Headscarf as Fasion Statement

Headscarf as Fasion Statement

(The girl in the photo on the far left is buying perfume from a street vendor. )

The first place we visited where the majority of women were wearing headscarves was Istanbul, and it did not strike me there that the scarf could be a fasion statement. My first glimpse of the headscarf as expression of indviduality and personality was in Puerto de Mazarron, where there are many Moroccan immigrants. I spotted mother and daughter shopping at the weekend market, and the daughter's headscarf was black, with a pattern of white sculls on it. Conservative Islam punk chick wanna-be? Here in Cairo there is no question about it, the headscarf is a fasion accessory.

Our hostel is in the middle of the movie theater district, and from noon, when the first showing of the films begins, to after midnight, the streets are packed with young couples and families on their way to the show. Let me describe "the look" for a young woman in Cairo. She is wearing tight jeans or a ground length A-line skirt. Her shirt is long sleeved and form fitting, usually a layer of two or more sweaters in contrasting colours. (They think it's winter here, only 23 degrees!). The very fasionable girls are wearing short skirts and leggings, short skirts over tight jeans or long form-fitting tunics over tight jeans. The business women are wearing exactly the same outfits you'd see on the streets of Vancouver, except sleeves are always long. Shoes range from coloured high-tops to awesomely high heels to knee high leather boots. And headscarves. The headscarves are colour coordinated, layered, draped, arranged and beautiful. There are no rules against make-up, either. I have never seen so many beautiful faces, beautifullly made up. This place must be a gold-mine for Mary-Kay and Avon!

We have seen women who are completly draped in black from head to toe, and there are a few who cover their faces with veils too, but they are in the minority. The other look that's quite common is the full length A-line robe, with matching headscarf. It pulls over the head and is form fitting to the hips. How tight you wear it probably depends on your age and your level of confidence. The colours range from black, dark green or blue to animal skin prints. They are almost always decorated with sparkly bits. Yesterday I saw a girl in a skin-tight black robe, with silver sequins embroidered down the back and front. The silver trim on the back followed the line of her spine, then spread in a star shaped pattern across her hips. Her headscarf was black, trimmed with silver. She was beautiful, and she knew it, and so did everyone else who looked at her!

I would love to get one of the robes, but in my case it would be more for covering up than showing off. What I have done is buy a new skirt (goodbye green with zippers!). This one is dark blue cotton. It would be good to be able to say it's Egyptian cotton, but the label says "made in Turkey". It comes down to my ankles and has two wide layers of same fabric lace around the bottom, so I can swish my way along the street with the best of them. When I put on the long-sleeved tunic shirt I bought in Fez I am decently covered by Cairo standards. No headscarf, except when I go into a mosque.