Bridal Shower a la Saudi!

Last night, I attended a Bridal shower for Maysoun, the finance manager assistant at the school who recently got engaged to get married this summer. She’s one of the nicest and sweetest people at the school and we all wanted to give her a nice bridal shower. Having a party like this is just one occasion to let your hair down, figuratively and literally in the case of several of my colleagues.


Maysoun wears the hijhab (headscarf) and the black abaya everyday at school. So, after seeing her every day, I still had no clue what she would look like with regular clothes. After a while I just got used seeing my colleagues dressed a certain way and took it for granted that it’s the way they look like. Several of the teachers who attended also wear the hijhab daily and again I didn’t know what their hair would look like.

Now I kind of knew that, being a girls only party, they would not cover since they did not have to shy away from men’s eyes. What I was not expecting was how different they all looked like without their hijhab. I definitely would have passed them on the street without recognizing them. It’s just amazing what a difference having styled hair did to their faces. It made them look younger and much more relaxed. And what beautiful hair is hidden, the long, thick and beautiful kind full of body! I know I sound kind of cliché but it really was revealing to see them like that.

The music selection for the evening was all middle eastern and we danced… you can say I was a belly dancing fool, or at least a fool trying to be one. Most of them have a lifetime of practice, so poor little me, with my European upbringing and the two left feet…well you can easily imagine the scene. To make dancing more fun, there were several tie-around the waist embellished scarves to make jingling sounds when dancing. Now, those women could dance! Their bodies had some moves and their bums had a life of their own. Very beautiful and sensual dancing…all for women’s’ eyes! One of them, who was married last summer, told us that her husband had forbidden her from dancing like that because she’s just great at it and very provocative. The poor husband wants to protect his wife from other men’s eyes!

At one point in the evening, we played a game: having been provided with raw materials, in teams we had to design a bridal veil… some interesting designs came about. We also ate some delicious foods. But honestly the dancing was the highest point of the evening…well, maybe after seeing my colleagues’ hair! Amazing how little things you take for granted make an interesting blog entry…