Imagine waking up on a Saturday morning in our beautiful campus on Saadiyat Island, knowing that on this day you will engage in a new type of intellectual discussion. No books. No professors. No grades. You walk in an auditorium filled with students of all races ready to represent their culture, their religion and their values. The topic of the day is: “Preferred Pronouns: should we permit them or not?” In this intellectually stimulating discussion you have the opportunity to listen to thoughtful takes on the topic, many of which come from different cultural, social or religious backgrounds all fascinating in their own way. Afterwards you get to counter those views and reach a final decision with your classmates. Coming out of that door you grab a coffee with the same people you were agreeing or disagreeing with a while ago and there is now a mutual understanding between everyone.
Pronouns: How Conservative Voices Are Drowning in the Liberal Wave
Blindly adopting NYU New York policies in the context of NYU Abu Dhabi and the UAE is leaving no space for conservative voices.
Feb 22, 2020
Imagine waking up on a Saturday morning in our beautiful campus on Saadiyat Island, knowing that on this day you will engage in a new type of intellectual discussion. No books. No professors. No grades. You walk in an auditorium filled with students of all races ready to represent their culture, their religion and their values. The topic of the day is: “Preferred Pronouns: should we permit them or not?” In this intellectually stimulating discussion you have the opportunity to listen to thoughtful takes on the topic, many of which come from different cultural, social or religious backgrounds all fascinating in their own way. Afterwards you get to counter those views and reach a final decision with your classmates. Coming out of that door you grab a coffee with the same people you were agreeing or disagreeing with a while ago and there is now a mutual understanding between everyone.
Sadly we are missing out on a lot, because at some point NYU Abu Dhabi decided to blindly follow whatever liberal policy NYU New York chose without leaving any space for conservative voices to be heard.
A few days ago, our Dean of Students announced, among a number of other changes, the option to choose our own preferred pronouns on Albert, in alignment with a change made by NYUNY. As the email stated, NYUNY reached this conclusion based on results of a study conducted by a working group in New York on the “use of gender-inclusive language, gender pronouns and the importance of correct pronunciation of students’ names.” In the guidelines released by the university it is heavily implied that those chosen pronouns have to be respected by faculty and professors during class.
NYUAD announcing the use of preferred pronouns in accordance with NYUNY policies without any filter or second thoughts is not surprising. Instead of setting up a working group to gauge the opinions of its own students and professors, our university adopts liberal policies without considering how this may be perceived in the context of NYUAD and the United Arab Emirates.
After interviewing some Emirati students and alumni of NYUAD, they identified some cultural and religious issues that the pronoun policy may bring. Ali Al Rahma, Class of 2019 states “the UAE will forever be a tolerant country accepting people of all backgrounds, races and religions. It is a liberal country in many ways and conservative in areas that affect religion and sovereignty. This allowed the country to flourish and become what it is today: a world power and a home for over 200 nationalities. The Emiratis have been accepting of all genders on campus without dismay. However, I oppose the use of [preferred] pronouns at NYUAD because it directly affects religious beliefs of all Muslims, including Emirati students and Muslim professors.”
Conservative views and cultures are completely fine by me and it is about time that everybody living here gets comfortable around them, because this is what it means to be respectful and inclusive of every idea. Unfortunately, the administration of NYUAD has turned Social Justice Warrior beliefs into institutional policies adopted in our university without any cultural considerations in advance. This decision shows that the NYUAD administration puts the liberal and progressive values of NYUNY above the values of this nation and campus.
2019 was the Year of Tolerance in the UAE, and our Emirati brothers and sisters have not only been tolerant, but also very hospitable, welcoming and warm. When are we going to start being more inclusive and respectful of conservative values such as those that may be shared by some Emiratis on campus?
Dabya Al Qubaisi, Class of 2021 adds that “as the UAE’s community is a conservative one, I think that this decision comes off [as] disrespectful without the inclusion of Emirati voices in the process. On top of that it also comes off as disrespectful to the NYUAD community, since this decision isn’t based on our student body’s voices.”
I agree with Al Qubaisi on this. Even if we leave aside for a moment what such a change would mean in this country, there is a whole campus with students from over 120 countries that was never asked about whether such a change aligns with their values and cultures. The fact that we follow the organization and curriculum of NYUNY does not mean that we want their liberal policies to be mirroring every aspect of our lives.
We come from so many different countries, cultures and values, which can ignite such insightful debates on topics like this one. We cannot say that we have achieved total inclusivity until all kinds of opinions are considered in decision making processes.
Resonate with me for a moment and you will realize how the current status quo opposes NYUAD’s initial goals. Why would the founders of this university envision the coexistence of 120 different nationalities on the Arabian Gulf and keep on funding students for so many years, but end up feeding them with one single liberal ideology coming from NYUNY? Unless we were invited to this place in order to get persuaded about the correctness of NYUNY’s perspectives and go back to our countries to impose them like the good “global leaders” that we are, I see no point in not discussing such contested issues.
The email announcing the change explicitly said that “with the recommendations of the NYUNY working group in mind” students at NYUAD would also be allowed to choose their pronouns. What kind of assumption allows us to think that NYUNY working groups will reach the same conclusion like NYUAD ones would? If the Dean of Students had initiated a discussion on such a change within our campus and did not just announce NYUNY decisions by forwarding emails, the change would be more legitimate having incorporated opinions of NYUAD students.
We are proud of NYUAD’s diversity, but after 10 years of building its concrete foundations, it is now time for the university to translate this diversity into tangible actions. Once the administration recognises this, our lives will change fundamentally, and NYUAD’s goal of inclusivity will truly be achieved.
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