When the Eyes of the Animal Become Our Own: Camel Welfare in the Middle East in Conversation with Ibrahim Shaddad’s “A Camel”

A cautionary Arab folk tale warns of the problems that might arise if one easily gives in to another’s demands.

A traveler, wandering the desert with his camel, sets up a tent as night falls. The ensuing cold prompts the camel to ask his master if he can put his nose inside the tent to stay warm. The traveler accepts. But then, the camel asks if he can fit his neck inside the tent as well. Soon enough, after multiple concessions, the camel’s entire body is in the tent, and the traveler can no longer fit inside.

Ironically, in real life, the roles are quite literally reversed. Man has, in fact, completely disrupted the natural life cycle of the camel, invaded its habitats, and sold it into slavery for his benefit. Even worse is the reality that we have done so without the camel’s consent—unlike the traveler who, although reluctantly, willingly welcomed the camel into his tent, humanity never asked the camels for a right of entry into the desert.

Today, camel abuse is an often overlooked evil, present in virtually all parts of the world where large camel populations reside, primarily in Africa, the Middle East, and Southern/East Asia. The large-scale mistreatment of the camel manifests itself in different forms due to the many purposes they can serve: they are slaughtered for meat, milked for dairy products, unethically ridden by tourists, and used as a means of transportation in certain remote areas.

Perhaps the world’s most notorious hotbed for camel abusers is Egypt’s Birqash market, located about 15 miles northwest of the country’s bustling capital, Cairo. Here, camels are beaten and violated in a number of ways: they are bloodied by the sticks of sellers, tied up and forced into uncomfortable sitting positions for hours, cramped into trucks not designed to hold them, deprived of adequate food and water… At Birqash, there is no concern for animal welfare—only a demand for profit.

The camels at Birqash are mostly sold to be fattened and slaughtered, and they are most  commonly imported from Somalia and Sudan, the two nations with the largest camel populations on Earth. They are also severely mistreated as they make their way to Birqash or elsewhere in Egypt via a prominent trade route referred to as the Forty Days Road. Angela Stephens, writing for Aramco World, recounts her experience as she trekked with Sudanese camel herders across the desert:

“One exhausted camel lags behind 199 others. Its belly expands and contracts like a balloon as it pants and gasps, struggling to keep up. Al-Nazif, one of the Sudanese herders, his hair unkempt from weeks in the desert, rides behind the faltering animal and patiently coaxes it along. He stays with it as it falls farther and farther behind, until our group can no longer see him on the flat expanse of the desert.”

If the animals are not to be slaughtered, then they are to be enslaved. Camel riding has become a popular tourist attraction across the Middle East’s many historic landmarks, such as the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt or Petra in Jordan. Horses and donkeys are also victims of such practices, as they are forced to haul groups of people in carts and carriages in the blazing heat for long periods of time, often without food, water, or shade. If they show signs that they may be tired or suffering, they are again beaten into submission.

A “lucky” few get sold off to pastoralist communities, but this offers no guarantee for the camel’s well-being—only the assurance that the camel will live for the foreseeable future. Given the widespread poverty and political instability within the African regions that the camels inhabit, the resources and overall quality of life granted to them are likely to be lackluster. This is certainly the case in Sudan, where the atrocities of its civil war has inevitably impacted animal life in the country: for example, in April 2024, the aerial branch of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) issued an airstrike targeting civilian communities in the Mellit district of North Darfur which resulted in the death of 10 civilians and 350 camels.

A Similar Fate: Camel Racing and Child Jockeys

Amidst the confusion, violence, and abuse, a new and surprising victim gets caught up in the mess: children. This tragedy was brought about by the revival of the camel racing tradition, which dates back to the 7th century Arabian Gulf. Just as the West has horse racing, the East has camel racing, and both have raised significant concerns among animal advocates for decades. However, with camel racing, human rights violations are also at play.

Originally a Bedouin (nomadic, pastoralist Arab tribes) pastime, camel racing has now been turned into a semi-global sporting phenomenon, with races taking place all over the Gulf, and reaching as far as Mongolia and Australia. However, the heart of the industry remains in the Gulf itself, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia primarily leading its vivid expansion. The tradition-turned-sport explosively (re)emerged in the Middle East under the leadership of Faisal bin Abdulaziz, the former King of Saudi Arabia, as he  sought to emphasize the camel’s close ties to Saudi heritage and culture in arranging the region’s first “official” organized camel race in 1964.

Indeed, the Arab oil boom, which slowly began in the 1960s and took off in the 1970s, triggered unprecedented technological and economic development in the Gulf. Such growth dramatically shaped regional culture and led to a widespread desire for a return to ancestral tradition. Syrian anthropologist Sulayman Khalaf writes: “The collapse of traditional economic activities within the context of the overall rapid economic modernization triggered by oil wealth brought a realization of the importance of preserving and reviving traditional culture. The camel in general and racing camels in particular came to be in the thick of this cultural revival phenomenon.”

Today, the camel racing business is worth millions. Trainers dedicate their entire livelihoods to breeding and raising prime racers. Camels that win big races are often sold off for millions themselves. Behind all this money, however, lies a sinister secret: child jockeys. Children are used as jockeys in camel racing due to their weight: the lighter the jockey, the faster the camel will be able to run. As a result, children as young as three years old have been forced to fast for days before races. Shameem, a former Bangladeshi child jockey who was trafficked into the UAE and separated from his family as a toddler to race, told his story to Al Jazeera: “The camel owners would weigh us, if we ate too much, they would give us electrical shocks. I was so scared of them, I remember, if I would lose a race they would beat us.”

Evidently, these rich, oil-ridden Gulf countries were not willing to force their own children into such horrific conditions—instead, they searched abroad, particularly in Sudan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Hundreds of children have been trafficked into the UAE alone, and 2005 statistics from non-profits in the region estimated that around 40,000 child jockeys were being forced to work in the Arabian Gulf.

As camel racing became more popular and prize pools grew, so too did the attention given to child jockeys, and human rights organizations took action to pressure Arab governments to put an end to child trafficking and forced labor. Rules for setting the minimum weight of the jockey to 35 kilograms (or around 77 pounds) had been outlined in 1993 by the Camel Racing Association in Abu Dhabi, but Bedouin communities argued that they were unrealistic, and they were subsequently loosened. In 2002, the UAE officially banned the use of children as jockeys for camel racing. In 2005, Qatar followed suit. Additionally, in 2009, the Emirati government paid $1.43 million to the Bangladeshi authorities, which was to be distributed amongst the families of 879 child jockeys as compensation for their exploitation, amounting to a little over $1,600 per family.

And yet, violations of these bans do occur. In 2010, Anti-Slavery International reported the use of multiple children as jockeys at races in the town of Sweihan, UAE. The races were observed by policemen and certain high-ranking Emirati officials (among others), indicating to the Anti-Slavery team that child protection failed to be taken seriously. One can only conclude how poorly implemented child labor laws in the region are, despite government claims arguing otherwise.

An innovative solution developed in order to counter the disturbing use of child jockeys: robots. With recent models weighing in at only four to seven pounds, robot jockeys are beginning to take over the camel racing business. The robots are also equipped with a whip and a speaker, transmitting the voice of their owners in order to give the camel orders or directions. Now that owners in the UAE and Qatar should, theoretically, only have the choice between adult jockeys and robots, the difference between the weight of a robot and an adult gives robot jockeys an unbeatable competitive edge. However, as Anti-Slavery International has shown, laws regarding child jockeys appear to be rather malleable, and races in less populated areas might still make use of slavery when possible.

While some children may have been saved by these robots, the camels certainly have not. Technology is used as evidence of a camel’s proper treatment, but also as a justification to maintain its perpetual servitude. Under the illusion of ethics and accountability, Gulf governments and camel owners have managed to convince the world that the only victims of camel racing were human.

Mutual Dreams of Freedom in Ibrahim Shaddad’s “A Camel”

The emotional and cultural dynamics between animals, humans, and technology in the Middle East and North Africa region are powerfully depicted within Sudanese director Ibrahim Shaddad’s 1981 experimental short film, “A Camel.” Shaddad’s work, revolutionary yet tragically unsung due to years of censorship in Sudan, exists within a realm of both heightened obscurity and infinite wisdom, still undetected by many film circles today. Luckily, German and British archives have set out to preserve his work, so that his groundbreaking and prophetic vision of society and labor may remain embedded within the depths of the cinema.

The story erupts with a wail coming from a sesame oil mill—an ear-piercing, excruciatingly high-pitched and strenuous wail. It is a haunting sound, and one that will ring on numerous occasions throughout the film’s 14-minute runtime. At first listen, its source is unclear. While it might initially sound like the groans of the camel working the mill, the viewer quickly realizes that the wail is produced from the grinding of the mill’s wooden beams which are being pulled by the camel, as its rhythmic quality feels too simulated to have been naturally formed.

This intentional juxtaposition between camel and machine serves as an aural allegory for the tragic inseparability between the two, which man has artificially created and forcefully imposed over time. The camel’s pain is defined by its labor in the mill, and the mill’s production is only possible as a result of the camel’s work. In other words, the camel’s groans may as well be the sounds of the grinding beams, as they are one and the same. Without one, the other cannot exist.

The camel is also presented to us synecdochically: the frame hones in on the fur on its back, its feet dragging in the sand, its head covered by a blindfold… Parts of a whole, rather than the whole itself. Shaddad’s fragmentation of the camel’s entirety of being embodies how animals are now commonly treated and perceived by humanity: nothing more but an amalgam of components of labor.

Camera movement in the film is also particularly symbolic: for instance, the lens follows the camel as it rotates around the circular mill, representing the cyclical nature of the pain that the camel must endure. A zoom into the camel’s face followed by sudden cuts to the image of an excavator is also used to portray the camel’s imagination: it imagines a worker toiling at another mill, this time outdoors. On his own, he struggles to rotate the beams until he eventually twists his foot and falls to the ground. An excavator then drives past him, picks up the beams in its bucket with ease, and drives off into the sunset, presumably leaving him to rot. Shaddad thus approaches the question of technological advancement in an eerily prescient manner, depicting a world where technology abandons the very people that created it. Writer Leena Habiballa comments on the scene: “Is the worker living the camel’s revenge fantasy? Or has the spectre of automation made the work of the rural human obsolete, entrenching them further in the cracks and valleys of uneven development?” The camera then cuts back to the dark interior of the sesame mill, where this same worker, likely the camel’s owner, guides the blindfolded giant around the mill once more.

On one occasion, the camel is allowed to leave the mill, presumably to rest. However, it remains within the confines of a miniscule courtyard, surrounded by other livestock such as goats, sheep, and chickens. The camel drinks and proceeds to lie down, so exhausted that it lets itself get trampled on by an unruly young goat. It spots a group of pigeons eating seeds on the ground. The camera cuts back and forth between the camel and the birds, implying that it is actively observing them. Suddenly, the flock takes flight and the camel eagerly yet powerlessly watches on, unable to follow them into the sky.

The camera then cuts to an untouched herd of camels, grazing in a seemingly boundless pasture. Upon witnessing the birds fly to a place it cannot and will not ever reach, the camel dreams of and envies another life, another universe where there is no such thing as labor. It dreams of a calf drinking the milk of its mother and the same water in the river as every other camel. It dreams of a world where humans reside far from them, or perhaps one where they do not exist at all.

A final moment of surrealism occurs when the camel returns to reality and watches a group of people line up at a counter beyond the courtyard. While it is not specified what they are doing there, two different people place a bottle-like object as if they would like it to be filled, either with sesame oil or other products sold at the mill such as milk. Each client is dressed in a particular way, and the film’s most iconic montage ensues: multiple shots show the camel adorned with wigs, headscarves, skullcaps, glasses… Here, Shaddad seems to be taking a jab at contemporary consumer culture, where everyday people purchase goods which exist solely thanks to the degrading labor of animals and slaves. The camel’s solemn expression makes the montage resemble a humiliation ritual, forced upon the animal as part of its work. However, the profound ambiguity of the scene leaves its absurdist visuals open to multiple interpretations.

Once the montage ends, the camel is forced to return to the mill by its owner. He picks up the blindfold and slowly approaches the camel, who loudly grunts in revolt. As the camera approaches the petrified animal, we cut one last time to its imagination: the owner is equipped with a wooden saddle and the blindfold covers his eyes, as he struggles to pull the wooden beams that are usually meant for the camel to work. A short-lived moment of retribution, of victory over evil. A thought that quickly comes to an end, as the owner marches towards the camera with the blindfold and the screen fades to black: the cycle of darkness and imprisonment begins anew.

Editing techniques are used to literally humanize the animal by providing it with stereotypically human characteristics such as imagination, envy, and vengefulness, thus granting the film itself both an anthropomorphic and universal quality. This is not just the story of a singular camel, but the story of every single living being, human or animal, who might see themselves in the camel. Shaddad does not simply seek to deplore the poor living conditions of the world’s working animals, but also those of the world’s working humans. Emotional proximity is created between man and beast as a result of the labor-induced suffering that they have endured, as well as through the subsequent fantasies of freedom, peace, and—in certain extreme cases—revenge that result from this suffering.

Man and animal, ultimately, are two sides of the same coin. It just so happens that man can dominate both himself and the world’s many creatures. We may think of camel racing as an example of this, with both camel and child forced to work for the businessman. To Shaddad, the animal matters just as much as the child, and through its own eyes, we can come to understand much more about ourselves and the ways in which we treat every living being. The shrieks of the wooden beams are the wails of the enslaved animal, but also the wails of the enslaved human.

Works Cited

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