Duh? Didn't know it was a language .. but I know what he means.
Inter marriages are a good way to bridge the sectarian rift in our society and I have always been all for it. We are, after all, the new generation and it's best that girls do get married to who their heart desires, rather than end locked up in loveless barren same-faith marriages!
But what happens when they get children? What do the children do? In liberal families, it isn't a big deal and freedom of choice and common sense reigns, as the young brood is exposed to the cultures and traditions of both faiths. But what happens when people get married to others who seemingly look progressive, but hide racist sentiments deep inside. What does a woman do when she hears her husband whispering in her ears: I don't want our child to speak Shia?
Speak what? People roll their eyes in bewilderment when I explain to them that it is easy to make out the difference between sects by simply hearing them speak. They are shell shocked when they realise that the distinction between Shias and Sunnis is detected by dialect!
Scary world we live in..
1 October 2007
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9 comments:
wow.
yes, its true, sectarianism has grown somehow, and its reaching a point thats pretty scary in Bahrain. Just the other day a friend of mine was asked which "sect" he was from in an interview, because he didnt put his family name on his CV, can you believe that?
Did this happen to you personally, or someone you know?
By dialect, by name, by area, and list goes on.. It's too sick for my liking. Funny though... My friend has one of those names that you could never tell what he was, and he is good at maintaining too dialects, and guess what.. He actually works in the BDF. I personally think that even in inter-faith marriages, you tend to get the same sort of issues posed but on a different level.
I actually know of a guy who was about to abandon "the love of his life" simply because she was of the "wrong" sect. What will our kids be? was the argument of choice here. I personally plan to marry an alien and have weird hybrid kids who don't speak any earthly language
I think I'll do da same like June, I'll marry an alien and have weird hybrid kids who don't speak any earthly language, lol...
Hey SBH,
I chuckled as I read this post... I'm back in Australia now, possibly THE most secular country on God's green earth ;-) and this concept still plagues us. I was talking with my girlfriend, dreaming of the future about what education our kids should have... my family is lapse Catholic, her's is lapse Protestant... we follow strong allegiances to nothing but our histories... mainly because we trust that our parents new the ONE right way to bring us up and can't imagine an alternative...
keep writing! I am missing Bahrain very much,
cheers
W
Linguistically, there is no such thing as speaking a shi'i or sunni language, there is equally no corresponding dialect.
However, the only way I can relate to what you're saying is that, in Bahrain specifically (but not exclusively) distinct groups (which speak different dialects) have been subject to societal, historical and geographical factors, rendering them being subscribed to one or the other sect.
An example to contrast, I would never be able to tell sectarian profiles of lebanese, syrian, or even english speaking friends of mine.
I'll leave it there, otherwise I'd be better off writing an essay about it.
It doesn't take an essay...
He wants his child to be white, to speak white, the language of the upper, superior, orthodox folks. The language which you must internalize if you wish to be promoted at Batelco or NBB, or not to be laughed out of your job at GFH, or out of your gang at Ibn Khuldoon. The fact that he whispered it reflects the polite racist nature of the place, truly but whisperly so.
As a kid you don't have a choice... but when we grow up, at least some of us - has the intellectual capacity to understand this 'herd game'.
As responsible adults, we can make a choice - to be free people or to align with a herd.
Now, within any herd - there are many divisions...
Some people get caught in the whole game of identity crisis, cause they have identified themselves with one herd or the other for a long time.
Herd -> sub-herds -> sub-sub-herds -> sects -> sub-sects
I am glad to be a human being without being part of a herd or sect.
I followed the link here from lonehighlander. The verification
phrase is impossible to read. I must be going blind.
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