Middle Eastern cities have grown dramatically over the past decade. By 2020, 90 percent of the populations of major countries such as Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia are expected to be urban-dwelling, according to author Daniel Bates in his book, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East [Prentice Hall, 2001].
In recent years, a rapidly growing younger population has migrated to cities for land ownership, education, wealth, and occupational opportunity.
Physical Changes in Middle Eastern Cities
Physically, modern Middle Eastern cities are similar in design to European-style architecture. Wide streets, cinemas, hotels, modern suburbs, art institutions, film and television companies make up a diverse complex of buildings and institutions centered around the central mosque, the government, the military installations and the bazaar.
In modern cities, the social system is based upon secularity and liberalism. Due to an increase in social services, the literacy rates have dramatically improved, infant mortality rate has decreased, and more efficient communication has spurred a greater national awareness.
Social Changes in Middle Eastern Cities
When walking through a Middle Eastern city, it takes seconds to notice the contrast between old and new architecture. Another contrast just as stark is between the differing social values: liberal modernity and traditional conservatism. Values of modesty found in Islamic religion stand in striking contrast to the modern values in cities.
Within the last decade, a dual structure has emerged in most Middle Eastern cities: a portion of the population that benefits from consumerism, international flow of capital and a global market, and a portion that does not. This schism is not necessarily negative. In fact, author Daniel Bates argues that there is notable mutual accommodation in the midst of the polarity, and that “civil strife in most Middle Eastern cities is notably less than in most European or American cities.”
Conflicts in Middle Eastern Cities
Though cities in the Middle East are providing economic and social benefit to millions of people, some conflicts have emerged as well. Due to record population growth, Middle Eastern cities across the board are experiencing a common problem of over-urbanization. More people than cities can support are flocking to the cities for economic and social services. Population control methods, such as birth control, are not widely used because of a strong religious emphasis on the value of bearing children.
The issue of overpopulation can cause hyperurbanization, a situation in which more people live in cities than can be properly employed there. According to Bates, “Urban inhabitants in the Arab world consume more than twice what they contribute to the GNP in most countries.”
Other common problems seen in Middle Eastern cities is political unrest manifested through a clash between Islamic fundamentalism and nationalism, an influx of refugees from neighboring territories, ethnic rivalry, violent opposition to invasion from the United States, and low levels of government legitimacy.
Urbanization in the Middle East is happening rapidly. Time will tell what long-term effects this will have on the region, its people, and the world.
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