By Abdul Rahman Al-Murshid Al-Yaum
THE national dress reflects the state›s culture and heritage. People intend to get hold of the national dress and hand over it from one generation to the other. We can easily recognize the nationality of a person from his dress as it differs from one country to another.
As a result of this distinctive feature we can see the dressing of foreigners migrated to a country as different from its original people. Same is the case of customs and traditions. Each national will be wishing to wear clothes that would make them distinct from others.
There is no need to ask people to which country they belong because their national uniform gives the answer. We have seen many expatriate workers in the Kingdom wearing their national dress, especially during Eid celebrations and other special occasions.
By doing so people wanted to deepen their country’s cultural values in the minds of their children and make sure their children wear their national dress during special occasions like Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha and the National Day. It goes beyond national dress and covers customs and traditions.
With the openness created by the traditional and social media many Saudis have started discarding their national dress and wearing other dresses. Thobe and shimagh have been the dress worn by young Saudi men everywhere in the past. Now things have changed. It has become a rare scene and those who wear the official uniform would be rebuked and looked at with amazement.
Young Saudi men will not wear the national dress when they go to cafes, supermarkets and recreational centers. More than 60 percent of the Kingdom’s population is youth and authorities would face a big problem of reminding young men to wear national dress in specific places.
Continuous media campaign against Saudi Arabia and its people has changed concepts and facts, and destroyed customs and traditions. We are afraid that by the passage of time we would witness the disappearance of traditions like wearing thobe and shimagh that distinguish us from others.
If we wear thobe and shimagh people will be able to distinguish us anywhere in the world. When we wear the national dress people can easily recognize us as Khaleeji or Arab but with the speedy social changes taking place around us I don’t think this national dress would stay long.
May best guess is that it would be limited to official events.
I think it’s high time we activate the law that forces our youth to wear official uniform. People, including employees and visitors, should not be allowed to enter government departments without wearing it. This law was passed 15 years ago when Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman was the governor of the Riyadh region.
He felt the significance of wearing official Saudi uniform to strengthen the unity and patriotism of Saudi nationals and uphold their culture and traditions. So we should not waste more time to activate the law that would encourage people to wear the national dress.
Some people have proposed to change the uniform saying it was obstructing work and it does not provide enough freedom for those who wear it. The purpose of the uniform is to deepen our identity and highlight our distinct personality and people will treat you with respect.
Are we going to activate the law regarding uniform before Western dresses sweep it away?
