. Individuals resist modernity as an enemy to the Middle Eastern culture that practiced a feudal way of life. Modernity initiates a new language and mode of life that is full of competition. As a result, individuals become dejected and adopt a silence as a way of resisting new cultural values. This occurs in spite of the fact that technology is a human facet of life, which as well could be borrowed to introduce efficiency. Technology, as exported from the Western world, invites significant suspicion since the society perceives it as a Western cultural artefact. The issues, however, in the Cities in the Salt novel are much complex. Modernity, therefore, is not just a new cultural artefact, but a mean of eliminating the relevance of certain individuals. This is a critical socio-economic issue, as certain skills in the nomadic society becomes irrelevant. For instance, Miteb al-Hathal of the Wadi al-Uyoun community possesses the ability to hear natural elements from the desert. In the nomadic lifestyle, such a talent is highly essential for seeking pastures and water in the desert. Part of the resistance to modernity offers vital lessons to humanity. Modernity, in the technological mode, introduces a fast-pacing life that induces significant competition. It, therefore, creates an individualistic culture whereby individuals pursue prospective lifestyles at the expense of other people’s welfare. The nomadic culture heralds a communal way of life whereby all individuals in a community possess converging goals. On the other hand, capitalistic competition endorses a new mode of life whereby individuals possess independent and, sometimes, conflicting goals. For instance, Mitel retorts that money is not the only thing that informs life. The pastoral cultural values place ethics, honor, and tradition above accumulation of wealth. This conflict is evident in the contemporary Middle Eastern culture whereby individuals reject Western notions of individualism and capitalistic competition. The Middle East people commonly call for the unification of their identity through the Islamic faith. The texts and the films offer various interpretations of the Middle East cultures. Misogyny is a common theme in the materials since they depict the Middle East cultures as suppressive on women. Women possess limited liberty and the society constantly abuses their human entitlements. Such a culture stifles the socio-economic development of a woman. A constant conflict between the traditional nomadic values and the Western notions of individual liberty is a consistent theme. Individuals in such a culture move away from their conformist communities in order to find spaces for enacting their instincts. This is evident in the life of Hosna who climbs trees in spite of her society’s reservation of such behavior for boys. In addition, there is a perpetual conflict between modernity and the values of the nomadic society. Works cited Al-Aswany, Alaa. The Yacoubian building . Cairo, EG: American University in Cairo Press, in Arabic, 2002. Read More