Customs and traditions of the United Arab Emirates
Ever wanted to understand a little more about the rich and fascinating Arab culture?
Why do Muslim women dress in black and cover their heads?
Why do they walk after their husbands? Why do men dress in white?
Because they can have several women and women can not have several husbands?
Why do Muslims pray 5 times a day? What is the meaning and purpose of Ramadan?
Muslim walking through the small streets of Al Bastakiya
Anyway, these and many other questions concerning culture, customs and traditions of the Arab peoples, I knew the answer, but in some cases I could never imagine until participating in some educational activities offered by the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding in Dubai .
Sheihk Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding
SMCCU is a non-profit organization with the motto "Open Doors. Open Minds ". Created in 1998 by Sheikh of Dubai (Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum). The organization aims to remove cultural barriers between people of different nationalities visiting the United Arab Emirates. Its main focus is the demystification, awareness and understanding of cultural elements associated with the Arab peoples and Islam.
Taking advantage of this as my first time visiting a Middle Eastern country, I thought that having scheduled this activity as soon as the first day of the United Arab Emirates raids would help me to understand a little more of everything I would see in the coming days, and indeed was. So much that I decided to devote a post exclusively focused on this peculiar experience that does not always receive the prominence of should in the guides and blogs that I consulted before traveling.
Our first activity at SMCCU was the Heritage Tour, a 90-minute guided tour of the historic Al Bastakia district visiting some traditional houses of ancient Dubai. There we had the opportunity to get acquainted with various characteristics of local architecture, such as the fact that they are built of coral and plaster, have their rooms facing a central courtyard where we usually find a planted tree that serves not only as a landscape element but also As an important factor for thermal comfort in an era when there was no air conditioning.
Speaking of air conditioning, a thing that soon attracts attention, in a tour of the region are the Wind Towers, these "towers of wind" had as main function to cool the interior of the houses promoting the air circulation by the difference of the density between the warm air And cold air. You will soon notice that in all of them there is a sort of apparent wood trunk arranged in the shape of an X. Well actually one of the villagers when he built his windtower did so during construction and ended up not removing the wood and the business fell into the Taste popular and everyone started copying. And today it is a hallmark of local architecture.
Today all these old Al Bastakia residences have been renovated and transformed into small museums, inns and art galleries. All the population living there was relocated to other parts of the city, where they now live with all the comfort that oil has brought to the Emirates (as the natives call it and make less than a fifth of the total population of the country).
According to our guide, today there is only 1 house with a resident on the site. And he just did not move because he did not want to move. Although not 100% original, a tour of the region is interesting to imagine what Dubai was like at the time oil had not yet been discovered and when the economy of the city was buoyed by the pearl trade.
Finally, after a stroll through the hot alleyways of Al Bastakia, we finished the Heritage Tour with a visit to the Diwan Mosque. One of the nearly 1500 mosques in Dubai and one of the few that tourists are, let's say welcome. Inside, besides being much cooler than outside, we were able to talk a little more about religion and the customs of the Emirates. All in a very informal and extremely educational conversation that could turn out to be a 20 page post. But the cool thing about this tour was the approach in which the themes were treated.
For example, the question of women walking behind their husbands is more a cultural issue than necessarily religious. In the old days the man was walking ahead to "clean" the ground (in order to detect snakes and scorpions) for the woman to pass. The custom ended up being incorporated and remains until today. In more closed countries, such a custom has been distorted in such a way as to subjugate women, but it is not necessarily written in the Qur'an that women have to always walk behind their husbands.
After the visit to the mosque, return to the SMCCU headquarters where we finish the Heritage Tour tasting dates with the typical Arabic coffee. There we talked more about their importance in the culture of the peoples of the Middle East. Speaking of dates, I have to confess that this visit to Dubai left me hooked. I think I have tried more than 30 different types of practically every country in the region. My favorites? Those of Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The second program of the day at SMCCU was a cultural lunch typical of the Emirates. Besides the food being very tasty, we deepened several themes discussed in the Heritage Tour as the women's clothing, the differences between the Hijab, Niqab, Burqaa, Abaya, Chador and the like. The issue of religious education of children, some differences between countries of the region and the like .. All this in a very relaxed and quite welcoming environment typical of any Arab house.
The Kabsa or Machoos was the base of the emirate food we experienced at this cultural lunch. It is nothing more than a dish made of rice, seasoned with Saffron, Cardamom, Tumeric (earth saffron) and thyme. There were two variations, one with chicken another with fish. For those who have already experimented with Biryani Rice in Indian cuisine he reminded me a little. Also, there was another bean-based dish (I can not remember the name) which was delicious as well.
The combination of these seasonings and ingredients, in addition to the traditional Kebabs, is the basis of the cuisine of the United Arab Emirates. But the best lunch surprise in my opinion was the dessert. Especially the Luqeymat, some marbles that resemble a fried rain cookie wrapped in a delicious date syrup and sprinkled with gergilin. Think about something fat and delicious (I repeated about 3x).
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário