scholarly journals Women undercover: exploring the intersectional identities of Muslim women through modest fashion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romana B. Mirza
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Beauty Ideals ◽  
Dress Practices ◽  
Clothing Choices

Significant discrimination is directed toward Muslim women who dress modestly. Despite this Muslims will spend an estimated US$75 billion on modest fashion by 2020, a 70% increase since 2015. Past research in modest fashion has focused on influencers, the industry, or on veiling. Muslim women’s everyday dress practices and their lived experiences have not been studied. Through an intersectional framework, this research uses wardrobe interviews with sixteen Muslim women and digital storytelling with four of them to explore how they embody their identity through modest fashion, how intersectionality impacts their clothing choices, and what contexts influence their sartorial decisions. Three themes emerged: what influences their style; how they shop and style outfits; and what consequences are faced. My research found that by prioritizing modesty as a sartorial practice, these women are diverting the Western gaze, navigating away from superficial and oppressive Western beauty ideals, and challenging narrow Islamophobic stereotypes. Keywords: modesty, female modesty, sartorial agency, dressed bodies, fashion, hijab, Muslim, Islamophobia, intersectionality, fashion diversity, Western gaze, Orientalism

scholarly journals Women undercover: exploring the intersectional identities of Muslim women through modest fashion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romana B. Mirza
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Beauty Ideals ◽  
Dress Practices ◽  
Clothing Choices

Significant discrimination is directed toward Muslim women who dress modestly. Despite this Muslims will spend an estimated US$75 billion on modest fashion by 2020, a 70% increase since 2015. Past research in modest fashion has focused on influencers, the industry, or on veiling. Muslim women’s everyday dress practices and their lived experiences have not been studied. Through an intersectional framework, this research uses wardrobe interviews with sixteen Muslim women and digital storytelling with four of them to explore how they embody their identity through modest fashion, how intersectionality impacts their clothing choices, and what contexts influence their sartorial decisions. Three themes emerged: what influences their style; how they shop and style outfits; and what consequences are faced. My research found that by prioritizing modesty as a sartorial practice, these women are diverting the Western gaze, navigating away from superficial and oppressive Western beauty ideals, and challenging narrow Islamophobic stereotypes. Keywords: modesty, female modesty, sartorial agency, dressed bodies, fashion, hijab, Muslim, Islamophobia, intersectionality, fashion diversity, Western gaze, Orientalism

Four Principles for Cultivating Alternate Cultural Paradigms in Psychology: Summary Reflections on Innovative Contributions

2021 ◽  
pp. 002216782110507
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Gone
Keyword(s):  
American Indian ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
White Racism ◽  
Research Engagement ◽  
Cultural Paradigms ◽  
Exciting Possibility

The contributors to this special issue have demonstrated the potency and promise of cultivating Alternate Cultural Paradigms (ACPs) in psychology that reflect and express the lived realities of non-White communities in America. Based on my past research engagement with several distinct American Indian and First Nations communities, I offer for consideration four principles for psychologists who seek to further cultivate ACPs: (a) attend independently to culture and power, (b) anchor conceptual abstractions in empirical examples, (c) complicate stock oppositions and essentialisms, and (d) integrate emancipation with application. Adoption of these four principles should assist with the development of robust ACPs that accurately reflect the lived experiences of non-White communities. The promotion of these in psychology represents the exciting possibility for a more just and equitable future in which the injuries of White racism are remedied and all Americans are granted equal opportunities to live and thrive in self-determined fashion.

Approaches to the wardrobe challenges of Muslim women in the west

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1155-1173
Author(s):  
Wafaa H. Shafee
Keyword(s):  
Community Integration ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
Dress Code ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Brands ◽  
Women's Clothing ◽  
Clothing Choices

Purpose This study aims to identify the challenges of Muslim women in terms of their dress code in Western society by including their clothing needs in the strategies of the fashion industry and marketing. The study focuses on wardrobe choices that have helped overcome these challenges and facilitated Muslim women’s integration into western society. Design/methodology/approach Descriptive statistics were used in this study through a questionnaire that was distributed among 265 randomly selected Muslim women in London, UK. The results have been presented in charts showing the percentages and frequencies of the different behaviors and challenges that were faced by Muslim women in the west. Findings The majority of the study sample preferred to use a variety of modern fashion trends from global brands to integrate with the community. The essential criteria for the Muslim women’s clothing choices include head hair cover and conservative full-length clothes that are non-transparent that cover the neck and chest area. Originality/value A study has investigated the clothing needs and behaviors of Muslim women in the west for their community integration. It analyzed the results and linked them with the role and contributions of designers, producers and fashion marketers in accepting the western society of Muslims and their integration with its members.

Women in Fashion and Textiles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
MacKenzie Moon Ryan
Keyword(s):  
African Women ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Independence Era ◽  
Fashion Apparel ◽  
Textiles And Clothing ◽  
Dress Practices ◽  
Fashion Designers ◽  
Clothing Choices

Women have long played a large role in the production and consumption of fashion and textiles in Africa. Women spin, weave, dye, embroider, and otherwise create textiles using specific technologies. They also adorn themselves in jewelry, beadwork, and headwear; some also choose to veil. Women serve as designers and seamstresses to tailor clothing from textiles, and the dominant buyers and sellers of textiles are women. As such, textiles and clothing play a defining role in women’s wealth. Textiles often feature prominently at momentous occasions throughout the lives of women, for example at adolescent rites, engagement and marriage, births of children, and as burial shrouds. Women use dress practices—including wrapped textiles, tailored clothing, and personal adornment—to display aspects of their identities. Research has explored women’s varied roles related to textiles and fashion in Africa since the late 19th century. Women in the colonial era used their clothing choices to take advantage of new opportunities and contest long-standing and newly introduced strictures. During the independence era, struggles for freedom and nationalism informed clothing practices. A rise of women fashion designers in the mid-20th century paved the way for contemporary proliferations in both everyday and high fashion apparel. From accessible secondhand clothing to exclusive runway collections, African women in the 21st century continue to innovate in dress practices, which demonstrates African women’s creativity and dedication to style at all social strata. Therefore, how women in Africa have dressed themselves in fashion and textiles illuminate women’s agency.

scholarly journals Attitudes of Professional Muslim Women in Saudi Arabia regarding Wearing the Abaya

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.A. DeCoursey
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Women ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Saudi Women ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Young Professional ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Global World ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Clothing Choices ◽  
Positive Results

Clothing choices create a “semiotic sparkle” for the individual, and convey meaning to viewers. In a global world, interpretations may differ, if wearer and viewer are from different cultures. This is the case for the hijab, or required Muslim dress for women, which has been profoundly ideologised. This study explores how young professional Saudi women understand the abaya, the long outer robe, as a fashionable article of clothing. Corpus data was analysed using Appraisal techniques. Positive results indicate they focus on visual details, appreciate its enabling both comfort and elegance, and perceive design-diversification according to social identities, activities, contexts and roles. They view wearing the abaya as culturally authentic, more than a religious duty. Negative results focused on hot textiles in summer, movement hindrance, and cleanliness.

scholarly journals Misogyny, Racism, and Islamophobia: Street Harassment at the Intersections

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 540-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Mason-Bish ◽  
Irene Zempi
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Street Harassment ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact

Veiled Muslim women are at an increased risk of street harassment in the current political and economic climate. Their visibility, combined with their popular portrayal as culturally dangerous or threatening means that they are vulnerable to receiving verbal and physical threats, which can be misogynistic and Islamophobic in nature. Drawing on 60 individual and 20 focus group interviews with Muslim women in the United Kingdom who wear the niqab (face veil) and had experienced harassment in public, this qualitative study details their lived experiences. It argues that an intersectional analysis is crucial to understanding the nuances of their lived experiences and the impact street harassment has on their lives. The findings demonstrate that street harassment can produce a hostile environment for veiled Muslim women, which can have a terrorizing effect, limiting their full participation in the public sphere.

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