Of Stereotypes

Stereotype- how we perceive a group of class of people to be- can be negative or positive.

Till the time it is positive it is good as all Chinese are supposed to be hardworking, all black people tall and good at basket ball, fine.

Now think of Pakistanis- what comes to a western mind- TERRORISTS! Well that is what we have done to ourselves, we bad mouth our own countrymen, portray a bad image of our own country and then how can we blame other people. They have a right to call us names; we need to put our image straight.

But this is not what has prompted me to write today.
When ever we see a movie and are being shown gulf countries, especially the Muslim world, if they are showing night life, they definitely have to show a belly dancer. When they show a coffee shop, its fine, when they show men smoking shisha, its true, but where the hell in Muslim culture does belly dancing enter? It is a part of the Egyptian culture and it is not at all related to the religious aspect of the place. It is more because these places were colonized by the French or the British and so the Egyptian, Jordanians, Syrians etc do dance to express their joy and these dances are mostly westernized- again nothing to do with religion but influence of the French and British rule.

Coming back to belly dancers- we the Muslims are so many times questioned by people of other religions and culture as to how as a contrast to the hijab and abaya our women are allowed to wear such clothes and how do they dance in this way?
Well they don’t! Belly dancing is not of UAE culture too but then we Muslims need to think. Are we depending on tourism so desperately that Desert Safari has to include belly dancing? This country has been blessed with a beautiful landscape, the sand dunes are really beautiful and see how nature contrasts the colours, the desert is lovely and so are the beaches. Is this not enough to attract people? Think O People, Think!