LAST week a Saudi youth took a selfie with a child of African nationality near a garbage container and posted it on social media which caused a veritable firestorm that virtually turned into a campaign against the youth himself. The girl was collecting recycling materials from the garbage can when the selfie was shot. It is a common sight here in Jeddah to see women collecting plastic, glass, cartons and anything that can be recycled to be sold to factories in the south of Jeddah. The girl was wearing an Al-Ittihad football team jersey as she was rummaging through the trash. The intention of this youth seemed to be a desire to trash the football club with this selfie, which he thought was funny and would be received in a similar vein. But the picture proved to be a spark on tinder and was enough to launch an online campaign trashing the man for exploiting the poor child. Facing a campaign against him, he was forced to apologize for his behavior. And he hurriedly came up with an excuse to step away from the storm. There was huge anger on social media sites against this behavior and maybe one of the positive outcomes was that the family of the poor child received financial donations from do-gooders. Although the man apologized, which is something honorable to do, we have to ask if he would have apologized if the brewing storm on social media had not threatened to blow him away. The action itself is wrong; we should not exploit the poor and take photos and make fun of them. I don't think the young man considered this humanity factor before the campaign against him caught fire. What is sadder than the act itself is that the picture shows that poor people cannot defend themselves against these selfies because they are made to feel that they do not have a choice. The same thing has happened many times in the past when workers in charity organizations or do-gooders pose to take a picture with the poor when they make their donations. There was a famous picture of a do-gooder presenting a check to a poor family. The poor man was sitting on the ground receiving the check from the hand of the man while the man, wearing fancy sunglasses, was posing and smiling for the camera. If there is a word that could describe this picture it would be disgusting. I am sure if the poor were given a choice of receiving charity without having a photo taken, they would accept it with alacrity. Let us at least give them that choice. Yes they are poor but they have dignity and feelings. To exploit them in this way and to take a photo of them accepting charity to further one's own philanthropic image is wrong. In my opinion it is unethical because it harms their dignity and feelings. Whether it is taking photos of them for the fun of it or to prove that a person is giving them charity, in both cases the action is wrong. If a charity organization wants to take a photo of people being given charity then it should be for the purpose of keeping records and it should not be publicized. There are some scholars who approve of publicizing the giving of charity for the purpose of encouraging others to do the same, but such photos should not include the poor man's face, family or children. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in his saying is clear: “Seven people will be shaded by Allah under His shade on the day when there will be no shade except His, one of them is a man who gives in charity and hides it, such that his left hand does not know what his right hand gives in charity.” Where are these people referred to in the saying of the Prophet (pbuh)? A famous picture that circulated on social media last year was that of a homeless American man in New York City refusing to accept charity from a Chinese millionaire who was handing out $100 followed by a TV crew. The homeless man despite his need for money refused to accept it because for him his dignity was much more important. We have seen a good reaction in the case of the girl in the garbage container. I hope that this reaction is not because the issue made it to social media as we see more like her every day in the street and read about such cases in newspapers. In the same way that people offered donations to the poor girl's family, we need to see the same spontaneous giving toward sick people, people who are in debt and people without homes. I agree with what Saudi writer Khaled Al-Suleiman said in his opinion piece last week describing the girl in the garbage container incident: "What the young man did was no different from our daily behavior as individuals or groups. We start our mornings by breaking the law and end the day by violating the norms that govern our society on the basis of discipline and justice." I end this article with a verse from the Holy Qur'an: “If you disclose your Sadaqaat (alms giving), it is well; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, that is better for you.” [Qur'an 2:271].
— The writer can be contacted at [email protected]. Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
