In the MENA region, it is mostly the consequence of centuries of slavery, with black Africans sold in slave markets across the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf region. Indeed, in some parts of the Arab Gulf region, slavery was abolished only as recently as the 1970s. This is also why racial insults hurled at black people in these countries often refer to them as “slaves” or “servants.”
Perhaps the most egregious form of institutionalized racism in the MENA region is the kafala system of hiring migrant workers in Lebanon and parts of the Gulf region, which has been described as a modern-day from of slavery. The kafala system, which is not covered by regular labor laws in Lebanon, gives employers total control over the legal residency of “their” workers.