"If a camel is already beautiful, why does it need jewellery?" The Saudi camel owner Khalid bin Ghatani looked at me like I'd asked the most ridiculous question. "Look," he said. "If a women is beautiful, won't she still wear make up when she marries? This is the day of the camel's marriage."
At the Al Dhafra Festival, all camels are treated like brides. It is an analogy repeated by owners over and over. Sensual jewellery designed for a woman’s body - a belly dancer’s belt of coins or the murtasha necklace with its swinging strings of gold - are enlarged and adopted to the camel’s anatomy.
Camel decorations are as old as the relationship between beast and man. In the days before oil, camels on the Trucial States were at their most beautiful when men raced camels at wedding celebrations. Women would cover the neck of the victorious camel in Irani saffron, in the manner of a bride. At a time of little, it was lavish. Today, golden tinsel reigns supreme. Oil wealth has brought government-sponsored beauty contests where camels out-price Ferraris. Accessories are required. Owners spend thousands in the hopes that their shinning camels will attract buyers and, most importantly, admiration.
The demand for ‘camel accessoire’, as some call it, supports women who follow the beauty and race circuit across the Gulf. As their wealth increases, they too have begun to hire foreign labour. Weavers slow to adopt new styles earn little. Owners speak endlessly of tradition but spurn woven crafts in favour of all that glitters. Everything at Al Dhafra is for show.
Photos by Jeff Topping / The National
Text by reporter Anna Zacharias
Photo editing and sequencing by photo editor RJ Mickelson
