Recently in raqs Category
Do Muslim women need liberating? is an interesting article*; although I cannot say I'm as involved with the struggle regarding femiinism in Islamic cultures as I might like to be (or should be?), it well reflects a number of isues I've heard/read over the years. It also reflects much of the trension regarding women who preform raqs sharqi "over there":
And yet, this is the critical take-away; these issues are, indeed, tied to underlying cultures, and the evolution of those cultures, as much as any other source. Islam was reinterpreted just as Christianity was reinterpreted; the man who drove moneylenders from the temple, and who's early followers lived in a communal style, might not recognize the Prosperity Gospel so prominent now, not to mention certain high-living, politically astute pastors. You cannot assume that practices in one culture apply to all of Islam, over all of it's long history.
Indeed, aside from the 5 Pillars of Faith, there is great variation in the religion, esp. in regards to laws, and the enforcement thereof. Shari'a is not always harsh and unforgiving, and in fact, even with the law, the pratical application may differ. I'm mindful of a paper I have that tracked down actual Prostitution cases in period Ottoman Istanbul, and found that the actual punishment was never carried out, in any recorded case. Those familiar with "50 dollars and time served" get the jist of what the reality was.
Too often do I hear people -- including fellow dancers! -- describe Islam in terms that are monolithic. And we must guard against these things, for it is no longer enough to defend our dance; we must defend it's cultures in a time where many people seek to dismiss us via dismissing any good coming from those cultures. This is the minefield we must traverse to gain more, and stronger, mainstream acceptance for raqs sharqi, and it's related forms.
*(h/t) LiveJournal's islam_feminism community
I would add that my personal opinion is that women's rights were eroded over time; looking at descriptions of women being shrouded in the public sphere in the 'Abbasid era differs mightily from what we read about women in the time of the Four Righteous Caliphs. I've read, and personally think, that the incorporation of Persian culture, primarily for administrative purposes as the Empire grew, has a great deal to do with this, but I have no doubt there were other influences as well.Merve Kavakçı - the former Turkish politician - claimed the modern evaluation of the situation of Muslim women was inherently biased. She believes there is a Western assumption that Muslim women are subjugated, which is attributed to Islam - a non sequiteur in her view, since while Muslim women do need to be liberated, it is not from the religion but from their indigenous culture. This is a crucial point: it's worth noting, for example, that female circumcision - the biggest stain on Islam's reputation - is predominant in Egypt, a secular country, and virtually non-existent in Saudi Arabia. The distinguishing factor is the different cultures in both countries.
She should have been more mindful of the reasons why Islam is seen as
oppressive by non-Muslims - she failed, for instance, to tackle the question of whether the Qur'an and the hadith may have inherent qualities or messages that lend themselves to a male dominant interpretation, a monopoly she herself acknowledged. Women from the very beginning of Islam participated in military combat and were given rights of divorce, alimony and so on, but such scriptural verses which compromise women's credibility in testimony, raise issues surrounding women's inheritance rights in addition to controversial texts in the Qur'an cannot be ignored in any debate about whether Islam subjugates women
And yet, this is the critical take-away; these issues are, indeed, tied to underlying cultures, and the evolution of those cultures, as much as any other source. Islam was reinterpreted just as Christianity was reinterpreted; the man who drove moneylenders from the temple, and who's early followers lived in a communal style, might not recognize the Prosperity Gospel so prominent now, not to mention certain high-living, politically astute pastors. You cannot assume that practices in one culture apply to all of Islam, over all of it's long history.
Indeed, aside from the 5 Pillars of Faith, there is great variation in the religion, esp. in regards to laws, and the enforcement thereof. Shari'a is not always harsh and unforgiving, and in fact, even with the law, the pratical application may differ. I'm mindful of a paper I have that tracked down actual Prostitution cases in period Ottoman Istanbul, and found that the actual punishment was never carried out, in any recorded case. Those familiar with "50 dollars and time served" get the jist of what the reality was.
Too often do I hear people -- including fellow dancers! -- describe Islam in terms that are monolithic. And we must guard against these things, for it is no longer enough to defend our dance; we must defend it's cultures in a time where many people seek to dismiss us via dismissing any good coming from those cultures. This is the minefield we must traverse to gain more, and stronger, mainstream acceptance for raqs sharqi, and it's related forms.
*(h/t) LiveJournal's islam_feminism community
[MEA CULPA: In my haste to write, I made commentary about fan dancing that, in retrospect, is not supported by the article or the facts. I feel crappy about it, I've pulled that section, and I submit my humble apologies to the readers who might have thought I've gone bloody mad.]
This news item came across my "raqs"/"bellydance" feed, and managed to pack so many bits of sterotyping in that it was painful to read. Worse, the stereotypes came (so far as I can tell) not from the dligent report, but from the dancer interviewed:
Mmm. Let's just tackle words and phrases:
Harem: No, just no. Harems are, in reality, places where women are cooped up and protected from the real world. The only reason women dance there, is because they can't dance anywhere ese. This is a horrible model to emulate.
Fifth-Century Entertainment: Why do I have the horrible suspection that she's trying to talk about the Ghawazee? Does she realize that Persians aren't Arabs? Is she saying these "outside observers" learned them in "Arabia", ended up in Persia, then moved to Egypt? Verra confusing.
OK, guys. Let's tighten up this stuff. We already struggle with error-ridden commentary, no need to fuel the fire ourselves, right?
This news item came across my "raqs"/"bellydance" feed, and managed to pack so many bits of sterotyping in that it was painful to read. Worse, the stereotypes came (so far as I can tell) not from the dligent report, but from the dancer interviewed:
A fifth-century favorite form of entertainment will be performed as Kisa Dance presents “Welcome to My Harem” on Saturday, July 12, in Memorial Park.
Kisa Dance, featuring 20 Kisa Girls with veils, will open with a dance to an opera in the free program at 7 p.m. at the band shell. The two-hour show features Egyptian, Spanish, cabaret, sword, zill and tribal dances, many set to popular music.
“There’s even a fan dance,” Carol La Bau said.
[...]
According to La Bau, traditionally, the belly dances were performed by Arab Islamic women, primarily for their own amusement and exercise, and were largely ignored by men. But outsiders viewed the dances and learned them, and when they traveled from Persia to Egypt after the fifth century, they continued to perform them. Belly dancing became public entertainment, often performed by Gypsies. The dance soon grew to be a favorite of Western performers.
Mmm. Let's just tackle words and phrases:
Harem: No, just no. Harems are, in reality, places where women are cooped up and protected from the real world. The only reason women dance there, is because they can't dance anywhere ese. This is a horrible model to emulate.
Fifth-Century Entertainment: Why do I have the horrible suspection that she's trying to talk about the Ghawazee? Does she realize that Persians aren't Arabs? Is she saying these "outside observers" learned them in "Arabia", ended up in Persia, then moved to Egypt? Verra confusing.
OK, guys. Let's tighten up this stuff. We already struggle with error-ridden commentary, no need to fuel the fire ourselves, right?
I'm actually a huge fan of the panel skirt-as-overlay look for all forms of raqs. I think it does wonders for adding, among other things, "depth", if you will, to a costume. By layering on top, it breaks up a lower half of the body that can be otherwise rather monochromatic, esp. in comparison to the complex bras that dancers tend to wear. Panel skirt overlays tend to avoid that, brining a well-coordinated* OOMPH! to the costume that does most dancers, of all shapes and sizes, quite some good.
This style differs from the "leggy panel skirt" design that we dancers see often in various forms of so-called "Nightclub"-focused bedlah. That style may look good on a certain type of women, yet it can be, as an "mainstream acceptable" fashion for dancers, confined to that narrow class of narrow-assed women. The dancer in me sees little room for that style in a troupe of the kind of variety and power I like to see on stage.
* Hopefully well-coordinated, I should say!
This style differs from the "leggy panel skirt" design that we dancers see often in various forms of so-called "Nightclub"-focused bedlah. That style may look good on a certain type of women, yet it can be, as an "mainstream acceptable" fashion for dancers, confined to that narrow class of narrow-assed women. The dancer in me sees little room for that style in a troupe of the kind of variety and power I like to see on stage.
* Hopefully well-coordinated, I should say!
Natasha Atlas on "fusion":
Things are quite like they were when I first started railing about the demonization of "Fusion" in the raqs world. That railing has subsided, and my observation that the fight is dying down is the reason why. The various offshoots of Carolina's experimentation -- and yes, that included Gothic -- have nested in the community's consciousness, if not in the mainstream. That which was to destroy the dance, has in some ways saved it, a cycle I expect to see again, and again.
Indeed, a large, yet unspoken, part of the fear of the various Fusions were that they'd Take Over "belly dance". The dancers who criticized seem to come from a background where there was, in fact, One True Dance, and any others were of a lesser caste. But that does not account for the many people who also pointed out, rightly, the shaky quality of many Fusions, and the disregard for the cultures that generated this form. These things slowed Fusion's acceptance in the greater raqs culture, and still haunt it's efforts, to this day.
Again, all these things we wrongly call "Belly Dance" are still an artifact of a fusion. The record is clear on the aspects of the more traditional dances that Bad'ia encouraged/ordered the dancers at the Casino Opera to change, and that many of those changes were motivated as appeals to the Westerners, and Saudis, coming in to watch the shows. It is fusion, what they did, and in a similar way as to the changes that created American Tribal Style -- or what Atlas describes that the Rahbani brothers did.
That does not absolve us, the participants, or responsibility; no matter what, it's their dance, not ours. And yet, it a quest for purity, we risk dropping the truth for a feel-good moment of superiority. Given that this early fusion may have lost us, and them, the essence of a truly native form, it's all the more critical to keep all the forms intact, but also to allow others to open the dance up the way Bad'ia did.
It is easy to mock the word "fusion", but it is the only word Atlas feels comfortable with in terms of describing her own music. "People say, 'Oh, fusion, eurgh, this is a new thing, and we don't like it,'" she says stonily. "No, actually - it's not a new thing. It's what the Rahbani brothers were doing in the 50s, 60s and 70s, trying to make a kind of union between Arabic music and western music. It's not that I'm here going, 'Oh, I'm going to do this, and mix this with that, and hey, isn't it new and punky and original?' No, it's not, it's been happening way before. And this fusion is natural to me, because that's what I am."
Things are quite like they were when I first started railing about the demonization of "Fusion" in the raqs world. That railing has subsided, and my observation that the fight is dying down is the reason why. The various offshoots of Carolina's experimentation -- and yes, that included Gothic -- have nested in the community's consciousness, if not in the mainstream. That which was to destroy the dance, has in some ways saved it, a cycle I expect to see again, and again.
Indeed, a large, yet unspoken, part of the fear of the various Fusions were that they'd Take Over "belly dance". The dancers who criticized seem to come from a background where there was, in fact, One True Dance, and any others were of a lesser caste. But that does not account for the many people who also pointed out, rightly, the shaky quality of many Fusions, and the disregard for the cultures that generated this form. These things slowed Fusion's acceptance in the greater raqs culture, and still haunt it's efforts, to this day.
Again, all these things we wrongly call "Belly Dance" are still an artifact of a fusion. The record is clear on the aspects of the more traditional dances that Bad'ia encouraged/ordered the dancers at the Casino Opera to change, and that many of those changes were motivated as appeals to the Westerners, and Saudis, coming in to watch the shows. It is fusion, what they did, and in a similar way as to the changes that created American Tribal Style -- or what Atlas describes that the Rahbani brothers did.
That does not absolve us, the participants, or responsibility; no matter what, it's their dance, not ours. And yet, it a quest for purity, we risk dropping the truth for a feel-good moment of superiority. Given that this early fusion may have lost us, and them, the essence of a truly native form, it's all the more critical to keep all the forms intact, but also to allow others to open the dance up the way Bad'ia did.
Short form:
Lots of things, for decades now, have been degrading the art form.
Few of the people complaining have put much effort into documenting, and promoting, what's right about the art form.
If all I see from you are posts about how awful someone is, or how horrid that new DVD is, or how someone "doesn't respect" some arbitrary part of "the art form", I'm going to think long and hard about what you're saying, and why you're saying it.
I complain a lot, here. I also try to inform when I complain, and to also inform and enlighten.
I'd love to see much more of the latter, and much less griping about aspects of "the art form" you can't control.
And now, I'm going to take my own advice. :)
Lots of things, for decades now, have been degrading the art form.
Few of the people complaining have put much effort into documenting, and promoting, what's right about the art form.
If all I see from you are posts about how awful someone is, or how horrid that new DVD is, or how someone "doesn't respect" some arbitrary part of "the art form", I'm going to think long and hard about what you're saying, and why you're saying it.
I complain a lot, here. I also try to inform when I complain, and to also inform and enlighten.
I'd love to see much more of the latter, and much less griping about aspects of "the art form" you can't control.
And now, I'm going to take my own advice. :)
