Keffiyeh Wrap of Naturalized Bahraini of Yemeni Origin Stirs up Social Media

2019-07-13 - 6:52 p

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The Keffiyeh wrap of a naturalized Bahraini journalist, who's a Yemeni national, while taking part in a TV interview turned into a topic of ridicule on social media after it looked gigantic and occupied half of the TV screen.

"Airbus, F 16, Garad missile, drone" these words are not related to an impending arms deals between the US and Gulf states to build their self-defense capabilities and enable them to counter Iran's ambitions. They are only sarcastic comments made by commentators to describe the appearance of columnist of "Rasa'el Al-Khamis" (Thursday Letters) in the Bahraini Al-Bilad newspaper, Ibrahim Al-Neham, during a program on the Saudi "Al-Ekhbariya" channel to discuss the developments of the Iranian nuclear issue.

The journalist had his Keffiyeh wrapped in a fashion called in the Gulf "Cobra wrap" in reference to the poisonous Cobra but it seemed exaggerated, as his Keffiyeh looked more like a large bird of prey in its launching position.

"He will head to outer space after the interview in case anyone needs anything from there," one of the tweeters commented. "Airplane mode on," wrote another.

The US-based Iraqi journalist Zaid Benjamin posted a video of the interview and sarcastically wondered how the journalist's Keffiyeh is covering the whole screen and the channel's logo. His comment was followed by a wave of jokes and mockery.

While, the Bahraini journalist spoke eagerly about Iran's pernicious influence in the region and the world, the comments of tweeters were totally focused on a different topic. "He came to the studio as a paratrooper," another one wrote. "This is a Shemagh wearing a person," a tweeter commented.

The said journalist chose to remain silent and not respond. He, however, replied one time to the only Bahraini journalist who defended him and said "Thank you brother Mesaab. God bless you. Thank God for the blessing of the mind."

Another tweeter said that "it is not appropriate to make fun of the appearance of others. Perhaps he didn't make a good choice of appearance due to his nervousness." Meanwhile, another tweeter asked not to hold the Saudi channel responsible for this and said "the channel has nothing to do with the guest's Shemagh".

Many tweeters attached their tweets with pictures depicting to the guest's Keffiyeh wrap as they see it. The images included spacecraft, intercontinental missiles, a man attempting to fly with artificial wings, cobra snakes, kites, flying dishes and Pharaonic symbols. "Winged Shemagh, the latest gulf military industry has achieved," one wrote.

Despite the satirical atmosphere, this did not prevent the wave from taking another turn towards the gulf-gulf dispute. A Saudi commentator wrote, "His Shemagh is bigger than Qatar." However, a Qatari tweeter had a different opinion and wrote "His Shemagh is bigger than Bahrain". The fire of differences did not stop here and extended to something else, which is whether the correct name is "Ghutra" or "Shemagh". "This is Shemagh and not Ghutra, which is the traditional people's costume and you have to respect it, because you are a prominent journalist and not a person from the street," one wrote.

Arabic Version