I attended Arab Night which is a Non-IA event on Sunday, March 3rd that was being held at the Ohio Union in Performance Hall from 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm. It was a public event open to everyone and was one of the most fun, interesting events I have attended. Arab Night was hosted by an organization called Arab Student Union (ASU) that is established by OSU. I love learning about different cultures and it was amazing to get a taste of the beautiful music, dance, and fashion. I never have been familiar with Arab culture growing up and really appreciated this event because I felt it was such a great experience. When I first saw it in the International Affairs Scholars Weekly Update email, my immediate initial reaction was, “I have to go, it would be so much fun.”
There was a lot of great music and it was heart-warming to see how happy the people involved in the program were with sharing their culture with other individuals. Big smiles were all around and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the program. Sitting down being part of the audience, made me realize how great OSU is in supporting and providing a platform in sharing different cultures. I believe one of the charms of learning about another culture is we realize how different and unique everyone is because we all come from different backgrounds. It gives us identity and individuality. Being able to appreciate and respect other cultures is fundamental.
This event is closely associated with International Affairs (IA) because one of the key aspects in IA is to first have an appreciation of different cultures while also having the urge to learn about them. Arab Night was a great opportunity for any IA Scholars student to expand their experience with the Arab culture and exposing themselves to different music and fashion. I really hope other IA Scholars took advantage of this event because it was not a typical event and I had an enriching experience. By the organization of the program, you can tell the people involved worked very hard and dedicated a lot of time and energy in creating such a great event for OSU.
I personally gained more appreciation for the Arab culture, and found the music and fashion very interesting and charming in its own way. There was a fashion show in the program that wonderfully displayed different pieces of Arab clothing, and I found it fascinating. Arab Night has helped me erase some of the negative stigma that I was exposed to growing up. A lot of the times Arab countries are seen in a distasteful light through media and being exposed to that at a young age, somewhat shaped my view on what Arab culture was. It is not something I am proud of admitting because it is stemmed from pure ignorance, however, I believe it is vital that I understand how powerful media can be in influencing young minds views on certain groups of people. Through Arab night, I saw more sides of Arab culture and do not see it in such a narrow-minded light anymore. I’ve grown an appreciation and cannot wait for possibly attending next year again!