Hellooooo
everyone! Assalamualaikum and good day to all of you beautiful people :D
Just want to let
you know that we just went out with our international friend the other day, and
it was so much fun! hihi
Here's us being awesome :P
Wanna know how
it went?
Well, we pretty
much just talked, talked and talked for hours, rambling about everything from
the weather, food, Izzati’s flying motorcycle incident (don’t ask), course work
and so much more.
I guess that’s what
girls do lol
It’s very
interesting though, knowing about the cultures and lifestyle of the people who
live at the other side of the world.
It helps us to
open up our minds to the bigger world out there.
Anyway, while we
were chatting with Reema during our short outing, we managed to ask her a
little bit about her experience in Malaysia so far.
She told us that
she really love it here, all of the people are friendly and welcoming, and that
she does not have any major problems aside from the hot weather.
This got us
wondering about the differences between the culture in her country and in
Malaysia, so we asked her.
According to
Reema, there are not that many differences in terms of people’s behaviour or
the environment as both, in Yemen and in IIUM, the Islamic environment is
present. Thus, it is somehow similar.
IIUM Mosque
However, she did
mentioned about the clothes, the interactions between boys and girls and most
importantly, the food.
In Yemen, it is
actually compulsory for women to wear Abaya
every time they went out, and most women cover their faces. But in
Malaysia, Reema said the dress code is much more lenient.
About the food
on the other hand, she was so fascinated by the fact that Malaysians eat rice
for like, three times a day. According to her, people in Yemen don’t really eat
rice that much as their daily food is usually bread.
After talking
for a while, we moved on to a slightly heavier issue which is about the culture
of man and woman in both countries. Reema told us that in Yemen, the
interactions between the opposite genders are strictly guarded. People don’t
really talk to the opposite gender unless it’s necessary.
This has the upsides,
and the downsides.
The upside of it
is that, the limitations or boundaries between man and woman are highly
protected. Nevertheless, this is bad in a sense that the opposite gender
becomes veerrryyyyy ‘alien’ to each other. Reema said that it is because of
those restrictions that the guys in Yemen are considered as ‘dangerous’.
Why?
Because they
hardly get to see any girls, like, ever. Thus, once they saw one, they are so…
interested in them…but not in a good way, if you know what I mean.
In Malaysia,
however, the culture is totally different.
She told us that
she was a bit shocked seeing how the interactions between man and woman are in
Malaysia, specifically IIUM. According to her, even though it is still guarded,
the interactions are much much more unrestricted here.
Since she came
from a foreign country and people can clearly see that she’s not from here, we
were interested to know whether she had any experience of being prejudiced or
discriminated here.
Again, due to
the Islamic environment in IIUM, she claimed that those kinds of bad experience
have never really happened to her so far, so Alhamdulillah :D
There are actually a loottttt more that we talked about the other day, but most of it was just some random and girly stuff. It's nice to find a new friend of the same gender but from a completely different background, got a lot more to talk about, hihi.
Well, that’s
basically it for now. Quite interesting isn’t it, hmm..
Don’t worry, we sure
will update you guys more on this if we were to meet her again later :D
Thank you
so much for reading and don’t forget to come back! 
