Feature: Sudan's unique costume "jalabiya" less popular due to rising costs

Until very recently the Sudanese jalabiya has been a national costume and a feature closely associated with the cultural and social heritage of the majority of the Sudanese people, but a number of economic and social factors have led to a decline in its popularity and a relative recession in its industry.

The jalabiya is a long loose-fitting, white garment with a rounded neckline. More precisely, it is an ankle-length collarless robe with long sleeves.

The holy fasting month of Ramadan constitutes a season for the tailors who sew the jalabiya, but things have changed as the citizens have become reluctant to purchase the jalabiya due to the rise in its cost caused by the economic conditions.

"I have been working in sewing jalabiyas for about 40 years where our industry has been flourished until very recently," Al-Numan Hussein Hamid, a famous jalabiya tailor in Omdurman market, told Xinhua.

"We used to eagerly wait for Ramadan month as a season in which jalabiya industry flourishes, where everybody seeks to obtain a new jalabiya for Eid al-Fitr, but the economic condition together with other social factors have negatively affected our profession," he noted.

He went on saying "the prices of the fabric from which the jalabiya is made as well as the sewing costs have become high. Also, the inexpensive jalabiya which is imported from India and China together with the young people's tendency towards modern Western-style costumes have contributed to the decline in the jalabiya industry."

"During Ramadan our shops used to be crowded with customers who want to prepare the Eid Jalabiya, where we used to work until the early hours of the morning. However, presently our profession has declined with very few customers," he noted.

Hassan Mohamed Nour, a fabric merchant in Omdurman market, for his part, told Xinhua that the decline of the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound against foreign currencies has caused a hike in the prices of the imported fabrics, which contributed to the decline in the popularity of the jalabiya.

"The finest cloth materials used in making the jalabiya are imported from outside Sudan. Most of our commodities come from Saudi Arabia where the prices have become high due to the decline in the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound," he said.

"Until very recently, the Saudi Riyal equals about two Sudanese pounds, but now it is close to three. Therefore, the fabric prices have doubled, because we import the fabrics with foreign currency," he noted.

According to Nour, the average cost of a jalabiya amounts to about 550 Sudanese pounds (around 45 U.S. dollars) at the exchange rate of the parallel market.

The economic conditions are affecting the life of the majority of the Sudanese people, where the Sudanese pound is sharply declining against the U.S. dollar, with exchange price of a dollar hitting around 13.8 Sudanese pounds (SDGs) on the parallel market. The official price of the dollar, set by the Central Bank of Sudan, is 6.6 Sudanese pounds.

The currency dealers on the parallel market expected the dollar price to hit 15 Sudanese pounds during the coming months due to what they termed "speculation" by the traders controlling the foreign exchange market.

The secession of South Sudan in 2011 has badly affected the Sudanese economy as the country lost around 70 percent of its oil revenues, creating a big gap in the foreign exchange market and the exchange rate.

The separation has also negatively affected the State budget which dropped to around 50 percent, causing a huge budget deficit. Endit