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Shik Shak Shok: The Tune That Empowers Younger Egyptian Girls
A marriage, a henna (bachelorette celebration), a birthday celebration, a bed room, and even throughout lunch breaks in deserted middle-school school rooms: these are all locations the place the notorious sound of Shik Shak Shok rings as women and girls of all ages dance freely, unabashedly.
“[Shik Shak Shok was] my 5 minutes of fame. After I was younger at weddings, my mother would make me stand within the center and carry out,” solutions Mai Ayman, 31, when requested about her reminiscence of the music and its significance. “[It] brings out my alter ego, dancing is my prime supply of happiness and I want to be a stomach dancer in another universe, this music wakes her [alter ego] up.”
There isn’t any strong rationalization as to why this explicit music evokes freedom or a way of liberation. It’s nearly innate, instinctive, to maneuver alongside to the music’s accordion riffs, whether or not one is actually able to stomach dancing or not. Those that don’t dance, sing alongside, belting the lyrics “ta’ala nor’os balady” (‘let’s stomach dance’).
Nonetheless, it will be remiss to not dive into the narratives behind this Center Jap traditional. Egyptian Streets spoke with various girls who shared their bond with Shik Shak Shok,and its significance throughout their adolescence.
Historical past: Surviving Throughout Time
Written by one in all Egypt’s most completed grasp composers, Hassan Abu El Seoud, Shik Shak Shok was first launched in 1974 as a part of his first vinyl LP titled ‘That is Orient’, underneath the Lebanese document label Sout El Nogoum (Voice of Stars).
Because the music grew extra in recognition, it was featured closely in nightclubs and late night time casinos. Naturally, the music ended up on the silver display twice in with Egyptian stomach dancer and actress Soheir Zaki immortalizing the music — or at the least the unique model.
Because the 1990’s rolled in, a extra commercially-friendly association arose underneath M. Sound, a subsidiary of Nasr Mahrous’ Free Music Artwork Manufacturing. The quicker, modernized association, which featured much less synthesizer and extra tambourine, got here out as a part of the Saher El Accordeon (‘The Accordion Magician’ or ‘The Magician of the Accordion’, 1994) cassette tape, although it was not the one component altered within the music. The long-lasting lyric “matseeb ya habibi el rap w’el rock” (‘go away rap and rock music, my darling,) was launched, altering barely from 1974’s model.
These days, few recall the unique model. On streaming companies, solely Free Music’s remix exists; erased is the previous model from existence save for the reminiscence of the few who skilled it firsthand.
Usually, it will appear the brand new Shik Shak Shok was destined for longevity. The oriental music is taken into account a staple of all events, marking the celebrations and merriment.
For many individuals like Twitter consumer @IvanDeJarjayes, Shik Shak Shok routinely interprets to a wedding. It continues to be part of a number of {couples}’ fond recollections, and never simply these dwelling in Egypt. Take Ramy Tadros, who just lately bought married in Oregon, in the USA, and performed it throughout his marriage ceremony. He completely describes the observe as “a music that survived many years and hundreds of miles.”
Teenage Discovery: Away from the Male Gaze and into Self-Expression
Whereas Egyptian weddings are inconceivable with out Shik Shak Shok’s wealthy, dynamic rearrangement, henna events are much more so. Beginning the Nineties, Egyptian girls’s henna events have been monopolized by the staple tune.
Henna events stay the commonest event for enjoying Shik Shak Shok, El Seoud’s widespread music. Girls and women of all ages transfer to the unmistakable beats and percussion sounds, undeterred by who may be watching or by intrusive, unasked for sexualization from strangers.
Rana Mohamed, 24, finds each confidence, acceptance, and femininity by the music. “[…] [A]s a shy child, I liked to bounce, however would normally not be courageous sufficient,” Mohamed states. “When [Shik Shak Shok] got here on, I simply couldn’t assist it. It was very catchy. […] Watching these brides and relations dance to it made me wish to get higher at stomach dancing.”
Battling self-consciousness, Mohamed elaborates that being underweight left her open to criticism. “I’ve been underweight all my life, so I used to be incessantly instructed that I dance effectively, I simply don’t have the physique for it,” she says. “ […] I hated any type of train however I needed to appear and feel stronger and extra womanly, for the dearth of a greater phrase. Simply tying a shawl round my hips and swaying to Shik Shak Shok made me really feel very womanly. As an grownup now, though my physique hasn’t modified a lot, I did develop to understand it [Shik Shak Shok] extra.”
Ladies-only home gatherings are additionally main occasions for Egyptian youngsters that characteristic Shik Shak Shok. Hana Hassan, 21, recollects the music “all the time being there” at any time when she and her cousins, whose ages range alongside a spectrum of 12 years, got here collectively.
“One time, at our grandma’s home, we had a expertise present of types the place she would fee our dancing, and Shik Shak Shok was the principle occasion,” Hassan says. “That’s the framing the music has in my head. I used to be clearly conscious of the conversations floating round then about whether or not belly-dancing was sexual or not. For us, the music was separated from all that. It wasn’t sexual or shameful. It was simply us having enjoyable as youngsters as we found stomach dancing. Because it was the one music we knew and liked from this style, it turned perpetually related to these days.”
These, like Merhan Mohammed, 22, who says she can’t dance in any respect, nonetheless really feel an affinity for the music. From her viewpoint, Shik Shak Shok is the sacred sound which “fires up” any dance celebration.
“The one transfer I’ve bought is simply shaking my shoulders and that’s it. [But Shik Shak Shok] simply actually makes me wish to seize sagat (Zills or zils, additionally referred to as finger cymbals) and a mandeel (scarf) to tie round my waist. It makes me really feel like my femininity is okay and could be very empowering. Girls dancing for themselves is simply so fantastic. For me, I feel it’s the one time when girls aren’t shamed for what they’re.”
Farah Mohamed, 23, helps the previously-stated sentiments, and provides that because the communities of girls of all shapes and physique varieties round her took to embracing Shik Shak Shok significantly of their female-only gatherings, in addition they started to not directly understand it as completely different from different songs, a supply of energy.
“This music celebrates the concept that dancing is made for ladies, not like different well-known oriental songs which may be focused to males and the male gaze. [To our community], it was made particularly for us, with stomach dancing in thoughts. Plus, it’s socially accepted amongst mothers and aunties as a result of it’s not thought-about vulgar,” she explains.
“I like how body-positive it’s, as a result of it celebrates femininity and encourages girls in every single place to maneuver their our bodies [regardless of what they look like]. It’s additionally very sensual, once more with out catering to males or taking off your garments as a result of it exists largely solely in girls’s areas,” she resumes. “If you wish to specific your self, show your femininity, whether or not for your self or others in a conservative society like ours which normally rejects it, that is the music to go to. It’s very empowering and it doesn’t make you are feeling internal disgrace.”
It isn’t troublesome to pinpoint the commonality in everybody’s expertise: Shik Shak Shok is a girls’s music for self-expression. Not solely does it afford company to the girl singing or dancing, however it urges her lover to bounce for her relatively than the opposite approach round; this peculiar type of role-reversal solely reinforces girls’s freedoms.
Oriental dance tracks are numerous, too quite a few to start itemizing. Nonetheless, if one have been to call probably the most memorable and enduring, Egyptian girls and women in every single place would cite none aside from Shik Shak Shok as their first alternative.
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