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Old 10-14-2007, 05:48 PM   #4
kashmir
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Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: New Zealand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by angelique2 View Post
These are the dishdash that men normally wear in the middle east.
Wondering, are their different ones for women?
I have seen Fifi Abdo wearing these in a few of her clips on you tube.

When I came back from Dubai I bought my husband one. (HE never wears) I thought about using it. Just wondering if I could use it for a saidi performance?
Is that a veil around her hip? Can you use coin belts?
What do you use to cover the hair? I have only seen others in photos or at a far away distance. It looks like a hip belt?
Fifi wears a man's silk galabeya. The city man's galabeya is like a long shirt, pretty straight and with a (Chinese) collar and buttons or domes (unlike the rural galabeyas which are open at the neck and much more flared - easier to tuck up when you need to work in the fields)

The woman's one is a little different - doesn't have the domes/buttons. Fifi plays the part of the mi‘allima in her act - she deliberately masculinizes her behaviour - men's clothing, smoking, suggestive language, agression etc.

You don't have to go the whole hog to wear such a garment - and the silk moves beautifully! For a modern sa`iidi piece - why not? Aida Nour performs sa`iidi and beledi in just such a garment (although hers also has crystals sewn around the collar!)

ME woman (even non-professionals) will wrap fabric around their hips before they dance. (A friend recalls a village where a woman wanted to show her a dance move, with nothing suitable to use she wrapped my friend's jacket around her hips)

I wouldn't use a coin belt with a silk galabeya - but I have been known to use a beaded hip scarf. Depends on the venue and style - a length of fabric is often best.

On the head Aida wears a beaded version of the mandil - like a small beaded hip scarf. I think Fifi sometimes does the same. I also wear a "beledi band" - actually in the photo (left) I've used just a rolled silk scarf.
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Last edited by kashmir; 10-14-2007 at 06:51 PM. Reason: headgear; then mi`allima
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