Let me begin by a saying i love and believe in
"Nationalism is a disease" .
And despite believing in this , I still believe in the right for all to have a nationality and a place he/she can call home.
I remember when picking this book thinking it seems about a Saudi guy writing about non-Saudis but i was in for a surprise. The author was actually non-Saudis who has lived almost all his young life in here.
I loved how he gave a prospective to those Saudis without nationalities as i like to call them. People who have been born and raised here but don't have the Saudi nationality cuz their father is not a Saudi.
The book is called " The nationality" or الجنسية in Arabic.
The author is Mutaz Quttainah
معتز قطينه
It is not a novel nor an autobiography. It's a mix of both probably. It's not perfect but if you look outside your nationality and all these nonsense as i think of then you would understand it.
Saudi Arabia is a big country with a small population and it's rich too which attracts lots of people from different places with different abilities. Unfortunately, it's one of the countries like most Arab countries that wont grant you its nationality even if you are born on its land or stayed for a long time.
I wrote about the real Saudis without nationality in here before.
The problem is that there are no good reasons for such laws, some have been here for over 40 years and still didn't get the nationality.
I can understand the frustration of someone who has been wanting to be recognized as from this country but I can not even dream of understanding what's it like for someone who has born here and can not be considered a Saudi cuz he/she doesn't have the nationality.
I quote some of Mutaz's words from the book
" لقد كنت دائما مزيجا بين اثنين, دون ان افكر بالامر على محمل الورطة , فالاجنبي الذي يعيش فلسطينيا في السعودية هو ذاته الذي يقضي
صيفه السنوي سعوديا في شوارع القدس "
" I was always a mixture of the two without considering it a dilemma, for the non-Saudi who is Palestinian in Saudi Arabia is the Saudi spending his yearly summer in the streets of Jerusalem"
***
"عالم مجهول بيوت الوافدين العرب ! لايعرفه احد و لا تسلط عليه
العدسات "
"The houses of the Arab workers is a mysterious world, no one knows what's in it and no one cares"
***
"و اقتحمنا المكتبه العامة المجاورة لمدرستي الابتدائية لنستعير قصص الاطفال و انتظرنا تحت شجرة اللوز البجري آباءنا لـ يقلنا الى منازلنا في نهاية اليوم المدرسي. كانت تتشكل شخصياتنا سويا و تحمل صفاتنا التى تاثرنا بها بعضنا و اثرنا بهاعلى بعضنا قبل ان نعود الى اسرنا التي تخلق في شخصياتنا انفصاما و في السنتنا لهجة اخرى و في
حياتنا المنزلية قناعا مختلفا عن و جوهناالتي نحملها في المدرسه "
" we invaded the public library near my primary school to borrow children's book and we waited our fathers below the almond tree to take us home at the end of the day. Our personalities were forming together with our similar characteristics before going back to our families which create another personality with another accent and another face than the one we carry at school"
***
"نادرا ماكنا نرى في المدرسه طفلا اجنبيا غير متفوق, لقد كانوا يعلموننا اننا اتينا هنا و نحن غرباء و علينا لكي لانفضح انفسنا الا نشمت بنا احدا "
" Rarely have we seen a non-Saudi who is not hard working and smart. Our families taught us that we are strangers and we shouldn't let people gloating on us"
***
"لم يدركوا ان حقيقة اخرى اخذت في النمو بعيدا عنهم, ان هويتي الفلسطينية التى غرسوها هذه السنوات لم تعد تشكل العصب الوحيد في تكويني فثمة ملامح سعودية في لساني و اخرى مصرية و جزائرية و يمنية "
" They have not realize the other reality that has started to grow away from them. that the Palestinian identity they have install in me is not the only things running inside of me as there are other Saudi,Egyptian,Algerian and Yemeni features in me"
***
" كيف يفكر هؤلاء الاباء , يغرسون ابنائهم في تربه يختارونها و يعتقدون ان بامكانهم في اي وقت ان يطلبوا تحويل الحصاد الى تربة اخرى"
"How do parents think when they grow their children in another place thinking they can and at any time ask them to switch their life to another place ?"
***
"لماذا نحن اجانب ؟ و كيف تشعر حين تكون اجنبيا "
"Why are we foreigners? And how does it feel to be one? "
***
"ان حياتنا المشتركة مع اخواننا السعوديين شكلت في دواخلنا عقدة نقص اسمها الجنسية .......وكل منا له في هذه الجنسية شأن ...."
" Our live with our Saudi counterparts grow a complex inside of us called the nationality and each wants it for his own reason"
***
" رغم ان حياتي في السعودية لم تكون اقل ايلاما ,فحين تسمي انظمة الارض و قوانينها ابنها اجنبيا يمضي حياته و هو يشعر انه البطة السوداء القبيحة "
" Despite having a tough life in Saudi Arabia but when the land and its law calls its son a foreigner, he spends his life thinking he is the ugly black duck"
***
"لماذ يعتقد ابناء القبائل ان الهوية السعودية تخصهم وحدهم وان الجنسية السعودية التى يحملونها لاتكافىءالجنسية التي يحملها القادمون من اقاصي اسيا و الشام و اقاصي افريقيا "
"Why do the Saudi from a tribal origin thinks that the Saudi identity is something belong to them only and that the Saudis from the far Asia , Africa or from Syrian or Lebanese origins are not equal to them "
***
I hope that these words have got you a glimpse into what's the book is all about. And probably into the mind of Saudis without nationality.
And i hope without high expectation that the day people like Mutaz and many who known no land but this to be equal to me in having the nationality.
