Middle Eastern men and friendship

Middle Eastern Men and friendship – same and opposite sex


Middle Eastern males bond strongly in a male friendship, as long as the relationship stays away from two areas: Family and money. These are taboos issues, the Middle Eastern man keeps his male friends out of his personal life, away from his family, unless the friendship involves both families, still, the relationship between the male and his friend’s family is governed by strict rules.


Male friendship thrives and grows into a strong form of social network, they help and support each others in time of need, they discuss politics and the world news and finance, they share funny moment but they never go into deeper personal issues, these issues are private and off limits to even close friends.


A Middle Eastern male should preserve his image, even with his closest of friends. He conveys strength, , dependability, and fun. Never shows any sign of weakness or need. The friends support come in time of personal tragedies like death of a parent or sibling, severe illness, divorce etc


As for friendship between the Male and Female of the Middle East, this is still a social taboo, especially if the woman is married; A married middle eastern man may think to have an innocent friendship with a female colleague, but when it comes to his wife having a male friend all hell rises. That implies that his way of perceiving friendship with female, are not completely pure.


Friendship among male and female is more acceptable among the Christian section of the society, as long as they are not engaged or married, once the woman gets engaged to be married she is expected to cut short her male friends and only befriend her husband’s friends in a family outing.


The society still condemn mixed friendship, the fear for honor still dominate the society views, A girl having male friends is looked at as an easy girl, society does not accept such a woman. In a closed society where sex dominates the relationship between male and female, thinking of an innocent true friendship is hard to achieve.


Very few families are open to mixed friendship; social standing and education play a role in the acceptance of such relationship.