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trapezius
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 1670
Location: Land of Culture of Death & Destruction
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 Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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If you go out in public with short-sleeve tshirts and no abaya, you will most probably get arrested.
If you want to go out without an abaya (my wife has done it once and I have seen other women do it, but very rare, unless you are a nurse, who go out in public in their white outfits), you still have to cover from neck to feet. Loose trousers, loose full-sleeved tunic top down to the knees. In Jeddah that should suffice. However, if you are like 6 feet tall and have blond hair, wear the abaya  |
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Linda467
Joined: 01 Sep 2009
Posts: 138
Location: A Secret
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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I understand completely and never meant wearing short-sleeves in public, but maybe possible on a female environment ? I�m not the type to want to attract unwanted attention and I�m neither blonde nor tall
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Cleopatra
Joined: 28 Jun 2003
Posts: 3657
Location: Tuamago Archipelago
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| maybe possible on a female environment ? |
There's a very clear distinction between public and private (ie female only) environments in KSA.
In the former, you wear the abaya and maybe headscarf too. In the latter, you wear pretty much what you want depending on the circumstances. AT most workplaces, that means skirts (sometimes trousers are OK) which reach to at least mid-calf and tops which are not low-cut and have at least elbow-length sleeves. At women only parties, anythign goes.... |
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Mia Xanthi
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 955
Location: why is my heart still in the Middle East while the rest of me isn't?
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| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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| At women only parties, anythign goes.... |
And she does mean anything! Arab women (including Saudi women) often dress to the nines for these parties, wearing alluring attire that would appear designed to attract men. Since word-of-mouth is the only way women have to show their marriageability, single women tend to really show off for other women. |
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desultude
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 614
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| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Mia Xanthi wrote: |
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| At women only parties, anythign goes.... |
And she does mean anything! Arab women (including Saudi women) often dress to the nines for these parties, wearing alluring attire that would appear designed to attract men. Since word-of-mouth is the only way women have to show their marriageability, single women tend to really show off for other women. |
While the marriage issue explains some of the dress, the women who are long married and long in the tooth actually dress more "seductively" than the single women. It seems to me to express some latent desire to be publicly seen as sexually attractive- a part of the female sexual plumage repressed in highly religious cultures.
Dancing is another interesting thing you will only see at female only parties. For a culture with a low opinion of music and dance, Saudi women sure know how to shake their booties! My students could easily compete with Shakira. |
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Cleopatra
Joined: 28 Jun 2003
Posts: 3657
Location: Tuamago Archipelago
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| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| You could say that these women-only parties are proof of the theory that women dress mainly to impress other women, whatever some men may like to imagine. |
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