Being half Arab and half Asian in Dubai?

Between privilege and prejudice.. Some powerful thoughts.

I hope I don’t get into trouble writing this stream of consciousness. But whatever hasn’t stopped me before. 

Some time ago I remember being in a car full of Arabs and driving past a construction site in the middle of summer. “I can’t believe people are working in this heat” I said. And one replied in Arabic “They’re Pakistani y3ni, they’re used to it”. A subtle but vast insight into a mindset that lacks any sense of concern or empathy for a people forced to have to work in such dire circumstances. 

He had forgotten for a moment that I was part-Pakistani, and I remember seeing his face change as he slowly remembered it. Perhaps it was my seething stare, but he tried to pathetically remedy his words with softer alternatives. 

As an ethnic Arab and Asian there is no place like the Gulf where I have to negotiate these identities in tandem. They collide at numerous points. Very rarely actually coming harmoniously together in the way they do in the comfort of my hybrid home.

 At one level I meander through the Gulf with the privileges of Arabness - in language, likeness and culture, but also am acutely sensitive and aware to the different reality for Asians. 

I see it in the inequality, and I feel it in the disparity. Whenever I hear someone being rude to an Asian worker I lose my shit. Otherwise calm and non-confrontational - I feel a sense of protectiveness over a people being abused by someone else’s false sense of superiority.

Be you White or Arab. I will defend them and come back at you with heat. Because they look like my uncles and aunties. Like my mother. 

I see it in the visas, jobs, incomes but also in the prejudice in people’s eyes. I see it how it affects people’s self-esteem, confidence and sense of worth. Asians come for a royal heritage and one of the world’s most glorious cultures, and breaks my heart to see them see themselves as anything less. 

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So how does this impact Asians in the Gulf and their community, identity and art? 

There are not many places or spaces in Dubai that discuss these issues. Partly no one capable to, and elements of fear if they were to. So being sandwiched between them both

I wonder where this is where my privilege as an Arab in the region is useful? But what would that conversation even look like? 

It’s important to note that I’m also observing Asianess in the UAE in parallel to my experience in London where there is a similarly huge number of South Asians. Yet there is an entirely different identity amongst the diaspora there. In the UK there is a confidence and creativity born out of generations of struggle, white supremacy and othering, whereas the south asian community in Dubai has a very different energy because it consists of very different historical, social and political variables. There is supremacy and othering, but it has a very different texture to it. 

It is important to understand this cognitive bias when analysing the intricate nuance of the region. But back to the question. What will that conversation look like? 

This whole reflection was instigated during a festival here in Dubai called Al-Quoz Arts Fest and Reels Palestine. A beautiful open air festival celebrating the culture of Palestine. There was art, artisans, films, fashion, music. It brought together the multi-cultural and dynamic community of Dubai in celebration of Palestine. 

I coincidently bumped into a bunch of Pakistani friends. We asked each other if something like this could happen with South Asian culture. Most of us weren’t very optimistic, feeling that south asian culture wasn’t quite as a magnetic force as other cultures in Dubai. Which is bizarre considering the richness it possesses. 

Let me use a term that is openly and widely used in Dubai. The Asian “brand” (because Dubai is the home of luxury and brands) has very little inherent worth here for those outside of it. It’s undesirable. If you offered them one of our Kohinoor jewels, they’d rather a Chanel bag. 

The Asian brand has a PR problem in Dubai (to use my Father’s wise words).

And perhaps it needs to be approached with a marketing mindset. Just in that group of friends alone was some of the most talented South Asian creatives I know. Producers from Coke Studio, storytellers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers from Quickstyle. If there was any of us that could figure how to create an aspirational culture and identity in the region surely it was us? And surely now? 

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This year I started to notice indie initiatives popping up in Dubai. Poets, musicians and entrepreneurs. I also noticed South Asians from Dubai beginning to replicate the peers in the US and UK. In art, business and music - one example is a grassroots DJ collective here called STICKS NO BILLS hosting music nights with the latest asian mash ups just like Daytimers in the UK and No Nazar in the states. 

Are there things we can learn from one another? Can British Asians learn something from Gulf Asians? In what ways can we contribute and collaborate to foster more inter-asian collective identity? What does that even look like?! 

There are some key differences between us all however: 

• Asians in the gulf are closer to home, and thus closer to the magnetic pull of their native cultures. Where as UK and US asians are very far, with less of a pull. 

• There is a very different make up of South Asians here. An extremely wealthy middle class on one end, and an extremely poor working class on the other. The class dynamics are very different. 

• Dubai is one of the few cities south asians across the region are present in ways they never could be in South Asia. Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans etc. 

However the biggest difference here and the most underlying factor is that no asian has citizenship here in the UAE, and will never receive one despite how many generations their families have resided there. If you’re Asian and born and raised in the UAE yet with no tangible assurance you can indefinitely live in the region, why would you invest in a new grassroots community and culture? You could be forced to leave at any time? 

British Asians have citizenship and rights and no where else to go. Which is why they have entrenched themselves, consolidated their identity and now a new native British Asian hybrid culture is flourishing. 

Gulf Asians have no such securities, and as such have not planted such seeds. Yet they feel like the gulf is their home. In fact there is no such thing as Gulf Asian identity as a mobilising force. Which is a tragedy because there are so many talented people in the region and creative potential waiting to be harnessed. 

South Asians have historical ties to the UAE, sailing to the ports of Dubai to trade with their Arab counterparts. Exchanging pearls, spice and gold. Establishing communities on the fringes of Emirati society they built mosques, gurdawaras and Hindu temples (In fact one of the oldest temples in Bastikkiyah was recently shut down, forcing generations of businesses and communities that had built around it to move and reconsider their livelihoods). 

Today people of South Asian heritage are critical to the UAE’s fashion sector, leading billion-dollar retail empires, trading textiles and jewellery and stitching garments for Middle Eastern brands. Two of the biggest construction companies in the UAE DAMAC and Sobha are south asian owned, and played a huge role in the transformation of the UAE. Not to mention the thousands of manual labourers who have literally built the nation from the ground up. 

Is the South Asian history in the region not enough of a national contribution to be considered as an intrinsic and invaluable part of this region? Does this not warrant some form of assurance and security? It is a complicated issue. And there is an Arab side to this story I would need more time to tell you about. But the most important thing is the reflections that come out of the questions.

What does a conversation that honours the long history between Arabs and South Asians look like? Has it ever happened? Is there a bond and identity to be shared and respected that takes the mutual strengths of both civilisations and creates a powerful creative force? 

Now this is what I am really excited about. 

I think this is such a radical idea. Especially now we’re detaching ourselves with our warped obsession with Western culture. There is so much to be created within us outside that vortex. Arabs and South Asians share so much. History. Food. Music. Even genes.

I don’t know the answers to these questions. But being in Dubai this winter I can’t help but feel it is so necessary. And as an Arab Asian I want to be part of that conversation.