Abaya vs. NY Fashion

From a movie, Sex and the City 2

       The location is in Abudabi, Saudi Arabia, where people are a accustomed to wear their traditional outfits:the thawbs and ghutras for men and the abayas for women.

     A thawb is a  full-length  white clothe, and a ghutra is a white clothe which a man is wearing on his head.

    An abaya  is a black (mostly black) head-to-toe dress covering a woman's head and body.

 

   Carrie(above), Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha walk on the street crowded with local people in their traditional clothing.

      One man runs to Samantha(below), who is in a tiny red top ((because it's really hot outside) and yanks Samantha's purse!

    Samantha's purse gets broken.. and her belongings are everywhere on the ground. There are condoms out of her purse.Samantha gets in a trouble in the middle of a market place because of her inappropriate sexual behavior.

Samantha screams, " Condoms!...I have sex!"

    The local men are getting angry because woman's exposing sexual words/behavior in public is illegal in their country!

    Samantha gets upset and the girls try to avoid the conflicts.

(we would like to focus on the scene where the girls meet five local girls in the building.)

    Running away from the local men accusing Samantha, five strange women in abayas take the girls into a building to avoid the turmoil.

    The women in abayas tell the girls from New York that they are very interested in fashions in NY.

    They are excited to meet the girls from New York.

Saudi Arabian women start taking off their abayas.

    It turns out that they admire New York fashion. They show their New York spring collections under their abayas.
       In this case, abaya could be oppression considering woman's desire to wear what they want freely, and the fact that the weather in town was so hot and everybody was sweating in long abaya.

    So... we hope you have gotten what's going on with the girls from New York traveling in a traditional town in Saudi Arabia. There are two main points in the scenes:

    1) Samantha, who is in a sexy top, carrying condoms in her purse, gets in a trouble. She was yelled by local men on the street because of her sexual behavior and words in public, which is illegal in Saudi Arabia.

   2) Those women in their abayas apparently love to wear New York fashion. They are so happy to show off their fashion under their abayas.

Let's focus on the second part.

Is wearing Abaya good? 

    There are, for sure, conservative people in Saudi Arabia who are accustomed to cover their bodies in public. On the other hand, there must be some women who like to wear jeans and shirts especially in hot summer. 

    (In our opinion,) The movie the Sex and the City 2 represents that Saudi women in abayas are seeking regularly a freedom in their fashions in the public. Plus, the scene, where the local women show their excitement in showing their colorful modern clothes, shows that they are restricted, and they are willing  to show what they really like to dress. 

     We think that the scene makes audiences think that Saudi women want to wear western clothes and also freely enjoy being an individual or unique by wearing many colors and choosing different styles. However, we believe that the majority of women in abayas respects their clothing and they may be used to the heat inside their abayas and the temperature in the town. In addition, women who wear abayas in regular basis grew up with the abaya culture, and have seen their female family members and other citizens wearing abayas in the public, therefore, wearing abayas are, perhaps, normalized in their living.

   We are not saying that the movie is a lie, however, the movie possibly shapes our thinking and gives an image of "Oh, Saudi women cannot enjoy their fashion like Carrie, Charlotte and other girls from New York. The abayas shouldn't be something that they MUST wear, but they can at least be their choice.

Any comments on that?

Images, summary of the scenes by Heidi

Designed, arranged by Jose

Edited, written  by Yuri