Hijabi Fashionistas and the Production of "Seamless" Identity

Copyright © 2014

by

Noora Kamel

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Fashion as a Site of Negotiated Identity ..................................................1

Why Study Hijabi Fashionistas? ..................................................................3

Note on Terminology ...................................................................................4

Muslim Women in Western Popular Imagination .........................................................5

What Muslims Should Wear: Popular Preconceptions and Stereotypes .....5

Hijabi Fashionistas’ Responses to Preconceptions and Stereotypes............7

Identity, Freedom, and Clothing in British Society and Politics ...............10

Muslim Women in Popular Muslim Imagination ........................................................17

Topographies of Debate on Muslim Women’s Dress within Muslim

Communities in the United States and Britain ...........................................17

Astagfirullah sister! That’s Not Hijab! Criticism of hijabi fashionistas by the

Muslim community ....................................................................................19

Strategies for responding to Muslim criticism: Position statements and disclaimers ..22

“It’s Not All about the Exterior” ................................................................26

“This Is My Opinion” or “YOU decide” ...................................................27

Bold affirmation: this IS proper hijab ........................................................28

Conclusion: Defining Islam for an American Context ................................................30

Beyond the Hyphen: Seamless Identities ...................................................30

Transcending “American Muslim” and “Muslim American”: Towards a

Muslimerican Identity ................................................................................35

References ....................................................................................................................36

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Introduction: Fashion as a Site of Negotiated Identity

The past decade has seen a growing number of prominent young Muslim women

fashion bloggers and Youtubers from the United States and Britain. A number of them

have become famous enough to be recognized internationally by other female Muslim

bloggers and fashion designers around the world. Many have large fanbases on Youtube,

Facebook, Instagram and other social networking sites.These Muslim women bloggers

and Youtubers blog about fashion and how to style Western-style clothing to conform to

Islamic norms of modesty. A large number of these videos consist especially in how to

style the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, in many different ways and in different fabrics.

Most of these bloggers wear the hijab on a daily basis themselves and produce the videos

to inspire their viewers to try tying their hijabs in different ways. These bloggers often

identify themselves with the term hijabi, or woman who wears a hijab, or headscarf,

therefore, I will refer to these Muslim women as hijabi bloggers, Youtubers and

fashionistas. Similarly, since the vast majority of these hijabi fashionistas are presenting

their headscarf styles and modest takes on Western fashion for an audience that is

(presumed to be) hijabi as well, I will refer to the styles they present as being hijabi

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fashion in the sense that they are fashion and styles produced by, and for the benefit of,

hijab-wearing women.

While a great deal of scholarship has been devoted in the past decade or so to the

study of Muslim women’s fashion and its role in identity building, these studies tend to

focus on particular categories of Muslim women; fashion designers, college students, or

on particular topics like the hijab and how ordinary Muslim women interpret or

understand its role in their lives. While a great many of these studies offer helpful

insights into the role of how fashion produces identity for certain individuals, or how

certain objects of fashion (hijab) produce identity for diverse individuals, none of these

studies examine the diverse online presence of Muslim women fashionistas and their

unique contributions to these discourses.

This paper seeks to explore the processes of self-expression, religious expression

and identity formation in the forum of hijabi fashionista bloggers and Youtubers in the

West. It investigates how these hijabi fashionistas use fashion to negotiate different

interpretations of modesty, self-image and self-identity in an American context. It seeks

to explore the ways in which they are bringing Western culture and Islamic religious

values into dialogue through fashion. It examines how they use fashion as a means to

negotiate with both mainstream American and Islamic values.

I argue that the ways in which these hijabi fashionistas synthesize Western-style

fashion with Islamic sensibilities of modesty not only shape how Muslim women are

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perceived both within their faith communities and outside of them, but are a critical part

of the American Muslim identity-building process in America. Within the broader

American community, these young women use fashion to deconstruct Orientalist

stereotypes of themselves in mainstream Western culture as well as complicate

understandings of Muslim women in the West. In addition, hijabi fashionistas engage

with and reinterpret notions of acceptable Islamic modesty in dress within the Muslim

community, thereby defining new boundaries for Islamic modesty in a Western context.

Why Study Hijabi Fashionistas?

Hijabi fashionistas have a large online presence that gives them the scope and

influence other members of the American Muslim community do not have. Their

opinions and thoughts are accessible to a large and diverse community of viewers, both

Muslim and non-Muslim. Many of the bloggers and Youtubers and fashionistas examined

in this paper have enormous followings on social media sites such as Youtube, Facebook,

Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. Several are internationally recognized figures in the

Islamic fashion scene and have the potential to, and in fact do, influence the opinions and

ideas of fashion for thousands of young American and British Muslim women. In

addition, these hijabi fashionistas have a following among non-Muslim young women,

and are in the public light enough that they have the potential to affect perceptions of

Muslim women by non-Muslims in American and British popular discourse. The scope

and depth of their influence on the lives of young Muslim women in both countries

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ensures that they are strategic figures in the identity formation processes of Muslim youth

in the United States and Britain.

Note on Terminology

Throughout this paper, I will use the category of broader American discourse to

refer specifically to the views of non-Muslim Americans. Similarly, where applicable, I

will refer to broader British discourse as the views of non-Muslim British people. Of

course, it must be understood that the views presented here as those of the American or

British public are by no means representative of the diversity of opinion in those groups

about Islam and Muslim women. Rather, my purpose in this section is to present some of

the more frequent trends in discourse and opinions about Muslims present among the

American and British public.

This paper also uses the terms “American Muslim” and “Muslim American”

interchangeably, although Muslims have argued that these two labels are not synonymous,

because the noun can be understood as privileging one or another part of the composite

identity, while the adjective in the phrase merely adds information (Galloway, 2011).

Thus if one uses the term “American Muslim”, the Muslim aspect is emphasized while

the American is seen to only describe what kind of Muslim. Conversely, by using

“Muslim American”, the implication is that it is the American identity that counts, and

the Muslim portion serves only to show what kind of American. Both terms are

problematic for describing the process of identity formation I argue in this paper. Because

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of this, I will propose in the conclusion that a new identity marker is coined that avoids

privileging one aspect of Muslim American (or American Muslim) identity over the other.

Muslim Women in Western Popular Imagination

Hijabi fashionistas in the United States and Britain contend with a number of

representations and assumptions made about Muslim women in American and British

public discourse. Sources for these representations are largely from the media, but also

stem from depictions of Muslim women in popular culture and academia that are rooted

in Orientalist stereotypes and media misrepresentations of Islam.

What Muslims Should Wear: Popular Preconceptions and Stereotypes

A number of studies contribute to highlighting the preconceived notions young

Muslim women come into contact with in American public discourse on the notion of

Islamic dress in general, and hijab in particular. Shabana Mir’s breakthrough study on the

lives of Muslim American women on American college campuses highlights a number of

hitherto understudied experiences these women face. Featuring largely among these

experiences are preconceived notions young Muslim women come into contact with on

the subject of Muslim women’s dress in American public discourse. One subject of Mir’s

study mentioned being constantly questioned by non-Muslim peers about why, if she was

Muslim, she did not wear a burqa. In addition, she was told that unless she wore a burqa,

she was not properly dressed as a Muslim. For her American peers, the burqa was a

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perceived Islamic norm assumed to be the quintessential Muslim woman’s garb, a

necessary pillar of her religious identity. Furthermore, they imposed their own

expectations upon her by judging her as lacking religiosity simply because she did not

wear the burqa. Mir argues that these “non-Muslim morality police” (Mir, 2014, 95)

impose expectations of what a proper Muslim should wear on Muslim women who do not

conform to their expectations. Many of these expectations stem from conservative

Muslim ideas of appropriate women’s dress that Americans are exposed to through the

media. These media representations often focus on women wearing clothing styles of

countries or cultures that look foreign to members of the dominant culture of their

viewers. The function of such depictions is to heighten the foreignness and otherness of

Muslims with the aim of underscoring their incompatibility with the dominant culture

(Tarlo, 2010, 9).

Another key feature in American discourse about Muslim women is a number of

preconceived notions about the role and function of the head covering, or hijab, in a

Muslim woman’s life. For example, the hijab is frequently seen by non-Muslim peers as a

mark of being authentically Muslim. Many of Mir’s non-hijab wearing subjects describe

the sartorial expectations they encounter from American peers. These peers registered

surprise that a woman could be Muslim and not cover her head, or moreover, that a

Muslim woman might considered herself religious although she did not wear hijab.

According to Mir, these Americans “...accorded hijab an importance it does not have in

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Islamic theology, and tentatively categorized the non-hijabi as a nominal Muslim” (2014,

95).

Hijabi Fashionistas’ Responses to Preconceptions and Stereotypes

Hijabi fashionistas have been key actors in responding to these mainstream

portrayals and assumptions made about American Muslim women’s dress. One of the

most prominent examples of how hijabi fashionistas are responding to stereotypes about

Muslim women can be seen in a recent video made by members of an American Muslim

subculture group called the Mipsterz.

In December 2013, a Youtube-based filmmaking group called Sheikh & Bake

Productions created a short, two-minute music video showcasing a few young hijabi

fashionistas doing various sporty activities and posing for the camera in fashionable

outfits to the soundtrack of Jay Z’s “Somewhere in America”. The video recognizes an

emerging subculture composed of fashionable young Muslim Americans who coined the

term “Mipster”, a combination of Muslim and hipster, to describe themselves. The

Mipster Facebook page provides the following definition:

A Mipster is someone at the forefront of the latest music, fashion, art, critical

thought, food, imagination, creativity, and all forms of obscure everything. A

Mipster is someone who seeks inspiration from the Islamic tradition of divine

scriptures, volumes of knowledge, mystical poets, bold prophets, inspirational

politicians, esoteric Imams, and our fellow human beings searching for

transcendental states of consciousness. A Mipster is an ironic identity, one that

serves more as a perpetual critique of oneself and of society... (Mipsterz Facebook)

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The video, entitled, “Mipsterz: Somewhere in America”, quickly went viral and

attracted a great deal of controversy and discussion. While the video was, according to

one of the participants, intended to spark conversation within the Muslim community, it

was also meant to make a statement about Muslim women to the broader American

society. One of the participants in the video, Yasmin Chebbi, states that she and her

friends set out to display a real image of the Muslim woman in America. They sought to

break stereotypes of Muslim women as submissive, backward, and introverted, through a

video that captured a bit of the lives of actual Muslim women who had grown up in the

United States. Hajer Naili, another participant in the video, states that the project aimed

to combat depressing images of Muslim women in the U.S media (Cunningham, 2014).

These hijabi fashionistas are using fashion to actively engage in a project of

redefining, for the broader American community, what it means to be an American

Muslim woman through their seamless blend of Western fashion and hijab. They are

responding to Orientalist stereotypes and preconceived notions about Muslim women as

oppressed, disempowered, invisible, and removed from the public. They are also

challenging the assumptions of many Americans that Muslim women necessarily

conform to a particular form of dress. The Mipsterz video aims to show empowered

young Muslim women who wear hijab in their own way, are active in society and in

public, and who are proud to be conspicuously American and Muslim at the same time.

In the video, the women go about their daily lives at work and at play, all while dressed

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fashionably. For these women, fashion is a tool of expression, a way of defining their

identity through visual representation instead of words—none of the women speak in the

video. What is eye-catching about the video is not that they are a collection of

fashionably dressed girls having fun, but that they are wearing hijab while doing it. These

girls are reimagining the sartorial categories of hijab and fashion deliberately: by

organically combining these two into a single expression of “Mipster” fashion, they

simultaneously express their own singular “Mipster” identity that is not divided into the

categories “American” and “Muslim”.

Another hijabi fashionista, Sabrina Enayatullah, also challenges stereotypes of

Muslim women that portray them as being limited to certain forms of dress. Slice of

Lemon, her blog, features advice for fashionable Muslim women who want to dress

modestly using mainstream fashion. Her blog hosts a fashion and styling video series

entitled “Dress Well”. The videos showcase advice on how to dress modestly in

mainstream American fashion for different events and occasions. Sabrina not only

features a hijab-wearing girl in each episode, but also one without hijab, addressing the

segment of Muslim women who do not wear hijab but wish to dress modestly. The main

page of video series on the blog tells the story of Sabrina’s inspiration in founding the

blog, as well as the blog’s purpose in making fashion accessible for young Muslim

women. While affirming the reason why Muslim women wear hijab in no uncertain terms,

“...Muslim women wear hijab per God’s command so that we may be recognized as

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Muslims” (Enayatullah), she also does not see Muslim women as limited to certain forms

of dress.:

The Dress Well series is rooted in my belief that fashion should be accessible

to Muslim women challenging the notion that femininity, sexuality and beauty

can only be achieved by following mainstream media’s, magazine’s and retailers’

definition of how clothes should be worn. This series is about seamlessly

translating current looks to your personal guidelines and learning how you can

dress well and be identified through a style that’s totally unique to who you are.

Sabrina sees Muslim women in the West as being in a unique position to

reinterpret Western fashion in new directions, by redefining mainstream assumptions

about beauty and femininity. She see this as an opportunity to form a new style of dress,

one that provides a “seamless” blend of Western fashion trends with modest Islamic

sensibilities.

Identity, Freedom, and Clothing in British Society and Politics

Emma Tarlo has done extensive research on the dynamics of identity and fashion

in the British Muslim community, and the broader European community. She explores a

number of sites of interaction between fashion and culture for British Muslims, and

investigates the role of fashion in creating what she calls “visibly Muslim” identities. Her

study highlights the rather different situation of British Muslims, who encounter perhaps

greater hostility from broader British society than Muslims encounter from American

society. This may be due to the British Muslim community’s greater isolation from

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mainstream society; many cities have neighborhoods largely occupied by Muslims from

one particular region of the world. These areas tend to be homogenous and culturally

closed off from British society, leading to less social interaction (Tarlo, 2010, 50-53).

British Muslim women encounter a great deal of negative perceptions of their

faith and practices from other British people. Perhaps even more deeply than in the

United States, these negative perceptions of Muslims in Britain can be tied to a long

legacy of discourses informed by Orientalist, feminist and imperialist attitudes, as well as

local political tensions.

Added to the complexity of this relationship is that the British media tends to

focus overmuch on negative portrayals of Muslims, training its focus on the controversial

instead of positive or even innovative expressions of Islam in Britain. For example,

representations of Muslim women in the media tend to focus on women who wear the

burqa and cover from head to toe. Although statistically the number of women who dress

this way in Britain is far lower than those who do not, images of less conservatively

dressed Muslim women are rarely portrayed in popular media (Tarlo, 2010, 103). Instead,

the media focuses on “images of covered women whose concealment seems to serve as a

visual shorthand for lack of integration, oppression and threat” (Tarlo, 2010, 57-58). In

other words, media images tend to focus on perpetuating Orientalist stereotypes of

Muslim women, reinforcing an image of them as unwelcome, foreign others.

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This is important because not all Muslims living in Britain live their identity in

seamless terms; many opt for isolationism as their preferred method of (non?)

engagement in British society. These groups do not couch their arguments for why they

should be able to practice Islam as they see fit in British constitutional terms. For

example, the Hizb u-Tahrir group in Britain consistently resists couching its arguments

for Muslim women’s appropriate dress in constitutional terms. For this group, such

constitutionally guaranteed rights as freedom and personal choice are defined as

“Western” values antithetical to Islamic values, and acknowledgement of them is seen as

being disloyal to Islam. Contrarily, (and rather paradoxically), members of this group are

encouraged to view themselves as not committed to British constitutional values. This

group actively resists its members forming any sort of British Muslim identity at all

(Tarlo, 2010, 111-115). The work of hijabi fashionistas like Amenakin becomes

especially salient against this backdrop because it creates a new paradigm of engagement

with British society for British Muslims, one in which loyalty to faith and loyalty to

country are in harmony, not conflict.

It is important to emphasize that the enduring Orientalist representations of

Muslim women in Britain as backward and oppressed must be understood in

geographical context. Recently a number of European politician have had highly charged

discussions about more conservative Muslim women’s dress, in particular items such as

the burqa, jilbab (a long, loose dress that does not cover the head) and niqab (a veil that

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specifically covers the face) but the hijab as well. These politicians have debated whether

certain forms of Muslim women’s dress are a barrier to integration in the local

community. Some of these debates have resulted in partial or full bans on the niqab and

hijab in public spaces. The United Kingdom, owing to its multiculturalist policies, is not

as hostile to the hijab as some other European countries (Tarlo, Moors, 2013, 18).

However, controversies surrounding conservative British Muslims and their clothing

continue to attract much media attention (Tarlo, 2010, 104) , and British Muslims must

keenly feel the threat that hijab and niqab bans in neighboring countries are to their

freedom to practice Islam.

Although most of the hijabi bloggers and Youtubers I have examined tend to stay

out of politics in their videos; some have addressed issues and problems related to

Muslim women’s dress in Britain.Amenakin is one British fashion Youtuber who has

been vocal in dispelling stereotypes about Muslim women in Britain. One particularly

prominent voice is that of Amenakin, a popular Youtube hijab stylist and fashion

designer. While most of her videos are tutorials in styling hijab for different occasions

and how to dress modestly for different types of events, several of her videos, focus on

addressing political issues related to Muslim women’s dress in Britain.

In her video “Niqab Ban”, Amenakin responds to the suggestion of a British

politician [she does not say who, but is most probably referring to British Liberal

Democrat Jeremy Browne (Swinford, 2013)] that Britain should discuss banning the face

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veil in public spaces. Like many Muslim women who live in the West, she describes the

right to wear of niqab as a basic human right to free will (i.e. freedom to choose what to

wear). She complains that in the media Muslim women are often the last or least

consulted about their own beliefs, practices and experiences in British society, explaining

that “the media...likes to discuss Muslim women. Everybody will come and talk about

how the Muslim woman feels, what position she’s in, what she’s going through, her

opinions, her thoughts. Everybody is consulted about the Muslim woman except for the

Muslim woman” (“Niqab Ban”).

She then responds to a number of assumptions made by the media about Muslim

women who wear the niqab. She asserts that while the media portrays niqabi women as

uncooperative or a security threat, most Muslim women who wear the niqab do not

advocate keeping it covered in situations which require identification. On the contrary,

many are quite willing to remove their face covering in situations which, for security

reasons, require facial identification, such as in the courtroom or at airports. She contends

that, “...the media often just portrays us Muslims as defiantly objecting towards [sic]

things that are actually quite commonsensical (such as removing the veil for

identification purposes)” (“Niqab Ban”). The point Amenakin tries to make here is that

the media tends to portray women who wear niqab as socially rebellious, refusing to

comply with basic security measures and thereby providing justification for the banning

of the niqab from public spaces.

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In another video, “Take Off Your Hijab”, Amenakin uses spoken word poetry to

challenge Orientalist stereotypes of Muslim women as oppressed and unfree.

Today I heard that I am not free

Because apparently a woman’s freedom is only granted when her hair shows and

her body is flaunted

...Since when did freedom require me to show parts of my body that I don’t want

others to see?

My freedom is in the way I choose to look

Does it bother you to know that I have control over what I choose to show and

withhold from the world?

How ironic, when the people who are supposedly pro-freedom

Incessantly insist that you take off your hijab

Themselves dictating the garb that we should wear

So, freedom means to conform to your criteria about what I should wear, right?

( “Take Off Your Hijab!”)

She questions a society that dictates who is free and who is not based on what

they wear, and why a woman’s freedom has come to be measured in how much she

reveals of her body, instead of whether the choice is hers in revealing or concealing. She

deconstructs the Orientalist gaze aimed at Muslim women that assumes them to lack

empowerment by saying that she is empowered in controlling what she chooses to show

or not show of her body. She suggests that society’s real problem with hijab is not

whether the wearer is free or not. If the hijab did not have a religious connotation, she

says, and were merely seen as a fashion accessory, no one would be bothered by it.

Instead she proposes that the sight of hijab makes people uneasy because it is a reminder

of religiosity, a religiosity they are uncomfortable seeing in a public space.:

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…But of course, it’s not about freedom, is it?

I make you uneasy because my hijab reminds you that I am trying to obey God

and not you…

But since modesty equals faith, you unabashedly bash me, claiming to want to

free me.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to modern chivalry: a hidden form of bigotry.

(“Take Off Your Hijab!”)

What Amenakin emphasizes here is that the British public is using the rhetoric of

freeing oppressed Muslim women to support legislation to ban the veil, a religious

symbol, in public places. In reality, the issue at stake here is not the freedom of the

Muslim woman, but the desire to make Muslim women conform to normative British

standards of dress. However, as a British Muslim, Amenakin argues that such a move is

by definition against British societal values of freedom of choice, and is therefore

paradoxical. Instead, she protests against a savior-like mentality directed at covered

British Muslim women and insists it is merely bigotry masquerading as chivalry to claim

that Muslim women need to be saved from wearing the hijab.

Muslim Women in Popular Muslim Imagination

Topographies of Debate on Muslim Women’s Dress within Muslim Communities in the

United States and Britain

The discussion of Muslim women’s dress in Muslim communities in the United

States and Britain has long been a highly charged one. Opinions on whether there exists

an “Islamic” standard of dress for women and if so, what it constitutes, and who gets to

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define that, have long been topics of debate in Muslim communities in both countries.

Contributors to this discussion have ranged from religious specialists of different

persuasions within the Islamic community engaging in interpretation of Islamic sources,

to average lay Muslims who use their own judgement to define Islamically acceptable

dress.

Tarlo discusses the flexibility in interpreting Islamic source texts that talk about

modest dress. She notes that, “...the Qur’an contains only a few references to women’s

dress and these leave considerable room for interpretation” (Tarlo, 2010, 8). Indeed, this

flexibility is the primary reason why so many diverse opinions about Islamic modesty in

dress exist in the Muslim community. It is also important to note that women in Muslim

communities have varying degrees of knowledge about Qur’anic and other primary

source texts’ injunctions of dress that range from vague familiarity with overarching

concepts to intimate knowledge of primary sources and their historical interpretations.

However, what is perhaps most crucial to realize is that although these religious

guidelines constitute an important frame of reference for many Muslim women who wear

hijab, they are not the sole reason why Muslim women choose to dress visibly as Muslim.

Rather, a wide range of factors including personal choice, cultural background, social

context, and individual situations, contribute to whether and to what degree individual

Muslim women choose to understand and apply modest dress (Tarlo, 2010, 9).

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Complicating the understanding of Muslim women’s diverse reasons for wearing

the hijab or modest clothing is essential for cultivating a truer picture of the dynamics of

Muslim communities in America and Britain. For this reason, it is important to examine

actual opinions and perceptions of modest dress, in particular that very visible marker of

Muslim identity, the hijab. This is a topic that has not received much attention in

scholarly research. Furthermore, it is an important topic of investigation because Muslim

women’s practice of wearing the hijab and reasons for doing so are different in non-

Muslim versus Muslim countries.“While hijab possesses some shared religious purposes

for the Muslim women who wear it, as a cultural artifact the veil does not have one

universal meaning for all Muslim women in the world” (Droogsma, 2007, 295). Thus, an

examination of some of the work that has been done to complicate this understanding will

give us a better idea of the discourses around hijab and hijab fashion circulating in the

Muslim community. This is in turn will provide some background understanding of the

atmosphere in which hijabi fashionistas are presenting their views on hijab.

Tarlo identifies two primary strains of thought relating to interpretations of

modest dress for Muslim women. The first consists in strict interpretations of modest

dress that spring from more conservative Muslim scholars and individuals, as well as

radical political groups who want to use foreign styles of modest dress as a visual

separator between Islamic values and what they perceive to be undesirable Western

values. The second group is concerned less with a strict, outward, material manifestation

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of modesty than with its spiritual and inward ramifications. This group is more occupied

with the moral implications of modesty than using foreign styles of modest dress to create

a visual demarcation between themselves and non-Muslims (Tarlo, 2010, 9). Of course,

between these two groups are dozens of gradations from one end of the spectrum to the

other.

Astagfirullah sister! That’s Not Hijab! Criticism of hijabi fashionistas by the Muslim

community

Little scholarly research has been done on the types of pressures and expectations of

representation American Muslim women face from within Muslim communities if they

decide to wear outwardly Muslim dress. Shabana Mir elaborates on some of these notions

of “ideal Islamic personae” (Mir, 2014, 109) with which hijab-wearing girls tend to come

into contact. She notes that Muslim American women who wear hijab often encounter the

expectation that they will conform to certain perceived ideals of Islamic dress,

comportment and personality. “A hijabi could never deviate from faithfully representing

Islam, hijab, and Muslim women” (Mir, 2014, 109). Moreover, a hijabi who failed to

uphold ideal Islamic standards of comportment and modesty risked confusing non-

Muslims about Islam, bringing shame upon the Muslim community and ultimately letting

her faith down. Many of the young Muslim women in Mir’s study have a sense of these

expectations of them, whether they conform to them or not. Interestingly, these idealized

notions of Muslim women’s dress and comportment are not only found among Muslim

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women who wear the hijab, but also among Muslim girls who do not themselves cover,

but expect those who do to uphold a certain standard of behavior on behalf of all Muslim

women. One non-hijabi girl asserts that hijab is, “...a constant reminder of how you

should be living your life, what you should and should not be doing. If you aren’t ready

for that...you should not take on that challenge (Mir, 2014, 109-113). Thus, hijab

simultaneously is seen as demanding of Muslim women a higher moral standard of

behavior while at the same time being unsuitable or unattainable for Muslim women who

could not meet those such rigorous qualifications.

The abovementioned opinions typify common Muslim community discourse on

hijabis. Hijabis fashionistas also face such criticism, perhaps to a greater degree, because

they engage in redefining idealized Muslim notions of Islamic dress and comportment. A

good example of some of the criticism directed at hijabi fashionistas from fellow

Muslims can be seen in a blog post by the hijabi fashion company Mohajababes. In the

post, Eiman Ahmed, co-founder of Mohajababes, describes some of the most frequent

negative criticisms directed at hijabi fashionistas on social media sites. These include

questioning whether the hijabi fashionista is wearing proper hijab or not, questioning her

level of religiosity as a Muslim, accusing her of betraying her faith, and misrepresenting

correct Islamic dress to both Muslims and non-Muslims. She insists that these comments

“that are responses to posts made by prominent female Muslim fashion bloggers, smack

of judgment, demands and diagnosis for what individuals think is wrong or right with the

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post” (Ahmed, 2012). Ahmed censures her fellow Muslim bloggers for their harsh, highly

judgmental comments toward hijabi fashionistas and urges them to reevaluate their

intentions in making hurtful comments.

From the abovementioned sentiments a number conclusions can be made about

attitudes in the Muslim community towards hijabis’ appropriate dress and comportment.

The first is that hijabis are often expected to be the poster children for an entire

community of Muslims. Such expectations place an undue burden on Muslim women

who may want to wear the hijab for purely personal reasons and yet are unreasonably

pressured into carrying the burden of representation for the Muslim collective.

Oftentimes, this representation is expressed in rather idealized terms (hijabis must show

high moral standards, conform to stricter interpretations of modest dress, etc). Second,

such expectations assume that the Muslim community is monolithic, united in its views

of proper Islamic dress and comportment for women. Thirdly, by justifying the demand

for such idealized behavior on the basis of presenting a good image of Islam to non-

Muslims, Muslim communities contribute to the homogenization of images of themselves.

Instead of encouraging hijabi women to express various identities and contribute to a

more diverse understanding of Muslim communities by Americans, such expectations

only serve to hinder efforts at breaking down hegemonic stereotypes of Muslim women.

Hijabi fashionistas contribute an important perspective to the debate on

appropriate Muslim women’s dress for a number of reasons. Firstly, they visibly identify

22

as Muslims, and as such, come into contact with a number of meanings and associations

from the Muslim community that come along with visibly Muslim dress. This gives them

a strategic position in engaging with such associations and expectations. Secondly,

through their intimate engagement with fashion and faith, they are at the forefront of

interpreting the role of fashion in the Muslim woman’s life. Thirdly, their online presence

gives them the opportunity to publicly shape perceptions of appropriate Muslim women’s

dress for the Muslim community.

Strategies for responding to Muslim criticism: Position statements

and disclaimers

Hijabi fashionistas frequently come into contact with idealized or homogenized

notions of proper Islamic dress and comportment, and are active in engaging,

deconstructing and challenging such notions. Some do this by defending their clothing

choices to other Muslims and stating their own opinions on what constitutes acceptable

dress for Muslim women and urging people not to judge. Others argue that modesty is a

continuum Muslim women travel on from less ideal (read less covered) to more ideal.

Still others are involved in pushing the boundaries of acceptable Muslim women’s

fashion, investigating different Muslim women’s fashion practices, and deciding for

themselves what to adopt and what not to.

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Born out of a keen consciousness of how controversial engaging in the fashion

world seems to many Muslims, hijabi fashionistas have developed strategies for handling

how others may view their engagement as Muslims with fashion. I identify two types of

responses: the hedging disclaimer and the bold affirmation/position statements.

The first, the disclaimer, is born out of a desire to stave off criticism from the

Muslim community on these fashion endeavors. To this end, many bloggers and

companies resort to written or verbal disclaimers about the work they do with fashion.

These disclaimers often state the opinion of a particular blogger or company on the topic

of what is or is not appropriate Muslim women’s dress. They are intended to both clearly

position the individual or company in the debate on appropriate Muslim dress for women,

as well as gently ward off negative criticism from the Muslim community. They often

emphasize that their opinion is that of one individual (or company) and invite audiences

to either share different opinions respectfully or withhold them altogether. The disclaimer

indicates a recognition that the fashion aesthetic they are producing departs from popular

perceptions of ideal Muslim women’s dress.

Fashion blog Haute Muslimah, run by hijabi fashionista, fashion writer and

blogger Asma, aims to provide tips on taking inspiration for modest dress from couture

and high fashion. Her About page, after detailing the goals of the blog and some

background on Asma, concludes with a “Disclaimer on fashion” in which she argues that,

“there are many different variations of Hijab” (HauteMuslimah), and that people should

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be careful not to judge Muslim women on their dress. She argues that it is up to women

to decide how they want to use the different fashions she features, based on their personal

sensibilities and interpretations of modesty, and that no one should judge how women

might choose to wear a particular item of clothing. She recognizes that some Muslims

might see her fashion recommendations as not fitting their ideal standards of modesty, so

she offers a disclaimer stating that she is not responsible for the way these fashions are

worn by real women.

Another disclaimer can be found on the website of UK fashion company INAYAH

that markets itself as a modern, modest fashion label for Muslim women. The style of

clothing INAYAH makes consists largely in long, loose dresses modeled after the abaya

(a long, usually black, loose dress worn in many Gulf countries). However, the styles are

given a more updated and on trend look by incorporating a variety of fabrics such as laces,

jersey and leather, as well as colors beyond basic black. However, INAYAH appears to

market its clothes as what I call transitional modest fashion. Unlike Sabrina, who intends

to create a unique American Muslim look, INAYAH seems to present itself as offering

clothes that will help women transition into the ultimately ideal Muslim women’s dress:

the abaya. The disclaimer reads:

We want women to look presentable and feel good when they wear INAYAH

without compromising their beliefs. We are also fully aware that many women go

through a transitional period when it comes to adopting a more modest style of

dress, where they may not be ready to wear what would be classically termed and

accepted as an abaya overnight. Maintained progression, in many instances, is

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gradual and not instant. This is an important factor that we keep present in our

planning and designing ( INAYAH “The Brand…”)

Thus it is clear that for the founders of INAYAH, the goal of their trendy, yet modest

fashions is not to create an enduringly distinct British Muslim aesthetic, but to prepare

Muslim women who want to dress modestly for adopting the classical abaya, which is

their interpretation of the ideally appropriate Muslim woman’s dress. They are eager to

make a disclaimer that while they are engaging in making fashions that perhaps may be

seen to depart from this ideal, it is only in the interest of bringing women closer to ideal

Muslim women’s dress.

The second response, and by far the more common of the two, is to boldly affirm

one’s position in a new paradigm of Muslim women’s fashion. These hijabi fashionistas,

while acknowledging past ideals of Muslim women’s dress, and perhaps with a respectful

nod to tradition, nevertheless firmly assert that Muslim fashion aesthetics are developing

and evolving in new directions.

SixteenR is a hijab design company that aims to market scarves as tools of

women’s empowerment. Their philosophy page boldly positions themselves as being

pioneers in a new and ever-developing age of Muslim women’s fashion. They state that,

“...style for the modern Muslim woman is evolving, incorporating fashion from the west

while respecting traditions of generations before” (SixteenR “Philosophy”), and that the

company objective is to contribute to this evolving Muslim fashion.

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“It’s Not All about the Exterior”

Hijabi fashionistas have also been vocal in criticising those in the Muslim community

who put too much emphasis on external markers of religiosity. These hijabis are well

aware of how the Muslim community all too often links piety to outward displays of

religiosity. They contend that piety is an internal thing, and the amount of clothes a

woman wears or does not wear can in no way be a measure of inward piety.

Amenakin devotes a lengthy video to addressing the fixation on Muslim women’s

dress in the Muslim community. She criticizes those in the community who shame

Muslim women for not wearing the hijab “covered” enough, or trendy enough, or not

wearing it at all. She urges Muslims to stop judging Muslim women based on their

external appearance, and encourages hijabis not to feel burdened by expectations of them

in the Muslim community. She deplores certain posters that have circulated on online

Muslim forums that tend to portray Muslim women on a continuum of piety and

closeness to God solely based on the amount of clothes they wear and urges her viewers

not to spread such demeaning messages about Muslim women. Instead, she argues,

Muslims should treat every woman with dignity regardless of what she is wearing. She

encourages women not to wear the hijab just because of community pressure or family

expectations. Instead, she urges young Muslim women to reflect deeply on themselves

and see hijab as something worn for spiritual development and not to please people. No

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matter what people’s different standpoints on hijab are, she argues, they should treat each

other with respect and dignity (Amenakin “We Are More Than What We Wear”)..

“This Is My Opinion” or “YOU decide”

Hijabi fashionistas create and contribute to religious discourse on personal and

individual engagement in reinterpreting the boundaries of the Islamically acceptable in

fashion. In addition, they find ways of creatively reconciling between the demands of

fashion and the parameters of Islamic requirements. These hijabi fashionistas are at the

forefront of interpreting what is “halal”, or Islamically acceptable, in fashion. When they

do so, however, they are careful to present their opinions as their own, and/or urge their

viewers to decide for themselves what they feel is halal.

For example, a recent topic that has received a lot of attention in hijabi fashionista

circles is that of “halal” nail polish. While whether the wearing of nail polish in itself is

Islamically permissible appears to be a debated topic, whatever people’s views, it poses a

problem when the wearer needs to make ablution before prayer. Regular nail polish does

not allow ablution water to reach the nail and purify it, thus rendering the ablution invalid.

Last year, a new type of nail polish was released that markets itself as being water

permeable (Graslie, 2013). This sparked heated discussion in hijabi fashion circles as to

whether these supposedly water permeable nail polishes would let ablution water pass

through, thus making them “halal” or permissible to wear while making ablution.

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Instead of seeking a Muslim religious specialist’s input on this issue, hijabi

fashionistas set out to prove to themselves whether or not the permeable nail polish was

appropriate to wear while making ablution. Dina Tokio, an internationally-known hijabi

fashion stylist and Youtube personality put up a video entitled, “Halal Nail Polish?”and

invited her viewers to discover with her whether they thought the new polish was

satisfactorily water permeable. After conducting a number of tests on camera to gauge the

water permeability of the polish, Tokio concludes that one of the polishes seems to

satisfactorily let water through. However, she invites viewers, after viewing the results, to

make their own decision as to whether they should wear it while making ablution (Tokio,

“Halal Nail Polish?”).

Bold affirmation: this IS proper hijab

Despite the negative criticism aimed at hijabi fashionistas that tend to characterize

them as compromising their beliefs and modesty, these hijabis seem quite at home with

their interpretations of modesty. While they are very conscious of these criticisms, these

hijabi fashionistas make it clear that they believe themselves to be well within Islamic

modesty guidelines (which are context-based in many ways- explain later). They take the

stance that Islam and fashion are compatible, and that there is flexibility in interpreting

what is Islamically acceptable modesty. In other words, they boldly affirm their

interpretations of Islamic modesty in the face of criticism from the Muslim community.

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A good example of this is fashion stylist Dina Tokio’s video, “The Dreaded Burkini”.

Most of the video is spent recommending stylish alternatives to the popular burkini (a

composite of burqa and bikini) which she sees as being old-fashioned, excessively baggy,

and unattractive. Instead she suggests a more tailored look for the beach, incorporating

fitted leggings under a short dress top. Aware that this kind of video may draw negative

criticism from the Muslim community, right in the middle of the video, Tokio pauses a

moment to address an imaginary Muslim audience. She tells them that in case anyone

wants to tell her that what she is wearing is haram, or Islamically impermissible, just

because it is fitted, and therefore attractive, they should look around at what other girls

wear to the beach. She argues that, “...proper flesh, tanned flesh, and lovely stomach,

cleavage out, beach hair, is a lot sexier than this [points to her outfit]. I think we would

all agree!” (Tokio, “What I Wear to the Beach”). She boldly affirms that her standards of

modest dress for the beach cannot be reproached because, compared other girls on the

beach, she is not dressed attractively. She defines Islamic modesty here to mean that she

should de-emphasize her sexuality in the public space, a common definition in light of

the Qur’anic injunctions of modesty for both sexes (Tarlo, 2010, 9) and one with which

many Muslims are quite familiar. What is unique is her interpretation of what constitutes

displaying sexuality in this case. In the situation of going to the beach, she interprets

showing skin as being a display of sexuality, and thus to achieve Islamic modesty, she

should not show any skin. However, she knows that for some Muslim viewers, this

30

interpretation will not be seen as sufficient, as her body contours are still visible.

However, she insists that in the context of going to the beach, it is showing skin, not form

fitting clothing, that is of concern. This context-based interpretation of Islamic modesty

allows her to flexibly interpret what constitutes proper coverage for a given situation. Her

analysis and conclusion is informed both by the standards of Islamic dress and the

standards of British beach culture with which she is well acquainted.

Conclusion: Defining Islam for an American Context

Beyond the Hyphen: Seamless Identities

Identity is a complex notion and can be defined in different ways. Identity is a way of

locating oneself among other people. It can also be seen as a process that is contingent

upon a person’s life conditions and prospects. Identity can be marked by, “place of birth,

ancestry, place of residence, length of residence, upbringing and education, name, accent,

physical appearance and commitment to place” (Kabir 2013, 23). A number of scholars

have discussed the complexity of identity formation among Muslim youth in the United

States and Britain. In Sirin Selcuk and Michele Fine’s study of how Muslim American

youth contend with moral exclusion in post 9/11 America, they propose the notion of

“hyphenated selves” to describe the processes of identity formation these youth

experience in a hostile environment. Specifically, “hyphenated selves” refers to these

youth’s multiple identities, including those of Muslim and American, that are, “at once

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joined and separated by history, politics, geography, biography, longing and loss” (Sirin,

Fine, 2008, 3). Their concept of the hyphen can best be understood as a delicate

connection between multiple identities that can be subject to stress when exposed to a

climate of hostility, othering and exclusion. However, I propose that that “hyphenated”

does not accurately describe the American Muslim identity formation process Sirin and

Fine are presenting, which repeatedly treats American and Muslim as distinct categories

between which subjects move during different periods of stress.Though they mention that

American Muslim youth suffer the “weight of the hyphen” (Sirin, Fine, 2008, 85-120) or

the burden of having their disparate identities separated, scrutinized and attacked, more

often their subjects seem to express a resistance to having the identities of Muslim and

American separated. While some of their study subjects seem to express conflict or

tension between their sense of American and Muslim identity, the vast majority, both

verbally and pictorially (through identity maps in the book) express constructions that

evoke more fluidity and unity between Americanness and Muslimness. This is attested to

by Sirin and Fine themselves, who note that, “...the Muslim American youth that we

studied in this book maintain in no uncertain terms that they experience no “clash”

between their American and Muslim heritage” (Sirin, Fine, 2008, 2).

I develop this concept further by submitting that not only is there no identity clash

in the Muslim American youth in Sirin and Fine’s study, but there is ample evidence that

for many of them, there is no hyphen either. Rather, many Muslim American youth see

32

their Americanness and Muslimness as a seamless whole. The drawback with Sirin and

Fine’s analysis of Muslim American youth is their assumption that study subjects would

identify Islamic or ethnic affiliations as “home culture” and America as “host culture”.

This analysis stems from the preconceived notion that study subjects have religious

connections and non-American ethnic backgrounds that are more familiar to them and

therefore position them as relative newcomers or strangers to American culture (ibid.

121-122). However, evidence from Sirin and Fine’s subjects often contradicts that

assumption. Patrice, who draws an identity map featuring the word “Muslim” made up of

American flags and the world “American” made up of moon and star designs, is a perfect

example of the integrated nature of American and Muslim identity for many Muslim

American youth (ibid. 138). Another example is Farid, for whom America is not the host

culture, but undeniably the home culture, “I didn’t grow up around any Afghan people at

all. I grew up in a completely white neighborhood...so the culture that I was brought up in,

was completely white American” (ibid. 141). Additional examples of this fluidity and

harmony between American and Muslilm identity can be seen in many identity maps

throughout the book as well (see Maps 7, 16, 18, 22, 24-27, Sirin, Fine, 2008).

In the case of hijabi fashionistas, I submit that through engagement with issues

facing American Muslim women from the perspective of a fully Muslim and fully

American citizen, hijabi fashionistas are critical in defining a new paradigm of Muslim

identity in the West that is fluid and harmonious, not in conflict or tension. It is an

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identity in which there is no distinct barrier between Americanness and Muslimness; a

seamless identity that simultaneously is fully American and fully Muslim.

To go back to the example of the Mipsterz earlier in the paper, through a seamless

blend of Western fashion and the hijab, a marker of Muslim faith, the hijabi fashionistas

in the Mipsterz video are embodying this seamless identity. What this means is that these

young Muslim women use fashion to engage in a project of identity formation in which

there is no distinction nor conflict between “Western” (or “American”) and “Muslim”.

Furthermore, this seamless identity is not merely a side effect of the Mipsterz’s project,

but an active, intentional effort on the part of the Mipsterz to showcase seamlessness in

their identity as Muslim Americans. Evidence of this can best be seen in the comment of

Hajer Naili, a reporter and participant in the video, who said:

We do not try to fit into Western society. We are women who were born in the

West," she said. "I don't try to fit into society, this who I am . And besides that,

I'm a Muslim woman. So why wouldn't it be compatible to express this double

culture; this double identity. We are woman [sic] with multifacets, and this is who

we are. [emphasis added] (Hafiz, 2014)

Naili emphasizes that she and her fellow Mipsterz are not Muslims who feel out

of place in Western society and are trying to fit in by trying to look more Westernized.

Instead, these are naturally co-existing aspects of their identity that do not come into

conflict but instead harmonize. Naili emphasizes that she is fully “Western” and fully

“Muslim” at the same time, what she calls a “double culture” or “double identity”.

34

However, I argue that “double” does not accurately describe what is going on in terms of

identity expression in the video. “Double” still suggests a separation between two

categories: Western and Muslim. Instead, it is more accurate to describe the participants

in the video as manifesting a seamless identity that expresses the simultaneous

manifestation of two identities in one.

Similarly, Amenakin’s passionate arguments against niqab and hijab bans were

repeatedly phrased in terms of British constitutional values of freedom of choice in dress.

When she urges British politicians not to compromise, “...the cohesive and tolerant

foundations of our country” (“Niqab Ban”), she is speaking firmly from the standpoint of

a British citizen. This couching of British Muslim women’s issues in such terms appears

to be unconscious on her part, and attests to the fact that she embodies a seamless

connection between her Muslim and British identity. She is not speaking as an immigrant,

but as a fully British and fully Muslim person who demands that her country upholds its

commitment to freedom of choice in dress.

Transcending “American Muslim” and “Muslim American”: Towards a Muslimerican

Identity

Hijabi fashionistas are evidence of an ongoing identity definition process among

American-born and raised Muslim youth that is moving towards an indigenous

expression of Islam in America. What the Muslim youth and hijabi fashionista culture

explored in this paper point to is a growing new identity for Muslim youth in America.

35

This identity transcends the problematic hyphens implied in American Muslim or Muslim

American. These Muslim youth are neither and both; they are a composite of the two

where it is not clear where one identity ends and the other begins. Theirs is a seamless

Muslimerican identity.

While I came up with the term Muslimerican on my own to describe the seamless

identity process I identify in this paper, it appears I am not the first to employ the term.

Muslimerican seems to have first been coined by Dr. Faheem Younus, founder of the

website “Muslimerican”, the slogan of which is, “As Muslimericans, there should be no

conflict between our allegiance to Qur’an and our allegiance to America” (Muslimerican).

The difference between his concept of the Muslimerican and mine is in the definition. He

used the term to describe what he hoped would be a reality for Muslim identity in the

future. I have shown that this identity already exists.

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