Americans in Muslim Countries American

Americans in Muslim Countries

American Women in Saudi Arabia

Living in a culture different than one's own can be a very arduous ordeal, on many levels and for many reasons. Often, the hardest things to get used to are the differences in one's daily life that occur in a foreign country and with a foreign culture. Things like going to the store and buying and cooking food can be completely different in another country -- the process of buying might include the expectation of haggling in some areas, whereas in others it could be considered extremely rude; the types of food available and even what is considered fit for human consumption vary hugely from culture to culture, and even the technologies and utensils for cooking are quite different. Styles of dress, transportation, and what is considered appropriate conduct in all sorts of social situations are changed drastically depending on geographic and ethnic location. All of these factors can lead to unique artifacts being produced by small minority populations living amid other cultures; an adherence to the customs and ways in which they grew up leads to certain interactions with the dominant culture of a given area that create circumstances, practices, and even objects that could not exist without such cultural interaction, or even without the dominance and power structure of the two cultures.

Because of this, the artifacts that arise within or because of minority groups living among especially stringent and controlling cultures are more extreme and pronounced than others. The interactions that occur are more likely to be negative in nature -- the more oppose the dominant culture is to the minority group's the more direct conflict will ensue. It is, of course, quite possible for vastly different cultures to coexist peaceably, but when the requirements and standards of one culture are incompatible with the other culture's practices and sensibilities this coexistence sometimes becomes an impossibility, and conflict is the necessary result.

One modern example of this type of scenario, where a minority group is attempting to live inside a dominant culture with several oppositional cultural beliefs and practices, is the existence of the many Americans living abroad in Muslim countries. Not all Muslim countries are run as strict theocracies, imposing Islamic law or sharia on all of their citizens and even visitors. There are several counties in the Middle East, however, that do run their countries in this fashion, making the culture very restrictive to non-Muslims or those that practice a less strict form of the religion. One such country is Saudi Arabia, and issues involving women there have been a problem for many years. This is true even of women who grew up in Saudi Arabian society, but the effects of this culture on minority groups -- such as Americans -- within the country have stirred up even more of a to-do because of the conflict in culture and ideals.

A recent artifact that came as a product of this intercultural relationship is an article concerning an American woman's imprisonment -- which included beatings from the police and forcing her to sign false confessions -- simply for being seen eating in public with her male business partner. Even though the woman (who allowed her name to be printed only as "Yara," fearing retribution for telling her story) was wearing the traditional full-length gown and headscarf required of women when in public or in the company of men in Saudi Arabia,

she was approached by several men "with very long beards and white dresses" and told that what she was doing was "a great sin," a statement that reflects the disparity between the two cultures (Dhimmi Watch 2008). Ironically, the event took place at a Starbuck's, a place that has come to be a symbol of America's capitalism, freedom, and to many its economic imperialism.

The article also details the woman's desire to find justice -- by which she means some sort of retribution or at least an apology -- for the conduct she received (Dhimmi Watch 2008). Of course, to the Saudi Arabians who arrested her, and the many others that allow such strict observance of sharia to be the political law of the land as well, what happened to Yara was justice. It is in this way that this artifact outlines the basic and underlying oppositions between the two cultures involved. The article was actually produced by Fox News, an agency fairly far removed from Saudi Arabian politics and ideals, but it speaks directly to the existence of a Western and American subculture in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. Though it deals with only one specific incident, it illustrates the basic incompatibility of the American concept of freedom and certain Islamic interpretations of moral and legal requirements.