ORIENTAL DANCING

Essay by dj4zeroCollege, UndergraduateA-, May 2005

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The art of oriental dancing is widely practiced in Egypt and other countries. Oriental dancing is playing a huge role in the Egyptian society as it brings many good things to Egypt, including currency and jobs for locals. Recently the law to ban foreigners to practice the art of oriental dancing has been passed by the Egyptian Minister of Labor and Immigration Ahmed El Amawl. This has caused many foreigner's to lose their jobs as well as made them return to their homes. This ban badly affected the local people, the dancers as well as the tourists. Some Egyptian dancers see this ban as discrimination, others see it as a threat to their jobs. However on November 16th 2004 the law has been removed. This has been a great help as when the law was placed everything went from bad to worse. The ban has forced foreigners to look for jobs elsewhere; prevented locals from seeing foreign dancers perform, caused Egypt economic problems as well as caused many nightclubs to close.

Several complaints from belly dancers have been sent to the Minister of Labor and so the law was imposed. They complained that they could not find work due to the large number of foreign dancers. Belly dancing has some challenge on who's best, so if some domestic dancers cannot compete, then they should not enter this art as they are not good enough. The victims, who include Europeans and Americans, say it's unfair and illogical, and they are backed by one of the Arab world's most respected dancers, Nagwa Fouad, who is urging the government to reverse its ban. "There is not enough Egyptian talent, so obviously people need foreigners," says Palestinian-born Fouad, who retired from dancing in 1997 after a career of four decades. Egyptian dancer Keti Sharif...