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IT is a festival that represents the inherited heritage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where camel owners compete against each other in a beauty pageant featuring the beasts. The Mazayen Al-Ibl competition, a parade of the most beautiful camels, takes place annually in the desolate desert region of Quwaiyya, 120 km west of Riyadh.
The organizers of the contest for King Abdulaziz Prize have announced a package of new controls and changes to transform the event into an international festival in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform initiative.
Many heritage enthusiasts and people concerned with camels internationally expressed their joy over the conditions and controls announced by the festival’s administration regarding participation for camels, jockeys and the spectators.
The reactions to the announcement were documented on the Twitter account @darahfoundation of King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, which is receiving many questions, suggestions and words of appreciation on a daily basis from those who desire to participate as well as camel lovers in general. They all agreed that the improvements “will attract a whole lot of new spectators”.
Electronic registration at www.mzayeen.com, which will continue until Saturday, is deemed to be a quantum leap in managing the event as it saves time and effort of willing participants. This also reflects the technological advancement of Saudi society in general.
The electronic documentation will bring more accuracy to the competition, which is attended by thousands of Saudis directly and watched keenly by millions of others across the Gulf region and all over the Arab world, the organizers said.
The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture will send text messages to intending participants to inform them of the schedule for checking their camels by specialized teams of veterinarians.
After passing the tests, every camel is injected with an electronic chip the size of a rice grain in their neck without any anesthetization or any harm to the animal or its handlers.
The Twitter account of the foundation states that the registration alone does not guarantee the acceptance of a participant unless the electronic numbering confirms its acceptance after medical examination at least 15 days before the actual launch of the competition events.
The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture cooperates with the festival organizers to use the occasion to popularize the concept of electronic numbering of camels in the Kingdom.
Electronic numbering of participating camels, substitutes for those excluded later on during the vetting process and beasts brought to the festival area for any other purpose, such as direct sale, auction or use in heritage shows will provide an accurate statistics of camels all over the country as part of the ministry’s project of a general livestock census.
Moreover, the electronic chips will help document the names of camel owners and monitor epidemiological diseases, which facilitates following up of the health status of camels in the Kingdom and upgrading the tools and vaccinations to combat diseases.
The festival organizers expect the number of visitors to the festival from inside the country and abroad to cross two million. There will be a number of special events to satisfy the needs of all age groups and families and to enhance the orientation of Saudi society toward entertainment.
Despite the rapid modernization in Saudi Arabia, the camel remains celebrated as a symbol of the traditional Bedouin lifestyle. Bedouin Arabs are intimately connected to camels and they want to preserve this heritage.
Throughout history camels have served multiple purposes as food, friend, transport and war machine. Camels are also big business in a country where strict Islamic laws and tribal customs would make it impossible for women to take part in their own beauty contests. Delicate females or strapping males who attract the right attention during the show could sell for a million or more riyals.
The festival organizers this time have placed a number of restrictions for participation, which include refraining from publishing or broadcasting poems and satires that insult others and songs of praise with any explicit or implicit display of tribal and factional fanaticism.
The organizers worked on transforming the festival into an international event with a vision to make it the first and leading international celebration of camels with the aim of enhancing civilizational and nationalistic aspects as well as for society to reap several cultural and economic rewards.
“We all believe that Saudi heritage deserves this care and that it is capable of attracting many stars, celebrities, people of interest and tourists from all over the world,” said a press statement released by the foundation. — SG
