Beauty

Beauty in the refugee camp is, not surprisingly, a very different consept compared to the European fashion industry. The colourful 'melhefa' for women and the brown 'jelebie' for men are used on a daily basis, and we dramatically wrap scarfs around our faces whenever we go outside. Yet, we are greeted with 'hola' instead of the normal 'salam ailekum' while walking to the market. Now, it remains a mystery to us how the Saharawis are able to differentiate between us and a 'real' Saharawi when the only human feature we show are our eyes. We started questioning whether the smurfs could have something to do with this. Who can possible forget the smurfs? This happy, blue creature with white hats have indeed left many children with a smile on their faces before heading to bed at night. But what do the Saharawis and the smurfs have in common? We were all shocked when we encountered the first woman with make-up, which we by mistake took as dirt. I even tried to help my aunt removing some of this dirt, believing it came from the house-cleaning that day. She wildly objected and physically pushed me away and I then realised that what I had tried to brush off was face paint, not dust and filth. The problem with the Saharawi make-up, which is supposed to be white, is that in real life-it is blue! Indeed, most Saharawi women look like smurfs when attempting to promote their beauty. I do recognise that 'the gras is always greener on the other side' but painting your face blue is perhaps fashion streaching a bit too far.. When this is said, blue face- paint is perhaps no better than Norwegian girls with organge faces... So I guess the moral of the story is, be happy with what you have got. Stop applying and re-applying make-up on your face. You are beautiful. Enough said:P