Abayas, dishdashas and other clothes

One of the most shocking and, at the same time, disturbing things to see when one arrives to Kuwait, or any other country in Persian Gulf, is the amount of women wearing completely in black, many of them showing only the eyes. This only reinforces the theory saying that we tend to perceive with more attention what matches with our previous expectations. This leads us sometimes to distort reality. Strangely enough, there are other women, at least in this country, who goes with uncovered hair, and some of them prefer wearing in western clothes (I have even seen some girls in bikini in a public pool). Few days ago I attended to a cultural conference about clothing in Kuwait and Arab countries in general, and we discussed about this and other related topics I will comment now.

The main traditional attire for women is called abaya. It is a long, floor length tunic, usually made in polyester or silk, in black colour. It is wore together with the hiyab or the cloak used by women to cover their heads and, sometimes, with the niqab, the veil which they cover their faces with, showing only the eyes. The reasons of why they use this clothing, with or without niqab, are merely religious and cultural, and it will depends on the degree of religiosity or traditionalism of each woman. That is to say, at least here in Kuwait, using abaya and covering head and face is not obligatory, although there are countries like Saudi Arabia where it is mandatory in all public places.

Continuing with the female attire, the abaya is not the only traditional clothing for women in Kuwait. There is another dress, also long but much more colorful called daara. It is used usually for special events, such as weddings and other celebrations, but also there are girls who wear this for going out. The daara can be in different colors and designs, and it is normally decorated with embroidery and filigrees.

About men clothing, the most traditional ones wear usually a long white tunic called dishdasha, with trousers in the same color. On the head they wear a kind of cloak, known as ghutra, which can be in different colors, mostly white or a design of red squares, resembling those typical Palestine scarfs. The ghutra is topped with a double twisted black cord, the agal, in order to keep the cloak in its place, without falling down.

Does it look good?

It was an interesting talk where we also discussed about other topics such as the situation of women in Kuwait, what I would like to talk in a future post. About this matter, I don’t consider negative nor degrading if a girl covers her head or even her face, as long as it is a personal decision and it is not an imposition. But, well, if we stop to think about in our own dressing habits, what is not an imposition? Are we really free to decide what we want to wear? We tend to think that Muslim women are slaves of their religious values but, are we, Western people, not also slaves of our fashions and trends?

Here is the debate in case someone would like to say something about.