By Nayab Malik

BOO 3, a collaborative Halloween event sponsored by Northwestern University in Qatar and Texas A&M at Qatar, was originally planned for October 30 but postponed until November 7th because Student Center staff considered it inappropriate for male and female students to walk into a darkened haunted house together as part of the event, students said.

“A week before our event was supposed to happen, there were suddenly all these rules and regulations we needed to follow. Some of them pertained to safety while others were about making sure everything we did is culturally acceptable,” said Hend Darwish, a Qatari Northwestern junior and a member of the BOO committee.

The decision by the Hamad bin Khalifa Student Center led to questions about what is or isn’t ‘culturally appropriate’ in Education City and how these rules affect the diverse residents living here.

“We ended up having to make people walk through our haunted house in either all-boy or all-girl. We could not argue against this with HBKU,” Darwish added.

But Hessa Al-Mohannadi, the campus life coordinator at HBKU student center, had a different view of the date change: “Safety, location, and the scale of the event had more to do with the date change than cultural restrictions,” Al-Mohannadi said.

Committee members said that unless they had satisfied all the new rules imposed, including the cultural ones, they would have had to cancel the entire event.

Living in a conservative Muslim country that is also a melting pot of different nationalities makes it hard to set guidelines for events or even set a general dress code, Al-Mohannadi said.

“Students should be able to dress as they feel comfortable,” she said, while adding that “they should also stay respectful. We want them to ask questions, and be aware (of cultural sensitivities.)”

What is considered culturally appropriate, therefore, is a very subjective and a personal choice for people. There are no set guidelines. Conservative and liberal members of the community interpret it differently, said Greg Bergida, director of student affairs at NU-Q.

“We try to keep as open an environment as possible and use our best judgment by taking cultural issues on a case by case basis,” Bergida explained.

But even though there are general guidelines for each university, there is still confusion over what is considered ‘culturally appropriate’ in Education City, students said.

“You get these rules during orientation about what to wear and how to act in EC and Qatar generally,” said Wajeeha Malik, a freshman at NU-Q. “According to the rules–no sleeveless clothes I think and nothing above the knees for girls!”

But even with these rules, it’s hard to know what’s acceptable, said Rizan Baig, a junior at Texas A&M University in Qatar.

“You are never sure if you’re acting or wearing the right clothes, or expressing yourself appropriately,” he said. “You might be offending someone. It really is a gray area that is quite confusing at times.”

Students living in the Residence Halls in EC have also had trouble figuring out what’s appropriate to wear and what’s not, said Community Development Advisors (CDAs), who are given training by residence directors on how to approach these issues from an educational standpoint.

“Cultural values are sensitive to where you are from, and there’s no set rule we enforce. How can we make it fair for everyone?” said Nada Habayeb, a senior CDA in the residence halls.

She added that they try to let students decide their own standards as adults, but when other students complain they need to step in.

“The only way in which we’ve had to enforce restrictions is if a resident comes and tells me that what someone else is wearing makes them uncomfortable. We want you to be comfortable here but at the same time, don’t walk around in short shorts,” Habayeb said.