Visit To The Batiskiya With SWG

Since my life here is very boring, I thought it might be good to take an effort to join in more activities.The Singapore Women's Group here in Dubai organised a tour around the Bastikiya area.. that is the old part of town which we call Old Dubai and it is actually a 30 min walk away from my house. It was to be held in the SMCCU and included an arabic breakfast.. and because I am really curious about this country that I am currently living in... I decided to go see see look look..

Walking my way to the SMCCU (Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding) bright and early.. Usually this time of the morning, I am either chanting, in the gym or on bed.. either playing games on my iphone, reading a book on my ipad or sleeping! I had a rough idea of where the place is located but am not sure exactly where so I thought it might be a good idea to arrive teeny bit earlier so that I have time to search for the location...

Tadah, found it!:) When I arrived, the girls on the car pool have not yet arrived and two other ladies are there. After a short chat, I found one one is a veteran in Dubai who has been there 25 years and says, "Dubai grows on you..." and the other is pretty new like me.. having only been here and she says she will definitely go back to Singapore "Because this is not a place you stay for long. How can anyone stay here for a long time?"

I am told, that usually.. somewhere around the 3 year mark.. people will start to think if they should go home... if they do not go home by that time.. chances are, they will stay on and before they know it, they would have been in dubai for 6, 7, 8, 10, 20, 27 years!

That is their tagline, "Open doors. Open minds." We were told later by Nasif Kayed, the GM of SMCCU and our tour guide of the day that SMCCU is actually a non profit organization started by some people with a great vision of cultural understanding between the Emerati in UAE and the rest of the world. While the Shiek gave them the house they are using now as office, they are totally self funded and enlist the help of volunteers. What a lovely vision to act as a bridge:)

Anyway, more people arrived and the ladies are standing around waiting for our tour to start.

The first part of our tour is done by a pretty lady and it involves us taking a brief walk around the Bastikiya.

Our guide told us that way back.. even before UAE was born, people lived in tribes (emirates). This part of old dubai is called the Bastikiya because the people who inhabited this place were from the Basti tribe who have origins in Iraq. This place used to just be sand but they have filled up the sand to make it easier to walk around. Currently, the area belongs to the shiek who has allowed a variety of business to take over the various houses here and develop this into somewhat a tourist area.

In this area houses have narrow alleys in between them. That is because if they care close to one another, they will be able to provide shade for each other. Also, the narrow alleys are designed such that wind and air can flow through and keep the houses cool...

If you walk along, you will realize that the houses seem to all have very very small wooden doors. I have always wondered if it is to allow people to BOW when they walk into the house. I found out later that it is because wood is rather expensive so to cut cost, they just make smaller doors.

Our very pretty guide...

You will notice that as the houses are all built very closely, you will NEVER see door facing door.. in order to protect the privacy of the occupants. Also, most of the windows in the house are rather small as well. If you see the big windows, it means the room you can look into from the windows is the living room. In the olden days, when the man of the house was at home, he will open the windows and whenever he saw his neighbour walking past, he will invite his neighbour into his house for a cup of tea.

The way to tell if the house belonged to a rich person or not is by the doors. Whether it is made of good thick wood from Africa or light wood from India.. whether there are intricate carvings on the door.

Notice that this door has a small little door. In the old days, the houses of the middle class have a courtyard within. (I noticed it is usually is usually the first place you see when you step inside and it is sort of like the in the middle of the house as the other rooms are built around it.) The courtyard is like a garden and it is the sort of highlight of the house as it is the place where the family gathers often. If the family reared animals like horses or camels, then they would be kept in the courtyards as well. The big door is actually used not for VIPs but for animals!:) wahahaha..

The small door is used for human beings. So why do they have such small doors? Is it because early emarati people are small? Actually, not quite, according to our guide.. it is so that visitors bow down as show of respect to occupants of the home but ALSO because if you have to bow down when you go in, any woman in the house will see the visitor first before the visitor sees them and so, if they choose to, they will have time to cover up their faces:)

As you walk around the Bastikiya, you will notice that there are many "chimney-like structures". These structures are called the barjeel and it is "air conditioning" of the old days. They are wind catchers and they are built with a CROSS in the middle so that no matter which direction the wind blows, it will be caught and brought into the house to ensure ventilation. They are so good they can create as much as 10 degree Celsius of difference inside and outside the house.


See the sticks sticking out? These were the foundations used to build these wind catchers. You were suppose to saw it off after it is completed. Someone forgot to saw it off and other people saw it and thought it was a nice design and in the end, everyone stopped sawing it off and left the sticks there as design..

Most of the houses here are made from coral or shell stone. I think they grind them into powder or wat.. some parts you can still see the corals...

The poorer folks will live in the houses that were made even earlier than before.. they are called barasti houses and they are made of palm tree leaves. Very sart lor.. No nails needed to build them! And since is wooden, they were essentially cooling. But they caught fire easily. This one here already made stronger and safer with cement...

But just in case, you are still not allowed to smoke in this area...

This one is the wall of old dubai..

Well, Dubai in the past is not really a country but more of just a small village settlement. As the people lived here in tribes according to their "class level" and they were right next to the creek, they had a wall around this area to protect it. This area usually houses the middle class people and to my surprise, the gold and spice souk area is actually the area inhabited by the poorer people.

Our guide told us that contrary to POPULAR BELIEF, DUBAI DOES HAVE POOR PEOPLE TOO. Like any country, most of the population is considered middle class and only top few percent is very rich. There are also poor people BUT there are no homeless people. I think it is quite like Singapore lor... BUT I do wonder what they mean when they say middle class.. is earning 8-10K sing a month considered middle class? Then I think it is all relative.. If I were working for 2-4K a month in Singapore, I would be middle class in Singapore liao BUT would probably be considered "POOR" here:) wahahahahaha...

Then, time to visit the mosque.

To visit the mosque, we have to take off our shoes and cover our hair with a scarf. Heng ah, I thought that might happen and so I went in long sleeves, long pants and brought a scarf along. But if you never bring also ok one.. they can lend you a abaya to wear and a scarf to cover if you never bring.

My first time into a mosque. I am surprised at how elegant it is. Just a big big big room and nothings much.. just many quran books lying around.

I also wonder wat is the tissue for..

This is our other guide for the day.. the famous Nasif Kayed. He is considered the GURU of Emerati cultures:) Well, he is a rather charming man and very jovial too:) He had us laughing with his many jokes and through his many sharings, I think he is a very religious man and a very good one too. Likely with a big heart and a visionary:)

Mr Nasif Kayed shared that the most common questions people had were "How do you keep your dress so white..." "Why do you make your women wear black?"

He was humourous and witty with all his replies. Alas, he did not share about how they kept their outfit (which I found out later is called a kandora) so white.

He did answer about why men MADE women wear black though.. "Ladies, have you ever seen a woman, when she goes up everyday have her man choose clothings for her? can your husband MAKE you do anything? How many of you have husbands who have their wives choose their outfits for the day everyday?" he asked with a sly smile.

He also went on to talk about mosques are actually not places of worship as so the dictionaries state. Really, mosques are places where people go and surrender to god and he gave a philosophical talk about how the Quran teaches people to do good and not to do wrong. He even talked about how men and animals are different because of a privilege we have- The power of CHOICE:) And how in front of god/allah, everyone is the same. Even the shiek cannot ask the cleaner who is standing beside him shoulder in shoulder during prayer to go away because before allah, they are one and the same...

And why a mosque should be really known as house of surrender? Mr Nasif Kayed explained that when you have a big trouble, usually you wun sit there and give orders for god to grant you this and that but rather, you will totally surrender to god by bowing and kneeling down to him and ask him for a favour.

Then he talked a little about why women have to be covered up. Apparently, the Quran only says that women have to be covered up during prayers in the mosque. The rest of the time is really their choice to cover or not but it is more of a cultural and fashion thing that people do that.

So why does the quran say women have to cover up in an abaya and cover up all parts of her body except her hands and her face? Someone mentioned it is so that they will not distract the men and Mr Nasif laughed.

He said something that Arthur always said when he was promoting the breast cream. He has NEVER seen any man get excited when a woman comes out fresh from the salon with her $400 hair do and go, "Wow, that is beautiful hair!" Wahahahahaha... and he added that most men probably dun even notice when their wives change their hairstyles:)wahahaha

Well, the answer is a practical one lah. Everyone cover up their hair and clothes so tat they dun need to worry about what to wear five times a day when they pray and dun need to worry about their hair do five times a day. Just cover up and no one can see.

Then of course, he also explained to us why people have to pray five times a day. Apparently, 5.33am is sunrise and according to allah, that is the time to wake up and start praying to kick start your day. The 6 plus prayer is to tell you, you woke too late:) wahahahha:) By 12 plus you have been working through half your day and a good time for reflection during prayer. 3plus I forgot what it is for but 5pm is time with the family. Time for dinner and supper with the family and by 7pm, it is end of the day. Time to prepare for bed:) I guess.. early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise:)

Then it was time to adjourn to our arabic breakfast:)

Yam seng with the arabic coffee we are served:)

This is the breakfast table and how people sit down and eat in a family... Since i got no dinner tabble.. maybe I can try tat next time I have party in my house:)

Arabic coffee.. very strange taste and smell. smells like food rather than coffee cos I think they added spices to it...

But goes well with the sweet date we have been offered. I am told that is why no sugar in the coffee because u supposed to eat it with the date:)

The man who serves dates can speak melayu:) And he is indian:)

Mr Kayed shares a little bit more about himself.. he was studying overseas and I think running a business overseas as well and doing well and came back some years ago and got involved with this.. volunteering to make use of his business experience to make this outfit a bigger one:)

This is what the people here usually eat. Apparently, in the past, people are not encouraged to eat meat every day and so chick peas is a good form of their protein. The red round things are some sort of pepper which is supposedly very spicy..

Mutton curry....

This one is a sort of strange dish to me as I am more familiar with the chinese version of tomato fried egg. This is fried egg with tomato, ladies finger and some sort of spice:)

Arabic style pancake..

Some sort of arabic bread that I think you eat with some sort of cream cheese and a very very sweet syrup.

I listen to ah gong gong gor with a tea in my hand:)

Next, time for a volunteer to put on an abaya and they will explain about why the women here dress the way they do.

Apparently, men are actually allowed to dress in whatever colour they like. Their kandara is mostly white because many years ago when Dubai was known for pearls, they gifted some pearls to Japan and in return, Japan gifted them some very nice, white cloth which they used to make into a kandara because they found it to be comfortable, airy, elegant. Eventually, it became some sort of fashion to wear white lor.. and so most men wear white. Especially during formal events.

As for their headgear, that is called a hattah... the hattah I noticed here is mostly white.. especially in formal events. Someone asked about those red and white checked ones and black and white ones. Apparently, that one has its history in Jordan where the british were training their army and wanted them to use caps but the Jordanians insisted that wearing a hattah is better and makes more sense as they can cover their face too. So they came to a compromise to use red and white for the army and black and white for the police. Anyway, some other people came to like the design and copy lor and because it is colder in Saudi and the checked red and white design is made of thicker cloth, it eventually became sort of like a fashion thingy to wear red and white hattah.

People can do the hattah as what Mr Nasif is doing or they can also tie around their head. There is no fixed way to wear it.

As for the black hoop around the head. While it is a fashion accesory now, it was in the past something used to slow the camels down when walking in the desert. Someone put it on his head for convenience sake and eventually, others did the same and now, it is merely a fashion statement:)

And then of course, for the ladies, they want to wear abaya but cannot use the same white material that the men use to make their kandora...  as it is very see through... since black is rather opaque and the material used to make the abaya is thin enough for them to keep cool but colour dark enough to hide everything for their modesty, they chose to wear black. Also, in the olden days, they have their roots in Iraq where there is some sort of ceremony that takes place pretty often where they mourn over the death of the prophet's son.. and so everyone must wear black.. so to make it convenient, they wear black all the time lor. Later of cos, it also became a fashion statement to wear a black abaya and so it is the way it is now..

Someone asked why the abaya is always trailing on the ground and we were told that that has to do with fashion. Sometimes the fashion is to have it trailing.. sometimes the fashion is to have it just nice.

So why do people cover their faces?

Again, it is not really religious.. quran only say cover hair and body when praying. Covering the face was because of a few reasons. Mostly practical. I think though mosdesty is very much a SOCIAL thingy here too. (I am told arabic men dun respect women BUT I think they only don't respect those who are skimpily dressed here cos they obviously do not respect the local culture and customs... so the feeling is merely mutual...)

Reason one is of course the scorching sun here is very hot. As the women here are also valued according to the colour of their skin (fairer means higher class), covering the face is also to protect their face and skin from the sun.

Another practical reason is the rich people are afraid of being kidnapped.. so they cover their face so no one knows who they are...

Yet another reason is because Dubai seems to house many fishermen who will go one shot 6 months to the sea. So to avoid gossip while she went about her daily affairs, women will cover their faces lest their husbands come back and hear gossip about them and the fruit seller..

Some people use the headscarf to cover their face...


But some use the mask below..

This mask is a very dubai invention. It is made of leather and sometimes they are painted with some bronze colour to give impression of it being metal. Actually now, only the older generation wear this. usually, they will put some sort of very fine stone or sand underneath so tat as they wear the mask, they exfoiliate the skin and keep their skin fair at the same time.. so like our facial mask:) wahahaha

I posted this photo on facebook and the feedback was good.. all my frens say I look prettier with my face COVERED UP. Maybe I should buy abaya and go about dubai with my face covered:)

Like this!:)

Just FYI, anyone can wear the abaya. As long as you respect the costume and dun wear bikini inside, you can wear it if you want:) But I dun think I will even though I think it is practical.. cos hor, one abaya.. good one can set you back by a few hundred dollars!:)

Then we also talked about how upon being married, a man can apply from the government some land. But according to Mr Nasif, the rich people here dun wait for the government to give them land because given land you cannot choose location. Actually if you do business, you can also apply for land from the shiek and being generous, he rarely refuses to give land.  But it is sort of a very "mei mian zi" thing to ask for land and so, most people just buy the land at the location that they want.

Then we talked about the 5 rights of women under islamic law. And they are:
- the right to be educated
- the right to dowry
- the right to ineheritance
- the right to divorce
- the right to their own money and earnings

The right to be educated sees most muslim countries working on providing education for women lor..

The right to dowry.. this one is interesting lor. When a woman gets married, she has the right to dowry. This means, the male family will give HER dowry.. not her mother or her father BUT HER. This money is meant for her to keep and spend as she is assumed to have to quit her job once she is pregnant with children and will have no source of income. It gives her the right so that she doesnt have to say, "Honey, I need..." Haiya, why chinese one is only give parents? Should also give wife.. :P wahahahahahaha:)

Just FYI, the MARKET RATE for a normal girl is something like 150K. That is 50K sing dollars lor. But someone say from a better family who looks good like our female tour guide who is going to be married soon gets like 300K aed. That is 100K sing lor! And what do most women use this money for?? SHOPPING! No wonder they can to LV and one shot buy 6 bags lah! Wahahahaha.. now I know!:)

Also, women have the right to inheritance in the event that their parents or husband passes away. There is some sort of law that covers this. The percentage she gets is derived using some special formulation. The formulation is fixed one but as there are many permutations and many factors to factor in before you can even write out the formula, this is a unique study on its own lor. Our guide study for a year to do that and in his exam, he said, there was one question which took him 45 minutes to work out the FULL FORMULA.. so since it is so complex, ignore anyone who gives you a general sweeping statement about inheritance under islamic law.

Also, if the woman is unhappy, she has the right to divorce. Eg, if their husband wants to have another wife, if they not happy, they can reject or they can divorce. FYI, most men here only have one wife. 10% of the men have like two wives but very very few have more than that:) So 4 wives is but a myth:) wahahahaha...

And last and not least, women have rights to their own money. This is like what I always tell Max. My money is my money.. but his money is also my money:)

See, I said so long ago in my blog that the arabs take good care of their women:)

Anyway, when it was time to go, our host told us tat usually, if the host wanted to end the party, they will light a smoke and smoke the guests out with a nice smell.

And so it was time to go:)

Then we walked around somemore on our own and came across this lovely art studio:) It is a studio for young adults with special needs...

Met the most wonderful girl.. I dunno her name but this is a painting that she drew.. such lovely painting.. she told me it is a paintin of an Angel called Seraphina with a baby and it is to show the love of her mother (whom i assume is in heaven). She is a very very pure girl with a pure heart as I can see from all her pictures.. lovely!:) I so tempted to buy this painting but it is 1200aed.. and i got no place to hang it...

Some other pieces of art work...

They were featured in the papers:)

We tried to take some group photos..

Then we saw this spice shop and everyone went gaga over all the spices and pumice stones!:) wahahahah

Then time for me to go as Ace was coming home soon...

Walk by the creek...

Look! Coral stones!:)

Saw some beautiful flowers outside American embassy while walking home..

Nice hor:)

And so ended my trip lor.. too bad I am not emerati.. I dun mind volunteering in the SMCCU as tour guide or wat lor. I think they are doing wonderful job and it is a wonderful mission:)

PS: I found a interesting write up about Dubai and the traditional architecture here. If you are interested, you can click and read in detail...

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