ways people are cultural appropriating the middle east/ arabs; a much needed thread

starting off with the most popular one i think, non-arabs getting arabic tattoos. honestly this is one of my all time favorite memes, they got what they deserved

henna for fake tattoos/freckles. like seriously stop with this trend already. most of us arabs cannot wear henna to school because "it violates the dresscode" but non-arabs are out here getting it for aesthetic purposes

this might be surpring to you, but braids are actually a part of middle eastern culture too. the only 2 races braids belong to are black & arab, if you're black or arab don't wear them

the cat eye smokey eyeliner. arab bedouin women came up with this eyeliner style

using the world "allah". let me clarify on this one for all the uncultured people, both MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN arab people use the word "allah", it means God in arabic. but, as long as you, as a non-arab, run when you hear an arab say this word, you are not allowed to use it

belly dancing. the way belly dancing became this huge ass trend on musically/tiktok the past four years, y'all aren't even doing it right

wearing belly dancing suits on halloween as a costume. like no sweetheart, absolutely not

stealing the design for the jordanian hatta/ palestanian keffiyeh for fashion purposes. i don't think an arab man can walk around in the streets of the US/ europe showing off his hatta/keffiyeh without getting judged

again with the halloween costumes

USING HEAD COVERINGS, especially worn in this specific way

this is not cultural appropriating, but automatically thinking someone is muslim just because they're middle eastern. it's super disrespectful

end of this thread. if i missed anything please tell me so i can add it here

i wanna add up to this point by saying that they also belong to native americans and sometimes south asians. my bad https://twitter.com/hoeskata/status/1289650400434376707?s=21 https://twitter.com/hoeskata/status/1289650400434376707

!!! https://twitter.com/tikithee/status/1289890393350275073?s=21 https://twitter.com/tikithee/status/1289890393350275073

henna also belongs to parts of asia & africa not only arabs. if you don't originate from any of those places it's better if you don't use it for aesthetical purposes

muslims all around the world can use the word "allah". however, only ARAB christians can use the word "allah", and when i say "allah" i don't mean the word itself, i mean stuff like "wallah", "bismallah", etc..