Living & Arts

Middle Eastern Culture Week

In print | February 28, 2008

When Neda Daneshvar ‘10 and Christine Ernst ’10 met each other at the 2006 Tri-Co Summer Institute, they were surprised to find that they were the only two self-identified Middle Easterners there. When it came time to make skits among each of the represented ethnic groups, Daneshvar and Ernst were instead separated into other groups. "It made us aware that Middle Easterners still haven’t got a presence here," Daneshvar said.

Since then, Daneshvar and Ernst have worked to create a greater Middle Eastern community and to increase the visibility of Middle Eastern culture at Swarthmore. Their not-yet-chartered group, the Middle Eastern Culture Society is holding an impressive number of events over the course of Middle Eastern Culture Week, which is currently in full swing. The week will culminate in several Middle Eastern music workshops and performances this Saturday, March 1.

The week kicked off with the Tuesday opening of “Window Onto the Middle East,” a photo exhibit in Shane Lounge that featured pictures taken by Swarthmore students while in the Middle East.

Tuesday afternoon, MECS also invited Christine Hegel-Canterella from CUNY to lecture on Egyptian law from an anthropological standpoint in “Brotherly Love and Property Rights: Practices of Private Law in Egypt.”

Of course, what is a cultural week without its food? On Wednesday, MECS ran a takeover of Paces Café. The Café was overloaded with food, both catered from Philly’s Alyan’s Restaurant and freshly prepared by MECS members, from the seasoned greens of tabouleh and grape leaves, to chickpea staples like hummus and falafel, to desserts. The takeover also wouldn’t have been complete without hookah and backgammon, two pastimes that have taken Middle Eastern eateries by storm.

Middle Eastern Culture Week is continuing today with a discussion on Middle Eastern identity at 9 p.m., in Papazian 324. MECS will be performing several skits that dramatize the various issues that Middle Eastern Americans face. Ernst said, “We thought it might be nice if people saw something and then were able to discuss it.”

On Friday, MECS is showing a Persian romantic comedy “Pastry Girl” at 8 p.m. in Kohlberg 116. Refreshingly not about anything politicized, the movie centers around instead around the universal problems surrounding a couple’s marriage and the differences between their two families.

Saturday’s two musical events are the centerpiece of the week. At 3:30 p.m., in LPAC’s Boyer Dance Studio, you can try your hand at traditional Arabic drumming and be instructed on debkeh, a fast-paced line dance that’s a must at Arabic weddings. For the workshop, MECS has invited the Al-Bustan Percussion Ensemble and dance instructor Nehad Khader.

At 8 p.m., on LPAC’s mainstage, UCLA professor and ethnomusicologist A.J. Racy, accompanied by the Philly-based MidEast Ensemble, will be performing classical and contemporary Arabic music.

Ernst said that part of the aim for the week was to “let the campus know what Middle Eastern culture is about and that we as a community are here, and also of course to let other Middle Easterners on campus, who don’t really know about us yet, have a sense that there is a community here.”

Daneshvar added, “Our purpose in doing a lot of these events is to not only expose people to the culture … but also to acknowledge the diversity in the region. Not everyone’s Muslim, not everyone’s Arab.”

As a completely open group, MECS joins the ranks of Deshi and Friends of Taiwan at Swarthmore as an organization whose focus is more on celebrating the cultural aspects of its community. Daneshvar said, “We wanted to also create a group where anyone could come and find out about our culture because all you here in the media is about mostly negative things going on there … and that’s not what the Middle East should be defined by. We have this whole beautiful culture that no one ever hears about.”

Ernst said, “I would say a good half of our members are not Middle Eastern in any way, shape or form. And we would love to have more people show up.”