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two friends, forty takes, one adventure across continents
June 18th by adrianna
Dear May,
When I met my female Yemeni hosts in their home I found it odd that they all seemed camera-shy, as they shimmied out of the way and tried hard to avoid being within view. I learned a few minutes after that for this largely conservative society, it was still frowned upon for Yemeni women to appear in public without a ‘balto’, and even worse for them for be photographed or video-ed without one.
As a tourist it is quite rare that you get to see the local women as they really are — quite stunningly beautiful — for in public they are always veiled, and seldom associate with strangers. Again, I had the brilliant chance to live with a real Yemeni family in the Old City quarters of Sana’a, and through them, managed to meet a great many more local women in informal situations than would have been the case. In public you do see women going to the market and things like that, but they are always covered from head to toe in their ‘balto’, a Yemeni version of what most people know as a burqa. They never eat at restaurants unless with family, and even then are usually hidden from view in the family room where they can, I imagine, remove their veils temporarily and eat in some peace.
I needed to find out what it was like.
I got Hiyat, the woman I lived with, to sell me one of her baltos — and to put it on for me. I then proceeded to go on an 8 hour road trip out of Sana’a in this very dress which covered not only my head, but also my eyes. In a three piece set, which wasn’t very easy to put on, I sweated and burned just so that I could say I know what it was like. I suppose one might get used to it, but… how do they do this every single day?
I also wanted to know what they wear inside those, at functions with their female friends or in the company of immediate male family members. Surely at parties and weddings, even if segregated by gender, they must have special outfits for every occasion?
Three Sana’a ladies (though you can’t see them in the video) decided to show me how it was done. They dressed me up in different outfits, one for every occasion. There was one for hanging out with your husband, another one for wedding parties. There was one that a local woman might put on after she’d given birth, and friends came around to shower gifts and blessings on her.
And because none of these women could be in the video, I had to demonstrate by putting on every single piece and allowing them to put makeup and henna on me… a luxury I rarely indulge anybody in!
All so that you, and the rest of the people reading this, can see for themselves what life might be like, under the veil, for the eyes of a select few only.
I just wish I knew how they did it without feeling like melting because I certainly did.
Sana’a, Yemen
Thanks
Ziad Ali of Ziad Tours, highly recommended inbound travel agency
Hiyat and sister and neighbour
Wake Me Up Music
Music
Beirut — “Bratislava”
Plainsunset — “Interference”
Posted in asia, burqah, islam, middleeast, religion, sanaa, traditional, veil, video, women, yemen.