Piety, Glamour, and Protest: Performing Social Status and Affiliation in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This article focuses on the fashion choices and performances that female Emirati students attending public university in the UAE create across different social and physical spaces, as well as the ways in which these feed into dynamic and fluid presentations of self. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which these self-presentations are constructed in relation to on-campus social interactions, as well as the novelty of many of these interactions and performances. The university campuses allow forms of socializing, performative interactions, and body adornment to develop that often could not be replicated in other physical spaces, off-campus. In the process, women assess and re-craft important sociocultural values, forms of reciprocity, and ways of being in the world that dominate other areas of their lives.