30
Sep
At the market in old Damascus, you can’t miss the stores tucked between dishdash-peddlers and ice cream parlors. They are Victoria’s Secret gone to the circus: tweeting-bird bikinis, vibrating cell phone thongs, blooming pasties. I was reminded of the goods after stumbling upon a book released last fall, Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie.
Damascus’ enthusiasm for lingerie is no surprise; Syria is known for its elaborate belly-dance costumes festooned with sequins and tassels. But the g-strings hawked by men - and it’s always men who sell them - hardly match the shariah laws commonly enforced, as the Big Think notes. Even the language doesn’t accommodate it: the first word on the Arabic sign above is “lingerie,” phoneticized.
