Al Dalalah

Journalistic Translation
Jun 17, 2022
2 min read

Who’s the Dalalah?

The Dalalah is a woman who sells cheap and simple products. the way she makes people know her is by showing some samples of her products in the street.

In the past the Dalalah was so popular specially in the rural areas and then she dealt with the upper class, women at that time weren’t allowed to go out, and the ones who used to buy women’s needs from the fabric or the spices store were only husbands, fathers and brothers but that wasn’t the best solution and here comes the Dalalah’s role.

a portrait for the Dalalah

What kind of products does the Dalalah sells?

The Dalalah sells some small samples of her farm’s goods in the village such as the Eggplant, pumpkin and other products depending on the women’s preferences and orders . some of them order their needs from the dalalah because it’s way easier than getting them from the stores and she also sells the livestock products like the Jameed, Ghee and butter as well as the handmade products like the fabric materials.

a picture of the dalalah

The Dalalah’s good morals:

She’s so flexible when she deals with people besides that she’s patient, sweet talker. and she learned business ethics from her profession for example the honesty and keeping people’s secrets, as well as not to gossip or get into people’s privacy.

The Dalalah’s profession history:

The Dalalah is a very old profession that was known hundreds of years ago in Egypt and other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and there’re still some people who consider it as a profession, but now it’s about to disappear specially because the new generations aren’t considering it as a profession.

a picture of women who worked as dalalah in Iraq

Movies that talked about the Dalalah:

One of the most prominent movies that talked about this profession is the movie titled “Al Dalalah” and it was produced in 1992 and the movie’s heroism is Najwa Fuad and the movie talks about a woman that works in illegal trade for clothes.