Fifi Abdou on the Cover of Plastik
Plastik magazine launched its 36th issue with a cover featuring Fifi Abdou and the inauguration of the Arabic language version of the magazine.
The cover photo mentions “Fifi in Balenciaga, photographed by Eli Rezkallah (the founder of Plastik) in Dubai”.
A rare standout magazine cover in the region featuring an iconic Egyptian bellydancer who continues to gain new fans young and old because of Fifi Abdou’s living her full life presence on social media.
You can see a few pages from this issue online. The below photo of Fifi Abdou reminded me of Carrie Bradshaw smoking in pink plastic household gloves and a pink headscarf, a scene the first season of Just Like That, and most likely an inspiration for the photo in Plastik.
Fifi Abdou’s quote in Arabic featured on the page above deserves its own t-shirt.
إللي يضايقني هخلعو...اللي يحبني هدلعو
(“illy yida-y’ini hakhla’aou, illy y-hibini hadal’aou” - a rhymed phrase which roughly translates to “whoever bothers me, I get rid of them, whoever loves me, I will pamper/spoil them”)
I’ve never read Plastik, but I’m aiming to get my hand on a copy of this issue because it looks like a collector’s item.
I found it odd to see “Dubai” mentioned as a location on the cover, since there’s nothing specific to Dubai on that photo, but maybe Dubai will be found in the inside pages.
I leave you with this scene of a very young Fifi Abdou dancing in the film Mamnou Fi Laylat El-Dokhla (Hasan El-Saifi, 1975).
