A letter to the editor

Zaid Ariqat
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Khalifa City A
Raha International School

Dear editor,

I would like to provide you with my opinion on the article you have posted. To start with, I think your article was a neutral and open minded article that demonstrates both sides of this argument whether wearing a bindi is considered cultural appropriation or not.

In my opinion, wearing a bindi is considered as cultural appropriation and I have many reasons backing up my opinion. Firstly, it is considered cultural appropriation because most non Indian workers (as stated in the aricle) do not understand and know the true meaning behind the Bindi, due to a study that was conducted a couple of months before this article. Secondly, many of the tourists and famous celebrities that visit India, decide to use the Bindi on their head in order to show their friends using social network sites just for entertainment; and again not knowing the true meaning behind the Bindi. Finally, I would like to ask many of the people that do not understand the meaning behind the Bindi to not use it as a source of entertainment as it could be extremely insulting to the Indians and people of the culture and religion.

In conclusion, I think that you did a great job in conveying both perspectives of cultural appropriation on the topic of non-indians wearing Bindis, but at the end of the day I'm against cultural appropriation and therefore; chose to agree with one of your points of view which talks about the negative effects of cultural appropriation rather than the positive ones.

Thank you for the article,
Zaid Ariqat.