How does Arab culture and values differ from western culture and values?
Yasser’s notes are valuable. I’d like to add a few.Arabs tend to be more family focused. While families are important to Westerners, individualism is more important. In Arab culture it is the opposite. One is expected to give up things for the family, family comes first.Generosity is seen in a different way, I sometimes feel it is in the blood. The example Yasser gave of his father going out to buy something a guest wanted is not surprising to me. I’ve seen greater lengths taken.Honor is important to Arabs. Attacking someone’s honor is unforgivable. Some behaviours that in the West are taken lightly can be very offending to Arabs - such as sitting with the sole of your shoe facing someone. Also, much reverence is given to older people - the older the more respected. Growing up, I saw my father call the man he hired to clean his office Amo, a word of respect, because the man was in his 60s while my father was in his 40s. It’s actually rude to call someone significantly older than you by his first name, regardless of the socio-economic class. In the West, it doesn’t make much of a difference.Arabs are generally more comfortable showing their emotions. Whether they are men or women. They are also very passionate when they discuss matters that in the west are things that are best not discussed socially - religion and politics. You would see them in a social gathering discussing politics passionately, an outsider might think that they are quarrelling - loud voices and emotions are all over the place. Once the subject changes, the smiles and laughter is back as if they never disagreed on an issue.Arabs tend to use a lot of hand gestures when they speak, and they use a lot of proverbs and idioms in the language. I personally sometimes find it hard to explain my point of view without using a proverb or two - I need to explain much more without them.This is what I can think of from the top of my head.
Will men ever push back, in IT for example, when it comes to the claim that the reason for gender imbalance is that men discriminate against women? Or will men just let this false accusation circle around forever?
Just from the wording of this, I can tell that either you don’t work IT, or likely in any STEM field at present. Or, if you do, you are wilfully ignorant.I worked IT. So I’ll start there. Specifically, I worked system analysis and system design. This was pre-transition, so I presented as male back then. And let me tell you, there were exactly zero women. Do you know why? Because no woman would work with my team.So extra background info. I was the manager, and I worked closely with HR in the hiring and firing process—kinda hard not to, really. My HR colleague was a sweetheart, and was always willing to give everyone a shot—as the law mandates, but she went at it with full tilt. So we got in a steady stream of female interns and professionals. They didn’t last long.The common complaint—which I needed to do something about—was the men would make them feel super uncomfortable. From second guessing everything they (the woman in question) said in meetings, blaming her for every mistake in the code (even parts she wasn’t working on), staring at her chest or butt (to the point it was negatively impacting the work ethic for her and the accused), and more than a few sexual harassment accusations (of which I saw more than what was reported).This isn’t limited to IT either. I’ve heard tales of lab technicians who had colleagues staring at her chest while she’s trying to explain something, completely ignoring every word she said. I’ve heard tales of undesired touching (‘totally an accident’).So, boiled down to its simplest form. Your premise is biased. The accusations aren’t false, they are studied, registered, and well-known in the field. And many of the worst of the tales occur with interns, who (from my experience with them) change their majors, unwilling to work a field where they will be treated like that.But don’t take my word for it. Fact check me. Talk to HR people who press for the reasoning during their exit-analysis (or whatever you call it in English). This is documented. The numbers are known.