The hippest place to be if you’re a Western-looking Anteplian of means is Sanko-Park – the newly built four-story mall that was a major retail destination for wealthy Syrians before things disintegrated. Sanko Park is without a doubt the nicest mall I have ever been in. It’s cleanliness, novelty and thin, upperclass clientele set it apart from any American mall I have ever been in (although frankly that’s not many). Glass storefronts, a food court, smiling models with prices emblazoned over their airbrushed skin and rampant consumerism are all reassurances of a fiercely Western ethic. And yet seeing so many women in headscarves is a constant reminder of the deeper cultural differences.
Being in such a familiar environment surrounded by people whose outwards appearance is ultimately foreign is blissfully incongruous. A woman in a floor length coat standing next to Shades of Grey in the bookstore, a grandmother in the arcade – How did we get here? What drives people to still dress so conservatively? Why is American mall culture so universally appealing?
What’s clearly apparent is that the mall is a massive instrument of globalization. Inside the automatic glass doors, the qualities of ‘mall-ness’ are much more powerful than a specific dress or culture, and instantly recognizable no matter what language the signs are in. And so for me, to see people dressed in such a non-Western way in a prime example of the species Mall Westernis is unusual and unexpected.
At the Crossroads 