JEDDAH, 18 December 2002 — A Saudi woman teaching in a low income district of Washington, D.C. is not only educating American teenagers in the ways of algebra and mathematics, but also out of many of the stereotypes of Arab women.
Reem Sheikh, 36, has been living for the past 10 years in the Washington, D.C. area, where she completed two masters’ degrees and is currently working on her doctorate in economics.
In an interview with Arab News, she spoke of the intercultural differences and exchanges between American and Arab youth.
Reem is a part-time professor at the University of Washington and is teaching full-time at a high school in southeastern Washington, D.C., an over-crowded, dilapidated urban area where the residents are overwhelmingly African-American.
Some of her students cannot read, write, calculate or solve simple everyday problems.
Reem told Arab News that her students had never met Saudi Arabian women or men before, or indeed anyone from the Middle East.
“Students ask me about Saudi Arabia and about terrorism,” she said. “I just correct their misconceptions, starting with the location of Saudi Arabia on the map and what language we speak in Saudi Arabia.”
In their everyday exchanges with her, the students have learned where Saudi Arabia is.
“At one time, my students thought Saudi Arabia was in South America and that we speak Spanish, but that has all changed,” she explained.
According to Reem, the students knew nothing about Middle Eastern culture, location, language or traditions.
“I had to teach them some manners, for example that you cannot put the sole of your shoes in front of an Arab, that you do not chew gum with your mouth open in a classroom, and you do not whistle because it is rude in the Middle East.”
Some parents cannot help their children add fractions or round decimals because they dropped out of school and did not finish high school, Reem explains.
As most of these parents come from low-income families with little education, they believe much that is broadcast about Arabs and fear another attack by terrorists in their ranks.
“I have had to tell the children that, contrary to what they may have heard or been told, Osama Bin Laden does not walk in the streets and that we are not all related to him,” Reem laughed.
“Because of US laws, no talk about any religion — including Islam — in public schools. However, my students found out that I was fasting during Ramadan and knew that I do not celebrate Christmas because I’m a Muslim. They do know about Ramadan and Eid,” Reem continued.
“The American students were a little curious of their counterparts in Saudi Arabian schools, but more so about me,” she said.
“They tend to look at skin color more than anything else. I was once mentioning that students behave better in the classroom in the Middle East and one student said to me: ‘You’re not black and you don’t live in a black neighborhood, so you can’t talk to us about how to behave in the classroom’.”
When asked about any Muslims in her class, Reem said: “There is one Muslim child that was very interested in the fact that we were both Muslims because he has never met a white — i.e. non African-American — Muslim before.”
When asked about any racial discrimination or slurs she has experienced as an Arab woman, Reem said: “None whatsoever! I have always been treated well — in airports and in local stores, for example — and I continue to try to provide a different image of women and about Saudis. I have never had anyone discriminate against me because I was Saudi Arabian in southeast Washington, D.C. or the whole metropolitan area.”
