Basma al Wahaibi is not your typical Omani. In her late 20s, she is living a life that others would consider requires a lot of discipline. She started her vegan journey 18 months ago, a decision that caused a lot of tension with her family in the beginning.
‘My family thought I was joking. Most Omani families love their meat so when you hear someone making this conscious life choice, you can expect a lot of discussions,” she shared.
Basma’s choice was a cumulative of many things, the primary of which is being kind to animals, wanting a healthy lifestyle and overall, giving back to the environment.
“I am a big supporter of zero waste lifestyle. That means that I make conscious efforts to lower my carbon footprint and make sure that I have very minimal waste being put out into the environment,” she shared.
While she understands other people’s preference for food, inflicting pain to animals is unimaginable to her that she decided very early on to be 100 percent vegan — simplified, it means no using anything that has something to do with animals like leather, eggs or even honey.
“The first two or three months were difficult. There is a process of getting familiar with what’s available in the country. Now on my 18th month, I realised that there are actually a lot of places here in Muscat that provides delicious food for vegans and vegetarians,” she shared.
Since the beginning of her vegan journey in April of 2016, she has created an Instagram account dedicated veganism called oman.vegans.
“It is through this that I’ve met other vegans and vegetarians in the country. I also ended up joining this group comprised of about 40 members. There are quite a few Omanis who are doing veganism and surprisingly, I come to discover that many of them are men,” she shared.
“Many of them are really into fitness and watch what they eat. Unlike women who usually uses social media for shopping and makeup, I observed men were into sharing health tips,” she shared.
Over the last few years, Basma shared that she is noticing an increasing trend of vegan and vegetarian meal providers in the country.
At the vegan menu launching of wagamama in Al Qurum, she shared a few tips on how vegans assess food.
“As an example, one of the offerings here is a vegan ramen. It’s an interesting dish because you have a good portion of fresh noodles, tofu, mushrooms, and greens. I would definitely say it is a good dish,” she shared.
“Just like non-vegans, we assess food based on taste — is it too salty? Is the flavour balanced? Are the ingredients used fresh? Assessment is no different except maybe that you take away the meat,” she shared.
“Many expats in the country, especially those coming from the subcontinents, are vegan. There are also several Europeans who have embraced the lifestyle. One amazing woman I met has been a vegan for 18 years and her children haven’t tried meat since they were born,” she shared.
“Bottomline for us, it’s a healthier choice and we are also being humane to animals. Personally, it has brought me lots of positive results — I’d been sleeping well, my skin has looked better and usually, people say that I am younger for my age. It’s a choice to make yourself better,” she shared.
TITASH CHAKRABORTY & YERU EBUEN
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