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Printer-Friendly ModeCelebration offers insight into Saudi way of life
September 28, 2009 —
Culture is in the eye of the beholder.
The Saudi Club and the Muslim Student Association hosted an Eid Elfitr celebration Friday night in the Richard Thompson Student Activities Room to mark the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Students shared a banquet of lamb and rice, along with music and pictures of home.
Saudi Arabia has 133 students enrolled at SVSU, making it the secondhighest foreign nationality represented here. Some students attending the event told The Vanguard about different aspects of their culture – their values, families and traditions.
“Our culture is based on our religion, similar to other Muslim cultures,” said electrical engineering senior Faisal Alshalan. “In Saudi Arabia, you really have to watch your words and your actions. Our culture is really conservative.”
Business management senior Mohammed Al-Muhanna said, “Our country went through two periods – before oil and after oil,” he said. Al- Muhanna said that health care, education and infrastructure improvements have advanced Saudi culture.
“We used [resources] from the oil to improve our culture. We started to share what we had with other nations. ... Generosity – that is what makes Saudis special.”
Al-Muhanna said that generosity is learned by growing up in large families, a norm of Saudi culture.
“Our [culture] is very familyoriented,” said Al-Muhanna. “Family is very helpful, very supportive. And I notice the same thing here, especially with people who live in small communities.”
Kawther Alnejaidi, master of business administration student, shares another view.
“Here,” she said, “people are not as connected to their families.”
Even when Saudi children grow to adulthood, mothers and fathers still maintain parental relationships with children, she said. Ali Alqudaihi, another business graduate student, said, “We live with our parents from the time we are born until the time we are married, which is totally different from here.” “Even our neighbors are like family,” said Alqudaihi. “We see them every day.”
“Saudi culture is very open and very social,” added Alshalan. “When we have a get-together, we invite everyone.”
“We both value hard work, morals and families,” said Al-Muhanna. “Friendship. Friendship matters here and in Saudi Arabia.”
But Al-Muhanna said he misses spontaneous interactions with friends. Here, people make plans and check their schedules more often than they act in the moment, he said.
Bedoor Alshaban, an instructional technology masters student, said that women have more freedom in Saudi Arabia than many Americans might think.
“We study. We work. We travel a lot,” she said. “Men and women work together.”
Alnujaidi said, “Women are more appreciated in Saudi Arabia than they are here.”
Masters of arts and administrative science student Noof Hamadh adds that women there also enjoy a greater sense of privacy.
“[Americans] always ask us about the hijab,” said Alshaban referring to the head covering some Muslim women wear in public. Many wear the veil for religious reasons, while others do for privacy or protection from men.
“It is up to the woman to decide,” said Alshaban, including if and how they will wear the veil. She describes her home city as very open-minded. “No one can force us to cover our faces.”
Alqudaihi said that the greatest cultural adjustments for Saudi students involve food, climate and language.
“If someone speaks a different language,” he said, “it’s like they come from a different world. ... We speak Arabic together, but if there is someone from a different country, we use English, our common language.”
Alquadaihi said that the actions of a small group within a culture can affect perceptions of the whole culture.
“After 9/11, Americans got scared of Saudis,” said Alquadaihi. “Three thousand people died in one day, and that day I was shocked. How could they have done that? They are crazy, killing people.”
“The beautiful thing about being [at SVSU] is being with a lot of educated people,” said Al-Muhanna. “They have a good background about other cultures.”
Sometimes, Alqudaihi said, people ask funny questions.
“They ask us if we ride camels back home. I tell them I have been driving a car since I was 16. We’ve had cars for like 80 years now — we don’t ride camels anymore. It’s like asking Americans if they are cowboys.”
Al-Muhanna said he focuses on the similarities between American and Saudi cultures.
“The differences that I see are in details . . . on the surface — the way they dress and the food they eat. But when you go to the core, you see a lot of similarities.”
“After all, we are all people,” said Al-Muhanna. “We all have dreams and worries.”