Arabian Nights...And Days

          I happened across a very old movie on cable the other day.  It had the broad shouldered Jeff Chandler playing some kind of Arab sheik and the gorgeous redheaded Rhonda Fleming as a princess, or whatever the female version of a Sheik happens to be, of an enemy tribe.  I’m assuming she was a princess; she had enough diamonds and pearls on her body to fill several display cases at Tiffany’s and I’m thinking a lowly peasant woman would not be as well dressed.

          With so much of the Middle East in the news these days, what fascinated me about the movie were the costumes. 

          Gorgeous diaphanous material draped over Rhonda’s hips and layered to the ground; a tiny sleeveless silk top with plenty of décolletage and a bare midriff showed off her figure to perfection.

          But the piece of garb that had me truly mesmerized was the miniscule piece of transparent material that covered the lower part of her face.  This flimsy bit of chiffon was supposedly there to hide her face from men and the rest of the world…a Muslim tradition.

          Even back when I was a kid and lapped up these Sandie Arabia movies by the bucketful, I thought Rhonda’s facial covering was a bit strange.  I mean I could see her face through the material, so what was wrong with Mr. Chandler’s eyesight?  It’s not as if I wanted her to have a dish towel hooked around her ears and under her eyes, but it just didn’t seem realistic the way it was.

          Of course this was Hollywood’s version of what Middle Eastern women wore and, since in those days we knew so little or perhaps more correctly cared, about what they actually did wear, apart from the face covering, everything else seemed an exotic plausibility.

          What a shock it was for me to discover that instead of silks and see-through chiffons, what Middle Eastern women actually wear more resembles a black plastic trash bag, tied in the middle with a hunk of rope.

          And to add insult to visual injury, instead of a miniscule piece of transparent tulle draped below her eyes, there is a tea strainer sown into the eye area of a thick, black curtain covering her face.  I don’t think even Mr. Chandler would be able to distinguish anything there.

          Now I have to wonder…are Middle Eastern women dressed like old black potato sacks because they actually all do look like Rhonda Fleming and their men want to keep that a secret.  Or, do they more closely resemble Marjorie Main of ‘Ma and Pa Kettle’ fame (look it up people) and who wouldn’t want to keep that quiet?  It certainly is a puzzlement.