It did come as somewhat of a shock to me when I read about Omar Al-Zubaidi’s mistreatment at the hands of a gate guard at the US Embassy in Riyadh last week. He was allegedly instructed to “go to the back” as that was where the “animals” (i.e. Saudis) were supposed to congregate. Ipso facto, the case has sparked off all kinds of debate in the press and the resultant controversy generated has provoked me into writing this article.
There is absolutely no justification for what happened that day. It is nothing short of outrageous that someone who is standing in line waiting his turn for a visa to be processed should be subjected to such derision. Being disparaged by any member of staff at any embassy irrespective of any concomitant provocation is utterly unacceptable. In this particular case there appears to have been no prior dispute and the shabby conduct espoused by the individual concerned was entirely deplorable and wholly inexcusable.
However, there are corresponding issues that need to be addressed and would benefit from further clarification. Perhaps I am playing the devil’s advocate, but there are some disparities that I think merit consideration. Just the very word with which the reporter was addressed seems so far removed from the American vernacular that it made me suspect that, although the perpetrator was no doubt employed by the US Embassy, he was probably of Arab extraction, or at the very least an Arabic speaker. In the West it is not part of the general derogatory lexicon to use the word “animal” when engaging in a spat with someone. I can think of a wide variety of the choicest expletives that could have been uttered in the heat of the moment but somehow the term “you animal” doesn’t very readily spring to mind. Paradoxically, I have been witness to several conflicts involving native Arabic speakers where the words “haiywan” (animal) and “kulb” (dog) liberally pepper the accompanying exchanges and appear to trip off the tongue quite effortlessly.
The level of consternation that resonated among our local populace also made me feel rather perturbed. Admittedly the whole incident was appalling, but judging by the indignant reactions that it garnered from all corners of our society, it would be safe to assume that our own treatment of foreigners is the embodiment of courteous deference at all times. Yet anyone who has set foot on Saudi soil would have been privy to the fact that this is not the case. Far from it. You just need to land at the airport to realize that treating someone from another country with disrespect and patronizing that person’s origins, language, culture and identity seems to be pretty endemic here. I can’t even begin to recall the innumerable incidents that, cringing in impotence, I personally have witnessed as expatriate workers from Asian countries although not called “animals” have certainly been treated like them.
A glance at the “Letters to the Editor” section of this newspaper on subsequent days proffers a fairly lucid description of what I mean. It included a narrative by a man who was insulted at the airport while he was just passing through in transit. One of the men in uniform shouted some instruction at him in Arabic and when he didn’t understand the command the officer made the offensive and disturbing statement that all Indians were donkeys. Another claimed that “calling nationals of other countries animals is normal practice here”.
Unlike Omar Al-Zubaidi who brought his complaint to the attention of the US ambassador and was greeted with the repentant reply “I deeply regret hearing that you were badly treated. This is something we will not tolerate” and an accompanying promise of investigating the matter further, I am convinced beyond all shadow of a doubt that had the situation been replicated with an Indian worker challenging the conduct of a Saudi, the response would have been very different.
Even if, hypothetically, the seniormost ranking official in charge had been apprised of the humiliation meted out to the expatriate I would be amazed as to whether he would have been lucky enough to receive an acknowledgment leave alone a public apology. Would such a reaction be precipitated through his tearing up of an application form by way of protest? If anything I would very much anticipate an exit stamp gracing a page of his passport if he even attempted to dare to engage in such bravado. (I can already feel the pressure of several fingers furiously typing away at keyboards hailing me as being “disloyal” and “treacherous” but in the very name of patriotism and progress I have to call a spade a spade).
This is not meant to exonerate the actions of the original culprit but rather to shed light on the often pompous and blinkered vision of hypocrisy that some of us tend to adopt. Why is it that we are so astonished that others have the capacity to view us with disdain when we regularly engage in such practices ourselves? Do we honestly believe that we have some God-given privilege to pursue a racist agenda with certain nationalities but that when we are subjected to such slights by those we venerate we have every right to complain vehemently about being discriminated against?
In the West, at least, there is some recourse for such negative behavior. Racism is taken extremely seriously and there are laws and organizations that protect the rights of all ethnic minorities. In my estimation, that is what was so surprising about the whole incident. It was highly unusual for an employee of a Western mission to be so flagrantly rude and brutal in his dealings with an applicant. I doubt that I would have batted an eye had it been a poor worker being disgraced by one of my compatriots. So instead of wallowing in self-pity over the fact that the very same people whom we have elevated in status for years regard us with such overt contempt, we should introspect about the shameful manner in which we treat those whom we have denigrated for an equal length of time. After all, whether we like it or not there is an awful lot of truth in the adage “what goes around comes around”.
(Lubna Hussain is a Saudi writer. She is based in Riyadh.)
