I recently tried to see a live belly dance at Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant in West Reading. Growing up, I always thought about belly dancing as the stereotypical Eyptian woman dancing sexually in front of a group of men. Even in class when I first found out that we were going to learn about Egypt, one thing came to mind, and that was belly dancing. I was surprised by the fact that belly dancing is not anything like what I thought it was. It was quite different and astonishing of the differences there was between the real thing and what I thought it was. One of the things that really got to me is that in the western hemisphere, we call all of Egyptian dances as belly dancing, when in reality, there are multiple types of dances. This is …show more content…
It made me think about why in the Western hemisphere, we think that belly dancing is very sexual. My conclusion was that the woman was dancing and a man would tell her to do things for him that was not the traditional belly dancing styles of Egypt. It was really surprising for me to see that in the year 2017, there are still parts in the world where women are not treated equal to men. I think this concerned me a lot because of the fact that in America, women have equal rights to men, and are often treated better. In Egypt, woman have to be covered with clothes and are not allowed to be outside without a male companion accompanying her. It is completely different to America where one can go to a store and say that woman should have equal rights as a man and everyone would agree. In Egypt, if you were to say that, most males, if not all, will disagree with you and say woman should not have equal rights as men. I still cannot get over the fact that this is still going on in some parts of the …show more content…
I am almost certain that these women know that in other parts of the world, women have equal rights as men and treated equal. Even though I know not all women in Egypt are treated wrong or less than men, it is still not right that it is not a law that women are to be treated the same as men. It should be well known and a standard for women to be equal as men. They should not have to be accompanied by any male companion in any part of public property. It is sad to see that not all women in the world are treated equal but men
In this Chapter, I explore a contemporary venue for belly dance in America, the Arizona Renaissance Festival. I examine how belly dance functions at the festival and how the festival uses the past as an exotic entity. The Arizona Renaissance Festival creates a fantasy culture for entertainment and reinforces America’s ties to a European heritage. Contemporary representations of belly dance are examined, illustrating how this multifaceted dance simultaneously connects to and denies its Orientalist roots in America. I also examine how images of belly dance from the nineteenth century impact contemporary dance through costume inspiration. Due to the numerous styles of belly dance in America today, I focus on only two different forms of belly dance, American tribal style belly dance or as it referred to ATS and Egyptian cabaret.
Women’s rights in the Middle East are being restricted, therefore there are many different reactions. Some people were in favor of women having equal rights while there are some who are against women to have the same rights. Since before times, many countries in the Middle East have been taking women for granted and minimized their rights by telling them they can't do something or selling them as if they were prized. When women were treated as prizes it was a practice in Afghanistan called Ba’ad that used women as the compensation, for example a story of a girl named Sakina. She was a consolation prize so that her brother could marry a woman and the Jirga system told her she had to marry a 80 year old guy when she was like 18. This tells me
The general idea behind her two stories is to implicitly argue the discriminatory norms of women in society. She states how the problems start from the husband who turns out to be inconsiderate of the wife and lacks any sort of sympathy. Since women in Egypt don’t have any sort of rights, men seem to believe they have the right to be selfish in a relationship. In many of her stories, the husbands end up being filthy lying cheaters that do not appreciate their wives. Both “Distant View of a Minaret” and “A Long Night of Winter” reflect the negative impact on these poor women who are forced into permanent relationships with strangers.
Middle Eastern women need to stand up for their rights and get educated to reverse the notion that they are servants and properties of their men. Furthermore, they need to rise up to their potentials and prove beyond doubt that they are equal to men. This practice would lead the path for future generations to follow and protect the inalienable rights of women. Finally, these women need to break the cycle of oppression by addressing these deeply rooted beliefs, gaining the tools to fight back, and joining forces to make lifelong changes.
The Folklorico group presentation I was honored to observed was the “Grupo Folklorico Juventud” from North Salinas High School. I decided to attend to this presentation because I use to be part of this Folklorico group. I also enjoy watching the dances for the reason that I believe they are beyond beautiful. It is amazing how a simple dance could transmit so much information while representing a region from Mexico. From my observation experienced, I noticed every region has different movements and customs for a reason. While observing the presentation I noticed most women used long skirts to create different shapes. They usually create the eight shape, half a circle or an entire circle which is created when the dancer does an entire spin while holding and moving their skirt. The skirt is also moved in different levels, such as high, medium, and low. The two levels that are used in most of the dances is the high and the medium level. While dancing the men and women usually do the same steps and movements. All the dances include “zapateados” which are known as foot dances or stomps. The “zapateados” are usually done with different parts of the feet such as the toe, heel and the sole of the feet. The dances include “zapateados” with different sections of the feet because every part creates a different sound. Most of the dances also include jumps and turns. It is extremely important for the
The Women of the Middle East have played substantial roles for their corresponding countries since the advent of colonialism in the region. Middle Eastern women have worked in all types of fields including medicine, education, agriculture, government, private sector, and even defense. They have kept roofs over their family’s heads while their husbands were away in wars, or even in foreign countries to work in jobs that they could not find in their own countries. The roles of women in the countries of Yemen and Oman are no exception, but while they still find ways to contribute to their country, they care constantly stereotyped, discriminated, and ridiculed by men who are known and unknown to them. This paper will discuss the individual contributions of the women living in Yemen and Oman, and will discuss in further state laws and cultural norms that are affecting the women living in these countries today.
Although she doesn’t like men ogling her classes, Belinda Shakar does not shy away from the sensual aspects of her dance. In fact, that’s what attracted her to belly dancing as a teenager. “I really liked the sensuality of the dance and even the blatant sexuality,” she says. She had been taking traditional dance classes in Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a performer but thought belly dance seemed more interesting than the styles she was learning. She finally switched to belly dance after injuring herself in a ballet class. The accident convinced her that ballet is unnatural: “It distorts the body and torments it. That is still my feeling o...
In this case, the Sadhu society restricts women entirely in their religion; it is as if they do not even recognize females as humans at
The dancers performed to this in both traditional and modern dance. There was a belly dance, which is an Arabic dance.
.... The creativeness of belly dancing is brought out by what the women or men wear, and also where they are performing, and what style of belly dancing they are performing. If a woman is pregnant and is performing she could wear a dress and hide her belly, or she could emphasize her belly and wear a bra and a skirt. Belly dancing depends on the person; if they want to be more physically fit it is a good form of exercise. If a person wants to boost their self-esteem level practicing belly dancing will allow them to come in touch with their spiritual self. Also if a woman wants the birth process to be an easy belly dancing practices the birthing dance or movement. Belly dancing is very beneficial to ones physical and emotional state and could also help with the birth process; therefore it should be applied as a creative and entertaining form of daily exercise.
The Book of City of Ladies is considered the first feminist novel written. Pizan writes, “Now, however, it is time for [women] to be delivered out of the hands of the Pharaoh.” (Book 11). She is emphasizing the fact that women were neglected during the exodus of Egypt by exaggerating that the women were so mistreated that they weren’t even freed from slavery. There is very few evidence that women actually left Egypt because they are rarely mentioned in Exodus. An extreme amount of neglect and mistreatment must have gone into the escape from Egypt in order to ignore an entire gender.
The first social dance explored was ballroom dancing. Ballrooms were a place of courtship; therefore, these dances were always performed by a male, female couple. Traditional gender roles began the dance as the men always asked the women to dance. As the dance began, the bodies were transformed into vehicles to connect these opposite sex partners. However, societal rules applied to this dance because partners must be from within the appropriate class, the intentions proper, and the movements executed in a specific manner. The woman’s role was essentially to avoid a misstep of tripping on the man’s feet, since the male always led the dance.
The dances actually first was seen as what we American’s call “twerking” in Africa. If we move over to a different culture besides the Western one, we see that the origin is in West Africa. This form of dance unites tribes and communities together, usually in celebration. Many tribes in Africa partake in this type of movement, calling it the Mapouka. Twerking, which incorporates many of the same movements including the emphasis on the hips and buttocks, is an evolution of our ancient traditions. Although in West Africa the dance had been looked down upon and described as an infectious disease by officials. Mapouka dancers were being chased away by officials in many neighboring countries like Togo and Niger. Most American’s do not know any of this, or even where twerking originated. To the general public, twerking started in the early 90s, New Orleans was home “bounce” music, a form of hip hop that relied heavily on call-and-response chanting. When white females integrate twerking into their dances they are essentially stealing black culture. Black women have a history of being more harshly judged than white women for display of sexuality. This puts racist stereotypes back into play about black people being a lower social status and degrading the population, even still today in 2015. Black women are seen as embodying sex because of these racist stereotypes.
While people in the west think that women in Islam are oppressed, they do not know that Islam liberated women from oppression. There are many people who have opinions about the religion of Islam, but mostly about the women who follow it. Westerners have this idea that women in Islam are disrespected, mistreated and oppressed. In actuality, these allegations are incorrect. Women in Islam have rights and are not oppressed. The veil is widely misunderstood and many do not know what it represents. In many ways, men and women are equal as much as they are not; and this is in every religion.
The society and culture of both Britain and Egypt provide ample opportunity for one to connect with human rights.... ... middle of paper ... ... The settings of both authors allowed them to easily produce a work expressing their experiences. The techniques that the authors used placed the reader directly in the situation of these women.