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View Full Version : Question about middle-eastern dress code.



Space Cowboy
17th July 2005, 02:55 PM
This may seem like a bit out of the ordinary for our forums but I have a question that I hope someon could answer for me :)

Im off travelling for three weeks on thursday, one of my stops is Dubai, I'll be there for a couple of weeks. Now the temperature there is going to be around 50 degrees mid summer heat. As you can imagine this is going to be hard work, especially as Im going to be spending alot of time in the desert.

Now I wear a shemagh in the UK all year round, Its fantastic for our cold winters and equally as good for our hot summers. Now i would like to take it with me to Dubai to provide protection from the intense heat. 8)
Do you think our arab friends will mind me wearing it? I mean, Im not a muslim or of arabian descent, so Its not really tradition dress for me.
Do you think it will be seen as offensive for a westerner to wear it? I have muslim friends who dont think anything of it over here, but you never know?

I have contacted the UAE embassy and they told me it would be fine, but they arent on the ground over there.
Does anyone have any knowledge concerning this?

Would appreciate the help :) Sorry about the long post.... :oops:

Shem
17th July 2005, 03:27 PM
how about taking that thing with you, and ask the people in the place if it is okay for you to wear it? I don't think they'd feel offended just by asking if it's okay to wear..hmm...take a trucker cap instead if anything goes wrong man :D

PS. I'm not a muslim.

Lance
17th July 2005, 05:11 PM
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oh, jeez. started thinking about Mary Poppins. [sings] {badly}:
shem, sheminee,
shem, sheminee,
shemshem... shemagh......

argh. sorry about that. ;)

does anybody else find it um... odd... that Shem was the first one to reply to that question.

a shemagh doesn't seem very cowboyish. not even spacecowboyish. :)
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Mobius
17th July 2005, 05:17 PM
Oh god lance please tell us you werent just being ignorant there.

Space Cowboy
17th July 2005, 05:31 PM
Would love to hear your Dick Van Dyke impression Lance :) Hopefully your cockney accent is better than his.

syckls
17th July 2005, 05:32 PM
Perhaps it was a subtle play on words, you know, westerner/western? I don't know, and as far as everyone else is concerned I have no ability to detect subtle jokes.

Lance
17th July 2005, 05:55 PM
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nothing subtle about it; it's deliberate reality distortion. those damned interlingual alliterative homonymics just tempt me.

remember when i said i tried to spare you guys mOst of my worst humour? unfortunately i don't hold back EVery time. :)


and i'm stiLL waiting for the Stetson company to make a space helmet
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