Ask Ali: Picking a perfect Emirati name and how to keep a kandura clean

In this week's Ask Ali, learn how to pick the perfect Emirati name for a newborn baby and tips for keeping a kandura or abaya clean.

Dear Ali: I've been following your column for years now. It has helped me to gain a lot of cultural understanding of the UAE and its people, and now I'm happily married to an Emirati. We are just about to have our first child – a baby girl – though we have still not chosen her name. With my deep respect for the culture, I want it to be an Emirati name or one related to Abu Dhabi; preferably anything that carries a happy meaning. Can I call her Abu Dhabi? NB, Western Region

Dear NB: Congratulations. May God bless your family. I’m honoured and happy to know that my column helped you to understand our culture and even marry an Emirati.

Abu Dhabi? Now that’s new to me as a child’s name – it brings a smile to my face, because it’s cute that you want the name to be related to our beautiful capital. But I wouldn’t go for Abu Dhabi, which means “father of gazelle”.

Why not go for Dhabia, which is Arabic for the female gazelle? Dhabi is a male gazelle. Dhabia is also a very traditional and well-known female Emirati name.

Can I also suggest some other options?

Saeeda, which means “happy” – it’s the female version of Saeed; Shamsa, which means “sun” – the way it’s pronounced comes with joy and positivity; Amal, which means “hope”; or Roudha, which means “green garden area”.

I hope that these are a good start, but I do feel that Dhabia would fit your needs perfectly.

Dear Ali: My wife and I attended one of your cultural speeches and followed your advice to go to a tailor to get our Emirati national dress. This dress is amazing; we love even the fact that we have it. We may not wear it as much as we wish however, and we would like to keep it in a good condition. Can you tell us more about it? I may not worry as much about my wife's abaya, since it is black, as about my white kandura. How I can wear it without making it dirty? And what are the ways of cleaning it? GS, Canada

Dear GS: I respect your decision to get your own kandura and an abaya for your wife, especially because they were made at a tailor’s shop. I bet you look awesome in it.

Let me give you some tips on how you can maintain the garment and also how we treat our national outfit.

First of all, believe me, we have more than one piece each of the abaya and the kandura in our wardrobes. Basically, we change them every day, and sometimes twice a day. So, if you want to wear it daily, get some extra pieces, so they can be cleaned and prepared in time.

How do we clean the kandura? It is, in fact, the easiest thing. There are hundreds of little laundries everywhere, which have perfected the process of cleaning, bleaching and pressing the garment. The laundry process takes from a couple of hours to a day or two, and costs about Dh10. Usually laundries have delivery, so you may find your new-looking kandura at your doorstep the very next morning. If you have only one kandura and are going to wear it on a special occasion, such as an Emirati wedding or the upcoming National Day celebrations, you may use the laundry service just before the day of the event.

How do we store the kandura? Neither kandura nor abaya are folded. They always should be placed on a hanger to avoid wrinkles – that’s usually how the laundry will deliver it to you, anyway.

And when wearing it, always keep in mind that since it is white, the kandura could get dirty easily – so double-check before sitting down that the chair is clean. As for the abaya, ensure that it’s not so long that it touches the ground.

The fabric that you choose is also important – for the kandura, look for cotton instead of a hard fabric, which could look like a tent, and is very tough to handle.

I hope you will enjoy wearing your kandura without the fear of getting it dirty.

Ali Al Saloom is a cultural adviser and public speaker from the UAE. Follow @AskAli on Twitter, and visit www.ask-ali.com to ask him a question and to find his guidebooks to the UAE, priced at Dh50