Spring 2006 Alumnae Quarterly Web Extra
Adventures in the Sand Dunes and Living Rooms
More Stories from MHC Students’ Winter Trip to Dubai Women’s College
By Erica Winter ’92
The new, the different, and the unexpected are usually on the wish-lists of international travelers seeking adventure. Still, most Mount Holyoke students—even those going abroad—never expect to find themselves on desert safari with President Creighton and several other women’s college presidents from schools around the globe.
When they weren’t teaching student leadership skills in workshops during their six days at Dubai Women’s College over winter break, Molly Aplet ’06, Emily Freeman ’07, Nicole Tuma ’07, and Katie Kraschel ’06 also explored the city of Dubai, spent New Year’s Day on a Persian Gulf beach, and got to know the DWC students in their homes.
Despite the glamour (and strangeness) of all their other activities, it was this last one—simply going to people’s homes—that was the rarest and most valuable experience, says Freeman, since few foreigners are invited into an Emerati’s social circle, let alone an Emerati’s home.
The four students, along with the expedition organizer and leader Beth Gibney Boulden, associate director of student programs at Mount Holyoke, went to the homes of two DWC students. “We went to Hamda’s house for tea, which turned out to be eight dishes and then three more for dessert, and then we went to Aliya’s house for dinner,” says Aplet.
The intimate setting of a private home allowed for reflections on culture and religion among the women from both countries. As an Episcopalian from Iowa, Kraschel did not have experience with religions other than her own before coming to Mount Holyoke, she says. Being at the College “has helped me grow spiritually, learn about other faiths, and also to reaffirm my own,” she says.
After the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, reflects Kraschel, many people in the United States assume that all of Islam is highly oppressive. Going to Dubai and talking with DWC students “helped me to learn about Islam from their perspective.”
After eating dinner, the Mount Holyoke women were invited to put on traditional Emerati clothing, including the chayla (head scarf) and the abaya (a full-body cloak). When they had put on the clothing, a DWC student came up to Kraschel and touched the veil over her hair, asking in mock curiosity, “Why do you wear this? What is this for?” For Kraschel, this echoed questions she had heard in the United States on Ash Wednesday, when friends asked her why there were ashes on her forehead.
Religion, which is so often a dividing factor, can be a common ground as well, says Tuma. Early on, she told the DWC students that she got a great deal of her confidence from her grandfather. “He told me I was a child of God every day,” says Tuma. A DWC student responded, ‘We are all people of the book,’ referring to the links among Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
Actually going to an Emerati’s house and talking about usually charged subjects was a rare opportunity for Westerners, says Freeman. It “took away some of the barriers” between the women’s college students from two very different countries and cultures.
Outside of the workshops, the Mount Holyoke students spent most of their time with “the girls”—the students from DWC. At one point, Aplet asked a DWC student what they would like to be called—women? girls?—and the response was, “You guys are so obsessed with these things … It doesn’t mean anything.” Later, other expats in Dubai told the MHC students that “woman” connotes a married person with children, so the DWC students were “girls” despite being in their twenties.
Overall, the more she thinks about the push and pull between traditional and more modern culture in Dubai, “the less able I am to generalize,” says Tuma. “Certain aspects of womanhood are universal,” she adds; “it seems clichéd, but it’s true, it’s incredible how we have the same fears and the same dreams.”
In their off hours, the MHC and DWC students also talked about sexism in Emerati society, and the DWC girls’ roles in that society, both as girls and as members of the ruling class.
About one-fifth of the UAE residents, mostly people who have Emerati parents, are “nationals.” The rest of the country’s residents—80 percent—are international expatriates from Saudi Arabia and the greater Middle East, from India and Pakistan, and from Europe, Australia, and North America. While most non-nationals are construction laborers living on very low wages, some non-nationals are quite wealthy, working in finance or the upper ranks of the booming construction industry. Either way, UAE nationals have access to much more than other residents. For example, there is no tuition to attend DWC, but students must be nationals.
While it is “easier to see flaws in cultures other than your own,” says Aplet, it was “a little intense” to see the amount of privilege that was handed to the DWC students, and the level at which they took that for granted.
As for that desert safari, it was a tour over the dunes outside the city arranged as part of the Women’s Education Worldwide 2006 conference, attended by President Joanne Creighton and Dean of the Faculty Donal O’Shea. The conference, first held in the Pioneer Valley in 2004 and hosted by Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges, brings together leaders of women’s colleges.
President Creighton “really seemed to enjoy it,” says Freeman. The college presidents and Mount Holyoke students rode in Land Rovers through the desert (“imagine a roller coaster, except it was a van on sand dunes,” Aplet explains) on their way to an oasis in the desert to dine in tents around traditional Emerati low tables. “It was great to see the president sitting on cushions on the ground,” says Freeman.
Freeman, who lived in the UAE as a teenager with her family, was thrilled to be going back; and she went prepared. After the group from Mount Holyoke gave a presentation to all conference attendees on their leadership workshops, Freeman had the chance to hand out a few résumés. While on the desert safari, Freeman got job offers from two women’s colleges in the Middle East for after she graduates. And “what’s awesome about it,” says Freeman, is that she’s still a junior.
Gibney Boulden, who not only arranged all the trip logistics but also trained the students in workshop facilitation for months before departure, was very impressed by the students during their time in Dubai. “They were never thrown by anything,” she says, “the MHC students had a wonderful time with the DWC students,” Gibney Boulden says, “it was an honor for me to witness this cross-cultural exchange. … I couldn’t have known how special the connection would be between the college women.”
Read more about the MHC students’ experiences in Dubai in their blogs by going to http://mhcindubai.blogspot.com
