Emma Tarlo and and Abdur-Rahman Abou Almajd in dialog about Islamic Fashions

"O (most illustrious) Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters, as well as the women (wives and daughters) of the believers, to draw over themselves some part of their outer garments (when outside their homes and when before men whom they are not forbidden to marry because of blood relation). This is better and more convenient for them to be recognized (and respected for their decency and decorum) and not harassed. God is indeed All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate." Quran 33:59.


And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss. (Abdullah Yusuf Ali) 24: 32


The Quran speaks of modesty and covering but is not specific about the styles of garment that should be worn. With the emergence of Islam as a social force in the West, many Muslim women throughout the western world are choosing to express their identity and faith through wearing various forms of Islamic dress from colourful headscarves (often referred to as hijab in western countries) to full length jilbabs and in some cases
niqabs. Whilst some of these outfits may be considered traditional, many are creative new forms of Islamic fashion, some of which have been invented in the cosmopolitan cities of the West.

To find out more about these developments I talk to Emma Tarlo who has conducted several years of research on this topic and whose recent book, ‘Visibly Muslim: Fashion Politics and Faith’ was published in 2010 and has been praised as “an outstanding contribution to the debates about Muslim dress and identity in the contemporary world.”


Dr. Emma Tarlo
Reader in Department of Anthropology ,Goldsmiths, University of London where she teaches anthropology. She is author of several books, the most recent of which is Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion: New Perspectives from Europe and North America (Sep 18, 2013) she is co-editor with Annelies Moors of a forthcoming book on Islamic Fashion in Europe and  Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith’(Berg 2010).

 Both of books concern the relationship between religion and dress in Britain,focusing in particular on Muslim clothing debates and practices and exploring issues of visibility, religious conviction, materiality, biography, politics, emotion, fashion and globalization. and co-editor of a special issue of the Journal, Fashion Theory on Muslim Fashions world wide (Fashion Theory 2007).


Q: ‘Visibly Muslim’ has been described as a book containing honest stories along with beautiful pictures, providing n up to date a portrait of Muslim women that is fair minded in the minefield that surrounds the dress of visibly Muslim women in the UK. Can you tell us more about the book and our intentions in writing it?


ET: I became interested in Muslim women’s dress in 2004 when the French government announced its intention to ban the wearing of religious symbols in French state schools.  I attended rallies where young Muslim women in Britain were protesting against the ban. Many of these women were highly articulate, educated, modern young British citizens yet they were often portrayed in politics and the media as if they were either passive victims or dangerous radicals and extremists.  It occurred to me that visibly Muslim dress was only ever discussed in the mainstream media through the lens of religious prescription or politics with the result that the creative and dynamic elements of visibly Muslim dress were generally lost.

This lead me to conduct research into the changing world and diversity of visibly Muslim dress practices in Britain, focusing both on individual clothing choices and on the development  of Islamic fashion design and retail. I included many images in the book, some of them in colour, because I wanted non-Muslim readers to be able to appreciate the aesthetic aspects of visibly Muslim fashions rather than simply seeing them as a form of oppression.


Q: Could you tell us more about changes in hijab fashion in the UK?

ET: There are two main interpretations of Islamic fashion popular in the UK. One involves combing headscarves with mainstream fashion garments such as jeans, skirts, dresses and so forth. Where dresses and shirts purchased in the high street are considered too revealing, young Muslim girls often add long sleeves underneath the garments, creating an attractive layered effect which remains in tune with global fashions. This is often matched with the layering of different coloured headscarves, creating a look which is both fashionable and covered.

Young women get ideas of different techniques for tying scarves from each other, from what they see in the street and on fashion websites and from travel and interaction with Muslims from different places around the world. Their outfits generally do not conform to older regional styles but rather are the product of living in a modern multicultural urban environment.

At the same time, there is a new generation of fashion designers in Britain and elsewhere who are keen to design new outfits and styles catering specifically for the Muslim market. These are sold in shops, Islamic events and on Islamic  fashion websites. Some draw on different regional styles of dress from around North Africa, South Asia and the Middle East; others are more interested in developing styles of covered dress which fit with Western fashion trends, though Western fashion trends often draw on different styles from around the world, so the East/West distinction is not clear cut. Interestingly online stores careering for Muslims also find that they get customers of other faiths and no specific faith visiting their websites and purchasing garments.

Q: What motivates first generation fashion designers?


ET: Most began designing Islamic fashion garments in response to their own difficulties in finding clothes that could be both fashionable and modest.

Many wanted to express their faith by wearing covered dress but did not want to wear clothes which would mark them out as foreign. The types of jilbab and abaya available in Islamic shops generally did not conform to their desire to look fashionable and modern as well as modest.


Q: Why is the question of what to wear such a major issue for Muslim women and what factors enter into their decision making process?


ET: Many young Muslims in Britain and Europe want to look fashionable and trendy but they also want to be covered. They are proud of their Muslim identity and faith and wish to express this through their clothes and uphold Islamic ideas of modesty. At the same time, as soon as they wear conspicuous forms of Muslim dress, they find themselves subject to the judgments of others. These may be non Muslims who might perceive them as too religious or alien or it may be other Muslims who might criticize them for wearing hijab, or for being too covered or not covered enough.


 To enter into the public domain is to place oneself at the mercy of the gaze of others, and these gazes are often contradictory. It therefore becomes important for young Muslim women to become skilled at what the American sociologist, Erving Goffman called “impression management.”


Q: How can British Islamic fashion help to open dialogue for mutual understanding between Muslims and non Muslims?


ET: One thing that is interesting about Muslim fashions in Britain is that they have opened up a dialogue without words. It is a visual dialogue of aesthetics and taste which demonstrates aspects of popular culture that many young Muslims share in common with other young people in Britain. 


At the same time clothes often become the focal point for a verbal dialogue too. This is clearly seen on the Internet where Islamic fashion websites attract admirers from different backgrounds and where some of those who design and market Islamic or modest fashions make an explicit effort to reach out to people of different backgrounds and faiths.


Q: Do you think the study of dress can tell us much about Muslim identity in the contemporary world?


ET: Yes. Through dress we can see new and complex identity formations emerging as people place themselves in the local and global landscape.

What is fascinating about dress is that it links the highly personal to larger social, religious, cultural, aesthetic, moral and political formations.

One of the striking aspects of Muslim fashions is how cosmopolitan they are and this reflects the cosmopolitan nature of Muslim communities in Britain and elsewhere.


Q: Why is dress such a major topic of media interest and international concern?


ET: Unfortunately representations of Muslim women in headscarves and men with caps and beards are often used in the Western media as a visual shorthand to represent a supposed and imagined gulf between Islam and the West. Such images often accompany articles about problems of immigration, criticisms of multiculturalism or discussions of international terrorist activities.

When used in this way the images seem to suggest that Muslims are foreigners who cause trouble and refuse to fit in. The images selected are often of the more austere covering practices such as jilbab and niqab.

Such images play on a fear of difference and a desire by many for religion to be relegated to the private sphere. They also link to concerns about the freedom of women and fears that some women may be forced into covering against their will or that they have imbibed an ideology which will inhibit their progress. The increased polarization of international relations following 9/11 served to exacerbate these simplistic and divisive readings of Islamic dress as ‘a problem’ and has contributed to the recent waves of bans on the wearing of hijab or jilbab in schools and certain public spaces in several European countries.

Here Islamic dress is conflated with what some see as the threat of Islamic radicalization. On the other hand recent protest movements in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya in which many women in hijab are seen fighting for democracy may serve to deflate these negative and simplistic readings.


Q: What further research are you doing in this area?


ET: Since 2009 I have been involved in two collective research projects. One has involved a team of researchers looking into developments of Islamic fashion in Europe.

 We will be publishing a book of our findings next year (edited by myself and Professor Annelies Moors from the University of Amsterdam).

I have also been involved with professor Reina Lewis and Jane Cameron from the London School of Fashion on a project researching the emergence and spread of Modest fashions which are not specific to any one faith group but which seek to cater to the tastes of women from different faith and non faith backgrounds. This is an interesting development as it again creates dialogue between people from different backgrounds and faiths  and also points to the fact that Muslim women are not the only group critical of some of the extreme sexualisation of  women’s bodies in much contemporary fashion.

Q: In the mid 1990’s you spent 3 years living in Delhi. Have you visited or stayed in any Islamic or Arab countries?

ET: I have visited Morocco and also spent much time with Indian Muslims in Delhi, but at that time I was not working about Muslim dress. My interest in Islamic fashions emerged from what I saw around me in the streets of London and in the university where I teach rather than from travel.

Abdur-Rahman : Thank you very much.