Baladi Beauty

Modeling a wedding dress in an
Egyptian magazine.

I know there’s a superstition about wearing a wedding dress before your wedding day, but I have worn quite a few wedding dresses since moving to Cairo. At one point, I was up to 20 wedding gowns a week. The irony is that I have never been married (despite the endless marriage proposals from Egyptian men). I simply model wedding dresses in my spare time, when I’m not performing or teaching belly dance. 

Let me clarify. I am NOT a bridal model. It’s just that I am a bit more ‘well rounded than all the Eastern European girls who saturate the modeling market in Egypt, so I get called for a lot of shoots which require a fuller-figured woman. That means lingerie and wedding shoots. As I refuse to model lingerie (especially in Egypt), I stick to occasional bridal modeling. It’s kind of ironic in light of my phobia of all things marriage, especially poofy white dresses. And boy are they poofy here. The minute I step into one of those monstrous things, I look like I’m drowning in a sea of white tulle and chiffon. Not to mention it is impossible to maneuver in them. Now I know why the Egyptian brides usually look scared and pissed.

Ramadan in Cairo

Ramadan suhoor at local restaurant il-Gahsh

It’s that time of year again when Cairo finally takes a break from itself. The city is quieter, and traffic is more predictable. Taxi drivers make an effort not to rip you off, and people go out of their way to be kind. From the multicolored Christmas lights hanging from mosques, to the ubiquitous fawanees (Ramadan lamps) that hang from every home and storefront, there is an undeniable mood of festivity in the air. 

It’s Ramadan, the Islamic holy month. During this time, Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. They avoid all things vulgar. Well, in theory at least. That means no profanity, fighting, lying, smoking, or engaging in other un-Islamic activities. The prohibited activity that concerns us here is belly dancing. 

In Egypt, it is illegal to belly dance during Ramadan. You read that correctly. This is because everything about this dance violates Islamic values of modesty for women and their male viewers. For the most part, cabarets, casinos, bars, and nightclubs close down. But some venues hire belly dancers on the sneak. These are mainly the Nile cruises, which cater to foreign tourists and cannot afford to not to have belly dancing. They way they circumvent the “no belly dancing during Ramadan” policy is by having the dancer wear a 1-piece Saidi galabiyya that covers her whole body, and hiring folklore dancers to dance in the background. Technically, this turns the belly dancer into a folklore dancer and renders her performance legally and morally acceptable. 

Song Translation Service!

Take your dancing to the next level with my new Arabic song translation service! 

Upon popular suggestion, I’ve finally decided to offer a song translation service. Now you can have ANY Arabic song translated & transliterated into fluent, native English for just $25 USD.  I provide accurate, precise translations, phonetic transliterations, and explanations of all idioms, terms, and cultural references that aren’t immediately intelligible to non-Arabic speakers. No more limited, awkward, online translations by translators who are limited in either English or Arabic.

Understanding the meaning of song lyrics will significantly improve the way you feel the music, and allow your audiences to feel connected to you. Song translation is also a great way to gain further insight into Middle Eastern culture.