Making the Hijab Work
Johana Bhuiyan wears a long white skirt. Her hair and neck are wrapped in a pink and white hijab falling over a long sleeved white shirt. Shell-pink shoes finish the look. "A few years year ago it would take me ages to put together an outfit," confesses Bhuiyan, 16, from Queens. "Now it takes a few moments."
Baggy jeans and loose shirts are old news for Muslim girls like Bhuiyan who, are mixing the Islamic dress code with in vogue. The element of élan and savoir-faire cannot be missed.
Ausma Khan, editor of Muslim Girl, a magazine for Muslim teens in the United States and Canada, says, "In America we're seeing an evolution where the governing principle of modesty remains the same, but at the same time it is incorporating contemporary styles of dressing."
This fusion is bringing more Muslim girls within the fold of the Islamic dress code rather than westernizing them. Colorful hijabs, printed skirts, full dresses, knee length outfits with jeans and wide-legged pants are part of the ensemble. One easy way of achieving variation is wearing clothes in layers -- a shapely and shear garment over concealing material.
Balancing the religion and fashion equation is a challenge. "It gets complicated mixing Islamic tradition and western fashion when you come from religious families," says Bushra Chaudhary.
After spending years in school wearing an "Islamic uniform" the 20- year- old makes a big effort to look good in college despite strong opposition at home. "You get sick of standing out and just want to blend in and look good," she says.
Chaudhary, who loves shopping at Union Square Park, admits that dressing up for Muslim girls involves being creative everyday. "Since there is nothing being designed specifically for us the key is to mix and match."
Khan, whose magazine devotes many pages to fashion, notes that this demand is not met by supply. "There is an untapped market for girls who don't want to look like versions of Britney Spears but at the same time want to dress well," she says. "The designers have not caught on yet."
One designer with foresight is Cindy van den Bremen who operates out of the Netherlands. In 2001, she launched a hijab range to match sports needs and solve the problems that bulky hijabs caused Muslim girls in the gym.
After eight years, Capsters have become an international brand selling online and in stores across Europe, Canada, US, Middle East, Indonesia and Malaysia. "To be honest, there have been more requests for wholesale than I could handle," she says.
Last summer, Bremen, launched a new collection of hijabs in three different lines: sports, casual and exclusive. The summer collection featured fresh designs, materials and colors for daily wear and high fashion. "We have a panel of local Muslim residents that we work with, who react on our new designs and ideas," she says.
Bremen's sports hijabs sell like hot cakes in Wahidur Rehman's Hijab Store in East London. Although, Rehman's online business comes mostly from the United States. He attributes the high sales to many new-age American converts to Islam. "It comes easy to them to wear new designs because they are not entrenched in tradition."
It isn't easy for designers and young girls to find the balance between the trendy and tradition. The problems are necklines, skirt lengths and the tightness of fits. "Modesty" is the test.
How modesty is interpreted varies but a common denominator for the hardliners and the liberal religious leaders is that the Islamic code prohibits the exposing of skin, except the hands and face, and the accentuation of any curves.
"We don't want Muslim women to look ugly," says Imam Tarek Youssef Saleh from Brooklyn, who has written extensively on the subject. "It is allowed for women to look beautiful as long as her intention is not to look attractive in public or to seduce men." This is a perplexing guideline for many girls.
Aheda Zanetti, 39, who designed the Burqini, the first full-coverage swimsuit for Muslim women, insists that everyone attracts attentions. "Modesty lies in how you deal with the attention."
For the Lebanese Australian designer, Muslim women can try new things and still be true to their faith. "We get 13 million hits on our website every month," she says, referring to the interent traffic checking out the Burqini.
At the same time, Bhuiyan feels that there is an inherent contradiction in living by the Islamic code and dressing fashionably. She even foresees covering her face when she becomes more confident in her religious identity. But, not anytime soon. "Right now I want to balance my religion with everything else," she says.
Young Bhuiyan organized a fashion show in Long Island to to encourage young Muslim girls to wear the hijab. "So many Muslim girls associate the hijab with traditional Islamic clothes or with loose jeans or maternity type clothes," she says. "There are cool ways of wearing the hijab."
Rehman is on a similar mission in his Hijab Store. "I wanted to combine the modern and modest and bring them into the fold of dressing in an Islamic way," he says.
Now, the women who come to buy his sports and graffiti scribbled hijabs are not old fashioned women looking to modernize. "They are women who would never have considered wearing a hijab before," says the young store manager.
Follow Betwa Sharma on Twitter: www.twitter.com/betwasharma
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The article is interesting. It brings out a different dimension of the Hijab. The new style combines decency and modesty with modernity and style. It makes a statement in its own right negating the old stereortypes of heaviliy burqa clad women. Well done Betwa!. Keep it coming.
Why men don't cover? They are uglier than women.
Ahhh....because it's uncomfortable, unsafe, and because it makes them feel like a second-rate person?
I wonder why Nuns are not judged by their Hijab . they do cover up dont they ? but in Islam , women can Cover up , love their god and still be able to marry and have a family and have a normal life . so why is A Nun smiled at when she is in the street but frowned upon if she happens to be a Muslim lady .
?
probably because you've never heard of a nun blowing herself up in the name of her religion.
probably because you've never heard of a nun with a b omb under her covering, blowing herself up in a public place in the name of her religion.
let's see, i just heard of a nun who killed a priest with a hammer, and another from China who killed her priest and committed suicide. I heard of a molesting Catholic priest. I heard of a racist redneck who murdered people on a bus. So now in my head, nuns, Chinese people, Catholic priests, and rednecks all pose a threat and should be forced to conform to my views. It's not our fault or problem if you have ignorant, narrow minded understanding of the world. Keep your silly comments to yourself; read a few books on the subject, and then maybe co9me back and talk. The concept of covering the face and head the way they do in arab countries is actually taken from the Christian Byzantines.
This is one thing that always confounds me about these hijab/abaya wearers. The effort to be fashionable and 'modern' with the headscarf or whatever, doing your eyes up like it's nobody's business, surely counteracts the original religious purpose of the scarf?!
If you have to bend over backwards to make it work with a modern/western outfit, why bother with it at all? Give yourselves and the rest of us a break.
Why couldn't the Koran verses below be interpreted as simply imploring women to not dress as if they are throwing themselves at men, and to dress appropriately for the occasion?
Traditional Islamic dress evolved in a desert climate where both men and women dressed in similar manner until recently, in an era where bandits and lawlessness was/is prevalent, where women were/are the possessions of men, where the trading of females in marriage was/is used as a form of currency.
Harsh desert conditions and lawlessness do not dominate most of the U.S. and Europe, women are not possessions of men to be traded in marriage, but are equal citizens. Ancient texts must always be subject to interpretation by later generations, otherwise, those passages could also be considered supporting the castration of little boys to prepare them for a lifetime of service to the wealthy as eunochs. (Refer to, "...or their male attendants who are incapable").
Ancient texts must ALWAYS be interpreted by later generations. The real power rests with those who do the interpreting.
Wonder how many of the interpreters are women?
Great ideas here...but first one must secularise Islam then the question of modesty and dress become personal and/or cultural instead of a matter of religious law, which as we see around the Islamic world especially is a pathway to ignorance and brutality.
You attract if you dress differantly than norm,the best way not to bring notice to yourself is be like everyone else.If you walk in winter when it is very cold in shorts,everyone will notice.Even in in simple attaired country like India the Mahathama drew attension because he was half naked,hence he brought attension to himself,that the reason he did it.For all his seemaglly madness to his method ,there was reason.
I have no problem with a hijab as long as it's the woman's choice. If someone feels covering her head (or his, ie Hasidic Jews) is a sign of modesty, then go for it as long as they are not telling me what to wear. Although, personally, I'd rather wear a hijab than a tube top or mini skirt.
first of all....... i think the girl in the picture is kinda cute...!
personally i don't care what people wear.......you could wrap yourself with a cloth or walk-naked... it doesnt matter to me....i believe that every individual should be able to do their own thing ...express yourself!!
Or you could drop the pretend cloud being for SCIENCE! Science doesn't care what you wear, just that you bring your thinking cap.
Damn, that's cleaver. Just thought of that.
Subjugation Chic.
Bingo!
Winner
I thought that literally the Qu'ran sez one must be modestly attired, it's doesn't say anything about covering the head. I wonder if it sez anything about context, so you would 'attract the attention of men' w/head covering in the US since very few women cover their head in the US., seems to me you would want to not cover your head as it would attact attention. For that matter what does the Qu'ran say about women who do the 'Susan Powter look' or women who go bald because of cancer treatment.
Or would their be an outcry if they opted for the Nefertiti head gear along with a full suit in black leather
with shoulder pads, long red nails, full makeup and spike thigh high boots, It would meet the covering up but it would look intimidating.
These appear to be the relevant provisions of the Koran and the hadiths:
Koran sura 33: 59 O prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters, and the women of the believers, to wrap their veils [jalābīb] close round them. It is better that way, they can be recognized but not annoyed. God is forgiving and merciful.
Koran sura 24: 31 And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts, and display not their ornaments, except those which are outside; and let them pull their kerchiefs over their bosoms and not display their ornaments save to their husbands and fathers, or the fathers of their husbands, or their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or what their right hands possess, or their male attendants who are incapable, or to children who do not note women’s nakedness; and that they beat not with their feet that their hidden ornaments may be known. But all turn repentant to God, O believers! May you prosper.
The hadiths:
Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 8
395 2. And as regards the (verse of) the veiling of the women, I said, 'O Allah's apostle! I wish you ordered your wives to cover themselves from the men because good and bad ones talk to them.' So the verse of the veiling of the women was revealed.
Make of it what you will.
What I make of it is that Muslim men are not expected to exhibit any self control. It is all the woman's fault.
Christians have the same perspective, always blaming the fall on a woman.
Most religion is invented to subjugate and control women by men who lack confidence in their own abilities.
You forgot this part
24:30 Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is aware of what they do
Obviously clothing makes a set of signals about who we are what we are our status, etc, some of those signals are less easy to interpret than others: Were those artificially distressed jeans 28$ at KMart or $475 at some Rodeo Drive boutique??? beats me. I don't pay attentoin but some people do. In this country the hijab will always be a marker and the wearers will always be distiguished in some way from those who dont wear it, ( at least until the person under it is well known to those she interacts with regularly) If the hijab makes a statement you want to live with well and good, but it's only reasonable to expect some degree of feeling of separation.
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