Pro-West, secularized counterculture in fundamentalist Middle East nations?

[bordelond]

This article about the Iranian president’s public anti-Israeli stance made me think about how orthodox and “right-thinking” it proably is in many Middle Eastern political circles to be anti-Israel and anti-West.

I am wondering if there’s ever been an underground (by necessity in authoritarian nations) backlash against the anti-Israel/West orthodoxy in nations like Iran and Syria, among others. I’m thinking of people who’d be analogous to the American hippies of the 1960s, who rejected the Establishment and fostered contrarianism and skepticism of authority. Naturally, I recognize the difference between professing anti-establishment beliefs in a free country versus being the same in an authoritarian country.

Are there folks in hard-line ME countries who just can’t get excited about the “evils” of Israel and the West, aren’t particularly religious (perhaps even atheist), and in general have a yen for Western culture? Do these folks ever make themselves known from time to time (perhaps to Westerners and in private settings … maybe blogs)? Or is being such a radical just too dangerous to flout in these countries?

Do these kinds of folks have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever gaining political power?

[Scott_Plaid]

Ibn Warraq fits the bill. Here is a previous thread on the topic.

[Crandolph]

Well there’s certainly Iranian punk, metal, pop etc.. Iran has a very vibrant youth culture. Recall also that in the last days of the Shah, Shi’a Islam was in part a youth rebelllion. Syria is to my understanding more of a secular state (with a Ba’athist tradition) than some of the others in the region.

Technically I should think that almost all sects of Islam are “fundamentalist” in that the Quran is believed to be literally true. So I suppose you might be asking about the more repressive Wahhabist states in the region.

I’d be curious about Saudi, but I did live in Qatar & talked with large cross-sections of the society. I don’t think that you have quite the youth culture/rebellion thing in the Gulf you’d find in the West, but keep in mind that in most of the world young and old people still dress alike and listen to the same types of music, etc.

Gulf Arabs in the Wahhabist states wear a virtual unifrom and the kids are no exception. I was peppered with questions about the US and many young people are eager to studt here or in the UK. Hollywood movies are very popular as is Western pop, although nothing really “alternative” (although everything you could find in chain stores here is available there). Many of my teenaged students were into the Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson etc. You can, as a Gulf teen, buy a Metallica CD if you like at the Carrefour (this might not be true in Saudi), in fact easier than in chain stores here since the authorities don’t have a clue about the lyrics nor the level of English to start censoring that sort of music. I imagine a lot pf young people are listening to new ideas this way, how that gets interpreted culturally interests me but I have no easy answers. For the most part though the rebel kids like light pop from the West (as well as traditional music of home) and there aren’t many substantive ideas getting through that way.

Sexy pop videos from Lebanon are on TV all of the time hosted by cute Palestinian chick VJs and who knows what impact that will have down the road.

There is some illicit sexual activity among young people which has to remain very secretive. I could go into more detail on this later if you think it addresses your question. Among the guys there are a lot of sex jokes and viewership of interent porn is high. Young women are dressed to kill under the abayas (I unfortunately did not get to see this), and wild eye makeup and toenails and platform shoes (what you can see) are common. In a lot of N. Africa you can see mom from the year 900 walking down the street with daugheter in tight jeans, hair done, lipstick, spaghetti strap top. No short skirts though. I understand the upper class rebel grrls in Egypt have taken to smoking shisha in public. “You go, girl!”

In N. Africa (which isn’t on the whole as restrictive as the Gulf or the Iranian hardliners) the musics of protest are rai (homegrown) and rap out of and imitating the Arab and African slums of suburban Paris (which in turn apes American rap).

I seriusly doubt there are many open atheists in the region. You might as well say you’re a Satanist. I did meet a middle aged fellow in Qatar who told me that he considered himself a Confucian! He told me this in his home in a confidential tone.

Many men from the regon who can afford it blow off sexual and alcoholic steam in the party city-states of the UAE and Bahrain.

[Kimstu]

There is a large pro-democracy, pro-Western-culture movement in Iran, particularly among Iranian youth. In fact, this was one of the major factors in the shift to “reformist” dominance in Iranian politics in the late 1990’s, which was only recently quashed by the resurgence of political hardliners in 2004 and 2005. The existence of the anti-authoritarian “backlash” has been common knowledge for a long time.

This article may overstate the case somewhat, but AFAIK the gist is pretty much right:

The Iranian youth, in particular, have made the calculation that because resisting politically risks life and limb and rarely produces any positive results, they will engage in massive and widespread social resistance. Women, despite the regime’s constant attempt to segregate them from society, are leading this revolution, whose main characteristic is that the Iranian people will love anything their government hates and hate anything their government loves.

The United States—the quintessential example of something the regime hates—has become a symbol of hope for the social resistance. The United States is loved by the people because they see it as the only country in the world that has seriously stood up to the Islamic regime and its bullying. The admiration one experiences in Iran as an American is magnificent: Taxi drivers will sometimes not charge you because you are American, students may prevent you from taking photos of anti-American propaganda, and students openly express a love for President Bush. The disenchantment with the reformists has led Iranians to fill the vacuum by embracing American culture as a symbol of freedom, liberty, and hope.

The youth, having created innovative ways to meet members of the opposite sex, engage in wild parties with alcohol, gambling, and premarital romance. In the evenings, some Iranian youth hold drag races down the long straightaways of Jordan Street in downtown Tehran. Despite bans on most movies and records, Iranian youth still manage to acquire pirated or black market American DVDs and CDs. They do not get their news from the state-run television or radio but from CNN, Voice of America, and Radio Israel.