Culture Shock! Bahrain Quotes

“An Israeli stamp in your passport will deny you entry to Bahrain. This is because Bahrain, along with most Arab countries, is part of what is known as the Arab Boycott. The aim of the boycott is to deny companies or persons having dealings with Israel access to Bahrain or other Arab countries. For many years, Pepsi Cola was the only cola beverage available in Bahrain and many Arab countries because Coca Cola had a plant in Israel. The Arab boycott list has been relaxed and Coca Cola is now available in Bahrain. Any person overtly having dealings with Israel is denied entry into Bahrain. This will be judged based on whether there is an Israeli visa in your passport. The Israelis are aware of this and often help visitors by issuing a special visa card rather than putting a chop or stamp in their passports. According”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“All regional airlines display a visual on the TV screens in the cabin of the aircraft depicting the location of Mecca, although the authors have never seen a Muslim passenger vacate their seat to face Mecca and pray in the aisle or elsewhere.”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette

“On Saudi Arabian Airlines, prayers are said before take-off. If you are travelling in daylight hours during Ramadan on a domestic flight, Saudi Arabian Airlines will give you a meal in a lunch box and ask you not to consume it until the fasting period has ended in the evening. Most regional airlines do not serve pork products and other meat served is processed by the halal method.”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“Bahraini men, when greeting other Bahraini men or men from other Arabian Gulf countries that they know well, touch the tips of their noses. The number of times they touch the tip of their noses reflects how well they know each other. Bahraini women greeting other Bahraini women kiss each other on the right cheek once and then a number of times on the left cheek. Like the men, the more times they kiss, the closer the friendship. Alcohol”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“climate does not play such a role in determining how they dress as most Bahrainis live and work in an air-conditioned environment. Most,”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“Non-Muslims attending a funeral should stand to the side of the funeral party and not take an active role in the ceremony. There”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“It is lawful for a Muslim to have up to four wives, but the husband must treat each wife equally. In practice, most men have only one wife because treating each wife equally in every day life is quite hard to accomplish and it is expensive to keep up to four wives and four families.”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“Girls are always daughters of their father and not their mother because she always belongs to her father.”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“Bahrainis do not go through the stage of being a teenager. As soon as they reach puberty, they are accepted as adults.”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“The husband’s responsibility also extends beyond his immediate family to any unmarried sisters and his elderly parents. The husband makes sure that any personal interests of members are subordinate to the family as a whole. Husbands tend to be more authoritarian and do not show affection to wives and family in public. In fact, the showing of affection in public can be fraught with danger. Public displays of affection are forbidden in the region, including Bahrain. It”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“In most Arab countries, it is still taboo for a woman to live alone and honour killings are still sanctioned. It is estimated that in Jordan, approximately 20 women are murdered by their own relatives every year. Most”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“You won’t see Bahraini teenagers out on a date at McDonalds or having a Mecca Cola at a café in a regional shopping mall. These outlets are for families or groups of teenage boys only. Teenage girls usually go out with their families. Bahraini families give the appearance of being more Western than other Gulf Arab families, having found a compromise between Islamic tradition and Western values but it has not come to the stage where Bahraini women go out on their own in public for lunch or a ladies’ night. The major recreation of Bahraini girls is watching television at home. The”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“So if you are an atheist or agnostic it is better not to reveal it. Bahrain is against Zionism and the existence of Israel so if you are Jewish it’s better to keep it to yourself. Christianity”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain

“Inshallah meaning ‘if it is God’s will’ is probably the most frequent Arabic word you will hear in Bahrain because it represents the way of Islamic life. People from the West tend to be preoccupied with time. We are always asking if we have time, telling someone that we don’t have time, asking our bosses for more time, trying to be efficient in the hope of saving time and complaining to ourselves that we need more time. In Bahrain, it is all up to God. Bahrainis are less concerned about time and other temporal matters and they put their trust in God. On the surface, this makes planning difficult. If you are at a business meeting and you ask the Bahraini executive sitting across the board table if you can meet tomorrow, his most likely answer will be ‘ inshallah, if God is willing’. Inshallah”
― Harvey Tripp, Culture Shock! Bahrain