Abu Dhabi: The Beginnings

Abu Dhabi has nothing but fascinating and mindblowing since our arrival yesterday afternoon. At the airport, we were immediately ushered into a wood-paneled VIP lounge filled with luxurious couches, golden ornaments, and enormous mirrors. Instead of going through customs or immigration, we sipped chilled fruit juice and waited in the lounge while our luggage was collected and our passports stamped. Then we were promptly escorted to two waiting vans and driven to the Intercontinetal Hotel. At first, I thought they had mistakenly taken us to a palace (incidentally, this is an old palace right down the street from our hotel). Considering the chandelier-illuminated elegance of the lobby, I think my mistake can be easily forgiven.

A bit of background for everyone at home: The reason we’re here is because the Sheikha (Princess essentially) of Abu Dhabi (one of the seven emirates in the country called the United Arab Emirates (UAE)) is currently the President of the Arab Women’s Organization (AWO), which is under the umbrella of the Arab League. The AWO is hosting this conference, which is to be the First Annual Arab-Western Youth Dialogue on Women’s Issues. This conference has occurred in the past, but only with Arab students. We are the first westerners EVER to take part in this. So, I’m kind of a big deal (yes, an Anchorman reference). But seriously, there have been a lot of people from the press here, and apparently a few articles are being written up about us in newspapers here.

So…as we were waiting for our room assignments, we each received a letter from someone in the Arab Women’s Organization. In effect, the letter told us that while we are staying here, all the meals are on the AWO’s tab, as well as our laundry. And our rooms…wow…check it out. Just ridiculous. Not that I’m hung up on fancy things, but in comparison to Siwa especially and even our lovely digs at Longchamps in Cairo (hell, compared to any hotel in which I’ve previously stayed), this is amazing…check out the amazed “Abu Dhabi” faces of Katharine and Pat.

After a few hours of resting, we enjoyed an icebreaker dinner with our 30+ Arab counterparts. As opposed to the dialogues in Egypt, which began rather stiffly, we dove right into conversation and enjoyed a two-hour dinner full of non-stop conversation. It set a really great tone for the formal dialogues to come the next few days, because we were all able to become very comfortable with each other very quickly.

Sunday morning began with the outlining of some rules, and then we settled into 7 groups, each dealing with different spheres of interest, from health to education to media, which was my group. Once in our groups, the intent was to highlight subcategories that affected women. So, in the media group, we decided to talk about these subtopics, among others: stereotyping of women in media sources, presentation of female leaders in the media, and the creation and perpetuation of feminine stereotypes. In our group, there are four Americans (Cynthia, Molly, Sonja, and myself) as well as four Arab students ( Nassima from Algeria, Amina from Sudan, Reabar from Syria, and Azza from UAE). We were charged with discussing all of our subtopics, and putting together both a presentation and paper reporting the findings from both the Arab and American sides. Now, our of each different group (health, education, media, etc), an American and an Arab moderator were chosen. Guess who’s the American moderator for our group? Yup. This means a little bit more responsibility: Azza (the Arab moderator for the group) and I will be responsible for the presentation and the paper. While a lot of pressure, because I want it to be spectacular, this is also a great chance for me: the papers which we write are going to be published in a booklet by the AWO. It’s kind of a big step up from being published in the State House newsletter to the docents. So I’m pretty stoked.
We spent the entire day from 9-6 discussing our topics and findings, which I’ll write more on later. The group dynamics were really great; I felt like we had a good balance between the two sides and were able to communicate with a minimum of misunderstandings or disagreements.

After all the hard work that we put in, several excursions were organized for us. On the advice of one of the Arab girls, I chose to make the trip to the Marina Mall. I have never seen such a place; King of Prussia just doesn’t compare. It definitely doesn’t have an indoor ski slope, and this place did (although it is currently closed). Unfortunately, it also meant that I couldn’t afford most of the products, but we had a good time walking around, especially since Nassima came with the group I was in, and we were able to continue dialoguing as we shopped.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed the buffet…oh my god. The food here…unbelievable. Honestly, I lost four pounds during my stay in Egypt, and that was without watching what I ate or getting much regular exercise…I’m pretty sure that I could easily gain it all back in the next few days at this hotel. Also, today I felt like I was just eating every hour- but that was actually because the conversation and interactions were so interesting that time was passing much faster than I realized.

The most important thing that I want everyone to take from my blog, though, isn’t how luxurious Abu Dhabi is. Please understand that all the Arabs that I’ve met here…well, they are just like me. Maybe they come from different cultures and different religions. A lot of the girls wear the headscarf to show this, whereas I don’t even believe in a god. But all the people I’ve talked to want the same things- more understanding across cultural boundaries, more respect for each others’ common humanity, more ties with one another, improved communication around the world. I think too often, especially since 9/11, that people around the world focus too much on their own country or culture. That doesn’t matter. I have more in common- much more- with the other students here than I do with George Bush. I want to tell one story about this, which will hopefully help to demonstrate this.

One stereotype that many Americans have about women in the Arab world is that the majority of them are sheltered, in every connotation of the world, and that someone who would be veiled would be more reserved than an American girl. Not true. Two of the girls today, who both wear conservative clothes and are mutahaggiba (wearing the headscarf) took a walk to the mall. On their walk, they were climbing up on the grass to be near trees, jumping electrical boxes, and cavorting around the streets of Abu Dhabi doing things that I or any of my American friends would do normally too- just having fun, being young, and enjoying life. Just because they might believe in another religion doesn’t stop them from living life to the fullest. I know this story might not even sound like a big deal- but that’s kind of my point, that we are so much more alike than people realize. People here in the Middle East think and worry about the same things as those in America: raising their children, providing for their families, owning a home, preparing for the future, the safety of their families and their country, etc. Once we start seeing each other as people and not as one of “the others”, we’ll see a good deal of improvement in the world.