Based on my life journey, living almost 26 years in the middle east, in Iraq as its my country and then moved to several Arabic countries after the war in 2003, until I made my choice and moved to Europe trying to find better life, and above all, an ambient and a way of life that fits my own mindset,
which represent an open minded way of life, breaking all the boarders and redlines in front of my face. The first thing that I noticed, when I moved to Europe, was the kind of attunement between the west and middle east that didn’t settled at all into a meeting point in order to make a matching between both sides.
Here I don’t mean to talk about the cultural differentiation, as much as I want to refer that both sides, literally don’t understand nor imagining the kind of life that both side represent and reflect toward the other.
I remember the first conversations that I had to do with my fellow European friends, answering their question about middle eastern society and way of life, and the first impression was that “ nobody knows neither can imagine within his mindset anything about the way of life in middle east as a citizen who work, eat, sleep, have challenges in life, reaching to what does life means to the individual, and what is the goal of life to him.
The first error that westerners do normally when they try to understand the other side is to do a kind of comparison trying to simplify the ideas to absorb it well, by finding the similarities between both sides. Although the reality and based on my way of comparison by living in both sides many years, I can say that the mindset, the way of life reaching toward the goals of life, is totally different between both sides.
Here I just want to mention that the comparison is not based on “ who is better than whom “, but it takes part more into looking into the view with a realistic sight that can know the combination of human behavior point of view and the reflection of the culture from and into the individual and the simple conclusion goes toward that all are full of differences whether we are from the east or the west
Going deeper into analysing the errors made by the westerners, is that also takes part into thinking about Middle East as its one hard block of a static culture and behavior based on religion, which has a part of truth, BUT the realistic point of view has to take the perspective of other important factors, for example:
- the country identity: each middle eastern country has its own separate identity from one to another, to not to stop in this point, because we have to add that even each city in each middle eastern country has its own identity that has a lot of differences between one and another, which also form a base inside the cultural reflection from into the individual that form his basic knowledge under the cultural umbrella.
-The country’s background: based on the modern history of middle eastern countries, you can notice that each country has its own historical past, that can show in a way or another the different effect of the religious value forced by the new movement of Islamism toward the society, and the version taken by one country, one city, reaching to one individual and another, considered to be taking the cultural religious values, has the past experience part based on its final shape of identification. Such as:
Past rulers and governments, the left and right in the political map, the classism of the rich and poor in the society, the educational system, the City VS the Village, until it reaches into family values and individuals values within the society.
This article is only an introduction to a very large and complex subject that I will try to write it in a continues episodes each one will try to discuss a specific subject to simplify and show the reader the things that he doesn’t know about the real life in the middle east.
Stay in touch, and more than welcome to receive all questions and requests on specific subjects that you want me to cover.