Omani Student Association host Omani National Day, celebrating the birth of the Omani sultan.
Many students might not be able to point out on a map the small, Middle Eastern country next to Saudi Arabia and Yemen that is called Oman.
However, Omani students invited domestic and international students to celebrate and learn about the 45th anniversary of Omani National Day. The day is an annual holiday that celebrates the 75th birthday of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, as he brought the country education and more development.
There were about 350 people at the event Sunday to celebrate the holiday that is originally Nov. 18, the sultan’s birthday. Many men wore dishdashas, traditional Omani attire, and some women wore colorful Omani dresses.
The night began with a recitation of a quote from the Quran and was followed by the Omani National Anthem.
“We want them to know our culture and the history of Oman,” Rashid Al Saadi, the president of Omani Student Association and a senior studying meteorology, said. “There was a good relationship between Oman and the United States. Oman was the first Arabic nation to recognize the independence of the United States.”
With 51 Omani students at Ohio University, the group is the sixth largest international population on campus, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
The night continued with a woman reciting a poem she wrote about Oman, her homeland. Omani students performed a play depicting Omani history from the last 45 years with a story of one family from three different generations. Before Qaboos bin Said al Said became sultan of Oman, the nation was backward and had few schools, Saif Al Wahaibi, who performed in the play, said.
“We had no electricity, nothing,” Alouahaibi, a fifth-year student studying chemical engineering, said. “But from 1970 to 2015, we were able to develop our country by hard work and dedication for what it is right now, which many would say is an advancement.”
During the performance, they reenacted a traditional Omani wedding ceremony, where women wearing Omani dresses danced past the audience to the back of the room, where the bride sat on a raised platform. They also showed a traditional birthday party where children danced around the birthday boy, and the performers encouraged the audience to sing along.
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Ali Baba’s catered the event, serving omani dishes such as lamb, chicken, rice and hummus. Halwa was also served, a dessert from Middle Eastern countries.
As students and faculty ate their dinner, they mingled with each other. Many Omanis found that Americans did not know much about Oman or that it even existed. Although Omani National Day is a celebration for Oman’s sultan, many Omani students said this is a way for Americans to gain understanding of what Oman and its people are really like.
“The world is changing these days,” Moza Albalushi, a senior studying health services and administration, said. “And (Omani National Day is) a chance to let people know more about the cultures and to become open minded.”
Ali Albalushi, the host of Omani National Day, said media such as CNN only show bad news about the Middle East, depicting the region badly. When he came to the U.S., Ali Albalushi could “see the (discrimination) in their eyes.” Ali Albalushi said some Americans assume they ride camels instead of cars.
“But here in Athens, from day one that I’ve been here, people are nice and mainly because it’s diverse,” Ali Albalushi, a senior studying mechanical engineering, said.
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