Dramaturgy: Abaya and Shayla vs. Public and Private Locale

The society we live in can be portrayed as a play. We are all the actors.

Erving Goffman first established this dramaturgical theory. Dramaturgical theory is basically a model in which our social interaction is viewed as if we were in a theatre, the people would be the actors, and our roles in society would be the performances. But that is not it. The more crucial part is the way we carry ourselves in social situations to reach our goals by using impression management.

The theory of Dramaturgy can be applied to nearly every interactive scene in our life in Qatar. A great example could be how Qatari girls act when they have their abaya and shayla on in public spaces and when they take it off in more private locale. 

In order to carry this experiment out, I decided to go for a walk around the cafeteria at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and the more private spaces in the university. From Goffman’s perspective, he uses the terminologies of ‘backstage’ and ‘front stage’ to describe this behaviour. By front stage, his stating the visible behaviour we have, where we take care of how we act and conserve our persona. Backstage behaviour would be when we get to do things that would be inappropriate by the public and the societal norms of the particular setting. I noticed how the girls in the cafeteria were more preserved around men and strangers, whereas, if they were in the private conference rooms in the library, they would have taken off their shayla and acted more inappropriate. For example, the girls at the cafeteria who were wearing their abaya and shayla spoke more softly and delicately, whereas the girls in the more private locale were louder and free.

Lastly and ironically enough, culture is created and consumed through our social interactions. And in this case, our interactions are with our friends, family members and colleagues.