Life without walls...!

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.