Islamic Culture

Muslim Woman

I have chosen Islamic woman for my subculture this is because my theme was based on hidden identity and wanted to continue further by looking at Muslim woman’s.  As a Muslim I personally think it is quite difficult situation and a responsibility to cover your body with Abaya (The black long traditional dress) and the face with Nigap were you can only see the eyes. In a way I found these woman’s quite brave because they are totally different to people around them and still are not making any difference when the seasons change specially in summer time. I was wondering how they feeling about and why they wearing these clothing so had a short conversation with my friend and these are the reason they hiding themselves.

·       Me: Why you wearing Hijab ( The scarf they  have on there hairs.)?

·       Friend: It is in the Quran that a girl should cover up...so does not attract a guy.

·       Me: Do you feel protective when you are covered? In what way and how it helps?

·       Friend: Yeah I do, well when you covered up it doesn’t show the shape of your body which means a guy are less likely to look at you...it also means people like rapists and pervs won’t even think about looking at you, that’s why I feel safe.!

·       Me: Getting covered does it helps you to hide your identity?

·       Friend: It hidden some identity...like if ma hair was messed up or if I wore the same top it wouldn’t be recognisable because you’re covered. 

I then searched  some shops in Oxford street which was a bad idea because couldn’t found much a relative resources, so I continued my researching online and used a photo shoot images from my previous project. This helped me to visualize the repetitive floral details and the colours. I then remembered that I have collated some images from Liberty in Oxford street, which were brand scarfs with bright colours and repetitive patterns. While my researches was going on, I found this punk hijabi girl on Google I found it really interesting, because i knew that they was colourful and shiny patterns were used by a Muslim woman’s because they love being fancy and love jewellery all over themselves but punk and Islam is two cultures that opposite each other in different ways and i was quite surprised when i saw her designed punky hair scarf, it was pretty much unique, also hides the real personality of a person because Islam is restricted religious which is not open for notion of becoming stylish.