Women Forbidden to Dance
The amazing aspect of traveling for me is learning something new or gaining a different perspective. My recent trip to Marrakesh, Morocco got me thinking about women and our freedom to dance.
While in one of the hammams, I saw an advertisement in a women's magazine for a dance school. It said it offered classes for Afro Brazilian, capoeira, classical and a few others. I was instantly elated and asked one of the women working there if the school was close by. The immediate response was, 'its not too far but they don't allow women to dance'. further she said, 'I wouldn't be allowed in and as a western women they would turn you away as well; you wouldn't be accepted to take the class'. I gulped my shock and thought to myself, What, forbidden to dance?! My mind was quickly racing to find an explanation. It didn't make sense to me. Intellectually, yes I am aware of different cultures, however emotionally, morally, this didn't feel right. The woman went on to tell me about her passion for dance, however there was something holding her back.
Regardless of whether or not I believe in certain cultural traditions, norms, rules or laws, its almost 2010 and would like to think we have evolved to understand the benefits of self expression and equal freedoms. As I understand it from a few people, Morocco is fairly advanced in their thinking compared to some other countries with similar religious traditions. What confuses me is in countries that are known to have particular religious traditions or social rules, there are also women in places of power. How does this add up?
There are many topics here that can be explored in more depth and which we can debate. What I took away from this brief experience is to remind myself every time I go dancing to infuse as much energy into it as possible because I could just as easily not have the opportunity.
While in one of the hammams, I saw an advertisement in a women's magazine for a dance school. It said it offered classes for Afro Brazilian, capoeira, classical and a few others. I was instantly elated and asked one of the women working there if the school was close by. The immediate response was, 'its not too far but they don't allow women to dance'. further she said, 'I wouldn't be allowed in and as a western women they would turn you away as well; you wouldn't be accepted to take the class'. I gulped my shock and thought to myself, What, forbidden to dance?! My mind was quickly racing to find an explanation. It didn't make sense to me. Intellectually, yes I am aware of different cultures, however emotionally, morally, this didn't feel right. The woman went on to tell me about her passion for dance, however there was something holding her back.
Regardless of whether or not I believe in certain cultural traditions, norms, rules or laws, its almost 2010 and would like to think we have evolved to understand the benefits of self expression and equal freedoms. As I understand it from a few people, Morocco is fairly advanced in their thinking compared to some other countries with similar religious traditions. What confuses me is in countries that are known to have particular religious traditions or social rules, there are also women in places of power. How does this add up?
There are many topics here that can be explored in more depth and which we can debate. What I took away from this brief experience is to remind myself every time I go dancing to infuse as much energy into it as possible because I could just as easily not have the opportunity.
2 comments:
HI There,
Sadly this is a fact of life for most women within this culture. Coming from an eastern backround myself, and being a Belly Dancer and Sambista, I very grateful that I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to dance- even though there is a lot of stigma attached....
To all out there, enjoy your dance to the fullest
Shyamala Gamal xxx
Hi, Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately there are all too many examples of this. That is wonderful you are doing what you love to do regardless of what others think or say. I am thinking about having a dance show to raise money for a womens charity involved with dance. If you are interested in joining me it could be great! Thank you!
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