Girls Will Be Girls

Saudi Arabia took the Little Black Dress, put a tent-like spin on it, and made it their own. It’s all the rage here! All the women go crazy for it. Black monopolizes the closets of all adult Saudi females, who go above and beyond to match their gigantic Little Black Dress. Black, black, black. Black shoes poke out from under black robes, black gloves cover brown hands, black scarves hide hair, and black eyes peer through black face shields, unless they’re covered by a black veil. Pure black. The slimming, monochromatic, heat-trapping color of the Saudi female.

Although Riyadh lacks the ever-changing haute couture of most capital cities, fashion is exceptionally important here. Fashion faux pas are treated very seriously here. Where else could you get beat up by the police for committing a crime of fashion? Even still, occasionally a trace of color slips through the blackness, usually on a younger woman. Every now and then the click, click, click of high heels alerts everyone within earshot to look around and sneak a peak at a cute pair of shoes. I love that! More often than not, I get a glimpse of a brightly colored heel belonging to a girl talking on a red cell phone, wearing only an abaya and head scarf. Once I got really lucky, and the lady’s head scarf and abaya had colorful embroidery that matched her purse and shoes! Any prep school teacher would be proud!

Even within the confines of a burka (that black thing some people wrap around their faces so only their eyes show), women doll up as much as they can. Eyeliner, designer glasses, glittery eye shadow, gobs of mascara…these girls don’t escape vanity! Perhaps they primp to claim the individuality that their limited, lifeless wardrobe strips from them. Perhaps they happily don their daily religious garb to escape the ubiquitous question of what to wear. Whatever the answer is, despite all social and religious pressures to hide physical beauty, girls will be girls.