Female Dress on the Arab Street: Damascus

These are cute; amusing.

I saw two little girls, walking down the street  with their mom, in full hijab, but so light-weight and fashionable, with bright but tasteful colors. They were running and skipping and so happy.

Hijab and fringe is basically Audrey Hepburn, no?

The fact that "hijab and fringe" is an Iranian tourist, the "Axis of Evil" oh my!

Hello from an American (Muslim) in Paris --

Having written that, I wonder if my life could be the basis of an amusing modern remake of this classic movie? : 0

I enjoyed the clever drawings a lot. The glare aspect is a brilliant observation. I think the glare is one of the most effective ways imaginable to validate non-Muslims belief that Islam is a religion for angry, repressed, anti-social grumps.

I could relate to the women's various efforts to be happy & halal. I too struggle to find a modest clothing style that works for me in a fashion-driven, Latin, often Islamophobic society. I opt for loose-fitting clothing and pants or long skirts (no side slits), tunics are quite popular in mainstream fashion here so I find a lot of tops I like. I work as a consultant and if I go to a meeting at a typical French company, I can't look like I just walked off a dune. Not to diss someone who does want to dress more conservatively or in traditional styles, there are many North African people in France who do. But a lot of these people don't get much respect or taken seriously as a job candidate either -- let's call it the Burning Car Syndrome from the riots of last year. That's another topic.

There is also the question of safety in my area. Some imbeciles have put up homemade stickers on the trash cans that show a drawing of the Prophet (pbuh) that says "Mohammed = poubelle" (garbage). Or even more idiotically "Islam = Merde" (sh*t). Who wants to meet these nuts when walking home at night from the train??

I'm petite, blonde and blue-eyed, so sometimes I get some strange looks or comments even with what I do wear. Like, you're not fat, why don't you wear more sexy clothes? One woman even asked me in a kind, meaningful tone of voice "do you like to eat?" It dawned on me that she thought I had an eating disorder! I finally 'came out' to her and said "I'm not bulemic, just a Muslim." She looked puzzled but relieved, kind of "ohhh!" as if that explained everything.

Ankara is the capitol of modern Turkey, Istanbul was the capitol of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

Can you get people like the woman in the bottom left hand corner walking around in Damascus? Sorry, I've never been to Syria before.

LOL I really like the Bedouin hijab lady.

This very funny cartoon earlier appeared in Muslimah Media Watch

http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2008/03/25/a-class-apart-2/

Which itself cross-posted it from this blog:

http://thoughts-journal.blogspot.com/2007/04/islamic-syria_06.html

Some notes:

Qubeisya - member of an Islamic women's group in Syria - known to be made up almost entirely of the sort of prurient, humourless busybodies who will shop you to your religious auntie should you be caught holding hands with Ahmed on the stairs of the apartment block. Seem to encourage that mono-brow look beloved of religious maniacs infatuated with the literal interpretation of dodgy ahadith about women's appearance.

The Bedouin hijabi is asking: "O mum, where did you say was the souk?" - the Bedu dialect is being mocked (the characteristic conservative Bedu tendency to transform "qaaf" into a hard "g", for example - something common in Hijazi Saudi dialects and Sudanese, FYI).

"Abou Rumaneh" - The Levantine young hipster is being doubly mocked - the name "Pomegranate" is common enough in the Levant for it to be a token of being from the area. The affluent liberalism of the mistress (from the target Lebanese middle class) is being contrasted with the conservatism of the Indonesian maid.

There is a short but pithy exploration of some the possibly racist undertones of some of these images on the first link given above.