Wadjda Official Trailer from Razor Film on Vimeo.

My interview with the very lovely Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour is now out – see the full article at Aquila. I was lucky enough to meet Haifaa when she was in London promoting her debut film Wadjda about a young Saudi girl’s battle to cycle. See the trailer above. We got talking about the rise of female Middle Eastern filmmakers, the importance of personal victories, filming in Saudi and also cycling (of course!).

Here’s a snippet:

http://www.aquila-style.com/magazine/

I speak to historian Relli Shechter about smoking in Egypt, consumerism and why the Middle East still has a long way to go before it embraces sustainability

When we think of consumerism and the consumer society, the Middle East is not the first thing to come to mind. Wall St, Las Vegas, London, China – maybe. The Middle East? Not so much. Even so, over the last half a century the region has been transformed into a consumer society. It may not be at the scale witnessed in the Western world but nonetheless it has happened. Relli Shechter, a lecturer from Ben-Gurion University, has been studying this transition to consumerism in countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia for some time now. I caught up with him to talk about the influence of the oil boom of the 70s and 80s and whether the Arab world is ready to explore a more sustainable path.

Why does consumerism interest you and why did you decide to the explore the topic in the Middle East- a region not traditionally associated with consumerism (although the Gulf nations are giving the world a run for its money!)?

Well for my Phd I want to Harvard in the US and whilst I was there I noticed a huge difference in the US consumer world compared to the Middle East and even Israel. You’d go to any supermarket and there would be the choice of 15 cheeses or 15 types of bread and that really caught my attention. The reason I chose to focus on the example of tobacco later on was a bit of a surprise.

I went to Egypt to look at the advertising business and I quickly found out that it was a highly politicised sector because there are links to government funding. So I was looking for an alternative and I stumbled across the cigarette. It was the perfect example as it cut across various social classes and so it was a great example of the way that consumerism entered into Egyptian society.

You also explore the same issue in Saudi Arabia and the impact the oil boom had on the kind of consumer society that emerged across the Middle East? But are they the same?

I realise that there are great difference between Saudi Arabia and Egypt and I am not trying to level them but there are some distinct structural similarities. An age of mass consumption triggers issues and questions and opportunities and these play out differently in these different contexts… There are lots of difference between them. Although the oil affected Saudi Arabia more directly (think concrete villas, foreign maids, drivers and mega-malls), it did have a real impact on countries such as Egypt.

The oil boom is where it all started. Of course, it looks different now as we have moved on since then but socio-cultural perceptions of consumption and what it all means to be a consumer- such notions, especially on the mass level – I would argue developed during the oil boom period. Egyptian peasants going to work in Saudi Arabia and Iraq later on, came back with consumer goods, new aspirations, new ideas about how they want to build their homes and what they need to have a family. These were developed during the oil boom which was a linchpin of the consumer society. This commercialisation expressed itself in everything from cheap housing, the suburbanisation of the village to the commercialisation of religious holidays such as Ramadan.

You go on to argue that this consumer boom led to growing inequality – and so some nations made an authoritarian trade off to keep their societies stable. In Gulf nations that came in the form of political docility in exchange for cheap goods and fuel. Do you think these countries would sacrifice things like fuel subsidies to become more sustainable if it put political stability at stake?

Probably not under the contemporary atmosphere. Iran is doing something that is quite radical in that sense as it has been cutting its fuel subsidies. It’s quite remarkable what they have been able to achieve – including the demographic shift after the Iran-Iraq war – I don’t think Saudi Arabia would be able to engineer such shifts. I mean right now, Saudi Arabia has high oil prices so that it can afford the subsidies. What they will do when the oil isn’t running so freely remains to be seen. The Saudi Contract, from what I’ve read, would be difficult to do away with the state provisioning they are currently providing to citizens.

Another tension that emerged with the rise of the consumer society in MENA was that economic growth came without significant economic development? Is that unique to the region?

I don’t think it’s unique to the Middle East as you see it a lot in the developing world. There were those countries who were able to capitalize on industrialisation and those, who for a variety of reasons, were unable to. The Middle East hasn’t made the now classical transition from agriculture to what is called import-substitute industrialisation which is exemplified by countries such as Taiwan or Japan. A combination of economic and political factors were the behind this. A colonial legacy never helps and local regimes, as authoritarian as they were did not push their populations as hard as other regimes such as China did. Oil also hindered progress.

The real question now is what is the alternative. Because right now, we see that all the major Middle Eastern economies are linked to oil either directly or indirectly and that is problematic.

It’s true that we need the Middle East to be more sustainable but we can’t ignore the issue of development. Can we really be asking the poor in the region to give up what little they have so that we as a whole can be more sustainable?

I think you have to change the perceptions of people about what is proper and what isn’t. Let’s take transportation, what is considered proper is different everywhere and that doesn’t have to consist of everybody having their own car. It’s the same with foodstuff. We have to move away from the idea that there is a fixed, linear idea of what is considered progress in terms of consumption of goods. And we have to look for what will keep people satisfied and what is also considered in terms of supporting a sustainable economy and environment. It’s about balance and pushing for more equality in those countries so that we can divert some of the resources to help them move towards sustainable growth.

You have spoken about the influence a rise in consumerism has on everything from the way we build our homes, our aspirations- to even the way we practice our faith. Is the link between Islam and consumerism unique in the Middle East ?

Again, it is not structurally unique, I see the same thing happening with Judaism in Israel. It’s the same with Christianity in the US. Perhaps the major difference is that Islam was in many ways that only alternative way to express legitimate opposition to authoritarian regimes, to social inequality and even gender inequality. So it became a major venue where opposition was translated and so we can find different approaches to Islamism across the Middle East. Despite how it is sometimes portrayed, Islam and the economy are not mutually exclusive.

We can’t have this conversation about the Middle East’s economy and the future without talking about the Arab Spring. Have the uprising across MENA changed anything in terms of embracing sustainability?

The economy played a major role in the Arab Spring – people felt deprived economically and also that they couldn’t express themselves politically. The economy also isn’t just about stocks and jobs, it’s about being able to translate that money and growth into a certain quality of life. It’s the revolution of many and it could still go a number of ways as we are watching its evolution before us.

So what are the biggest barriers stopping the Middle East from embracing a more sustainable path?

Politically, as much as we think of democracy as the preferable state system, it has its own problems. It means a lot of compromise, social cohesion and lots of bargaining especially when resources are limited. My feeling is that many in the Middle East associate democracy with a better socio-economic life which is not necessarily what it going to happen immediately. I am sure in the long-run democracy will improve the life of most citizens, but it will take time and patience and my feeling is that that is last thing people over there have right now. And rightly so, for generations people have been living under dictatorships – not always unpopular and sometimes with lots of grassroots support – but that hasn’t been the case in the last years of Mubarak’s regime.

It will take time for people to see what it possible, what are the benefits and costs of taking certain actions and what are the downsides. So that is one barrier.

Another issue is that whilst environmental concern is growing in Europe and the US, that is not really happing in the Middle East. It is so unfortunate that these issues have become associated with affluent societies and so there is a temptation to say that we allow development to reach a certain level or quality of life and then we realise it’s perhaps too much and we start to deal with it. That isn’t a mistake we can afford to be making over and over.

I think it safe to say that we (and our readers!) see the importance of dealing with climate change and our emissions in the Middle East. However, you could argue that as the region actually only contributes 1% of global emissions we can’t make a big difference either way. What would you say to that?

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a second. Let’s say that the Middle East is completely irrelevant in the global context and that it doesn’t really matter what they do. The life of people in Cairo and the big cities of the Middle East (and the Middle East is made up mainly of cities these days) would be improved if we did take action. There would be less sound pollution, better food, less time spent on the roads. In fact you could argue that we need to change two things- the way that we live and also the way that we perceive things like the good life. Being able to work less and spend more time doing things you like…

I don’t know if it will take longer in the Middle East- perhaps so because people don’t immediately associate environmentalism with a better way of life. With the current prevalence of war and hunger and unemployment, environmentalism seems (and only seems) less relevant or important than other issues but we have to show that they are in fact closely connected.

: Top image via Shahram Sherif/Flickr.

:: Originally published at GreenProphet.org – the leading news site on environmental issues in the Middle East.

Image via EDgAr H

By Arwa Aburawa

Despite the recent barrage of news on the ridiculous niqab/hijab/burqa bans restricting women’s entry into education, it turns out that Muslim women are some of the best educated women in the world. Even in the most unlikely place of Saudi Arabia, Muslim women are graduating and becoming some of the most accomplished and successful scientists in the world.

According to the latest report by UNESCO, women in Saudi Arabia now outnumber western women in worldwide university enrollment and graduation rates. Furthermore, 13 Muslim countries produce a higher percentage of women science graduates than the US and upto40% of Saudi doctors are women.  And it’s not only students and doctors that are pushing the boundaries, notables promoting science to women include Sheikha Mozah of Qatar and Princess Sumaya of Jordan. The science revolution of the Islamic world is here, and clearly it’s being led by women.

I spoke to Samira Islam – the first Saudi woman to complete a basic education, gain a PhD and be short listed for the L’Oreal/UNESCO ‘Women in Science’ award – about the role she played in transforming Saudi Arabia’s education system for women.

Speaking to me from her apartment in Cairo overlooking the Nile River, Samira admits that when she was growing up in the late 1950’s things were very different. “There was very little schooling and the education system for girls was primitive in Saudi Arabia,” explains Samira. “People would send their daughters to a woman’s house to just learn the Qur’an and that was the maximum that was on offer.”

Samira’s parents, however, and in particular her father were keen that she get a good education and paid the teachers from the local school, which was strictly for boys, to teach her. After her secondary education, Samira’s father realized that there were little facilities for his daughter in Saudi and so sent her to Egypt to finish her studies. She went onto to earn her degree and PhD in pharmacology.

“It was big news in my country and people interviewed my father,” she recalls. “There was one newspaper who interviewed him, it was the last interview before he died, and the last question they asked him was to describe what he felt about his daughter being the first woman in Saudi to receive a PhD and he said ‘Now, I can accept death with pleasure.’” A couple of months later Samira’s father passed away and she decided to return to Saudi.

She soon found work at the King Abdul Al-Aziz University which had a branch for girls to study although they weren’t allowed to enroll as official students. “I held talks and lectures but they had to be after Maghrib when it got dark and in a different building so that the girls weren’t seen going into the university.” Professor Samira was unhappy with this and decided to try and open an official department for girls.

However, many feared a backlash, as there had been when the first girl’s primary school opened in 1950. The head of King Abdul Al-Aziz University told Samira that fanatics would kill her but she replied that all she wanted was one chance. “There were some fanatics, I hate to use the word Islamists and ruin the image of Islam because of some opportunists, who were against the school. They went to King Faisal and told him that they would never let their girls go to the school. He said ‘Even if the school is in the dessert whoever wants to go can go and if you don’t want to go than don’t go!’”

A year later in 1974, the girls were allowed to enroll as formal students and were taught medicine and science. “Things moved fast and people seemed to accept the changes,” admits Samira. “I was respected by the other lecturers who took me seriously and weren’t wanting to see themselves as superior.”

In the first year alone, forty girls enrolled for science and sixty others for medicine and since then women’s education progressed. As the UNESCO report shows, women are enrolling in science degrees in numbers to rival the west and in Saudi Arabia now women make up 58% of the student population.

“I don’t know if it was because of my time in Egypt but I wanted to see change even if it was slowly and a lot really has changed. We now have several Muslim women who are proving that they are smart and capable scientists.”

Link to original article on elan site.

Here’s part 1: Muslim women in Science

Professor Samira Islam is clearly a busy woman. The first women in Saudi to complete her primary, secondary education, to graduate with a degree, a PhD and become a professor, she also heads the Drugs Monitoring Unit and was shortlisted for the L’Oreal/UNESCO “Women in Science Award” in 2000. In May 2009 she was awarded the “Makkah Award for Excellency” the highest distinction ever awarded to Saudi citizen for exemplary contribution to Science & Research.

I have been chasing her for about two months for an interview on Muslim women in Science and I was worried I was starting to look a little stalkerish. Actually, a little stalkerish is probably an understatement as I have left her emails on every email account I could find, I’ve rang her on every number I track down and I’ve added her on Skype, Linkedin, Facebook… I think you get the picture. But when I finally get to speak to her she is so worth the trouble.

“I am so sorry, my dear” she says with an odd Egyptian twang considering she’s from Saudi Arabia. “I have just been so busy and I recently received the bad news that my brother passed away suddenly.” Damn, now I feel like an insensitive creep. She then goes on to explain that she’s actually about to head off as she needs to catch a plane to Cairo in two hours time. She gives me all her details and says to ring in the next day or two. Well that doesn’t tell me much but it does explain the slight Egyptian accent…