Muscat dresse

In Oman, I saw for my first time in remembrance (in my childhood I am sure I recall them but that was too long ago to rely on memory) women in shapless elegance, and on a beach just outside of Muscat, before Al Bustan Palace, as I bathed my feet in a warm sea, a woman wearing a string niqab, and shared a secret smile of comfort with her, as my non-muslim family complained of her circumstance. My sister and I bought soft sheer niqabs and tried them on in the bathroom to peer at ourselves in the mirror, still finding it odd to reconcile the identity before us with our Western prejudice. This could never be me, we thought. Not that we thought it was horrible. Six inch stilletos and skinny jeans digging into the belly are a lot harder to wear than soft-sheer-smooth-like babies'-kisses-fabric. What we did think we would wear ---if we had the occasion---were the Arabic gowns, called jalibyias. I snuck out of the compound-like gated ex-pat community part of my family called home in Muscat in my Souq-abaya and big straw hat and would walk for hours, and even crossed a busy highway, and often went to speak with the local shop keepers, and joked with Omani girls who hardly spoke a word of English, as they dressed me up with every pink jalibiyia and caftan they had on hand, calling a then-blonde me their Barbie. What I learnt in Oman, was that Arab girls dressed up alot more than we Westerners do. They had Western style evening gowns for evening, and these Arabic dresses for visiting or going out (which were too fancy for me to wear at most weddings here in my Western city), and even Western style designer jeans and fitted tees. The most common form of dress we saw in Muscat was a modest black abaya with a very pretty coloured hijab style that covered everything it is supposed to Islamically, including neck, ears, hair, and chest.