Minorities

Mohandas K. Gandhi once said, “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” Diversity is color, it is beauty, knowledge, and taste. The Middle East is a mosaic of people where each nation has its own color and the various groups within each country have their own shade. To me, unity within a nation is only achieved when the majority welcomes variety and the minorities have the freedom to express self-identity. Usually the minorities are the ones who truly understand the importance and virtue of unity. Non-Muslim and non-Arab minorities in the Middle East have been able to preserve because they have been able to maintain their self-identity, while acknowledging and respecting differences within their society. In her autobiography titled Dream Homes, Joyce Zonana, an Egyptian Jew living in America, discusses her personal journey of self-identification. Like many minorities in the Middle East she finds pockets of her identity within her food, language, and community. The warmest aspect of a culture lies within a traditional dish. In the novel, Zonana describes memories of her mother cooking throughout her childhood. Zonana’s mother expressed her Arab identity through her stuffed grape leaves, and, her Jewish faith through her wine-soaked charoseth for Yom Kippur. Many religious minorities in the Middle East such as the Christians and Jews cook meals that represent the dominant Arab culture, but they also produce other dishes that are not typically made in society. For example some non-Muslim minorities may have meals that contain wine or pork, something not found in Muslim culture. The influence of an environment can affect a minority so much so that culinary divergence can occur amongst even individuals within a same group. A European Jew asks Zonana, "You mean you're Jewish' And you don't know about gefilte fish'" This illustrates the impact of Arab culture on Zonana’s unfamiliarity with European Jewish Cuisine. Although food has a subtle influence on the formation of a minority’s self-identity, the role that language plays is much more apparent. A group can be identified immediately by its language. The power that language has on self-identity is so great that even assumptions of socio-economic status can be made based on it. Zonana describes how she was forced to learn French instead of Arabic as a child because Jewish children who came from wealthy families spoke French because it represented higher class and education. The French language gave Jews a sense of bourgeois and high class. Jews sought to form their self-identity amongst Arabs my separating themselves linguistically by speaking French. Besides Jewish minorities in the Arab world, other religious and ethinic minorities used language to form their self-identities. In Iraq, the Kurds speak Kurdish instead of Arabic, which allows them to separate themselves from the Arab majority. Christian Chaldeans speak Fallihi which enables them to differentiate from the Muslim majority. Many minorities in the Middle East are bilingual; they speak Arabic in order to communicate with the Arab majority and a different language to communicate with their own religious or ethnic groups. Shared language bridges commonality which in turn bridges community. A community is a shared environment which people live in. The level of connection between people affects the degree of cohesion within a community. Usually minorities form their own communities within a society because they share a strong bond due to shared beliefs and customs. Zonana’s family lived in a Jewish community in Cairo, living amongst other Jews provided them with a sense of belonging and pride. When her parents fled Egypt and came to America, Zonana lost this sense of community her parents once felt. In America she struggled to define her identity, and set on a journey to find where she belonged, acquiring comfort in the books, food, and immigrants she met along the way. In the Middle East, many minorities form their own communities. For example, the majority of Shiities in Iraq live in the city Karbala and Najaf. Many Christian Armenian, are found scattered throughout the Middle East due to the Armenian diaspora and live together in small cities such as Kassab and Allepo in Syria. By establishing communities, minorities are empowered by creating a large group identity. In summation, Zonana’s journey to seek her self-identity illustrates its important role within minority groups. Self-identity allows one to find a collective identity whereby individuals unite based upon shared beliefs and customs. Minorities rely on group identity for strength and support. Through food, minorities utilize specific dishes to express cultural distinction. Many minorities set themselves apart through the languages they speak. Also, senses of belonging and pride form when minorities establish their own communities. The world is beautiful because of variety. Animals vary by shape and size, plants vary by color and smell and yet despite these differences, they live together in harmony, and demonstrate the importance of tolerance and diversity. In the Middle East and throughout the world beauty within society is observed by the mixture and diversity of people. By providing variation in society, minority groups play the biggest role in making civilization beautiful.