Two Updates on the Belly Dancing Scene

These two stories only tang3ntially touch on what I jokingly called the "Islamist/Belly Dancer Axis," But they do relate to an undeniably Middle Eastern art form now under some challenge.

First off, Egypt Independent, as part of a series of articles on ordinary everyday Cairenes, offers "A Day in the Life of a Bellydancer." She dances on a Nile boat club. But she's from Argentina. In fact, quite a few of Egypt's belly dancers in the big hotels and other venues are Europeans or North or South Americans, or from elsewhere in the Middle East.

That might explain the remarks of Lucy, one of Egypt's better-known current belly dancers, whom we encountered before when she was donating money to a Salafi sheikh, and who is now quoted as defending her art against Islamist and other critics, and all those newcomers:

The dancer said that she believes that she and belly dancers Dina and Fifi Abdo are the last of the best and all new comers are mere amateurs from places like Argentina:

The dancer said that she believes that she and belly dancers Dina and Fifi Abdo are the last of the best and all new comers are mere amateurs.

Lucy stressed that she has no intention of resigning from her career and wearing the Islamic headdress hijab. She added that she does not fear the rise of Islamic parties to the political scenes and believes that regardless of who comes to power main goal is to provide democracy, justice and freedom to all citizens.

She also defends the virtue of her fellow artists:

Egyptian belly dancer Lucy considers 99.9% of Egyptian belly dancers respectable and honorable, stating that their repeated marriages is better than getting involved in illegitimate affairs. She added that despite the fact she married at the age of 16, she and her husband are still together.

May I, as a historian of Egypt, add some support to her remark about belly dancers' believing strongly in marriage? The most famous of them all, and according to a now-departed generation the greatest Egyptian belly dancer of the last century, Tahia Carioca (1919-1999), who should probably someday have a blogpost devoted to her, certainly agreed. She had 14 husbands.

Anyone who gets married that many times obviously believes in marriage.

Moroccan Belly Dance Festival With Israelis Provokes Islamist and Political Complaints

Just the other day I was joking about an "emerging Islamist/belly dancer axis," after several incidents involving Islamists and belly dancers. But things are quite different in Morocco. There are Islamist complaints, and also political complaints, about the "Mediterranean Delight International Belly Dance Festival" in Marrakech in May. The festival has apparently been around for several years, but even in Morocco an Islamist party, the PJD, is now leading the government, and many Islamists object to belly dancing on moral grounds.

But there's another element in this case. At least two of the key participants featured on the website (one female, one male) are Israelis. Now, Israelis actually visit Morocco regularly, both in official capacities and as tourists; the two countries have a de facto equivalent of relations even if not formal. (Their security services have also been known to work together, but that's a tale for another time.) In fact, the Israelis involved in this — one of them is apparently one of the organizers — also participated in last year's event, and perhaps earlier ones as well. So what's the big deal?

I suspect it's that somebody noticed, setting off both political critics of the modus vivendi with Israel, and Islamists, who object both to Israelis and to belly dancing and thus doubly to Israeli belly dancers.

Here's an Arab view of the issue from Al-Arabiya, and to balance that a report from the Jerusalem Post offering the Israeli reaction and also noting that an Israeli diplomat was recently hustled out of Morocco as soon as his meetings ended, and a Jewish man was recently killed in Fez, possibly due to his identity. So there's a serious side to this, and a potential threat to Moroccan-Israeli (unofficial) relations.

And there do seem to be some issues here that may have inflamed opinions more than were strictly necessary. For instance, if you go to the entrance page for the festival's website, you'll find buttons to take you to pages in no fewer than eight languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Hebrew and Japanese. Do you notice anything missing? Yes, though Morocco is an Arab country, there's no page in Arabic, though there is one in Hebrew. That seems undiplomatic, to say the least.

The frieze of international flags does include Egypt, Morocco and Turkey along with Israel, but there's no page in Arabic. Here's the English site and here's the Hebrew.

Now, I'm not trying to suggest this is the most important issue in Morocco at the moment; it's a distraction and a bit frivolous; whether one festival is held or not doesn't matter much given the problems the region, including Morocco, face. But it's a reminder that these cultural flashpoints, like the "booze and bikinis" debate over tourism in Egypt, are going to be an issue as political Islamists test their strength. Even so Westernized a country as Morocco is not immune, and the tourism industry may well be affected. Admittedly, it's easy to make too much of this, but it's the Islamists who are bringing it up, though it draws attention because it gives the media an excuse to show pictures of bikinis or belly dancers.

No such sensationalism here, of course, though I do have a duty to demonstrate that there is in fact a precedent for these Israeli belly dancers appearing in Morocco. Here's Simona Guzman, who's quoted in the Jerusalem Post article and who is apparently an organizer of the festival as well, performing at last year's Mediterranean Delight Festival in Marrakech:

Now, the "Nose-Job" Islamist MP and the Belly Dancer, and the Growing Islamist-Belly Dancer Axis

Headline of the Day: "'Nose Job' MP Files Complaint Against Belly Dancer Who Says She's His Wife."

The story refers to this fellow. He is an Islamist, so the belly dancer bit adds to his already compounded scandal, More on the alleged wife here; also here. Just a little over a week ago, she was threatening to picket the press syndicate in her belly dancing garb,  regarding a new film she has out, so the words "publicity stunt" just might be appropriate here, too.

This raises new questions about the emerging Islamist/Belly Dancer axis. I earlier posted about how the belly dancer known as Lucy was donating some of her TV revenues to a Salafi sheikh raising money to replace US aid; that post included both a video of one of the sheikh's sermons and a video of one of Lucy's performances; I haven't checked to see which is drawing more viewers. Though I didn't link to it, actress Ghada Abd al-Razaq, who has sometimes belly danced in her films, announced she had voted for the Muslim Brotherhood. So there may be an emerging pattern here.

Is this a sign that Egyptian Islamists, like some US TV preachers, have an eye for unveiled women? Or a sign belly dancers are attracted to political Islam despite its general disapproval of their profession? Or what?

Cognitive Dissonance in the Culture War: the MB's Tourism Plans; the Sheikh and the Belly-Dancer

I recently posted about some of the recent outbreaks of the culture wars between Islamists and secularists in Egypt and Tunisia.  In the past 24 hours I've encountered two stories that may qualify as cognitive dissonance. Here they are:

1. The Muslim Brotherhood's Party's Tourism Program. Despite all the speculation about the rise of political Islam killing tourism in Egypt by banning alcohol, bikinis, and perhaps even mixed beaches, the Muslim Brotherhood has insisted all along that it has no intentions of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Now, you'll be glad to know,the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has a tourism investment program that will actually promise to double tourism revenues. I'm not totally clear on the details, but there it is.

2. The Salafi and the Belly Dancer. Madame Badia Masabni opened her cabaret in Cairo in 1926, creating the modern form of the ancient art of raqs sharqi or the belly dance; at her cabaret on Opera Square such famous names as Tahia Carioca (who danced at King Farouq's wedding) and Nadia Gamal would achieve stardom. Two years later, in 1928, Sheikh Hasan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood. Since the 1920s belly dancing and political Islam have rarely intersected without friction; Madame Badia's cabaret was one of the first targets attacked and burned on Black Saturday in 1952. The Egyptian belly-dance scene has gone downhill since the 1950s when a wave of puritanism (socialist then in motivation rather than Islamic) started imposing restrictions. Some fear Islamist dominance could spell its end. But perhaps not: popular Salafist Sheikh Muhammad Hassan has recently been promoting the idea of raising funds to replace the $1,3 billion in aid Egypt gets from the US. Now one of Egypt's best-known belly-dancers, who goes by the name Lucy, has announced she will donate her earnings from a forthcoming television drama to Sheikh Hassan. Sheikh Hassan's views on this do not appear to have been reported.

The sheikh and the belly-dancer each have their following but most of us doubt that they overlap all that much, though I understand the number of satellite channels devoted to belly-dancing has been almost keeping pace with the number of channels devoted to preaching. And perhaps on politics they can find some common ground. Lest I be accused of bias when it comes to Salafis versus belly-dancers, I am including both a video sermon of the sheikh's, with English subtitles, and a video of one of Lucy's performances, which doesn't require subtitles. You may watch either or both.