We, Myself and I
By RUTH LA FERLA
Published: April 5, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/fashion/05MUSLIM.html

FOR Aysha Hussain, getting dressed each day is a
fraught negotiation. Ms. Hussain, a 24-year-old
magazine writer in New York, is devoted to her
pipe-stem Levi’s and determined to incorporate their
brash modernity into her wardrobe while adhering to
the tenets of her Muslim faith. “It’s still a
struggle,” Ms. Hussain, a Pakistani-American,
confided. “But I don’t think it’s impossible.

Ms. Hussain has worked out an artful compromise,
concealing her curves under a mustard-tone cropped
jacket and a tank top that is long enough to cover her
hips.

Some of her Muslim sisters follow a more conservative
path. Leena al-Arian, a graduate student at the
University of Chicago, joined a women’s worship group
last Saturday night. Her companions, who sat
cross-legged on prayer mats in a cramped apartment in
the Hyde Park neighborhood, were variously garbed in
beaded tunics, harem-style trousers, gauzy veils and
colorful pashminas. Ms. Arian herself wore a
loose-fitting turquoise tunic over fluid jeans. She
covered her hair, neck and shoulders with a brightly
patterned hijab, the head scarf that is emblematic of
the Islamic call to modesty.

Like many of her contemporaries who come from diverse
social and cultural backgrounds and nations, Ms. Arian
has devised a strategy to reconcile her faith with the
dictates of fashion — a challenge by turns stimulating
and frustrating and, for some of her peers, a constant
point of tension.

Injecting fashion into a traditional Muslim wardrobe
is “walking a fine line,” said Dilshad D. Ali, the
Islam editor of Beliefnet.com, a Web site for
spiritual seekers. A flash point for controversy is
the hijab, which is viewed by some as a politically
charged symbol of radical Islam and of female
subjugation that invites reactions from curiosity to
outright hostility.

In purely aesthetic terms, the devout must work to
evolve a style that is attractive but not provocative,
demure but not dour — friendly to Muslims and
non-Muslims alike.

“Some young women follow the letter of the rule,” Ms.
Ali observed. Others are more flexible. “Maybe their
shirts are tight. Maybe the scarf is not really
covering their chest, and older Muslim women’s tongues
will wag.”

The search for balance makes getting dressed “a really
intentional, mindful event in our lives every day,”
said Asra Nomani, the outspoken author of “Standing
Alone in Mecca: An American Woman’s Struggle for the
Soul of Islam” (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). Clothing is
all the more significant, Ms. Nomani said, because
what a Muslim woman chooses to wear “is a critical
part of her identity.”

Many younger women seek proactively to shape that
identity, adopting the hijab without pressure from
family or friends, or from the Koran, which does not
mandate covering the head.

“Family pressure is the exception, not the rule,” said
Ausma Khan, the editor of Muslim Girl, a new magazine
aimed at young women who, when it come to dress, “make
their own personal choice.”

The decision can be difficult. Today few retailers
cater to a growing American Muslim population that is
variously estimated to be in the range of three to
seven million. “Looking for clothes that are covering
can be a real challenge when you go to a typical
store,” Ms. Khan said.

Only a couple of years ago, Nordstrom conducted a
fashion seminar at the Tysons Corner Center mall in
McLean, Va., a magnet for affluent Muslim women in
suburban Washington. The store sought to entice them
with a profusion of head scarves, patterned blouses
and subdued tailored pieces, but for the most part
missed the nuances, said shoppers who attended the
event. They were shown calf-length skirts and
short-sleeve jackets of a type prohibited for the
orthodox, who cover their legs and arms entirely.

“For me the biggest struggle is to find clothes in the
department stores,” said Ms. Arian, who has worn the
hijab since she was 13. She scours the Web and stores
like Bebe, Zara, Express and H & M for skirts long
enough to meet her standards. The majority, gathered
through the hips, are “not very flattering on women
with curves,” she said, chuckling ruefully, “and a lot
of Middle Eastern women have curves.”

Maryah Qureshi, a graduate student in Chicago, has a
similarly tricky time navigating conventional stores.
“When we do find a sister-friendly item,” she said,
“we tend to buy it in every color.”

Tam Naveed, a young freelance writer in New York, has
devised an urbane uniform, tweed pants, a long-sleeve
shirt and a snugly fastened scarf that dramatically
sets off her features.

Ms. Nomani, the author, improvises her own head
covering by wearing a hoodie or a baseball cap to
mosque. “I call it ghetto hijab,” she said tartly. For
everyday, she buys shirtdresses at the Gap. “They
cover your backside, but they’re still the Gap. That
kind of gives you a visa between the two worlds.”

In its fashion pages, Muslim Girl addresses concerns
about fashion by encouraging young readers to mix and
match current designs from a variety of sources, and
reinforces the message that religion and fashion need
not be mutually exclusive.

“We are trying to keep our finger on the pulse of what
women want,” Ms. Khan said. Fashion pages, shown
alongside columns offering romantic advice and
articles on saving the environment, are among the more
popular for the magazine’s teenage readers, she said,
adding that the magazine’s circulation of 50,000 is
expected to double next year.

Aspiring style-setters also find inspiration on retail
Web sites like Artizara.com, which offers a high-neck
white lace shirtdress and a sleeveless wrap jumper;
and thehijabshop.com, with its elasticized hijabs,
which can be slipped over the head.

Some women seek out fashions from a handful of
designers who cater to them. “I think people like me
are starting to see that Muslim women make up a
significant market and are expressing their
entrepreneurial spirit,” said Brooke Samad, a
28-year-old Muslim woman who designs kimono-sleeve
wrap coats and floor-length interpretations of the
pencil skirt out of a guest room in her home in
Highland Hills, N.J.

“We follow trends, but we do keep to our guidelines,”
said Ms. Samad, whose label is called Marabo. “And
we’re careful with the fabrics to make sure they
aren’t too clingy.”

Today fashion itself is more in tune with the values
of Islam, revealing styles having given way to a
relatively modest layered look. Elena Kovyrzina, the
creative director of Muslim Girl, pointed to
of-the-moment runway designs, any one of which might
be appropriate for the magazine’s fashion pages: a
voluminous Ungaro blouse with a high neck and full,
flowing sleeves; a billowing Marni coat discreetly
belted at the waist; and a Prada satin turban. Among
the more free-spirited looks Ms. Kovyrzina singled out
was a DKNY long-sleeve shirt and man-tailored
trousers, topped with a hair-concealing baseball cap.

There are Muslim women who choose to cover as part of
a journey of self-discovery. In “Infidel” (Free Press,
2007), her memoir of rebellion, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
recalls as a girl wearing a concealing long black
robe. “It had a thrill to it,” Ms. Hirsi Ali writes,
“a sensuous feeling. It made me feel powerful:
underneath this screen lay a previously unsuspected
but potentially lethal femininity. I was unique.”

But adopting the hijab also invites adversity. A
survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations
last year found that nearly half of Americans believe
that Islam encourages the oppression of women.
Referring to that survey, Ms. Hussain, the New York
journalist, observed, “Many of these people think,
‘Oh, if a woman is covered, she must be oppressed.’ ”

Still, after 9/11, Ms. Hussain made a point of wearing
the hijab. “Politically,” she said, “it lets people
know you’re not trying to hide from them.”

Among the young, Ms. Nomani said, “there is a pressure
to show your colors.”

“Young people aren’t empowered enough to change
foreign policy,” she said, so they adopt a hybrid of
modern and Muslim garb, which is “their way to say,
‘I’m Muslim and I’m proud.’ ”

Such bravado has its perils. Jenan Mohajir, a member
of the prayer group near the University of Chicago,
spoke with some bitterness about being waylaid as she
traveled. Ms. Mohajir, who works with the Interfaith
Youth Core, which promotes cooperation among
religions, recalled an official at airport security
telling her: “You might as well step aside. You have
too many clothes on.”

What was she wearing? “Jeans, a tunic, sandals and a
scarf.”

Ms. Hussain no longer covers her head but has adopted
a look meant to play down misconceptions without
compromising her piety. “Living in New York,” she
said, “has made me want to experiment more with colors
and in general to be more bold. I don’t want to scare
people. I want them to say, ‘Wow!’ ”

She has noticed a like-minded tendency among her
peers. “In the way that we present ourselves to the
rest of the world, we are definitely lightening up.”