Category: Houseways

Houseways: Rental Apartments in Dhofar, Khareef and Dhofari/ Non-Dhofari Designs

A unique aspect of housing market in Dhofar is that there is a large supply of furnished rental apartments and houses because of the khareef (monsoon) season. In non-covid times, thousands of Arabic visitors come between June and August to enjoy the cool, foggy weather. Visitors to Dhofar will often stay 2-3 weeks, so they want all the conveniences of a set-up home. In other parts of Oman, unfurnished apartments and houses are the norm because the expectation is that people will rent for several months or years and landlords don’t want to deal with the wear and tear on furniture from renters.

Another aspect of the huge rental market for khareef is that landlords will sometimes rent apartments and houses very cheaply for 9 or 10 months (September to May or June), then raise the prices for high tourist season. For example, a 2-bedroom apartment might be 150 OR per month for most of the year, and then 50 OR per night in July and August. This means some renters will, year after year, move their belongings into their office and leave for the summer, then move back in September first.

In terms of how the apartments are planned, there is a basic division between those designed by and built for Dhofari Omanis and for non-Dhofari Omans. [For a general discussion of apartment buildings see Houseways – Types of Apartments Buildings (Family/ Public) ]

The main difference is that for Dhofari-Omanis space is allocated between guests and family members with the intention that family members can move freely within the apartment, in addition to usually being able to come in and leave.

Most Dhofari-designed apartments have two doors [see example below] so that, like houses, guests are secluded in one room while family members have access to all other rooms and the main entrance.

There are other formats. In my (Dhofari-designed) apartment [see Houseways – Cultural Perspectives and Movement within an Apartment: The Practicalities of Having Guests  ], the front door is not visible from the majlis so anyone could come and go without being seen. In another apartment [see Houseways – Balancing Privacy and Hospitality within an Apartment ] this is not possible because the majlis is next to the door, but there is a door to the salle which cannot be seen by a guest sitting on the sofa, so family members can go into and out of the salle and kitchen without being seen. Further there is a hallway door, so the area with bedrooms is visually and acoustically separated.

Another type of design is a one main door which opens into a hallway, with the main sitting room as the first door on the left or right. Once guests are inside, the family members have access to the hallway and all other rooms. For the moments of entry and exit, the host will be speaking loudly, welcoming guests or trying to convince them to stay/ saying goodbye, so everyone will know the hallway is in use.

Rental apartments for tourists are usually built within a different framework, in which the section of the apartment near the front door is open to the back of the apartment so that if there are male guests, there can be little or no movement.

An example: the front door opens directly into a small living room with six armchairs. Along the left-hand wall is a guest bathroom. In the back left-hand corner is a short, five-foot hallway which ends in six-sided open space about eight feet across with four doors. First door to the left is small kitchen, second door (ahead, to the left) is bedroom, third door (straight ahead) is a bathroom, then there is a small alcove with a washing machine, then fourth door (to the right) bedroom. Thus, guests can hear anything that is happening in the back of the apartment and those sitting along the far wall of the sitting room can see down the short hallway.

In this set-up the front “controls” the back of the apartment. This makes sense in terms of khareef rentals as tourists come as large groups of family or friends, thus there is no need to worry about keeping guests separate. The housing space is family-only. If a male tourist meets a friend in Salalah, they will both understand that the housing is not set up to entertain guests and they will have a picnic or take a meal/ coffee together in a restaurant (pre-covid).

(Example of apartment with two doors, main door and majlis to the right, photo by homeowner and given to me with permission to use for this website)

g - doors 2

Houseways: Cultural Perspectives and Movement within an Apartment, The Practicalities of Having Guests

Illustration by Maria Cristina, website: https://www.mariacristinah.com/

In this essay I would like to focus on Dhofari cultural expectations of space and movement, using the example of Dhofari men from my research group visiting me in my apartment. I want to highlight what physical movements are possible within a typical Dhofari-designed apartment in terms of both spacing and cultural beliefs. What actions would they expect to take and what actions would they expect of me? What are my personal and cultural expectations of where I should stand and sit? [The examples are from pre-covid times.]

My apartment is on the first floor of a 4-apartment building, with one apartment below and 2 others (ground floor and first floor) which are entered through another door.

To enter, you walk up one flight of stairs (with a turn and landing 1/2 up) to reach my landing, from which the stairs continue up to the roof. [illustration is above and below]

Standing just inside the front door, the kitchen door is 5 feet to the right. Ahead and a little to the left is the main hallway. About half-way down the hallway to the left is the opening for the salle [women’s and family’s sitting room], but it’s set back so you can’t see into it. Down to the right is the door to one bedroom. At the end of the hallway, opposite the front door, is a bathroom. There is a bedroom to the left and to the right of the bathroom, with both doors set back.

Thus, when a guest steps inside, the only spaces visible are the hallway and the guest bathroom which is 8 feet to the left. You can’t see the kitchen (as it is obscured by the open front door) or the majlis [the men’s/ guest’s sitting room]. The door to the majlis is parallel to the front door but set back. To enter, you need to turn left, walk a few steps and, in front of the door to the guest bathroom, turn left.

How I would want to behave with guests is to open the front door with my left hand, verbally welcome guests and make “come in” gestures with my right hand and point them to the majlis. The guests would enter in the order that they have walked up the stairs, pass in front of me, move to my right, then I close the door with my left hand.

This doesn’t work for my apartment for several reasons. First, the men in my research group, like most Dhofari men, will never walk straight through a doorway if they are part of a group. There will be many slight movements (such as stepping backwards/ to one side or pushing another man gently forward) to allow another man the honor of being first through the door.

So men won’t enter in the order that they walk up the stairs, there will be a little logjam on the landing, with men perhaps walking up or down one or two steps to avoid being first. This is accompanied by friendly banter as I stand near the open door.

I can’t hold on to the door, as this would mean that the men would have to pass too close to me. For their comfort and mine, we usually stay at least three feet apart unless we are eating from the same platter. So I have to let go of the door and step back down the hallway, where my sightlines become very limited with walls on either side of me. As I call out greetings and try to signal ‘go to the right,’ they eventually settle on who is walking in first and then a second small problem arises.

I am signaling ‘go right’ but when they turn, they see an open guest bathroom door, something that never happens in their own houses as bathroom doors are always kept shut. [see below] Also, the door to the majlis is not visible until they have taken a few steps, so there is a moment’s hesitation as it appears I am telling them to walk into the guest bathroom.

Once they are all in the majlis there is another series of micro-hesitations, as I, as host, should already be in the majlis and telling them where to sit, making sure everyone has a cushion to lean on and there is a little table with a tray of drinks and snacks near them.

But I am, instead, hovering near the door because I have to wait until the last person has entered the apartment to shut the door. Then I have to wait to enter the majlis because there are 5 men milling around the middle of the majlis trying to give each other the best place to sit.

Once they have all sat down, I greet them, then try to disappear into the kitchen to bring tea and coffee, while they all yell that they don’t want anything to drink. This is hard for both them and me. The water, soda and snacks are already set out but as I am not sure about when they will arrive, I don’t make the tea and coffee until they are in the apartment. As an American, I am not worried about leaving guests alone for a moment to get something from the kitchen, but their expectation is that the host has set up all the food and drinks before their arrival so the host will immediately sit down and will (should) not stand up again until everyone leaves.

A few times I tried a different way. I opened the door, stepped to the right (beckoning them to follow me), walked backwards into the majlis and sat in the furthest corner, then I could direct people where to sit and toss cushions around. But when I tried to stand up to bring tea, they stormed at me. It’s overwhelming as men who are always patient and low-key will suddenly and voraciously protest my attempting to leave the room: “SIT DOWN,” they yell, “WE DON’T WANT ANYTHING.” To them, they are showing that they are good (non-demanding) guests by saying that they don’t want me to make more of an effort to bring them hot drinks.

I know, and they know, that the visit will probably be two or more hours so I steel myself and leave the room to make tea. When I am in the hallway, I turn the key to lock the front door. When the door is not locked, if someone opens the house door (downstairs), my front door opens, so I make sure it is locked at all times. In most Dhofari houses, especially those outside of the city of Salalah, front doors are usually not locked during the day.

When they are ready to leave, they will stand up. From Dhofari perspectives, a good host will attempt to stop guests from leaving to show that they are welcome to stay as long as they want. Therefore, I should be protesting and telling the men from my research group to stay, but they and I both know that once they stand up, they will leave. I deal with the contradiction of both expressing politeness and acknowledging reality by saying the expected words, while dashing out of the majlis so I can unlock the front door, then step back down the hallway to be out of the way for their exit. So there is a silly moment of me saying, “stay, stay” at the same time I am opening the door.

If I don’t move quickly, they will leave the majlis, walk into the hallway then hesitate by the front door, creating a brief logjam. There are a few seconds while the person closest to the door realizes it is locked and figures out how to unlock it. Meanwhile, I am stuck in the majlis, keeping space between myself and the last man. This means that by the time I get to the front door, some of the men are already out of sight beyond the turn in the stairs.

This is fine for them as, among friends, there are no protocols for leaving. But the few times this happened, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of incompleteness. I hadn’t realized how important it was to me to say ‘goodbye.’ Once I followed them down the steps and got yelled at, “GO BACK!” (again, them expressing politeness by telling me it is not necessary to follow them to their cars.) So now I make sure I leave the majlis first so I can say ‘goodbye.’

Because there are fewer cultural constraints on women being in physical proximity to women, the space limitations in my apartment don’t matter when Dhofari women visit. I can stand with my left hand on the front door, signal where to go and be in the majlis when they are choosing their seat. There are no protests if I get up to get tea and we can all crowd by the door when they leave.

Note: Bathroom doors are a good example of cultural perceptions impacting space. In Oman, bathroom doors are almost always closed when not in use as bathrooms are perceived as unclean at all times. In the States, bathroom doors are often left open when not in use. Sometimes it’s to allow more light into the hallway or the bathroom is nicely decorated or it might have the cat’s litterbox or to show that it is not occupied, etc.

apartment plan

Illustration by Maria Cristina, website: https://www.mariacristinah.com/

Houseways – Types of Apartments Buildings (Family/ Public)

To start this discussion of apartments in Dhofar, I would like to informally divide apartment buildings into two types: “public” meaning available to be rented to any person (usually expat or non-Dhofari Omani) and “family,” meaning built to be given or rented to only people who the owner knows (usually family or tribe-members) or someone vouched for by a close friend or relative. Thus family-type apartments are almost always rented by Dhofari Omanis.

This difference is sometimes, but not always, by location, as some sections of land in Salalah are occupied by inter-related families within one tribe while others, especially newly-built areas, have a mix of inhabitants.

In general, “public” buildings have several floors and an on-site manager who has a small office and/ or lives in a small apartment near the front door and is responsible for up-keep, fixing problems and keeping an eye on the building.

A person who owns a “public” apartment building will advertise widely, for example hanging a ‘for rent’ sign, taking photos and putting them on social media and/ or registering the apartment with rental companies.

“Family apartment” buildings are usually smaller, either 2 or 3 floors, a subdivided house or apartments built into the back of a family house. When the apartments are ready, the owner will not advertise in any way, but fill the apartments by word of mouth among friends and relatives. There would never be an on-site manager for a family-only building as no one would want someone watching who comes and goes and when.

There are also significant differences in terms of how the rooms are placed and designed which I will discuss in a later essay.

“Family”

For the past 50 years or so, a “house” meant cement-block built living space for a father, mother, unmarried sons and daughters, married sons and their families, older relatives and temporary guests, for example a married daughter whose husband is out of town for work. Sometimes the house would be built to 2 or 3 floors, or one floor was built, then upper floors added when more space was needed.

From the 1990s until recently, sometimes the majlis (the male/ guest sitting room which has its own entrance and bathroom, separated from the rest of the house by an interior door) was rented out in khareef, the monsoon season from the end of June until the end of August. The owner would give the space to family living in other parts of Oman or rent it by letting friends and relatives know the space was available.

Sometimes there was the opposite use of space, in which a house was rented out but the majlis was kept for the owner. For example, if the owner worked in Salalah but lived in the mountains, the owner would be able to use the majlis as a place to nap/ relax and occasionally sleep in and rarely see/ interact with renters who lived in the house.

Another division I have seen (only once) was for the owner to put a new interior wall and a wall in the hosh (courtyard), then broke an exterior wall to make a door, thus lengthwise dividing a one-story house into two apartments: one with the majlis and salle (women’s sitting room) at the front of the house and the second with the kitchen and two bedrooms at the rear. The renters of the back half of the house had a narrow driveway to reach the kitchen door.

 A newer style is to buy land that is open on two sides, usually a main road to the front and an alley to one side. The house is designed with a front gate opening to the main road and a smaller gate on the side (which would normally lead to the kitchen) leading to a door which opens to a small landing with 1 or 2 small apartments. Thus the family lives in the main house, sharing a wall (but not entrance) with several small apartments which can be rented to help pay for the mortgage, given to relatives or, in time, given to the married sons so that the couple has some privacy, while still being close to the husband’s family.

Another style is to make a small apartment block with the same type of divided entrances. For example, a 2 story-building with 4 flats in which 2 flats (ground-floor and 1st floor) are accessed though one gate and the other 2 flats (ground-floor and 1st floor) are accessed through a second gate, with a cement-block wall dividing the hosh into two spaces. (example A, discussed below)

There are a few housing complexes, often only 4 to 10 houses surrounded by a wall with narrow, internal road(s), which are usually “public” and rented to expats, as well as Omanis who use the houses for informal get-togethers, not to live in. A few complexes are for one family, for example a wall surrounding 4 houses and a separate majlis for a man with four wives or a father with several sons. Infrequently there are larger complexes (with over 20 large houses) for one extended family.

Apartments and Sightlines

Another factor besides having a manager and number of units to differentiate “family” and “public” types of apartments is that for “family” apartments, it’s important to limit sightlines for outsiders. For example, in a small apartment building (A) as described above, not only are their two entrances, but each ground floor apartment is given control over the small hosh area, while each first-floor apartment is given control over half the flat, tiled roof.

Thus there are two factors to heighten privacy. First, the inhabitants of all four apartments have their own outside area to use for drying clothes, growing plants in pots, etc. The roof area is divided by a low wall, with the built-in drying racks built at opposite sides of the space.

Second, the building design means that the apartment’s front door is seen by very few people. If a person in the ground-floor apartment wants to leave and, while opening the front door, hears footsteps on the stairwell, they can quickly close the door, wait for the person (from the first-floor apartment) to leave, then go out. Thus the residents can limit or prevent being seen by anyone else.

Whereas a “public” style apartment building would have one hallway on each floor and only one main entrance, with perhaps a small back staircase for fire safety if it was several stories high. Every time a person exited their apartment, they would be on display, so to speak, for all the other neighbors to see and everyone would pass through the main entrance.

Two additional notes:

None of these houseways essays argue that these types of buildings/ ways of using the buildings in Dhofar are unique. I am trying to explain the current pragmatics of housing without making a claim that these methods are found only in southern Oman. For example, the methods of small-scale landlords using renters to find other renters (i.e. preferring to fill small buildings by word of mouth and personal recommendation, not using social media or public signs) reminds me of renting while I was getting my PhD in North Dakota. A friend (X) in my program found a beautiful apartment in a converted house that had two other apartments. Within a year both other apartments were also rented by English graduate students. X had parties, everyone liked the building and location, several colleagues asked about the two other apartments and the owners liked X, so as the two apartments came open, the owners asked X for recommendations. I eventually took over X’s apartment and when I left, another English graduate student took that apartment.

I would like to highlight that both men and women can own land and houses, although it is less common for a woman to live in a house she has bought entirely herself. For example, a woman might be given or buy a plot of land and have a house built which is then rented out while she lives in a house which her husband/ husband’s father owns. As I continue to look into houseways in Dhofar, I hope to find statistics on land and house ownership delineated by gender but among my informants I know of many types of ownership:

  • one man owning the land/ house where his wife, married sons and unmarried sons and daughters live
  • one man owning the land/ house where his wife and children, mother, married brothers and unmarried brothers and sisters live
  • brothers and sisters joining together to buy land and build a house for their mother to live in with them if the mother is widowed or divorced, with the deed either in the name of several siblings or one brother’s name (who acknowledges the ownership rights of his siblings although those rights are not legally represented)
  • one woman owning the land/ house which is rented out

There are a lot of possible permutations as house/land ownership and house/land occupancy are not necessarily the same. For example, it’s rare but an older woman might live alone in her father’s house when all the other family have moved away. The house might legally belong to a brother or a nephew, but the house is discussed as being “hers,” with the understanding that she has the right to live in it until she passes away. On the other hand, a man might live temporarily on land that is not his. For example, when herding camels, a man might set up a semi-permanent camp and stay for several weeks on land that he does not have a permit for.

Example of front door to family apartment building, having one door signals that the interior is divided into apartments as almost all  single-family houses have two front doors, one for the majlis and one for the main section of the house (photo taken by informant who wishes to remain anonymous and given to me for use on this webpage)

Houseways – Balancing Privacy and Hospitality within an Apartment

This is the first of several short essays about housing in Dhofar. After a few posts with photos illustrating types of homes, I will write about theories and cultural perceptions of safety and privacy within home-spaces. Before I begin I would like to thank my Dhofari friends and informants who are so patient in answering questions and so kind in allowing me to take and post these photos.

Normally, pictures are only taken while building a house or when someone has just moved in, in which case they are only shared between close friends. Rooms which have been prepared for a marriage (with wedding gifts on display) are sometimes circulated, without names, through social media. The only other time photos of interiors are taken is for a host or hostess to show that the house is ready for a party; photos of exteriors are usually only taken to be sent to delivery people so that they can recognize the house. So it is not normal to take “every-day” photos of a lived-in house. I am very grateful for their trust in me and their willingness to support my efforts to understand the cultures of Dhofar.  

These are photos from a newly-built, Dhofari-designed apartment that is at the side and back of a family house. The owner’s (X) family lives in a 3-story house which is accessible through a gate facing the main road. The apartment is on the south side, facing an unpaved alley, and is entered through a side gate which leads to a small paved area and steps up to the entry door. On the ground floor landing, there are two doors (with metal numbers attached so food delivery workers know which doorbell to ring) and then steps up to the upper floors. One of the ground floor apartments is my informant’s (Y, who is a member of X’s extended family) and the other is for a relative of X. On the first floor are two apartments: one used by X as a retreat and to entertain male guests without having to bother anyone in the main house; the other is for a relative of X. The top floor is one apartment rented by a relative of X, who is also related to Y.

I will discuss this sort of building in a later post, but briefly, this sort of structure is normal in the main city of Salalah. Until the last 5 or 10 years, houses were built as one entity, often one story, with additional stories added later to accommodate married sons and their families. Now, some homeowners find it easier to take (no-interest) loans from the bank or family/ friends, build a large (3-story) house with a few small, separate apartments which are entered through a second door. The flats are then rented out to help repay the loan and/ or given to older relatives, married sons or relatives in need (for example a young relative who is attending college in Salalah).

Larger homes have two front doors: one leading to the majlis, the men’s and male visitor’s sitting room. The other leads into the family/ private part of the house, with a long hallway which has a large opening for the salle (women’s, close family and female guests’ sitting room), e.g. the salle is a three-sided room with one side open to the hallway. But in an apartment with one entrance, the majlis is the open area is directly in front of the door and the salle is a room near the front of the apartment which can be closed off with its own door.

When you open Y’s door, directly ahead is the majlis area with a sectional sofa along the left wall and straight ahead with a coffee table in front of it. At the end of the sofa to the right is an archway leading into a hallway off of which are the family/ private areas. To the right of the archway is a door leading to the salle and to the far right is a guest bathroom (with the door partially hidden by a curtain). Thus male guests are placed on the longer part of sofa (under the AC, facing the front door) so that if women are in the salle, they can get up and move to the kitchen and bedrooms without being seen. Or women can simply stay in the salle and close the door.

fa - majlis entry

[edge of majlis sofa and coffee table, hallway, door to salle and door to guest bathroom]

fa - hall

[edge of majlis sofa and the hallway; looking down the hallway, the kitchen door is to the left, then there is a hallway door so that the two bedrooms (each with their own bathroom, one bedroom door can be seen, the other is out of sight to the right) can be completely shut off from the front of the apartment. Thus a man can entertain male friends in the majlis area, with access to the guest bathroom and the kitchen, without disturbing other inhabitants. Women, children and other men can also access the kitchen without disturbing guests.]

fa - salle

[salle, notice how there are many square armrests with a set-in-square of glass – they are for cups of tea and small plates. When eating a meal, it’s normal to set the platter of rice and meat on a plastic mat on the floor, along with cans of juice or soda. But for relaxing, it’s normal to have the cups of tea and small plates with sweets up off the floor.]

fa - kitchen

[kitchen, note that since this apartment is on the ground floor, this kitchen has access to the bottom of the light well (door straight ahead) where the washing machine is placed; apartments on upper floors have only window access (above the sink)]

fa - kitchen2

[view from kitchen back towards hallway, note that walls are tiled up to the ceiling and the floor has a tile pattern that looks like a rug, the fridge (and stove) are slightly raised on platforms so that floor can be cleaned by sluicing water, which drains though an opening in the floor in front of the sink]