Young Muslims in Cairo transform the hijab

[JODO 2]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0516/p12s01-wome.htmlfrom the May 16, 2007 edition

Traditional: A young woman wears a hijab with many layers of black and white. Hijab salesmen – most are men – say that business has boomed in the past few years.Tara Todras-Whitehill/Special to the Christian Science MonitorNew-look hijabs

Young Muslims in Cairo transform the hijab

By Jill Carroll | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Reporters on the job: Jill Carroll shares the story behind the story.

Melanie Stetson Freeman – StaffCAIRO - Rasha Mohammed is always looking for new hijab styles.

When she's not watching Egyptian fashion TV, Ms. Mohammed is checking out what other young Muslim women are wearing on the street or on the subway.

"If I like any of their ways of putting [on the] hijab, I can ask them how to do it," she says of other women she sees in Cairo's Metro.

Mohammed's two head scarves – aquamarine blue peeking out from under a sea foam green – match her knee-length dress over the top of blue jeans. Her outfit screams fashionista. The flower-shaped pins holding the scarves match the green and blue flower rings on her hands.

"Ah, it's a must!" she says, looking at the rings. "I'm wearing blue pants, so the bottom scarf is blue, and the top scarf is green because my shirt is green," she explains one recent afternoon at a downtown Pizza Hut.

Mohammed is like a growing number of young Muslim women in Egypt who have taken to transforming the hijab, the Islamic head dress, from tradition to fashion statement.

As head scarves have come to mean many things to Muslims and non-Muslims alike – a sign of piety, a declaration of identity, a center of controversy, a political statement – in Cairo today they sparkle.

And Malak Company – a hijab house of style – is banking on its popularity .

"Egypt is a Mediterranean country … so we are a little bit affected by European styles, and when it comes to hijab and it spread to this country, people refuse to wear the black abaya and scarf," says Sharifa Barakat, owner of Malak, in her Cairo factory that is lined with rolls of sequins and bags of beads.

When she started her company eight years ago, it was one of only two companies in Egypt manufacturing head scarves, she says. At the time, she says, Egypt was on the cusp of the hijab trend.

"Four or five years ago there was a big change. It used to be here and there [that you would see] the hijab, but now almost everyone wears hijab … The people are beginning to be more religious," says Ms. Barakat of the region's growing religious identity after decades of in secular, pan-Arab themes.

"When I began ... people criticized me and said, 'How can you make a business in this?' But now there a lot [of companies] in the industry."

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Edited May 16, 2007 by JODO

[doodlebug 3]

Too funny when I was with my husband's sisters his younger sister who is 22 used me as a barbie doll basically and kept putting different styles of hijaab on my head. I could never do what she did and she used about three different scarves on me at any point in time. She did it so fast and it came out awesome each time!!!

[JODO 2]

I know when I visit, I always marvel at the elaborate ways some of the women there wear their hijab. I just wonder if they'll be wearing three hijabs during the Cairo Summer ?

[doodlebug 3]

I know when I visit, I always marvel at the elaborate ways some of the women there wear their hijab. I just wonder if they'll be wearing three hijabs during the Cairo Summer ?

I'll let ya know The ones she had on me were super thin though so even if they do I don't think it's too too bad.

[JODO 2]

Yes I guess the thin ones would not be so bad. I like the Spanish-style one from the slideshow. It looks nice and chic.

Edited May 16, 2007 by JODO

[deemabrouk 0]

My nieces come up with the COOLEST way to wear their hijab!! They VERY quickly showed me this one way to wear it... But I havent figured out how to twist it ever since I give the girls Props for their creativity

[deemabrouk 0]

Hey.. isnt that the Girl that got abducted???!!!!!!!!! the author.. Jill Carol?

Edited May 16, 2007 by deemabrouk

[JODO 2]

Yes that's her.

[deemabrouk 0]

Yes that's her.

I thought so... hmm

[Sofiyya 1,687]

So much for modesty . . .

[deemabrouk 0]

So much for modesty . . .

I dont see what is wrong Jazzing it up alittle bit.. I think it helps encourage the younger girls to continue to keep on covering

[ya falaha! 0]

Unfortunately many Egyptian/Arab girls do it for fashion reasons now. Have you seen the ones in the skin tight outfits with the fancy higab? What's the point of the higab?

[pernicious anemia 0]

So much for modesty . . .

I dont see what is wrong Jazzing it up alittle bit.. I think it helps encourage the younger girls to continue to keep on covering

clearly someone needs access to a dictionary. and common sense.

[Ban Hammer 13,394]

ah cool another mena troll.

[Together4ever 1]

Unfortunately many Egyptian/Arab girls do it for fashion reasons now. Have you seen the ones in the skin tight outfits with the fancy higab? What's the point of the higab?

I was thinking about this too. The "reason" for covering can easily become swallowed by the "coolness" of fashion. Moh has a teenaged sister who is into the tight clothes and layered hijab with the earring dangling from the side... much to his disgust. But you know, just try to reason with a teenager... ew.