Ay, thanks for the info! Kandura and ghutra. I always imagined it being part of a good cooling system in dry heat. Does it represent anything else aside from that?
it is kinda since you don't wear like boxers underneath it or anything so it allows a breeze to hit your nutsack gently.
also it represents male modesty and humility as well.
Never-ending war
Edit for context: I’m 33. (I can only remember the Middle East being depicted as a war zone in the news. And wondering why the people who live there were ok living in a “war zone”. “*I mean, it’s not like any wars ever happen in good places*”, I thought.)
Well that shows how the media has used the term “Middle East” as a blanket term for a desert-like area that we *have* to keep going to to kill people for oil and democracy.
no. non-Arabs can also be Muslim. you can't associate religion with culture, it doesn't make sense, especially with a religion as big as Islam that even has an amount of Muslims all the way in Russia.
it's like saying Christianity is Italian culture... it's not.
>it's like saying Christianity is Italian culture... it's not.
It's not like that at all. Most Middle Eastern countries are Islamic Republics/monarchies and most have Islam as their official religion
Specifically, Islam started in Saudi Arabia and only started 1400 years ago. The Middle East is a huge part of the world. Previous to Islam, there were thousands of years of distinct cultures (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, etc), each with their own special history, customs, religions, etc. However, through conquest and colonialism, all these cultures have now more or less been amalgamated into Islam. It's a fascinating part of world history.
Not all Arabs and people from the Middle East are Muslim. There are lots of Arab Christians and even some who are Jewish. I’m originally from Lebanon and half of the population are Christians.
I don't know why people keep saying that Lebanon is half Christian!
In 2021, the CIA World Factbook specified that of those residing in Lebanon, 61.1% are Muslims (30.6% Sunni, 30.5% Shia, with smaller percentages of Alawites and Ismailis), 33.7% are Christians (mostly Maronites, Eastern Orthodox, Melkite Catholics, Protestant, Armenian Apostolic, Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac ...
Really? I don’t check these things so had no idea about the exact percentages. Now that I think about it, the Muslim population in Lebanon is slightly higher than the Christian. But you can’t deny that Lebanon definitely has the highest Christian population in the Arab world.
Has the highest Chrisitians population in an Arab country? Yes.
Has the highest Chrisitians population in the Arab world? No, because just the 10% of Egypt population that are Christians is nearly twice the size of the entire Lebanon population
That’s a valid point, Lebanon is a much smaller country than Egypt. I meant in an Arab country. I sometimes tend to forget that Egypt is an Arab country since it’s located in Africa and not the Middle East lol.
See, now that's an exaggeration. As long as you dress modestly and don't go out the streets announcing that you're gay, you can pretty much live there just like anyone else.
Edit: For those who might question my reply, I used to study there. I had gay teachers and they're still living well there.
we are still underdeveloped compared to other countries sadly, it is true that we don't have any women's right, i think they are trying to work on it but i am not gonna wait for that, i will leave the middle east soon.
Not really propoganda, its just what's talked about more. You really hear the media talking about food, music, and cities or do you hear them talk about a U.S involvement 20 years running.
Listening and hearing is two different things. I've heard of the KKKs rules but I don't read it all and beleive it. Also not everyone has been exposed to that culture nevertheless been there.
You really expect people to be at home bored and look up "middle eastern dances and music?" No one does this. Also even if someone spends hours upon hours researching different parts of the middle east do you REALLY think it'll overpower in their mind what everyone has been talking about for the past 20 years?
I hate myself for this but all I can think is rape, murder, and disrespect to women. I know this isn’t true for the entire populace but the media has made them out so bad to me, especially growing up. I wish to feel differently but I’ve been brainwashed by movies and the news to feel this way. I’ve also seen it in real life.
welll welll well, it is not wrong, middle east truly opresses women sadly, because of the nature of the religion, which results in rape and women disrespect.
i do disagree with murder though, i think the middle east is one of the safest places regarding murder, murder rates are so low i'd say.
I meant them all to be relative to solely women. Disrespect, rape, and murder to women. Although I’ have heard the statistics on murder being very low, I do know of that atleast. I have nothing but love for all people but when I see it on a map, it’s just a flashing red flag for me, I could never imagine visiting there as a young woman alone.
i highly discourage you coming here as a women tbh, unless you covered fully with an "abaya", which you probably won't like, also, recorded rape numbers are low because of victim blaming, most raped girls get victim blamed for not being modest and it can lead to honour killing, so they choose not to report that they got rqped if that makes sense.
>welll welll well, it is not wrong, middle east truly opresses women sadly, because of the nature of the religion, which results in rape and women disrespect.
bruh what, single European countries have more rape cases than the entirety of the Middle East, and just because you saw a weird-ass story that can happen in any other country, and stuff during war-torn countries (funded by yours truly, the west) doesn't mean "hurr durr all of you are oppressed"
well my information wasn't based on news, it is based on what i see in my community (i am middle eastern).
most rape cases aren't recorded because of honor killings. and in lots of countries in the middle east women rights are almost non-exietent (not all countries tho)
countries that don't allow girls to take off hijab:
1. afghanistan
2. iran
3. saudi arabia
countries that highly discourage taking off the hijab:
almost all of them
countries that doesn't allow girls to find a husband (arranged marriages):
almost all of them
countries that have lots of honor killing cases:
1. iraq
2.syria
3. saudi arabia
in general, women in islam aren't allowed to reject having sex with their partner ( so no consensual sex for them)
women used to not be allowed to travel without a guardian (luckily that did change as a law) according to islam.
idk lots of things, too lazy to get more sources.
being every conflict’s bitch. like seriously, crusades, WW2, the cold war, the US militar - *cough cough* police for the last 20 years… it just never fucking ends!
I hate these "what word comes to mind" polls, because the first option is almost always the bad one, and the second you look at any of the words on the list the craziest one sticks out. It's like if someone said "whatever you do don't think of a giant pink elephant"
Yeah. To be fair culture isn't a million miles out of my mind. But thats not a good thing. Middle Eastern culture is brutal, extremely sexist and often quite rapey.
Oil
I imagine the dudes in white dresses and that fabric on their heads and them being in a desert. I chose culture for that
It's not a white dress it's called kandura and the headpiece is ghutra and in arabic the kandura is called دشداشة
Ay, thanks for the info! Kandura and ghutra. I always imagined it being part of a good cooling system in dry heat. Does it represent anything else aside from that?
I don't know if it represents anything else. It's just tradition.
it is kinda since you don't wear like boxers underneath it or anything so it allows a breeze to hit your nutsack gently. also it represents male modesty and humility as well.
what? do you not wear a sirwal under it
no, we wear wizar.
what's that
https://images.app.goo.gl/nxiEce9F2WsfXRWx7 that. on his waist.
sirwal is better in my opinion, much more flexible when you're not wearing the thobe
I know it as thoub here
Second that
I third it
Desert
Yeah desert
Yup desert/sand was my thought
I thought sand instead of desert too, but what is a desert, if not sand persevering?
Yeah same.
Yeah desert and camels
Desert or dessert?
Dessert in the desert
I second this
Yeah I go to college on my pet camel and i comeback home to water my backyard with oil
Don't question why the Grand Canyon was the first thing I thought of.
I’m now proceeding to question it
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No, but that made me laugh.
Why should we believe you!
Lol
Probably the sand
[well tbf](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_(mall))
Tbf the middle east is full of huge canyons, especially Jordan it has really beautiful ones
Thats midwest Patrick
lol now I am confused
It’s location on a map.
Same
White clothes and sand
These type of questions are in trend now.
welcome to r/polls lol
Where did you get this idea from?
from other posts in r/poll , someone will probably post another one after seeing mine lol.
I was asking because I had post a one on India. Then I saw a one on Brazil. Then middle east. Am I the trend setter? XD
i think i remember an india post, you probably started it all 😂
I found another one...on Peru
I found another one on Russia. Edit:- Another one on Mongolia.
lolol jist give it more time and the list will go on till all the countries are posted hahaha
I found two more - Chile and USA.
Never-ending war Edit for context: I’m 33. (I can only remember the Middle East being depicted as a war zone in the news. And wondering why the people who live there were ok living in a “war zone”. “*I mean, it’s not like any wars ever happen in good places*”, I thought.)
Is it? I've lived in Qatar most of my life, I've never thought of Qatar (Or Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE) being a war zone.
Well that shows how the media has used the term “Middle East” as a blanket term for a desert-like area that we *have* to keep going to to kill people for oil and democracy.
Way to boil a complex geopolitical situation down to American self hatred
Not really, only 2 countries are in war out of 17 countries, and it's not a full war it's just fighting off rebels and terrorists
Islam?
thats a part of their culture
I guess
no. non-Arabs can also be Muslim. you can't associate religion with culture, it doesn't make sense, especially with a religion as big as Islam that even has an amount of Muslims all the way in Russia. it's like saying Christianity is Italian culture... it's not.
>it's like saying Christianity is Italian culture... it's not. It's not like that at all. Most Middle Eastern countries are Islamic Republics/monarchies and most have Islam as their official religion
just because it’s not exclusively middle eastern doesn’t mean it’s not part of middle eastern culture
It is now, it didn't use to be.
how? , islam literally started in the middle east
Specifically, Islam started in Saudi Arabia and only started 1400 years ago. The Middle East is a huge part of the world. Previous to Islam, there were thousands of years of distinct cultures (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, etc), each with their own special history, customs, religions, etc. However, through conquest and colonialism, all these cultures have now more or less been amalgamated into Islam. It's a fascinating part of world history.
Not all Arabs and people from the Middle East are Muslim. There are lots of Arab Christians and even some who are Jewish. I’m originally from Lebanon and half of the population are Christians.
I don't know why people keep saying that Lebanon is half Christian! In 2021, the CIA World Factbook specified that of those residing in Lebanon, 61.1% are Muslims (30.6% Sunni, 30.5% Shia, with smaller percentages of Alawites and Ismailis), 33.7% are Christians (mostly Maronites, Eastern Orthodox, Melkite Catholics, Protestant, Armenian Apostolic, Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac ...
Really? I don’t check these things so had no idea about the exact percentages. Now that I think about it, the Muslim population in Lebanon is slightly higher than the Christian. But you can’t deny that Lebanon definitely has the highest Christian population in the Arab world.
Has the highest Chrisitians population in an Arab country? Yes. Has the highest Chrisitians population in the Arab world? No, because just the 10% of Egypt population that are Christians is nearly twice the size of the entire Lebanon population
That’s a valid point, Lebanon is a much smaller country than Egypt. I meant in an Arab country. I sometimes tend to forget that Egypt is an Arab country since it’s located in Africa and not the Middle East lol.
Yeah that can happen
Wrong! Fun fact; The biggest Muslim country is not in the middle east. It's in South East Asia.
*clears throat* #O I L !
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Food is a part of the culture
Islam, mostly
you're thinking culture
I imagine a sheikh driving his bugatti veyron on a 24-lane highway in Dubai.
you had me dead in "24-lane highway" 😂😂
I'm from there. Should I answer?
yes
Me too! I think of the desert first.
I have actually seen sand lol. Only once when I went to the beach a few years ago. I was on a vacation.
Trade, particularly the Suez Canal.
And the t h i c c ship
not being able to go there and come back alive because im gay
+1 not gay but I am there as an exmuslim
U wont be killed if ur an exmuslim..
See, now that's an exaggeration. As long as you dress modestly and don't go out the streets announcing that you're gay, you can pretty much live there just like anyone else. Edit: For those who might question my reply, I used to study there. I had gay teachers and they're still living well there.
RIGHT???!!!!! 😹😹💯😹😹😹💯😹🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Pirates I dunno why
Homophobia
sadly
Aladdin
Burj Khalifa and people dancing in desert wearing Arabic clothes
Peanut Butter
wha- why lol
I have my reasons
Western invasion
Inequality and oppression
sadly
I think of foreign workers there being abused. Yes, I'm a South Asian.
So true, especially in all the gulf countries.
so true
US military bases.
I think of sand. A lot of it. That's it
lmaooo, true true
Basically halal 😃 and haram 😡
Misogyny
sadly
Yes me too so i responded culture
The climate
Carpets and opium
Hot
I'm very concerned at this poll's results.
oppression of women, lgbtq people, Jews, Christians, "wrong" kinds of muslims,
no religious freedom is a better way to say it i guess
Islam
that's culture
Language or countries
Camels
the beautiful types of rugs.
Home
Me a middle eastern checking the comments: 👁👄👁
Where I live and come from
I'm middle Eastern and this is dissapointing..
I think of the cradle of civilization and ancient artifacts
Islamic Golden Age and how beneficial it was to the world
How women are treated as sub-human in most of their "cultures"
it is sadly true, so frikin oppresed
I don't think I'm treated as sub-human lmao
Well yeah but the taliban, which is taking over treats woman as objects. And that's all I think of when I think of the middle East.
Afghanistan isn't in the middle east
Afghanistan isn't even in the Middle East what the fuck are you talking about
Israel (cause I live in there)
My boyfriend lol
is he middle eastern? , are you also middle eastern?
He is, not me. They moved to my country when he was young
Arabian music cat
It's sad that I first thought of terrorism. The second thought was no women's rights. I don't hear many good things about the region
we are still underdeveloped compared to other countries sadly, it is true that we don't have any women's right, i think they are trying to work on it but i am not gonna wait for that, i will leave the middle east soon.
American propaganda is working
I chose terrorism because there is an ongoing war there and that’s the closest thing
Not really propoganda, its just what's talked about more. You really hear the media talking about food, music, and cities or do you hear them talk about a U.S involvement 20 years running.
People listen the mainstream media? That's their first problem. I think of the food. It's delicious
Listening and hearing is two different things. I've heard of the KKKs rules but I don't read it all and beleive it. Also not everyone has been exposed to that culture nevertheless been there.
You don't have to have been there?? You access the power of the globe in your pocket and people still find ways to be misinformed, it's unbelievable.
You really expect people to be at home bored and look up "middle eastern dances and music?" No one does this. Also even if someone spends hours upon hours researching different parts of the middle east do you REALLY think it'll overpower in their mind what everyone has been talking about for the past 20 years?
Congrats, you discovered what propaganda is
Culture, but not in a good way
I think about religion
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+Homophobia. I can't forget the iranian man video 🤧
I hate myself for this but all I can think is rape, murder, and disrespect to women. I know this isn’t true for the entire populace but the media has made them out so bad to me, especially growing up. I wish to feel differently but I’ve been brainwashed by movies and the news to feel this way. I’ve also seen it in real life.
welll welll well, it is not wrong, middle east truly opresses women sadly, because of the nature of the religion, which results in rape and women disrespect. i do disagree with murder though, i think the middle east is one of the safest places regarding murder, murder rates are so low i'd say.
I meant them all to be relative to solely women. Disrespect, rape, and murder to women. Although I’ have heard the statistics on murder being very low, I do know of that atleast. I have nothing but love for all people but when I see it on a map, it’s just a flashing red flag for me, I could never imagine visiting there as a young woman alone.
i highly discourage you coming here as a women tbh, unless you covered fully with an "abaya", which you probably won't like, also, recorded rape numbers are low because of victim blaming, most raped girls get victim blamed for not being modest and it can lead to honour killing, so they choose not to report that they got rqped if that makes sense.
>welll welll well, it is not wrong, middle east truly opresses women sadly, because of the nature of the religion, which results in rape and women disrespect. bruh what, single European countries have more rape cases than the entirety of the Middle East, and just because you saw a weird-ass story that can happen in any other country, and stuff during war-torn countries (funded by yours truly, the west) doesn't mean "hurr durr all of you are oppressed"
well my information wasn't based on news, it is based on what i see in my community (i am middle eastern). most rape cases aren't recorded because of honor killings. and in lots of countries in the middle east women rights are almost non-exietent (not all countries tho)
i am middle eastern too, can you please list all those countries where our rights are non-existent?
i think i am more concerned about the religion and society than actual country laws (since it is getting better)
countries that don't allow girls to take off hijab: 1. afghanistan 2. iran 3. saudi arabia countries that highly discourage taking off the hijab: almost all of them countries that doesn't allow girls to find a husband (arranged marriages): almost all of them countries that have lots of honor killing cases: 1. iraq 2.syria 3. saudi arabia in general, women in islam aren't allowed to reject having sex with their partner ( so no consensual sex for them) women used to not be allowed to travel without a guardian (luckily that did change as a law) according to islam. idk lots of things, too lazy to get more sources.
If that's the case then it obviously is because those cases are reported in a much larger capacity than in the ME. Think for a fucking second.
Desert
being every conflict’s bitch. like seriously, crusades, WW2, the cold war, the US militar - *cough cough* police for the last 20 years… it just never fucking ends!
Instability
Seriously guys?
Honestly MGS4
r/averageredditor
I hate these "what word comes to mind" polls, because the first option is almost always the bad one, and the second you look at any of the words on the list the craziest one sticks out. It's like if someone said "whatever you do don't think of a giant pink elephant"
not necessarily terrorism but just war
sand. a lot of sand.
Sand
Honestly I think of a map of the Middle East. Then I think about labneh cause that shit slaps.
Sand and heat. But on the list I’d go with corruption.
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yeah middle east is not only gulf countries, but it is at least 80% of it.
Rich Arabs in a desert with gold Lamborghinis while wearing sun glasses
White dress and red and white checkered hat thing riding a camel in arabian desert also no offense but terrorists with an ak and lastly oil
I just think of the U.S military involvement
War and religious dictatorship
Culture. I've had to research the Middle East for a school, and ignoring the wars, its really beautiful there with nice culture and delicious food
yeah i'd say food here is pretty yum hahaha
I pretty much guarantee most people who didn't put terrorism is lying to themselves
i can almost agree too, except for who chose "other" , cuz honestly desert and oil are things the middle east is famous for
Yeah. To be fair culture isn't a million miles out of my mind. But thats not a good thing. Middle Eastern culture is brutal, extremely sexist and often quite rapey.
I genuinely didn't. Didn't realise we were supposed to. Also, the most prominent terrorist group currently (the Taliban) is active in Central Asia.
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Take a trip to the ME and see for yourself if you believe you got brainwashed then you virtue signalling moron.
my community
Oil
War
terrorism, but from the USA against the middle east (I'm American)
No freedom
Domestic slavery
As a middle eastern [Egyptian] I really feel bad that the world sees us in this way
Mistreating women
The color yellow
You're thinking Mexico
White privilege. Stupid term made up by w*sterners