'Modest fashion' has been a defining style for the past decade.

The trend for oversize silhouettes and loose layers has united fashion fans, religious and secular; it has been in part an attempt by western brands to buy into the lucrative market of Muslim consumers.

This shift has also seen the headscarf become increasingly acceptable, even covetable, in western fashion, with Nike, Uniqlo, Liberty, Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana among the brands selling scarves overtly tailored for use as hijabs in recent years.

Islamic dress, however, remains a lightning rod for controversy.

Hijab bans are continually discussed in France, while Switzerland is to hold a referendum on burqas this week, even as governments worldwide encourage the use of face masks.

China, too, has persecuted women for wearing the hijab.

In fashion, nothing has illustrated the tension as clearly as the story of Halima Aden, the trailblazing hijab-wearing Muslim model who was celebrated as an icon of inclusivity when she made her debut at Kanye West's New York fashion week show in 2017, then walked for Alberta Ferretti and Maxmara in Milan.

Aden appeared on magazine covers, including British Vogue, and won major commercial contracts. Carine Roitfeld described her as "a different beauty", saying she was "drawn to her instantly".

Her inclusion was a win-win for the western fashion industry, which slapped itself on the back for doing a service to diversity while also attracting a profitable new audience.

But two months ago, Aden announced that she was quitting the fashion industry because she felt the work had compromised her religious beliefs - particularly those concerning the hijab.

In a series of emotional posts to her 1.4m followers on Instagram Stories, she showed a range of pictures of the way she was styled, with hats and various accessories used to meet the technical requirements of covering her hair (on one occasion, this included pairs of jeans) and said that she had felt deeply unhappy about them.

She contrasted these images with photographs wearing coverings she was comfortable in, covering her ears, neck, shoulders and chest.

"Looking back now, I did what I said I would never do," she wrote, "which is compromise who I am in order to fit in."

Aden's high-profile declaration magnified deeper issues within the "modest fashion" concept and sent shock waves through the world of Muslim influencers and models, for whom she had become a kind of unofficial figurehead.

"Halima's words caused a huge ripple in our community. Everyone was talking about it," says influencer Sebina Hussain, an influencer also known online as Sebinaah, who works with brands including Viktor & Rolf and Swarovski.

"For as long as I can remember, the media has portrayed women in hijab as oppressed. That is until modest fashion came along and the conversation for some-part has shifted," says Hussain.

This shift has, according to Hussain, left those adopting a less commercial look behind.

"I've experienced it first-hand, how differently people treat me when I go out in an Abaya and no makeup versus an outfit from the high street and a face full of makeup."

In her work as an influencer, she has had to speak out when concepts do not align with her values. "Many times I've worried I am being a nuisance and the brand may not want to work with me again".

Although so far, her clients have always taken her concerns on board, this ties into "a huge pressure on Muslim women to look more western in any situation.

The pressure is to want to appear more ‘normal', to wipe away this negative stereotype associated with women in hijab," she says.

Aden, too, said she felt this pressure.

In her case, as a 19-year-old newcomer to the fashion industry, she said she felt "too scared to speak up" on photoshoots.

She noted being called "frumpy" when opting for a more traditional hijab and said she felt pressure to look more "sexy".

She asserted that the fashion industry - with its paucity of Muslim stylists - didn't understand the hijab within a religious, rather than aesthetic, context. Continue reading

Dr Keith Wolverson could be struck off after "politely" asking a Muslim mother to remove the face veil so he could hear her properly as she described her daughter's suspected tonsillitis.

The family doctor, who was practising at a walk-in centre at Royal Stoke University Hospital, says the woman consented without raising any objection, but that her husband turned up shortly after and made a formal complaint. Read more

Salma​ Abdalla​ and her friend Zoha​ Shuaib​ say the images of women protesting in Sudan, are a welcome counter to a frustrating stereotype - that Muslim women are submissive and oppressed by their faith. Continue reading

Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Netherlands MP for the right-wing People's Party, has been under police protection since she made a film in 2004 about violence against women in some Muslim cultures. Continue reading

It started when Trump responded to the Khans' appearance on Thursday (July 28) at the Democratic National Convention.

During that appearance, Humayun Khan's mother, Ghazala Khan, stood beside her husband silently as he criticized Trump. In an interview with ABC News, the Republican presidential nominee suggested that Ghazala Khan was not permitted to speak, presumably because of her religion.

"If you look at his wife, she was standing there," said Trump. "She had nothing to say. … Maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."

Khan said she declined to speak because she was emotional over the loss of her son, who died in 2004 in Iraq.

"Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart," she wrote in The Washington Post. "Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could?"

Now, Muslim women around the country — lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers, activists, artists, mothers and students — are using the trending hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow on social media to address Trump's comments, as well as the popular notion that Islam oppresses women.

"I'm running a trauma center, making life saving split second decisions. Make no mistake — my voice is heard," Los Angeles-based doctor Almaas Shaikh tweeted.

"I became a journalist to pursue transparency to clarify misrepresentations. Misrepresentations that (you) shamelessly create," NPR's Noor Wazwaz told Trump on Twitter.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has pushed the campaign as well, calling on Muslim women to join the Twitter storm by "sharing the various ways they speak out every day."

"As the leader of America's largest Muslim civil rights organization, I urge Donald Trump to apologize for his shameful remarks disparaging a Muslim Gold Star family and for his repeated use and promotion of anti-Muslim stereotypes," CAIR board chair Roula Allouch said in a statement. "Just as Donald Trump must apologize for his un-American remarks, Republican Party leaders must finally repudiate their candidate's divisive rhetoric." Continue reading

• Image: @malkadee33

Members of Nisa - a group focused on women helping and empowering other women - volunteer their time to Christchurch charity Help for the Homeless once a month.

University students Addeana Husaini, 19, Asayal Almutairi, 17 and Rabia Mofassir, 18, are among those who dish out food and lunch packs to those in need. Continue reading

Sh is the mother of four, is a candidate for the New Zealand a Labour Party in the upcoming September general elections.

She unsuccessfully stood for the Hamilton City Council last year. If chosen this year, she will be the first veiled Muslim lawmaker in New Zealand history.

Currently, she has a Bachelor and Masters in Management Studies from the University of Waikato and works as Chartered Accountant with 20 years of experience. Continue reading

Instances of verbal abuse followed the intimidating experience, as some Kiwis reacted angrily to Muslim protests about cartoons published in a Danish newspaper that depicted the prophet Muhammad in unflattering poses.

Six years on, things have changed. Rahman is running for Hamilton City Council and has knocked on hundreds of doors for her campaign. She's even rallied fellow Muslim women to leaflet drop. Continue reading

Women's Organisation of the Waikato Muslim Association (WOWMA) founder, Aliya Danzeisen, told the Waikato Times she has also been physically pushed in Westfield Chartwell mall, called a "f**ing Muslim" in public, and shouted at from passing cars.

WOWMA was established four years ago to help Muslim women integrate into New Zealand society. Ms Danzeisen said discrimination in the region was high, with Muslim women the target of harassment.

The women had been verbally attacked on the bus, physically pushed in public, shouted at on the street and told to go back home, but for this group of young Muslim women, Hamilton is home.

Source

• Waikato Times
• Image: Sunday StarTimes

Dr Sameer Aljabri, the husband of one of the women, who works at the Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission in Auckland, said he would lodge an official complaint with the Human Rights Commission on behalf of his wife. The incident had affected his opinion of New Zealand, where he had lived for about seven months. "It feels like this country is at the end of the world and knows nothing about the rest of the world," he said.

A Human Rights Commission spokesman said the incidents appeared to amount to discrimination on religious grounds.

• Pope Benedict, in the course of an interview with German journalist Peter Seewald said "As far as the burqa is concerned, I do not see a reason for a general ban. Some women do not wear the burqa entirely voluntarily and it is correct to talk of a violation against that woman. Of course one can not agree with that. But if they want to wear it voluntarily, I don't know why one must ban them."
• Last year the French Catholic Church said that Islamic countries would not respect their Christian minorities if Nicolas Sarkozy's government banned full-face Muslim veils. Bishop Michel Santier, the senior French official for inter-faith relations, said very few women in France wore full veils and that Muslim leaders agreed it was not obligatory.
• New Zealand Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter defended the freedom of Muslim women to wear the full-veil burqa, when he appeared on TV1's Close Up programme on Tuesday, 5 July.
• New Zealand may not be perfect but Saudi Arabia's record on civil, political and religious rights is woeful. Though the latest reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch note some marginal improvements, such as more scope for women to work and study, Saudi Arabia remains one of the world's most repressive, autocratic and intolerant states, says the editorial in the DomionPost

Source

• TV3 News
• Image: TVNZ