By
Anis Albasha
One of the most interesting things I have seen in Europe is the scene
of schools with no walls surround them. This might be a normal scene for
Europeans. But for a person who came from a different background in which
‘walls’ are in everywhere, such wall-less views were so unusual.
Since ancient times, walls and fences have been an important part
of human’s life. People built walls to protect themselves from impending
danger. Walls played a pivotal role in wars. Impregnable walls were the main obstacle
which determines the victory or the defeat of a nation. Today, some countries
build fences on their borders to prevent the flow of migrants or smugglers. Some
people might establish mental walls in order to keep a distance between them
and other people. When it comes to Arabic culture and societies, concrete walls
play a major role in people’s lives.
In my country as an example, the view of walls is very common.
There are walls that surround school buildings, there are walls that surround
houses, and there are also walls that surround buildings, companies and
government facilities. Moreover, we have walls that surround vast areas of
uninhabited and barren lands! The main purpose of all these physical fences and
walls is to maintain privacy as well as to protect against thieves and nosy
people. As for schools fences, the walls are there to hold students and keep
them within the premises until the end of the school day. Besides, schools
fences prevent ‘foreign’ people from entering the school. And because of these
high fences and the rigid system of our schools, students' attempts to flee the
school building know no end.
Unfortunately, these attempts sometimes have tragic endings. I
remember one time I was in the secondary school and one day we were setting in
our classroom when we saw from the window a student who was trying to escape by
climbing one of school’s high walls "at least four meters height." The
boy managed to climb the fence successfully. But when he tried to get to the
other side of the wall, he grabbed the power cables which were close to him and
unfortunately he was shocked by the electric current and died instantly. I am
sure that if people from Europe saw that horrifying scene, they would not have
imagined for a moment that this "escapee" was just a student wanted
to flee the school. Those people, who come from countries where there are no
walls around schools, would think that this poor student is a dangerous
criminal who is sentenced to death so he was trying to escape in order to save
his life.
I’ve never climbed a school wall. But that does not mean I loved
staying inside the school. Like many of my peers at the time, we look at the
school as a kind of prison which we were forced not to leave until the end of
the school day. Perhaps that feeling was
due to schools’ high walls that surrounded us or because of the poor level of
education we had. When it comes to the houses, the fences and walls in my
country may exceed the height of five meters, especially those fences
surrounding the houses of the rich people or high ranking officials. It is very
common to see some luxurious houses and villas surrounded by very high walls which
are extended along the sight. Usually, there is a direct correlation the height
and length of the fences and the status and the wealth of the owners of these
luxurious.
However, the fences that surround houses in many Arabic societies
often fail to provide privacy to their owners. Sadly enough, in the societies
in which we grew up, there is no respect for the privacy of the others. Therefore,
many people tend to interfere in others' affairs, bug each other, and intrude
into the privacy of the others. Those 'interferers' continue doing so even with the
existence of all those walls and fences made by people in order to maintain
some privacy. The bigger the height of the walls, the greater the desire to climb
these walls in order to know what is going on behind them.
I do believe that the shape and the size of the walls in any
society is a reflection of the nature of that society as well as its
inhabitants. The lower the walls in the society, the greater the awareness and the
urbanization of the people who live in that society. The high number of fences
in a society is evidence of the low level of awareness and urbanization among
members of that community. In contrast, the high number of walls and fences in
a society is an indication of the low level of awareness and urbanization among
the members of that society.
So, as I mentioned at the beginning, the view of very low fences that
surround the houses here or the view of the pupils' playing in the schoolyard
without climbing the walls will continue to catch my eyes. It is said that “Walls don’t fall without efforts”. So, I hope that one day;
walls in my country will get more shorter and the sense of self-control among people will get more bigger.
