Minorities

Mohandas K. Gandhi once said, “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” Diversity is color, it is beauty, knowledge, and taste. The Middle East is a mosaic of people where each nation has its own color and the various groups within each country have their own shade. To me, unity within a nation is only achieved when the majority welcomes variety and the minorities have the freedom to express self-identity. Usually the minorities are the ones who truly understand the importance and virtue of unity. Non-Muslim and non-Arab minorities in the Middle East have been able to preserve because they have been able to maintain their self-identity, while acknowledging and respecting differences within their society. In her autobiography titled Dream Homes, Joyce Zonana, an Egyptian Jew living in America, discusses her personal journey of self-identification. Like many minorities in the Middle East she finds pockets of her identity within her food, language, and community.
The warmest aspect of a culture lies within a traditional dish. In the novel, Zonana describes memories of her mother cooking throughout her childhood. Zonana’s mother expressed her Arab identity through her stuffed grape leaves, and, her Jewish faith through her wine-soaked charoseth for Yom Kippur.   Many religious minorities in the Middle East such as the Christians and Jews cook meals that represent the dominant Arab culture, but they also produce other dishes that are not typically made in society. For example some non-Muslim minorities may have meals that contain wine or pork, something not found in Muslim culture.   The influence of an environment can affect a minority so much so that culinary divergence can occur amongst even individuals within a same group. A European Jew asks Zonana, "You mean you're Jewish? And you don't know...