Well Dressed Muslim Women

Our flight back to Tunis got cancelled. We're rescheduled, but we ended up with an extra day in Dubai. What to do? Well, the hotel sends free shuttle buses to the three big malls, so we hopped on one that has an aquarium and decided to make a day of it.

The Dubai Mall is about a fifteen minute drive from our hotel. By shuttle bus, making a few stops, it took considerably longer. We got there and walked in to a gorgeous, three story mall that is huge by any comparison. Inside this mall, they even have a Galleries Lafayette like the one in Paris! The whole place is upscale with lots of imported designers and recognizable brands.

Now, I'm not much of a shopper. I like a bargain, so the expensive designer stuff is really out of my price range. I treated this like a window shopping and people watching opportunity. One of the things I noticed that is really different from Tunis is the number of women who do the fully covered Muslim traditional dress or abaya. In a lot of cases, this includes a face covering that leaves only the eyes visible. In Tunis, a lot of women chose to wear the hijab, which is a scarf that completely covers the neck and hair. These are mostly color coordinated with their outfits, which cover their skin to wrist and ankle. It's a lot different to see women swathed in flowing black with only their eyes peeking out.

For some reason, I thought of ski masked robbers bursting into the stores, and "reach for the stars" kept echoing through my head. Thankfully, I kept that an internal monologue and didn't frighten the shoppers.

Let me just say, when the women were wrapped in black cloth, and their menfolk were wearing the galabiyyas, it seemed fair. It didn't seem right for the women to be covered with only their eyes peeking out and the guys walking along in tight jeans, muscle shirts and flip flops. Oh well. I'd better get used to the disparity.

Part of what makes this mall interesting is the two traditional areas. There is a Gold Souk that houses a bajillion jewelry stores. It's styled to resemble an authentic souk and the architecture is gorgeous.

You'd think the shiny, sparkling things displayed in the windows of the shops would distract me, but this part of the mall was truly magical. Gorgeous carved plasterwork. The colors were earthy and rich. The mosaic floors were intricate and flowing, rich with color and symbols. I can't say enough for the person who designed this and envisioned the final product. It is visually stunning.

After spending a little time rubbernecking my way through the Gold Souk, we called it quits on the mall and headed off to catch a taxi. We were directed to the Arabian Quarter to find the cab stand.

The Arabian Quarter is an entire section of the mall that is devoted to traditional dress and high end purveyors of same. So if you want a abaya, these are the stores to shop. What I found most interesting, is that these are traditionally very thin, all black fabric. So every woman looks exactly alike. But these stores have found ways to edge, trim and bedazzle these coverings in such a way as to make them unique.

The store next door sold only the headscarves.
Each one was colorfully edged. Most were bejeweled in such a way as to be distinctive. Some had just the corners encrusted with gems. Some had cuffs and seams colorfully dotted with shiny things. The rules require modest dress. They don't require everyone to look the same. Or at least, that's the way it's being observed at this mall.

One of the things that DH noticed was that in groups of women all swathed in abayas, it was easiest to tell them apart by their handbags. And boy, did they carry some expensive handbags! All you purse nuts out there who have dreamed of owning a Coach, Dolce&Gabbana or Gucci bag, or some other designer with sky high prices, then this is the mall to cause you angst. They are everywhere. I've given it some thought and if all you ever show the outside world is a flowing black covering, then you deserve a really expensive handbag.

--Sandee Wagner