Charlie Don’t Surf

It’s a famous line from Apocalypse Now. Colonel Bill Kilgore insist on surfing the waves of the beaches of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and his men are warning him that Charlie (nickname the Americans used for the Vietnamese) is quite active in the area, i.e. they might shoot him. Colonel Bill Kilgore, your quintessential insensitive American soldier in foreign parts of the world, responds by saying ‘Charlie Don’t Surf.’

Sledding on the hills of Feraya

 This famous line came to mind yesterday, as I was sitting in the ski lift in Feraya, a ski resort some 55 kilometers in the mountains above Beirut. It was a sunny day (Sunday, that was), and thousands and thousands of people had decided to come up for the day and play in the snow. Feraya is usually only frequented by people that come and ski, but on long weekends many people come up with busses on a day trip to the snow.

And so while on the left side of the hill the skiers and snow boarders come thundering down the mountain, the right side of the hill is occupied by throngs of city people that rent sleds. And they’re having an awful lot of fun. Grown up men and women, clambering uphill, and then sliding downhill again while shrieking with laughter. It is fun to see people having so much fun. Snow is clearly not a common commodity in Lebanon.

Here's one that wishes she wouldn't have to ski ever again!

A gentleman sitting next to me in the ski lift me, saw me looking at them, and he said; “They don’t ski.”

“They?” I asked.

“Mohajabeen (The ones with veils). Mohajabeen don’t ski.”

And indeed, practically all of the ladies sledding were wearing a veil. That is quite an unusual sight; you do not see veiled ladies ski in Feraya, unless it is the ladies from the gulf who –dressed from head to toe in black – come for a holiday with their families.

Down in Beirut, this divide is not really present. In the area where I live, it’s all mixed; tight veil, loose veil, no veil, you don’t really notice it. Several of my colleagues are veiled, but you don’t take in that detail either when you work together. Just like they probably don’t notice that I do not wear a veil.

But in Feraya, there was this very sharp divide. Unveiled ladies skiing on the left and veiled ladies sledding on the right.

And this gentleman, remarking: “Mohajabeen don’t ski.”

And that when that line came to mind; ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’.



H and I in the lift



Can someone explain the social background of this phenomena? Some anthropological wisdom please. It is not that muslims don’t ski, because I know for a fact they/we do. It cannot be a financial issue, as among the muslim society there are some very wealthy people as well. So what creates this sharp divide?