شبح

     When we were on our way to my grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving, Ahmed was asking me about the Old Idaho Penitentiary. He was asking me about the ghosts that haunted the prison. 

     He stated that Arab ghost stories are scarier than American ghost stories. I remembered an episode I watched of Ghost Hunters. They had visited the old pen and filmed some interesting and frightening footage. 

     I told him that I toured the penitentiary shortly after I watched the episode. I went on a snowy day and there was a small group of people there. It was my ex-boyfriend and I and another group. We were on one side and they were on the other. 

    I was filming the tour as we walked through the buildings. When we were in death row, I started to say, "Dead man walking." It was silent because we were the only ones there. When I played the footage back at home, I could hear doors slamming when I said dead man walking. It was freaky to say the least. 

     Ahmed stated that the ghosts in Iraq are violent and make people go crazy. What he had described was ghosts possessing humans. I grew skeptical at what he told me as time went on. 

     I began to ask him if he knew any ghost stories. He said that he did not have any stories and that he did not believe in ghosts. I asked his friend Omar and he said the same thing. 

     I wanted to hear a story because I have been interested in ghosts since I was a child. I began feeling disappointment because I wanted to film Arabs telling me ghost stories. I think it would have been a nice change from hearing about war and torture. It would have given them another dimension because they seem to be one dimensional. 

     I asked online if any Arabs knew any ghost stories. The only response I received was from my aunt. She recommended a book that contained Arabic ghost stories, but it was not the same as what I wanted. 

     I even asked Arabs if they knew any ghost stories. All of them said that they do not believe in ghosts. I began to ponder about why that was. 

     The more I thought about it, I began to remember other interesting things that Ahmed mentioned before. For instance, he had no clue what a zombie was. I was baffled that he did not know anything about zombies. 

     I told him a zombie is someone who rises from the dead and eats brains. They do have a word for things like this to.

     غيبوبة is Arabic for zombie and sounds like "ray boo bah." The definition is coma or stupor. شبح is Arabic for ghost and sounds like "shah bah."

     I don't know why they do not believe. Perhaps they do not want to talk about such scary and wicked things. Most cultures will not talk about anything bad. Perhaps it has something to do with Islam. Whatever it is nobody will say anything about ghosts and goblins even though they have a word for it. 

     In a way, I think it wouldn't really matter. If they did believe in ghosts, would this make their culture so different? I would think that they would believe that ghosts would come to haunt them. I think the Middle East would be a different place if they believed this. Can you imagine ghosts coming back to haunt them after terrorizing and murdering others? Or this could be the very reason why ghosts are so violent.