a man in a bra, a scarf, and a belt coming out to dance..."
Clip #1422 - New TV (Lebanon) - 2/12/2007.
Looking through the videos at MEMRITV.org, one sees an assortment of video clips from Middle Eastern TV. Many of the topics are heavy or horrific. But some of them are more mundane, and sometimes even amusing. This show fell into the later category. Here are some samples from the transcript:
- Lebanese Male Belly Dancers Incur the Wrath of Fellow Female Dancers
Belly dancer Margo Caliphian: Once I was invited to a party, I saw a guy wearing dancing clothes, with full make-up, with earrings down to his belly... How can anyone accept this?!
[...]
He wore red lipstick and glossy make-up, as if he was in Paris. This is unnatural.
Male belly dancer Alaa': You are right. Many people ask me: "Why don't you change the way you dress?" I tell them that I don't care what people think I am doing. All I care about is what I am actually doing. Things like pants, T-shirts, and jeans are fine, because this is how I am. People say: "But you have long hair." I'm not growing my hair because of the dancing, but because it is my style. I began four years ago, and I am still growing it.
Moderator: There's nothing wrong with it...
Margo Caliphian: Let me explain something. It is becoming shameful. Things are deteriorating. A woman is a woman, and a man is a man.[...]
They cannot write in an invitation to a party: "Featuring a singer, an artist, and the belly dancer X," and then it turns out to be a guy. Can you imagine what would happen? Imagine a classy party...
Moderator: What do you mean by "classy"?
Margo Caliphian: Take, for example, an important festival, with well-known singers and a belly dancer. Imagine a guy coming out to dance with a belly-dancing outfit... It is unheard of. What would you say you if you came to a festival with a large band to do your job...
Moderator: But Ms. Margo, he is there to do his job as well.
Margo Caliphian: I'm talking about a festival, and you're talking about a nightclub. There is a difference. I'm talking about the level and status of the belly dancer. Today, we've begun to appear all over the world. Today, many belly dancers go to America or France, and dance in the most important theaters in the world. Imagine a man in a bra, a scarf, and a belt coming out to dance...
Moderator: But he doesn't wear those things. He dances normally.
Margo Caliphian: Even so, there can be no perfection in it.
[...]
The video clip starts out with a sample of the dancing in question, with a voice over narative. Then a panel discussion ensues. The video has good subtitles in English.
As of this date, the video clip is at the top of the linked page above, but if scrolls away and you need to find it at a later date, go to the MEMRI seach engine here, and type in the clip number, 1422.
This debate reminded me of the kind of TV you would see in the West. People were laughing and smiling, it seemed so normal. Lebanon is still a multicultural society, but there are forces at work that want to change that.
Lebanon also has a Hezbollah TV station, which is a sharp contrast:
(Archival Material) Al-Manar TV (Lebanon) - 5/29/2001
They have a very different idea of "fun".
I doubt you would have any belly dancers at all working publicly in a Sharia Law state, like Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah.
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