Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2005
- Member Type
- Academic
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- Iraq
- Current Location
- Germany
Scooped Aubergines VI
In my hometown nearly everybody had a nickname. The nicknames were mostly given by men to men although some women had nicknames too like the six-mouth Rabi I mentioned earlier. The nicknames usually highlighted a negative or a prominent trait either in character or concentrated on a mental/physical disability, as a kind of additional identity because the first names just like Jane and Tom in English were given to hundreds if not thousands. Every second, third, fourth name was Abdullah, Ahmad, Muhammad or Mustapha. They were all of Arabic or maybe it is better to say Islamic origin because people were more religious. Later these names were replaced by more nationalist or patriotic names. So you didn’t really know which Ahmad or Abdullah people were talking about. Nicknames came in handy and there was no Basic Law to protect human dignity or consider it as sacrosanct as the German Basic Law does “die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar” meaning “human dignity is inviolable.
The nicknames given were destructive in intention and the cause of many a violent fight. You could destroy a man’s psyche or drive him up the wall even if he didn’t have such a weakness of character or physical disability. Once a nickname was given (usually in anger or in retaliation) to somebody, it stigmatized him his whole life. You might say it was a paradise for a psychiatrist from Western Europe to dig deep into human psyche. My father had a nickname too. He was called…Sorry, I find it difficult to write about it. I am sure he would never forgive me for that. Maybe I will come back later and say something about it more discreetly.
The nicknames were usually adjectives or nouns which followed the first names. For instance a man was called Qadir, the effeminate or the sissy as a negative term for men who preferred the company of women and womanly pursuits. Qadir often sat and talked with women. He was indeed ahead of his time but it was considered beneath a real man to be with women so often as he did. I think I would have got a similar nickname if I had stayed there longer. Another man was nicknamed Muhammad, the scabby because he had scabies. A lot of men suffered from scabies because they washed their hair once in a blue moon. On the other hand there was a proverb which said: “scabby heads go into women’s breasts” meaning men with scabies were most successful with the most beautiful women, something like the beauty and the beast. I wished I had scabies.
Another man was called Aghala, the broad bottom because his backside was big and flat. Aghala, the broad bottom used to go for a walk on our new asphalt road in the late afternoons with his portable radio or cassette player turned up to the utmost like a mobile or an MP3 player or a player in a car nowadays some young men turn up very high. One day when Aghala went for his usual walk, I approached a group of, I think, five or seven-year-old boys who were playing nearby and told them: "as soon as Aghala , the broad bottom passes by, shout at the top of your voices: Aghala, the broad bottom", and this is what they did. I couldn’t help it but I burst into peals of laughter. Aghala found out who the culprit was but first he warned the children that he would put eye drops in their eyes if they said it again. This was what adults usually said to frighten children and make them stop doing or saying something they didn't like. Then he turned to me and started insulting me with whatever came into his mouth, mostly words like son of a whore or of a cuckold.
Although my father really suffered when was nicknamed and whenever a man said it, it froze his blood and turned the two men to life enemies, he still didn’t mind giving nicknames to others. For example, once he nicknamed one of his relatives as Razaq, the donkey testicle to highlight his ugliness. My father even believed in what other people said. But I think this is how psychology works. If somebody says something repeatedly you will believe in it yourself one day. Only a few men, usually the more powerful feudal lords didn’t have nicknames. Once immediately after the internet technology was available, sombody contacted me and asked: don’t you know me? I am Ala' s son. We used to play marbles on the asphalt road. I said sorry which Ala do you mean? He said Ala the crazy man.
To be continued
Jamshid
24 March 2008
In my hometown nearly everybody had a nickname. The nicknames were mostly given by men to men although some women had nicknames too like the six-mouth Rabi I mentioned earlier. The nicknames usually highlighted a negative or a prominent trait either in character or concentrated on a mental/physical disability, as a kind of additional identity because the first names just like Jane and Tom in English were given to hundreds if not thousands. Every second, third, fourth name was Abdullah, Ahmad, Muhammad or Mustapha. They were all of Arabic or maybe it is better to say Islamic origin because people were more religious. Later these names were replaced by more nationalist or patriotic names. So you didn’t really know which Ahmad or Abdullah people were talking about. Nicknames came in handy and there was no Basic Law to protect human dignity or consider it as sacrosanct as the German Basic Law does “die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar” meaning “human dignity is inviolable.
The nicknames given were destructive in intention and the cause of many a violent fight. You could destroy a man’s psyche or drive him up the wall even if he didn’t have such a weakness of character or physical disability. Once a nickname was given (usually in anger or in retaliation) to somebody, it stigmatized him his whole life. You might say it was a paradise for a psychiatrist from Western Europe to dig deep into human psyche. My father had a nickname too. He was called…Sorry, I find it difficult to write about it. I am sure he would never forgive me for that. Maybe I will come back later and say something about it more discreetly.
The nicknames were usually adjectives or nouns which followed the first names. For instance a man was called Qadir, the effeminate or the sissy as a negative term for men who preferred the company of women and womanly pursuits. Qadir often sat and talked with women. He was indeed ahead of his time but it was considered beneath a real man to be with women so often as he did. I think I would have got a similar nickname if I had stayed there longer. Another man was nicknamed Muhammad, the scabby because he had scabies. A lot of men suffered from scabies because they washed their hair once in a blue moon. On the other hand there was a proverb which said: “scabby heads go into women’s breasts” meaning men with scabies were most successful with the most beautiful women, something like the beauty and the beast. I wished I had scabies.
Another man was called Aghala, the broad bottom because his backside was big and flat. Aghala, the broad bottom used to go for a walk on our new asphalt road in the late afternoons with his portable radio or cassette player turned up to the utmost like a mobile or an MP3 player or a player in a car nowadays some young men turn up very high. One day when Aghala went for his usual walk, I approached a group of, I think, five or seven-year-old boys who were playing nearby and told them: "as soon as Aghala , the broad bottom passes by, shout at the top of your voices: Aghala, the broad bottom", and this is what they did. I couldn’t help it but I burst into peals of laughter. Aghala found out who the culprit was but first he warned the children that he would put eye drops in their eyes if they said it again. This was what adults usually said to frighten children and make them stop doing or saying something they didn't like. Then he turned to me and started insulting me with whatever came into his mouth, mostly words like son of a whore or of a cuckold.
Although my father really suffered when was nicknamed and whenever a man said it, it froze his blood and turned the two men to life enemies, he still didn’t mind giving nicknames to others. For example, once he nicknamed one of his relatives as Razaq, the donkey testicle to highlight his ugliness. My father even believed in what other people said. But I think this is how psychology works. If somebody says something repeatedly you will believe in it yourself one day. Only a few men, usually the more powerful feudal lords didn’t have nicknames. Once immediately after the internet technology was available, sombody contacted me and asked: don’t you know me? I am Ala' s son. We used to play marbles on the asphalt road. I said sorry which Ala do you mean? He said Ala the crazy man.
To be continued
Jamshid
24 March 2008
Last edited:
