The Bedazzled Abaya

Many women in the Middle East, although they must conform to the law, try to differentiate themselves, be stylish, and stand out from all the other women in their black abayas. Apparently, abayas are allowed to be stylish via many different designs and accoutrements. Women also style themselves to stand out - although they are forced to wear long black garments and cover their hair, many young women wear designer sunglasses, designer shoes, sometimes with heels, and carry designer purses. Many women, who can afford it, wear fancy gold bangle bracelets and earrings. Because much of a woman's face isn't shown, eye makeup is essential. Heavy black eyeliner that extends further than the eyelash line on both top and bottom accentuates a woman's eyes. I found myself wearing heavier eye makeup than usual when I wore my abaya, particularly when I wore my new one.

There were two parts of the souq – the more touristy section carrying the typical glass perfume bottles, camel stuffed animals, fake gold tea sets, and other kitsch-y type items, and then the more traditional part of the market where abayas, food stuffs, fabrics, and jewelry are sold. While I bought a large green glass perfume bottle (green is the color of the Saudi royal family) to add to my collection, I was largely under impressed with the Saudi souq for shopping, which surprised me.  I just wasn’t finding much that caught my attention, which was a bit of a disappointment.

I did, however, purchase my own abaya! At a tiny section of the souq, where local women were shopping, there was a little abaya shop run by an Indian man. (As a side note, many shops are run by expats, largely Indian, Pakistani, or Southeast Asian men; women are not permitted to own shops and Saudi men often don’t work in stores, unless it’s a business kept in the family, as they see it being beneath them. This also extends to other countries on the Arabian Peninsula. Practically every Arabian Peninsula family also hires expats to nanny children and clean the house. Salaries are quite low and domestic workers are often treated poorly. Saudi men are given stipends from the government, as well, providing a small salary.)

I went in and was surrounded by rows of abayas hung on hangers. Many of the abayas had rhinestones or sparkles on the sleeves, the back, or along the snaps in the front. Some were embroidered on the sleeves or edges of the scarf with flowers or other designs. Others had ruching on the sleeves to give different designs, such as bell bottom sleeves. I had to ask the store owner was size abaya I should get. I think what I ended up with was a size 56; however, my loaner abaya I started out with was a size 28 – so no consistency in the sizing.  The abaya that I bought was beautiful - the sleeves had periwinkle and purple embroidered flowers with large rhinestones amidst them, the same pattern was on the middle of my back, and the scarf had the same design on one corner of it. The embroidered part was quite heavy, but the abaya itself was fairly light, unlike the loaner abaya. I was looking forward to wearing the lighter fabric in the heat. My new garment didn’t have double-layered fabric, like the loaner abaya had, and the snaps were much better, too. The store owner informed me I was purchasing a newer style of clothing. I finally felt like the cool kid in high school with my new bedazzled abaya, rather than the dorky kid with hand-me-down clothes that didn’t fit quite right.