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Culture in Saudi Arabia

From a general perspective, culture is the cumulative deposit of aspects like experience, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, religion, values, meanings, roles, concepts and possessions amongst others that are acquired by a relatively large group of people and passed on through generations individually or through groups depending on the specificity of people. The adopted behavior and way of life from the initial ancestors is learned and with accumulation of experience it is subsequently passed on socially and acts as a symbolic means of communication.

In some instances, culture may be shared between two or more groups in that they have some beliefs, religion or values in common. This would also act as a bridge connecting the particular groups involved because it makes them think something must have caused them to have the same opinion or stand about certain cultural aspects. Religion for example gives a more vivid picture and explanation for shared culture. Religion is the belief of a link between humanity and the spiritual world. In Saudi Arabia the official religion is Islam and the Kingdom’s law obliges every citizen to be Muslim. Freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia and practice of any other religion is highly prohibited. For this reason they have a group of religion “police” who enforce the restriction of public or private practice of any other religion in their country. The Islam religion is known to be practiced in very many other countries including Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan among others. This means that the religion aspect in the culture of Saudi Arabia is also shared by other countries’ cultures as well. The facet of shared cultures may act as a thread linking the countries or groups back to either one origin or ancestry in some cases.

In Saudi Arabia, both men and women are directly dictated by their customs and religion to dress conservatively. In the case of Saudi men, thobes which are traditional dresses are won despite the social status or the job occupation of an individual. Other than the thobe being appropriate for the hot climate in Saudi, it also expresses equality among them. Saudi women on the other hand wear cloaks called abayah and are mostly black. They then cover their hair using a scarf and a veil that fully covers their face except for the eyes. They are supposed to dress like this in public and around people who are not their close relatives. As for teenagers they should not wear tight jeans or any clothes showing parts of their bodies. Foreigners are also indebted to abide by local customs especially in public areas. In the 1980s the Kingdom banned movie theatres to prevent immorality and westernization. However the ban is currently in the process for liberalizing to allow for development of their cinema however certain television shows, films and DVDs are prohibited. An exception is given if they have censored scenes with immorality or directly offending the government or the royal family.

Even with the Saudis being well informed in the Arab and Muslim world, the government does not recognize freedom of the press and publicizing ones opinion. Any stories or speeches given in public should not contradict the Islam traditional values or the Saudi government rule. It should also not directly offend the officials of government or the royal family in particularly. Political parties and labor unions are prohibited in Saudi Arabia. However informal discussions on the public policies are not deemed illegal, they are not promoted and action is taken to participants if they endorse disloyalty or immorality. Creation of a Consultative Council by the government has allowed for the existence of certain societies but they have considerably little ability to manipulate or change the policies up held by the government. The national dance in Saudi Arabia is known as Al Ardha and the sword dance is founded on their ancient traditions. It is a rhythmic blend of drum beats, chants and men dancing using the swords they carry to create an entertaining movement. Another prominent form of music is the samri in which poetry is performed through a song and people dance to it.

The absorption of one culture into another group of people or a country at large is known as culture learned. This could be because the culture is of significance in the lives of the country that is absorbing it. An example of culture learned in Saudi Arabia would be cinema. In the past, it was banned completely from publicity in their country. They believed it did more bad than good and lead to high measures of immorality. However, something later on changed their opinion and they decided to reconsider and ease up by allowing cinema but with certain restrictions. This clearly explains that even after their perception of cinema, with time they learned on how to allow its publicity while limiting what they feared which spreading immorality is.

Saudi Arabia is considered as one of the countries with a very unique culture because it has upheld their initial beliefs to this moment without allowing for deviation from them. This portrays an image that they respect their culture and even with its spread through every generation they do not change any aspect of it but consider it the normal way of life.