Greetings and Gestures in Bahrain

Video Transcript

“Just the basic greetings like, ‘salaam aleykum’ and/or the shortened version of that, ‘salaam.’ It’s kind of a polite greeting, and then the hand over the heart like this. It's another formal, informal, I’m not sure if it’s formal or informal, type of greeting where that just basically means, ‘I mean you no harm,’ or something like that. And, of course, not to use your left hand for anything because that's offensive. And not to show your feet to, the bottoms of your feet to anyone because that's offensive as well. I would think those were kind of standard throughout all the cultures.”

In this video, an Arabian Peninsula expert discusses greetings and gestures common to the Arabian Peninsula.