Hijab Chic

[The_Ida]

Does anyone have that Marie Claire ed in HQ or know what issue it's from?

 

[vikingqueen]

OH MY! why didn't i see this before? is this from marie claire US?? oh this is just too weird and funny...

i mean i'm happy to see muslim women represented in the media, apart from the typical "not without my daughter, my swarthy ultra-religious father/uncle/brother/one-armed imam makes me wear a burqa and threatens to kill me because i fell in love with a marine and i JUST WANT TO BE FREE" type of horse manure ....

but in another sense it makes me cringe a bit to see it become a marketable image....well, just a side effect of living in a capitalist world i guess, you wait long enough and anything can be marketed

oh, and just in response to question regarding wearing "fashionable" hijabs vs. maintaining modesty .... as i posted earlier, modesty does not equal somber, dull, boring, etc. Modesty equals, quite simply and without trying to cloak it in PC-talk, covering your body. I can cover my body in sparkels and prints and bold colours and whatever else, just as long as its covered!

Trust me, if anyone has ever been to an Indian or Pakistani wedding, or East African (Somali, Sudanese, Ethopian), Middle Eastern, they are the most colorful, ornate, affairs you could imagine. There is no such thing as beige!
THe same goes for Muslim art and caligraphy...

I guess it can be summed up in the following Islamic saying: God is Beautiful and He loves Beauty.

 

[The_Ida]

OH MY! why didn't i see this before? is this from marie claire US?? oh this is just too weird and funny...

i mean i'm happy to see muslim women represented in the media, apart from the typical "not without my daughter, my swarthy ultra-religious father/uncle/brother/one-armed imam makes me wear a burqa and threatens to kill me because i fell in love with a marine and i JUST WANT TO BE FREE" type of horse manure ....

but in another sense it makes me cringe a bit to see it become a marketable image....well, just a side effect of living in a capitalist world i guess, you wait long enough and anything can be marketed

oh, and just in response to question regarding wearing "fashionable" hijabs vs. maintaining modesty .... as i posted earlier, modesty does not equal somber, dull, boring, etc. Modesty equals, quite simply and without trying to cloak it in PC-talk, covering your body. I can cover my body in sparkels and prints and bold colours and whatever else, just as long as its covered!

Trust me, if anyone has ever been to an Indian or Pakistani wedding, or East African (Somali, Sudanese, Ethopian), Middle Eastern, they are the most colorful, ornate, affairs you could imagine. There is no such thing as beige!
THe same goes for Muslim art and caligraphy...

I guess it can be summed up in the following Islamic saying: God is Beautiful and He loves Beauty.

I'm actually kind of happy that someones wants to market this...but the editorial kinda leaves me with the impression that only Saudi princesses can be chic in a hijab Fortunately I know it isn't so

 

[UNiQFashionista]

does anyone know which issue that ed is from? please please.
Regarding modesty..in coutries such as saudi arabia where you are obligated as a woman to where the abaya (long black dress) and tarha (what ppl call hijab) girls are making it stylish buy buying designer fabric,, making it tighter, sheer...colorful..you name it...and they feel the need to compensate buy wearing alot of make up...which defeats the purpose imo...i was surprised last time i visited the coutry to see that..as you said..they are drawing more attention..and i think the whole point is not to. Even just the headscarf..some young girls who wear the headscarf outside of their coutries..(as you witness alot on paris, london. etc in august) tend to wear the tightest jeans,really high heels..and the most colorful and skin tight tops and almost p*rno-ish make up...and then they wear a headscarf in a very bright color...tie it around their heads like bandanas to make it look less "veil-like"...its very contradicting..but some feel the need to compensate for not showing their hair..which is crazy because hair isnt the most attractive female feature...your eyes.face..neck and body is....its realy turning into a "trend"" and is starting to become less humble and modest...
anyway, please let me know which issue the ed is from..id love to read it!

 

[The_Ida]

It's the December issue of Marie Claire

 

[vikingqueen]

does anyone know which issue that ed is from? please please.
Regarding modesty..in coutries such as saudi arabia where you are obligated as a woman to where the abaya (long black dress) and tarha (what ppl call hijab) girls are making it stylish buy buying designer fabric,, making it tighter, sheer...colorful..you name it...and they feel the need to compensate buy wearing alot of make up...which defeats the purpose imo...i was surprised last time i visited the coutry to see that..as you said..they are drawing more attention..and i think the whole point is not to. Even just the headscarf..some young girls who wear the headscarf outside of their coutries..(as you witness alot on paris, london. etc in august) tend to wear the tightest jeans,really high heels..and the most colorful and skin tight tops and almost p*rno-ish make up...and then they wear a headscarf in a very bright color...tie it around their heads like bandanas to make it look less "veil-like"...its very contradicting..but some feel the need to compensate for not showing their hair..which is crazy because hair isnt the most attractive female feature...your eyes.face..neck and body is....its realy turning into a "trend"" and is starting to become less humble and modest...
anyway, please let me know which issue the ed is from..id love to read it!

you definitly have a point ... i live in a city where there are a TON of hijabis, and basically what a lot of the younger girls are doing now is dressing in a completely Western trend-oriented fashion (i.e. skinny jeans, big belts cinching waists, tight tops, etc) and then just sticking a scarf on top of it

what should be realized is the term "hijab" is not only related to the headscarf. In fact, hijab is the total, overall way in which you are supposed to dress. The basic guidelines for women are long sleeves to the wrist, pants or a skirt to the ankle, and nothng too tight or body-conscious. Of course, you can use your common sense with this framework - for instance i'm really small up top but i have a more ...shall we say...more pronounced bottom half, so i can wear tighter tops and get away with it, as long as i pair them with wider pants.

some women chose not to wear pants at all, some choose to wear exclusively abayas, and some niqab - it's all a matter of how you interpret hijab and what you feel omfortable in.

anyway, sorry to ramble, but my main objective is to convince ppl that Muslim women do not have to dress in somber, muted colours and palattes, with no accessories....

OH, and i should add, MEN are required to dress in a certain way as well .... again, nothing tight on the top or the bottom, no short shorts (thank God) no teeny wife-beaters (again, thank GOD! ...geez, these should be univerally-adopted guidelines!)

 

[Meana]

Julie Ordon

 

[Meana]

one more

from bellazon.com

 

[ParadEyes]

these are beaaaautiful thanks , Meana

 

[TekkaMakki]

My best friend is muslim and lives in Dubai, and when I went to visit her recently I was also struck by how many women wearing hijabs and abbayahs were trying to make statements with them (or despite them). Many women compensate for being covered up by putting on a lot of eye makeup, and some have rich gold embroidery, or glittery decorations on the sleeves. The abbayah can be turned into a status symbol now. They also carry around designer bags, scarves, sunglasses... you name it. My friend told me that some women compensate for wearing the abbayah by wearing skimpy things underneath... This is probably a minority of the population though. I suppose it shows you that human nature is the same everywhere, and people will always want to stand out, look unusual, wear something that no-one else has, be fashion-forward. I found the movement and silhouette of the abbayah beautiful actually, it may be controversial but it's definitely not dowdy.

 

[Meg]

Thanks for the thoughtful responses to my question

 

[UNiQFashionista]

i dont think the abaya is controversal..or atleast shouldnt be..but i do think it should be worn in a very humble way. When go back to my country and must wear it, i wear a plain one...not tight (as some do) and plain black...(im not talking about niqaab or ppl who cover their faces) just the simple head scarf and abaya...and it does move beautifuly and i dont mind wearing at all (as you only wear it in public places, like malls and restaurants)...but im totally against the modernization...or rather the "sexification" of it..tight,see-through,make up...whats the point?..you can wear whatever u want under it..carry ur osrtich birkin...fine...but dont make it sexy. It pisses me off.

 

[sakina]

I'm a muslim but only wear a hijab at the mosque.

Once I was wearing a regular scarf 'hijab style' at the mall... and let's just say I got more than a few stares.

"Everyday we see our Muslim sisters proudly displaying names and initials on their clothing. … What are they advertising? CD, YSL, D&G,"—as in Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana—"How ironic that the most modest of dressing—the cloak and scarf—should become contaminated by advertising the names of some of the most shameless and perverted people in the world."

I think there's a big difference between having beautiful, colorful, traditional scarves and scarves with D&G all over it.

The hijab has also become much more than just a symbol of modesty but a political and social symbol. Personally I don't find the need to wear a hijab as a sign of modesty but more so that I'm identifying myself as muslim especially today.

 

[UNiQFashionista]

totally agree with you!
its just sad when you see girls wearing just to cover up their ..well..."sluttiness"...atleast its a growing trend in the gulf countries..!

 

[fouroclock]

Yeah...hoepfully I don't get flamed for this but we have a saying here in Toronto about girls who will *whisper "lift thier burqa for anyone..."

To further digress, how about hijab hippie chic that my friends do sometimes? Bright colours, patterns, less form fitting...

 

[SiennaInLondon]

Lovely thread. I am so bored (well outraged but let's not go there) by the Media instigated perception of Muslim women. I think the difference between looking aesthetically good and looking attractive has been overlooked. I believe in Islam, the hair is said to be attractive to men and I suppose it is. That is why the rest of us probably panic when our hair falls a little too much or whatever. So embellishment is not necessarily a route to seduction.

 

[uberwench]

On the 'modesty' issue: part of my family is muslim, my cousins are second-generation British muslims and are very traditional in some senses but greatly westernised in others.

My cousin pledged to start wearing a hijab (she was not brought up wearing one) as a sign of thankfulness for her father's recovery from illness, and married into a family where everyone wears them. The way they approach it is that it's not so much about 'sinking into the background' as covering up a certain part of their body -namely, their hair, which they only let uncovered around family members or when no men are present. It's more about symbolically keeping the hair under wraps than projecting an overall image of modesty and restraint. As such many of them wear bright colous, sequinned wraps, designer (/imitation ) scarves and far more make-up than I ever would.

Certainly in some Islamic soceities the hijab/burka reflects the idea that modesty = not calling (male) attention to oneself. I won't say any more for fear of expressing political/cultural judgements, but it's important to remember that this is just one extreme incarnation of Islam.

I think it's generally a really positive thing, that some muslim women are branching out with their hijabs -it shows that they can still be individual, self-expressive and involved in fashion without compromising their religious convictions. Personally, big logo-ed hijabs aren't really to my taste, but the fact that hijab-wearing women have freedom to make bad fashion choices is excellent. B)

 

[DA-82100]

The burqa and the hijab are not the same thing. No where in the quran is the burqa mentioned. The burqa is a fashion style that women in Afghanistan wear.

 

[vikingqueen]

The burqa and the hijab are not the same thing. No where in the quran is the burqa mentioned. The burqa is a fashion style that women in Afghanistan wear.

Yah, i've noticed in a lot of the media coverage about hijab in Europe, specifically in England, the word "hijab" is used to refer both to the regular headscarf and the full-out burqa/niqab....

no wonder ppl are sometimes confused about the whole issue!

 

[marcj]

you know i see the something very similar in the orthodox jewish community.... although they wear nothing like a hijab... women must wear a very modest dress that does not go above the knees or elbows.. and married women cover their head with a scarf/hat or wig. women and young girls, especially the very wealthy ones find ways to make their outfits sexier and flashier with the latest designers