Nadia Abouraya

Nadia Abouraya was portrayed as American Girl Paper Doll, #40 in the May-June 1999 issue of American Girl Magazine.

Nadia's Data

 * Name: Nadia Abouraya
 * Age (at time of publishing): 13
 * Grade (at time of publishing): 6th
 * Home: Georgia
 * Hobbies: Dancing, Listening to Music
 * Favorite Thing: Books about girls in history
 * Ambition: Undecided
 * Color: Red

Nadia's Outfit
Nadia wore this Egyptian outfit to school when her class was studying Egypt. The long loose dress is called a galabia. Galabias are worn by country girls in Egypt. Girls who live in cities usually wear the same kinds of clothes as American girls. Nadia wears this galabia with simple white sandals. As an observant Muslim, Nadia prays five times a day, and she takes her shoes off each time. All Muslims pray in bare, clean feet. Muslim girls and women cover their hair before they pray.

Nahed

 * Year: 1939
 * Relation to Nadia: Grandmother
 * Story:

Nahed wore the same styles of clothes worn by girls in America. But since Egypt is hot and dry, Nahed's clothes were made from very light fabrics. The city of Alexandria, where Nahed grew up, has beautiful gardens. Nahed and her family often walked through these gardens together.

Galila

 * Year: 1906
 * Relation to Nadia: Great-Grandmother
 * Story:

When Galila was a girl, life in Alexandria combined traditional Egyptian ways with modern European ones. Electric lights and telephones were as much as part of life as open-air markets and ancient tombs. Clothing, too included both traditional and modern styles. Sometimes Galila wore Egyptian galabias, and sometimes she wore European-style dresses like this one.

Mabrouka

 * Year: 1853
 * Relation to Nadia: Great-Great-Grandmother
 * Story:

Everyone in a Bedouin family is responsible for certain household chores. Some of Mabrouka's chores were gathering firewood and taking care of her family's sheep. Each day she took the sheep into the desert and watched over them as they grazed. Like other Bedouin girls, Mabrouka wore mainly dark colors and one reason was safety. It's easy to get confused about places and landmarks in the desert. Sometimes Bedouin girls got lost while they were out with the sheep. Dark clothes made them easier to spot against the pale desert sands.