10 Biggest Mistakes Women Make Before Marriage

I found an intersting article, it is so true for Egyptians and also for every other nations.

10. Believing in '..and they lived happily ever after".
Women are fed romantic ideals from the day they are born. Books and movies aimed at girls invariably promote the big wedding to the perfect man as the ideal ending. The truth is, marriage is hard work! A more realistic perspective would be that marriage is about 20% happiness, 30% contentment and 50% plain hard work! Going into marriage with a realistic attitude will prevent a lot of disappointment.

9. Believing that they can change him.
Women have a tendency to gloss over qualities they don't like in a man, telling themselves 'oh, he'll change' or 'I'll work on that'. It doesn't work, because you can't force a person to change. If you do manage to bully him into changing, your relationship will suffer. Either accept and enjoy the differences between you or create an environment that encourages him to want to change for you.

8. Believing that he will always be romantic.
Often women have very unrealistic expectations based on the way their partner behaved during the courtship phase. Unfortunately, most men heave a big sigh of relief once they have won you because they think 'hey, I can relax now and stop doing all that girly stuff'! That doesn't mean you have to give up on romance, just don't expect a 'grand gesture' every day.

7. Losing self.
Getting into an intense relationship before they've developed a clear sense of their own identity is another common mistake young women make. Without a clear sense of self, women identify overly with their partner and find it difficult to stand up for themselves and their own needs. A woman with a strong sense of identity, however, is a more interesting and equal partner.

6. Giving up friends and interests.
With the thrill of being in love, it is too easy for women to put friends and family, hobbies and sports on the backburner. This is a fundamental mistake to make because a) women depend on support networks throughout their lives and b) men just can't be everything to a woman. It is asking too much of them. It is important to maintain a happy balance in your life.

5. Rushing into marriage.
It almost seems to be a race across the wedding finishing line for many young women. Marriage can last an eternity, but your single 20s only last a decade at the most! Don't rush into it. Just because you found the man you want to spend the rest of your life with, doesn't mean you have to marry him straight away. Enjoy your youth so that you will not have any regrets later.

4. Not having conversations about serious issues.
Talk to your partner about where you both stand on issues that can make or break a marriage. Talk about the number of children you both want, are you intending to stay home to raise them, where your priorities lie, spending styles, dreams and goals, where you see yourself 20 years from now, parenting styles, sharing of responsibilities, etc. You need to know beforehand if his beliefs are incompatible with yours. This alone can determine how happy or conflicted your marriage is.

Also, have discussions about ground rules. Negotiations should be conducted before you sign on the dotted line. Too many of us rush into marriage and then spend the first decade negotiating the details! Sit down and nut out the details before you get married. Work out the basic rules that you both need to follow in order to have a happy marriage. It is important to be realistic, though, and to not agree to any rules that you know are unreasonable. Sex every day may work for him but it probably won't for you! Also, realize that these rules may need to be renegotiated now and then, such as when you have children.

3. Having a close relationship before sussing out the guy.
Research shows that women are genetically programmed to fall in love with someone they have a close relationship with. Make sure that he is someone you have the potential to be happy with, before you do anything. Afterwards, your hormones are likely to override your commonsense. Sometimes this work because your fundamental beliefs are the same but don't let your hormones make that decision for you.

2. Settling.
A lot of women start to panic if they aren't married by their mid-20s, and god forbid they reach 30 without being married! That ol' biological clock starts ticking loudly. The result is that they make excuses and rationalizations to themselves about a relationship that is already dull and past its use-by date, or which they know has serious issues. Marrying someone because you are afraid to be alone is unfair to yourself and your partner. Someone once said 'I don't want to spend a lifetime turning a bad relationship into an average one; I want to start with a good relationship and make it a great one'. Hear, hear.

And the No. 1 mistake women make is

1. Getting married because they are 'in love'.
Being in love is not a good enough reason to marry. We can fall in love for many reasons - it doesn't mean the man you have fallen in love with will be a good partner. Choosing a good partner makes all the difference between having a harmonious marriage and a difficult marriage. You need to seriously question how well you two can work together for a lifetime. Do you complement each other? Does he make you feel like a better person or a lesser one?

Sue Dillicar, writer, wife and mother

Soraia Zaied

Soraia Zaied is one of Egypt's mega stars, Soraia is originally from Brazil. After starting her dancing career in Brazil, she travelled to Egypt where she studied with the very best teachers in Cairo. She is now one of the top dancers and teachers in Egypt where she performs regularly in the five star hotels of Cairo.

Soraia is loved around the world for her amazing technique and superb musicality. She loves Oum Kalsoum and is the queen of shimmy, mixing her superb understanding of Egyptian dance with the latin fire of her Brazilian roots. Her drum solos are legendary!

How To Belly Dance Like Shakira

Here's how to shake your hips like Shakira, the Colombian sensation.


Belly Dancing:
How To Belly Dance Like Shakira
Step 1: The Maya
We're going to come up on our toes as high as we can, and lift the right hip high, high to the sky. Once we've got it as high as we can go, we're going to push it out all the way to the right and then down. So push to the side, and then flatten the foot down. Lift up on the side, push out with our right hip, push out and down. And now on the left side - same thing. Squeeze the hip up, come up on the toes, hold it up, feel a sense of power in your belly, and then just push it out, really gentle. So there's that power contract up, then let it go.

Step 2: The Hip Drop
Drop one hip down while bending the same leg. Bend the right leg and lean down, and then the left, drop, drop. So, from up straight, just let the hip go down, hip comes up, and the other one goes down, drop, drop. It's almost like riding a bicycle. Shakira adds that fire to it, that little bit of oomph. She drops it as hard as she can, really really strong drop, drop, drop. As sharp as you can, you really want to pull the energy up from your feet, tap into your strength, and just drop it down, drop it down.

Step 3: The Shimmy
We've all seen how Shakira can shake her hips all wild and crazy. It's actually pretty easy to do. We're going to break that down. First thing is to get as relaxed and free in your body as possible. So whatever you have to do at home, just shake it out, let it all go, take a deep breath, and when you feel like you've got yourself really open and loose, we can start by simply bending the knee. Once you've got your hips and knees really loose and relaxed, you can start to speed it up, and then imagine that your hips are really big. When Shakira dances, we're not seeing this tiny little woman dancing - we're seeing big hips. Dance like you're ten times your size, and that's really going to translate.

Aisha of Greece

Aisha is descended from Asia Minor, Turkey. She grew up in a family where the oriental stigma was rather intense. Her first music experience was from Anatolia and later on, Arabia. The latter was a major contributing factor to the establishment of her dancing identity. She started gymnastics at the age of 10, since her father was an athlete himself. Later, at the age of 14 she turned to a new field: dancing. She did ballet, modern and flamenco dance, gaining in that way all the necessary experience she needed to develop her exquisite style in Oriental Dance. She began as self-taught, with a heart full of love and passion for this enchanting art. The genes she inherited from her family were a determining element for her passionate temperament and her effortless grace.
Afterwards she traveled to Egypt where she was apprenticed to famous Egyptian dancers and dancing teachers like Raqia Hassan and Aida Nour. She also worked with Mohamed Sadek (former lead drummer of Fifi Abdo) growing thus richer in knowledge as far as her dancing style is concerned.
Moreover a very important part of Aisha' s work is belly dance teaching which started with passion since 2002 from Greece and later on in international level.

Egypt's Belly Dance Superstars

Egypt's Belly Dance Superstars
1920s - 1990s

The Golden Age of belly dance began in 1926, when a well-known Syrian dancer by the name of Badia Masabni opened the first European style cabaret on the banks of the Nile. This hard headed businesswoman single handedly transformed the sha'abi dance of the ghawazee into the floating butterfly we now know as "al raqs sharqi." The following women were unique cabaret artists of the last century who shone among the countless women performing the dance in the Middle East.

Classic Belly Dancers:
Badia Masabni
Tahia Carioka
Samia Gamal
Naima Akef
Beba Aiz-ed-Din
Katie
Sohair Zuki
Fifi Abdou
Nagwa Fouwad
Mona Said
Nelly Fouad
Sahar Hamdi
Shoo Shoo Amin
Zizi Moustafa
Aizza Sharif
Nahid Sabri
Ida Nour
Lucy
Dina

Egypt now

It´s good to have net back finally. Probably everybody know already about current situation in Egypt. I will not discuss politics here, so if anybody wants more information about revolution in Egypt, you can read in any news pages. I like most Al Jazeera and Facebook page. These are most informative and truthful I think.
info

Dina sued for teaching belly dancing

Egyptian lawyer Nabeeh Al Wahsh has filed a lawsuit against producers of the new television program “Shari’ Imhmad Ali” (Mohammad Ali Street), claiming that it aims to create a new generation of belly dancers, which is “ethically intolerable.”

The show is hosted by controversial Egyptian belly dancer Dina, who defended the program, claiming it protects the respectable art of belly dancing from extinction, reports the internet website MBC.net.

Nabeeh said that he will not allow such a program hosted by Dina and belly dancing legend Najwa Foad to be aired on different satellite channels.

Dina said that belly dancing is a respectable art that should be studied and enhanced. The West places great emphasis on belly dancing and throughout Egyptian history there were great dancers that became known worldwide, she added. Here