Making a comeback: Male belly dancers in Egypt
By Daniel Williams
Bloomberg News
CAIRO:
"Farid Mesbaah, male belly dancer, hopped on a car in the Shobra District of Cairo and strutted his stuff.
He clanged metal castanets, magically converted his hips into pistons and twirled his head around like a centrifuge. The crowd seated at tables lining a dirt alley clapped rhythmically. Young men in jeans jumped up to wiggle along.
Mesbaah was performing at the opening of the Old-Time Moon Café, a gig that, along with weddings, birthdays, nightclubs and circumcisions, is typical for belly dancers. Untypical, at least in recent years, are performances by men.
Male belly dancing, a centuries-old Egyptian tradition, is making a comeback - against the odds, considering its periodic suppression by government and religious officials. The problem for Mesbaah is that his craft has long been associated with homosexuality - a taboo in Egypt.
"I just like to dance," says Mesbaah, who has seven children. "It's very sensual. I've been doing it since I was little."
Yummy
and no not the gey ones!
1 comment:
I think they will be picked up and smacked into an Egyptian jail. The Muslim Brotherhood is making a big comeback there. They have some very specific laws about anyone who is gay and I don't think they are going to try and make a distinction. Egypt is going backwards not forwards on the human rights abuses and that is scary.
I like to watch the "Whirling Dervishes". Whew, that is something.
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