When Engy el Shazly was a child, she had a dream – she wanted to become a ballerina. At 27 years old, she finally took up ballet lessons.
Three years on, Shazly is still dancing – all while wearing a hijab.
Using a pair of worn-out ballet shoes and armed with a steely determination, Shazly is pirouetting her way in Egypt’s cultural history as one of the few ballerinas around who wears the traditional “hijab” Muslim headscarf.
“Of course I face criticism that people ask how a hijab and ballet work. There are people who support me but it is only natural that not everyone would accept what you do. There are people who will say it is not appropriate to wear a hijab but I will talk about something – I will not speak about the religious aspect but I am committed to my relationship with God and I also did what I love without losing either,” said Shazly, who was dancing along Cairo’s Nile River given the filming restrictions at the all-women studio she attends.
At first, she had her reservations about performing on stage with her hijab on.
But after performing as part of the corps de ballet in Cinderella and the Waltz of the Hours in 2016 at the Russian Cultural Centre, Shazly knew religion was not going to stop her from fulfilling a childhood dream.
Reuters
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