Monday, April 23, 2012


On convenient marriage proposals.

It is known that the career of a Dancer in Egypt is, in 99,9% of the cases, linked to the men she dates/marries/goes to bed with. Part of that garbadge that you end up finding here comes from a classical proposal that visits you and revisits you every once in a while.
As a foreigner dancer you are under very restrictive and unfair laws (different from the laws applied to egyptian dancers). This makes your work, legal papers required and daily life quite tiring and unconvenient, to say the least.

One of the famous tricks foreigner dancers are prone to go along with is marrying an egyptian in order to have their husband´s nationality and, therefore, enjoy the legal rights and benefits of egyptians. The problem with this "little trick" is that you are supposed to marry a man you don´t love, like or even can stand JUST for the sake of your career. If some women are able to coldly live, sleep with and have children from men they don´t love, I am - unfortunately - not one of them. Blame it on the latin blood (too hot tempered for my own good!) or my christian education. Blame on the weather, the pride or the prude in me. But I just CANNOT do it.

I´ve recently received ANOTHER convenient marriage proposal and I sure know how much easier, in some ways, my life would be:
1. I would have egyptian nationality and benefit from laws and a FREE working system (as a foreigner, I can only sign ONE contract, not more...as an egyptian, I can sign as much contracts as I wish, hence, spread my networking and professional horizons on a much wider scale as well as making some money instead of working like hell and not keeping a dime for myself).

2. I would not be submitted to the constant limitations, complications and mess applied to laws regarding foreigner dancers in Egypt.

3. I would have a husband working on the same field who would protect me from other "hunters", organize my working agenda and promote me instead of doing it all by myself.

Yeah...being an ROMANTIC who would only marry for LOVE and DEEP RESPECT for a MAN (with a capital "M") has its price and I´ve been paying it for quite some time. Although temptation strikes, once in a while, I am too much of MYSELF to accept being less than a WOMAN, a QUEEN, an ARTIST, a PERSON I am actually fond of.

1 comment:

Pedro C. Seixas said...

Admiro a tua coragem Joana. Não deve ser mesmo nada fácil..