Jeremy,
Your mother wrote me about the Brotherhood/Multicultural month you are celebrating and that you wanted to know what our heritage and what the clothing in Syria looked like. I’m glad you are doing this. We celebrate different cultures here, too. Remember, I teach at an international school made up of kids from over 30 different countries, but mostly from Syria. All the children here dress like you do, though – blue jeans and sweat shirts (remember it’s a little cold here now.).
But it was just a couple of months ago that we had our International Week and the elementary students came to school dressed in the clothing that was worn in the past. But it’s the adults that you will see on an everyday basis dressed in the traditional clothing that has been pretty much unchanged for hundreds of years. I have even bought a couple of these outfits called gailabias that men and women both wear. They look like dressing gowns. The second girl in the picture is wearing one. It’s a one piece covering that goes down to your feet and is very comfortable. For Christmas, I was given as a present a kafia, the head dress the men wear. It’s just a large square cloth that is folded once in the shape of a triangle and draped over your head. The color represents the country you are from. White is generally from Saudi Arabia. Red and white is from Jordan. Black and white is from Palestine. Here in Syria you see a mix of all the colors. Holding it on your head is a black cord that is tied in the shape of a circle and sits on top of your head.
But here in Aleppo, Syria, a city of 3 million people (larger than Jacksonville), you see half the people wearing the same type of clothes that you see in Florida. And nobody thinks anything of it. Most of the people here are Muslim and believe in the Islamic faith. But many of the Arabs here are also Christian like we are. Everyone gets along fine here. The Muslims are more likely to wear the traditional gailabias but some don’t. And the Christians are more likely to dress like you do, but some of them don’t. But the children, Muslim or Christian, usually dress like you would. At least, that’s true for the city. Outside the city, you will see more of the children dressed traditionally. The picture here is one I took of some children playing around a historic site I was visiting, San Simeone. They were very friendly and let me take their picture. Most of the girls will have their head covered like these do, but not the boys.
I hope this helps. I really wish you could come here and see this for yourself. You would really enjoy it and you would learn a lot. Maybe someday!
Love ya,
PaPaw
