Beyond the radicals and terrorists
Yemen offers friendliness and beauty that defy North American stereotypes of Middle East
Nick Kennedy
The Link (Concordia University)
SANA’A, YEMEN (CUP) — Driving down a winding desert road in rural Yemen, we found ourselves stuck behind a slow-moving pickup truck overflowing with men. There were men on the roof, on the hood and at least 20 in the cab — and they were all carrying AK-47s. Such a sight might be enough to make a Westerner visiting the Middle East think that he or she doesn’t have too much longer to live. But after a few tense seconds, these fears quickly evaporate when all the men on the truck start to wave and shoot you toothy — or toothless — smiles.
The misguided perceptions of the Middle East are largely a result of the constant media barrage of violence, religious fanaticism and the belief that it is a hotbed for what is said to be the greatest of all modern evils — terrorism.
The late Middle Eastern scholar and Palestinian activist Edward Said called this perception “Orientalism” — the Western world’s lens of misunderstanding, outdated concepts and often racist prejudices. Said was a Christian Palestinian born in Jerusalem who later moved to the U.S. and spent much of his academic life at Columbia University. He was able to see first-hand how his and other Arab peoples were portrayed in the Western media. I decided to visit the Middle East in August to gain a more balanced perspective of the region than that offered by CNN and Fox News. My travels through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen allowed me to view the Middle East off-camera.
As a first-time traveller to the region, I was told by others who had visited before to expect overwhelming hospitality, and I was not disappointed. Strolling down the streets of any Syrian city, I was constantly stopped by the locals to talk. In Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, I was approached by two 20-year-old men while I was admiring the city’s ancient water wheels. They introduced themselves as Radwan and Mohammed and then spent almost an entire day showing me around the city.
The next evening we went to dinner at Radwan’s home. His mother had clearly spent the entire day preparing the enormous meal of salads, dips, rice and chicken — all of which were passed my way until I was so full I could barely move. The family treated me as though I were an old friend that they hadn’t seen in years, when in fact we had just met.
But nowhere is Middle Eastern hospitality more heartwarming than in Yemen. With a per-capita GDP of only $800 US, Yemen ranks with Palestine as one of the two poorest countries in the Middle East yet still manages to be incredibly welcoming toward visitors.
This friendliness towards foreigners is at least partially due to nomadic Arab traditions. Hospitality towards outsiders was a necessary custom because of the harsh conditions of the desert. If a fellow traveller in the desert was left without shelter or water, he could very well die, so it was necessary to take them in.
Another reason for the friendliness is that Yemenis know full well how much tourism benefits their country, and so they genuinely appreciate visitors taking interest in their land and culture. Visitors particularly excite children. “Foreigner, foreigner,” they shout at you in Arabic as you walk past, and then invite you to join them in a game of volleyball or soccer.
I spent about two hours playing volleyball with six Yemeni kids on the narrow cobblestone backstreets of old Sana’a. The game eventually became one of “everybody team up against the foreigner,” and every time I spiked the ball, I got cheers of approval from the large crowd that gathered to watch the game. At one point, a line of people wanting to serve the ball to me was formed — young children along with old, bearded men would wait their turn to smack the ball my way.
When I decided I had to go back to my hotel — drenched with sweat and badly dehydrated — I couldn’t get away without first shaking the hand of every spectator and every other participant in the game, and then promising that I would come back the next day.
The other side of the lens
Unfortunately, the country is best known in the West for the year 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, when a group of men drove a boatload of explosives into the side of a U.S. warship, killing 17 sailors. Of course, it is seldom mentioned that the Cole was on its way to support the economic blockade imposed on Iraq after the first Gulf war — sanctions which had contributed to the deaths of 500,000 Iraqis. When brought up, the incident seems to elicit embarrassment from Yemenis, who quickly mention that the attack was masterminded by Saudis living in Yemen.
What truly sets Yemen apart from other countries in the Middle East is the lack of modern influences. Granted, there are cars, TVs and Internet cafés, but they all seem to fade into the background of the country’s ancient history. Yemeni architecture is completely unique in the Middle East. The buildings in the old city of Sana’a are made from light brown and sometimes burgundy mud bricks, with white bricks used around the doorways and windows. There are also designs running around the roof of every building — usually white circles and lines, but the design on every house is unique. Western fashions are rare — most men still wear long robes, turbans and have a jambiyya, a large decorative dagger, prominently tucked into their belts. With few exceptions, Yemeni women are covered head to toe in full hijab.
In the more remote parts of the country, where government influence is minimal, tribes live by their own laws. Tribal life is central to most Yemenis, and even educated men living in the cities will return to the village of their birth to defend it if another tribe infringes on their territory. People are still living as they did centuries ago –– often in mud huts or tents made from sticks and animal skin. Their lives are obviously not easy, yet the friendliness of the children living there still sticks out for me. As they hear your vehicle approaching, kids come running from every direction to smile and wave. Some of the shyer ones blush and run away as soon as you wave back. Nobody asks for anything, they just come out to wave.
It’s staggering how different popular perception can be compared to the real world. If two years ago I had seen those same men in the pickup truck on a news broadcast, my first thought would have been, “oh man, those guys look dangerous, they must be mujahedeen fighters going to kill somebody.” When you live in a society as sheltered as Canada, it’s difficult to imagine the ways that people live in other parts of the world. These guys weren’t ruthless killers or “terrorists,” they were simply members of a family living a very different lifestyle than the one Western norms dictate.
When you meet the people so often branded as nothing more than terrorists in the Western press, you quickly see how misguided and simplistic many of our beliefs are. Only by visiting these countries and interacting with their peoples can you really understand what’s on the other side of the lens.
