The Libyan Student Community at WSU shared Libyan culture and food at an event Saturday evening at the Gladish Community & Cultural Center.

The celebration, which was free and open to the public, began with a presentation on Libya and Libyan culture, as well as traditional cuisine. It was the first event the Libyan Student Community has hosted.

“We prepare such party because we miss our country, and because we would like to introduce the Libyan culture, traditions and events to all Americans who are not familiar with such culture and tradition,” said Omran Akasha, a WSU graduate student who came to the U.S. in 2008 to pursue a doctorate in language and literacy.

In addition to a celebration of Libyan culture, the event was an opportunity for Libyan community members to come together in celebration of Eid al-Fitr, a three-day Islamic holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Eid means “festivity” in Arabic, the national language of Libya, and Fitr means “to break fast.” Eid al-Fitr began Sept. 1.

This event is important because Libyan community members in Pullman do not have many chances to come together to celebrate and share their heritage, said Nadia Nsir, a WSU graduate student from Libya who is pursuing a doctorate in English as a second language.

“The Libyan community is very small here,” she said. “We miss many occasions, so this is a good chance for us to get together and discuss Libyan culture and show it to others. Whenever you say ‘Libya’ to people, they have no idea what Libyan culture is about.” Martin Steen, a Colfax resident who graduated from WSU with a degree in botany in 1958, attended the event for just that reason.

“Generally, I know something about other countries,” he said. “I have got to meet a lot of people from other countries, a lot of international students, but I didn’t really know anything about Libya. Before tonight, I had never met someone from Libya.” Dinner consisted of traditional Libyan fare, a diet with strong Mediterranean and Italian influences. The Italian influence on the dishes of Libya is a remnant of the days when Libya was an Italian colony before gaining independence in 1947. The dishes included couscous, mixed rice topped with nuts, Arabic salad, cooked spicy meat, Mb’atten, slices of potatoes filled with ground meat, and Mahshi, a bell pepper filled with rice, ground meat, parsley, onion and spices.

“The variety of Libyan traditional dishes can be considered a clear evidence of our cultural variations,” Akasha said. “Libyan culture for us means a lot. It is a combination of cultures from different regions. This chunk of cultures is due to the fact that Libya is the land where civilizations are met – Europeans from the north, African from the south, Egyptian from the east and Algerian from the west,” he said.

The WSU Libyan Student Community, which consists of about 30 students, aims to support Libyan students pursuing a degree at WSU, Akasha said.

Libyan students are sponsored by the Libyan government. The total number of Libyan students pursuing secondary education in the last two years in the United States is only about 1,500, he said.

“We appreciate very much that we have been accepted here,” Nsir said. “We would be happy to pay back WSU in any way we can. We feel so much that it is our community, and we are very attached to it."