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I am from a dual heritage background and I am proud of that fact. My father was encouraged by the British Government to leave his village in northern Pakistan in the late 1950s and helped with the rebuilding of Britain by working in the steel works in the East End of Sheffield. He met my English mother and they married and had seven sons and one daughter. Being brought up in a northern English town during the 1960s and 1970s was a challenging time and racism was tolerated. There were no laws to challenge discrimination; however, over time anti-racist laws now exist and students are educated to respect other cultures, traditions and religions.



During my childhood, I suffered “racism” from both the Pakistani and English community in the form of racist name calling and discrimination against me when applying for some jobs.



During my childhood, I saw no positive role models and witnessed racial stereotypes in my education. However, life today for those special children who are born from parents of two different cultures is much more rewarding through positive education resources, and the children of mixed marriages have a more respectful understanding of our common cultures and shared humanity.



Which brings me to some of the discriminatory articles and debates I have read over the past year or so in the Middle Eastern media including newspapers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It feels like for me, living and teaching now here in Riyadh, that I am back in the racially prejudiced UK of the 1960s and 1970s.



I am a British male married to a Saudi. We are both professionals and work in education and we have a beautiful nine-month-old daughter. According to an article written in last week’s Saudi Gazette, there are 700,000 Saudi females married to foreign men. I presume most of these marriages are between those of a Middle East origin and, therefore, the marriage partners have some sort of shared culture.



The article mostly focused on the archaic marriage laws that discriminate against Saudi married females and their children. Enough has been written about these racist laws. My family is on the receiving end of them. What is needed is for the government to act upon them and treat both Saudi male and female marriages equally in terms of rights, responsibilities and access to services.



What I was particularly incensed about was a quote in the article from a principal of a Saudi school in which she highlighted, in her opinion, the problems faced by children of such mixed marriages.



This so-called family affairs activist remarked, and without any evidence, that traditional and cultural differences can lead to many family problems for the children and an early divorce of the parents. I am sorry but in a global world you cannot just wish these bi-cultural, bi-racial, bi-tribal marriages and their children away.



Moreover, what are the divorce statistics and challenges that face parents and children who are from the same dominant culture? One cannot just make sweeping generalizations without any statistical evidence.



I am a schoolteacher with 25 years educational experience. The majority of my teaching career has been in London multicultural schools. The Middle East and particularly Saudi Arabia need to wake up to the fact that there are a growing number of mixed-race, mixed-tribal, mixed-cultural marriages, call them what you like, and that children from these marriages need support in school and in the wider society.



Just as in the UK, teaching resources need to be introduced that encourage the educational development of such children including those children from the dominant culture so that they are accepted and understood in mainstream Middle Eastern society instead of them and their parents being seen as a “problem”.



Our daughter will initially be educated at home by her parents and our bi-cultural marriage will be her role model and, hopefully, later she will go to a school that will encourage her to respect all cultures and promote a healthy diversity as well as see the good and positive elements of what it is to be a third-culture child.

 

Ramon Mohamed

Dual Heritage Teacher

Riyadh