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| Belly Dance |
Belly dancing is found in many eastern cultures from the land of Iran today in the east to Morocco in the west with many influences from Turkey. It’s not exclusive to Muslim or Arab culture only.
Belly dancing in minimal clothing is a way to show more naked parts of the body (the goods) of female slaves owned by merchants or masters. This of course would attract more customers and stand more chance in getting a higher price.
Belly dancers today are allowed to dance in minimal clothing (dancing suits) for cultural reasons and largely for entertainment in secular countries. Still in Islam teachings as a religion this is prohibited and never was allowed even if practiced by some muslims at sometimes.
In Islam even dancing(specially women dancing ) is prohibited. Its considered haram. So you can think why arab belly dancers wear minimal clothing. Thing is Belly dancing comes from culture, Islam is a religion and Culture and religion not always go hand in hand.
Belly dance is a cultural element of the Arabs, not religious. Islam prohibits semi naked clothing. You won’t see belly dances in Arab countries who strictly enforce Islam, only the moderate ones are having belly dances in open.
Similarly, most of the things people believe are simply a part of arab culture, not Islam. People often confuse both to be the same.
Belly dancers have not always danced in the skimpy outfits. In Egypt in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, dancers simply dressed in whatever they were wearing to the party, or dressed in typical garb of the day—midriffs and legs and arms covered (at least partially).
Nowadays, in conservative areas, dance (what we Westerners would lump together as ‘belly dance’, but which is just ‘dance’ in its various homelands) is performed in revealing dress in clubs, and in modest dress when the morality police are snooping, or when dancing at a party (e.g. at weddings, where women dance with women and men dance with men and the same sets of moves are performed by both groups). So…just like dancing in the West.
According to costume historians, the belly dancing outfit we know today comes from France’s dance halls and cabarets. For further reading on this topic, I recommend Shira’s excellent response to a dancer whose husband thinks that everything that women do revolves around men.
Arab does not mean Muslim, and Muslim doesn’t mean good Muslim that obeys all the Islam rules.
The thing is, a Woman in Islam is not allowed to show her beauty for everyone. God enjoined Muslim women to wear Hijab. The most correct hijab is to be with abaya, head cover only is not considered to be hijab, because hijab means “a cover” (google translates it to veil) and is meant to cover women so not to attract men.
Muslim obey God command, regardless if they see the reason or not. But they may think of reasons for this. (after all, Muslim obey God’s command if they are verified to be in the Quran or commanded by God’s messenger, Mohammed)
Some of the reasons for hijab maybe because that generally men are more visually aroused/attracted compared to women. A woman just feels safe that her husband will not look to other women (if all women are wearing hijab).
Harassment and rape crimes reduce. Men have more concentration. Promotions and decisions are not based on sexual attraction (for example the use of women bodies in marketing). You may count more.
Islam forbids any sexual behavior outside marriage, sexual arousing and attraction included. Men also are commanded to lower their gaze when they see women not covered (other than their wives and relatives).
So, based on that, this belly dancing is considered haram (forbidden) in Islam. I don’t mean the dancing itself, but I mean the setting that a foreign woman (not a wife) dancing in front of other people.
So why there are Arab belly dancers and they are not covered?
Not all Arabs are Muslims, and if they are Muslims, they are committing sin by this disobedience, and every one will have his/her penalty in the day of judgement.
There is many Arabs who are not Muslims and there is many Muslims who doesn’t practice it .
in Islam people are not allowed to show their body , but many Arab countries are following the western laws which is different than Sharia Law , in Egypt for example we have a french law , if you will steal something you will be in a prison no one will cut your hand , the Egyptian law is following sharia law only in some subjects like marriage , divorce and there is many rules that is allowed by the law but forbidden in sharia law like bank interest rate , selling alcohol , civil marriage and dancing .
This will make any person able to do a sin without a punishment which means that its up to the person , if she is not practicing Islam then she will dance .
Its the same conflict between the law in USA that allow many things forbidden in the bible so you will find the religious people will forbid themselves from what is forbidden in the bible and if a family that doesn’t care too much so they will forbid themselves from what is forbidden by the law .
Music is prohibited in Islam & dancing too(specially mix gender dance).
However a woman dancing for woman is not considered sinful in Islam, such dances were meant for women`s party/gathering exclusively.
Belly dancing is dance art from Jahiliyah (age of ignorance ), a period before Islam.
It has become culture of Arabs, culture and religion are different things and it has sustained because not every Muslim is hardcore religious. But hardcore Muslims will love to see this vanishing.
The costumes of belly dancers we see today was introduced by Hollywood approximately 50 years ago.
Also belly dancers can wear minimal clothing because clothes they wear are more related to profession than religion , they too don`t roam on streets in that minimal clothes.
Simply. The dancing in arab world depends on the behaviour of the people themselves, and as an arab, the women who dance in public and also those who do not dress modest clthing are considered scums. So dancing is a big sham to the family to which the dancer belongs and no one allows his daughter or sister to be dancing.
Therefore, most of the dancers were homeless or escaped from their hometown for a certain reason. Finally, we can say that dancers are considered bad and nasty people in the eyes of mainstream arab society and it is also prohibited in the Islamic religion and we should never mix between the religion and behaviour of some people. I hope this answer clarified the point.
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