Middle of What and East of Whom?

Over here, I often try to catch myself before I use the phrase "Middle East" since it's a fairly misleading phrase (and potentially demeaning, if you think about it in terms of how the Brits labeled everything -- Near East, Far East, Middle East, etc.).  I think most of us tend to think of the "Middle East" as the chunk of countries that aren't quite Africa, Europe or Asia and is just somehow stuck in the middle. 


In case you haven't noticed, I love maps

But smooshing all those countries together into the phrase "Middle East" because we couldn't think of what else to call them doesn't really do justice to the widely different cultures, languages and income gaps of those countries. 

So first off, it's a common misconception that the Middle East means everyone's an Arab.  An Arab is part of an ethnic group that is characterized by speaking Arabic and generally originating from the Arabian peninsula.  Right off the bat that means that people from Turkey and Iran (not to mention a whole bunch of ethnic minorities throughout the region) aren't Arabs. 

A second misconception is that everyone's Muslim.  However, there are significant Arab populations that are Christian and even Jewish, particularly in the Levant region (which includes Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Israel/Palestine).  There are also a number of non-monotheistic religious minorities, especially as you move east out of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Another big difference in the income disparities across the region.  Oman is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes the wealthiest countries in the region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).  As an example, the GDP per capita in Qatar is a whopping $93,825 (it's only $51,479 in the US and the only two countries with a higher GDP per capita than Qatar are Luxembourg and Norway!).  In stark contrast, the GDP per capita in Egypt is $3,256 and in Yemen it's only $1,498.  As you can imagine, the quality of life is vastly different between a GCC country and some of the other countries in the region.

On a personal note, living and traveling in a GCC country versus a non-GCC country is really noticeable.  When I was in college I traveled to Morocco, Egypt and Turkey and absolutely hated it.  In Morocco the men in the souks grabbed me, tried to haul me into their stores and offered me camels and goats for my hand in marriage.  I was so uncomfortable traveling there and felt so unsafe that I eventually started wearing a head scarf and only going into the souks with male friends.  Egypt was crowded, dirty and some of my most vivid memories are not of the pyramids, but rather the appalling living conditions in Alexandria.  And while Turkey was my favorite of the three, I was groped by a cab driver there and quickly learned it wasn't safe to travel alone.  In fact, I was so disenchanted with the region that I changed my focus in college to Central Asia (which still fell under a History degree in Middle Eastern studies). 

Living and traveling in the GCC is completely different.  Here, it would be wildly inappropriate for a man to touch a strange woman in public and people actually go out of their way to avoid bumping into someone of the other gender.  Veiled women here are given a wide berth and, apart from rare circumstances like going to the movies on the opening day of X-Men, no one has even touched me while I've been out and about.  For example, yesterday morning the elevators were really slow, so about six people in the lobby at my office were waiting for elevators -- when the doors opened I got on with three women wearing abayas and, despite the fact that the elevator could have easily held all 6 of us, the men waited to take a separate elevator.

Another big difference is the attire.  In the major cities outside of the GCC and Iran, men and women tend to wear normal Western clothes.  Women in these countries are often seen in Western clothes, though with more conservative hemlines and often with a headscarf.  In the GCC countries, most local women wear the abayas in public and the men wear dishdashas.  So if you're watching the news in the US and you see video footage of Arabs protesting wearing jeans and t-shirts, chances are they're not in a GCC country.

Protest in a non-GCC country (Lebanon)

Protest in a GCC country (Bahrain)

And if you have any doubts about the wealth of the region, just look at Dubai, a shining example of extravagance and ridiculous luxury. 

(I promise, sooner or later I'll start doing something fun here and then you'll have posts with pictures and funny stories rather than informative posts!)