Greetings From Egypt's Worst Belly Dancer

Close your eyes and imagine a bachelorette party. Got it? Okay now close your eyes and imagine a bachelorette party for an Egyptian Muslim woman. What comes to mind? Yeah, I didn't know what to expect either.

In true Egyptian fashion I was told Wednesday that I would be picked up Thursday for a bachelorette party..this was all I knew. What does one wear to a bachelorette party in Egypt you might ask?! Yeah I wondered too...anyway the ladies picked me up and they were all dressed in their usual clothes: conservative, veiled. I was dressed appropriately so that was fine. Anyway after a lot of dancing to Egyptian music in the car, we arrive. We walked up to the villa, which is covered in strings of lights and notice that there are lots of men around. "Ok, I think..maybe I had the wrong idea" so we are told to go up to the roof and as soon as we step out it is like I have stepped into a North American club (except that it is all women - and there were a few older women in traditional dress): I look out at a sea of short, low-cut dresses and long hair.... I look over at the women I came with and I feel like I have been transported into a movie about high school, where the young girls get to school and take off the top layer to reveal the much more revealing outfit that they weren't allowed to wear in front of their parents. Now the clothes themselves, of course are not shocking to me (although I am one of the more conservatively dressed at this point...interesting reversal) it is just that I see these women every day and I have never seen their hair or their wrists, and who are just as conservative in attitude and mannerisms as they are in dress. It really was something. Some of them take me a moment to recognize. I quickly realize that the men are just downstairs greeting and guarding while the women do their thing. There were tarps put up all around the area so you could not see anything from the street or neighbouring villas.

There is a lot of loud Egyptian music and lots of belly dancing. I am, as the title suggests, the worst belly dancer imaginable - even with the lessons that took place at this party. At one point the lady of the evening leaves and then returns, having traded in her hot pink cocktail dress for a little black number adorned with the belly dancer accessories (you know the jangling belt thing and such) and she goes to the middle of the dance floor and dances while we make a dancing circle around her and cheer her on with our clapping. This happened several times, she would disappear and come back in a new outfit belly dancing outfit (including a sparkly-purple-bikini-top-with-skirt-with-a-slit-all-the-way-up number) which was sometimes accompanied by matching props (such as a gold cane). It was quite the experience. I wish I could show you all pictures but, of course I can't. It was amazing to see a totally different side of these women. I would not have felt comfortable wearing the outfits or doing the dance moves that they were up to - me...from the West. I kept thinking "Is this really happening? Am I the shy, conservative, modest one?" - quite the unexpected role reversal. I don't even know if I can fully express this - I think you may need to be here every day to really be as blown away by it all as I was. It gave me a better understanding of what they must be like at home. Not to say that it is all belly dancing and revealing outfits but just that while the religion requires that they dress conservatively in front of men, they are just like the rest of us in the privacy of their home. There was also a woman who did henna for the bride to be - not all over the hands like in the Indian tradition but smaller ones in various places on her body - and for all of us. Once the dancing was over (around 11) they brought out tons of food and a cake that would have made me blush a little even at home, let alone here. It was a quite an experience...one that a visitor to Egypt would never get to see. As with so many things here, it left me incredibly grateful for this amazing opportunity.