Again, I will post a news here. Things that don't matter to us such as mentioning our mother's name in public, may mean the world to some people in this side of the world. I realize that cultural sensitivity, indeed, in many cases, is important whatever that means. OK, here is the news, taken from Saudi Gazette. I have changed the title to: Dont mention HER name from Tribal Scores Settled At Schools.
By Maha Sami Aboulola
The Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH. What 16-year-old Motaz Arafat went through was like an action movie, but it happened in real life.
Motaz had six stitches in his hand after he had a fight with some of his friends for mentioning his mother's name in the school.
In some tribes in Saudi Arabia, it is not acceptable to mention the name of a female relative in public. It is considered an offense. Motaz could not stay in the same school any more after his friend came to know the name of his mother and started calling him by his mother's name.
Telling his story to The Saudi Gazette, Moataz said the insult did not stop at the level of calling his mother's name publicly but went as far as giving him names and teasing him for being non-Saudi despite the fact that his mother is Saudi and belongs to a well-known tribe in the Kingdom. But his father is a Palestinian.
"The boys at school kept insulting me for being the son of a woman who was married to non-Saudi against her tribe's wishes," he said. The fight started when Abdur Rahman, one of the students, narrated to his friends in the school how Motaz's mother got married to his father. Motaz could not control his rage. He walked up to Abdur Rahman and hit him in the face. To his utter surprise, Abdur Rahaman took out a dagger and struck him. The dagger cut his hand. "It all happened in seconds", Motaz said. "I did not even feel it till I saw the blood on my clothes and the boys who were watching the fight started screaming."