France, the Burqa, the Abaya, and Siham Rifqi: Vive Le Commerce
a-Quds al-Arabi (July 14)
Abayas are the long black body covers that are worn to cover everything underneath them. If you are not looking at the woman’s face (i.e her niqab or burqa) then you are looking at her abaya. They are worn with the niqab, the burqa, and the hijab.
Which reminds me of the old song by Siham Rifqi (a Lebanese or Palestinian singer who probably has been dead for a long time). It is titled “O woman in the abaya”, not exactly ‘Blue Jean Baby…’, but in fact much much better:
Yom elabaya…
Hilwa abatetch…
She had a melodious voice, and sang it in our Gulf dialect, unusual for an ‘outsider’, and that was long before outsiders had heard of most Gulf cities (towns really) or their dialects.It was a hit with me as soon as I heard it, and at the time I was probably not even of school age.
Cheers
mhg
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