Amy Winehouse keeps popping into my head when I see my students. Read more to find out why!
Like in South Korea I was not accustomed to what I saw when I first arrived in Qatar. I saw a sea of sameness at first. Now I can see some differences. There are some subtle differences and some big differences.
First of all, there are many types of covering for women in the Arab world.
BBC online has a good slide show of these. There is the
hijab which is a veil and the word for "veil" in Arabic. You can still see the face and eyes when a Muslim woman wears this. They come in different colors and patterns. And like in this photograph, I see SE Asian women wearing these too here in Qatar.
Most of my students wear the
shayla which is a bigger scarf that wraps around one's head and hangs a bit further down. Almost all of my students wear a black shayla with a matching abaya. Some students wear a matching shayla and abaya that have embroidery on the edges. This
blog sells them and has some good photographs. Some abayas and shaylas are fairly modest with only black threaded embroidery on black fabric. Some are much more colorful like the one below. In fact, one of my students wore a black abaya with part of the sleeves made from zebra print fabric which had hot pink bobby sock puffs stitched along the cuffs. I immediately thought "Wow! Cat toy!" when I first saw her abaya. Despite her sassy choice of fabric she was quiet and diligent in class.
Another type of head covering is called niqab and it covers everything but the woman's eyes.
In a class of about 20 females from all over the Arabian Gulf, the Middle East, and Northern Africa, I have had only 2 or 3 who wore the niqab. Furthermore, only 1 of my students out of my total 40 from 2009-2010 never unveiled her face to me. She even wore long, black gloves outside the classroom. I only know that one student by her voice and her eyes. She was from
Sudan. She was also one of my most respectful and serious students here in Qatar. I've found it interesting that in general my students who wear niqab seem to make a extra effort to express themselves with their eyes. Students wearing the niqab have crinkled up their eyes when I suppose they were smiling underneath their niqabs. They have also given me cold stares when frustrated during a class lesson. They also seem to speak their minds more than the others - perhaps because of the freedom associated with the niqab's anonymity or because they were simply outspoken individuals (I'm still not sure which is the cause).
The one accessory that interests me the most is the "flower puff" which some Gulf Arab women put under their head scarves (i.e. a
bustle for your head). It goes to show that curves are in style everywhere. One
online forum explains that some women add this extra
Va Va Voom! under their head scarves to make it look as if their hair is fuller than it really is. The forum also points out that the reason for wearing the hijab, or head scarf, is to show modesty by covering one's hair. Furthermore, the forum goes on to argue that feigning fuller hair than what you have naturally is deceitful and against Islam. Hm . . . I guess women in all corners of the world use all sorts of trickery when it comes to beautifying themselves. I just cannot get
Amy Winehouse out of my head when I see some of my students with a head bustle or flower puff.
Until Next Time,
WW
PS It was 50C or 122F here in Doha, Qatar, today so I cannot imagine ever wearing any of the above fashions. Thank goodness I don't have to wear any of them.
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