I thought tradition and progress couldn’t coexist.
Then I visited Bahrain. 🇧đź‡
A few weeks ago, I barely knew where it sat on the map.
Now, I’m back with my whole world perspective challenged.
Bahrain is a modern, wealthy economy, similar to its neighbours, like the UAE.
Skyscrapers, artificial islands, the full package.
But, unlike them, it still preserves a strong Arabic and Islamic identity.
In the Western mindset, those two things are often seen as incompatible.
I hardly saw any Westerners around.
Most women wore full-length black robes, with face coverings, driving luxury cars or browsing fancy shops.
Men wore traditional white robes and headscarves.
Even in high-end shopping malls, background music would stop to make space for live prayers sung from nearby mosques.
Geographically, it’s mostly desert.
From my hotel window 👇.
Sand, few buildings, and a lot of construction!
It feels like a country still expanding, still becoming. Optimism is in the air.
What surprised me even more is that Bahrain’s wealth is not a new phenomenon.
Unlike Qatar or the UAE, it has been a trade and financial hub for millennia!
The great Dilmun civilisation settled there over 5,000 years ago with forts and burial sites still standing.
Not so different from how ancient Roman history lives on in Italy.
This trip helped me put things into perspective.
Traditional, non-Western societies can be modern, wealthy, and forward-looking, without giving up who they are.
Progress isn’t about abandoning tradition to become someone else. It’s about building on it.
