Blue Chi’s

Crazy people at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry made a press release today saying that they have warned tailor shops not to get too creative with dishdashas (traditional robes worn by Omani men). Here is the article that was put on the FRONT PAGE of Alwatan newspaper in Arabic and Oman Tribune in English:

Warning against dishdasha tampering By Khalfan Al Rahbi

MUSCAT The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has warned tailor shops not to tamper with specified design of the Omani traditional dishdasha.

The warning comes after many tailor shops introduced novel designs which have changed the main features of the Omani dishdasha.

In a statement, the ministry asked the tailor shops to abide by the specific designs of the Omani dishdasha, which is a part of the history and culture of the Sultanate.

Do they REALLY think they can tell us WHAT TO WEAR?! Number 1, SINCE WHEN WAS HISTORY AND CULTURE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY! Number 2, even though of course they cannot enforce this in anyway, it is just crazy to realise that they even think they can tell us what to wear. What’s next, you can only have only up to two colours in your kummah (Omani head cap)?

I think that I’ve seen some weird people wearing tight-waist dishdashas and I don’t think that that they looks nice at all. However, I think that they have the right to wear whatever clothes they want. It is very natural for clothes to change and transform with time, the dishadashas we wear now were not exactly the same as what people wore a 150 years ago.

I don’t think that any of these new trends is going to catch on, but this is obviously NOT the government’s business.