I noticed that this blog is sometimes hit by search engines looking for "Somali fashion" or something similar. Coming across this sweet blog entry called "How to dress like a Somali..." by Palmers on Mission, who help immigrants and refugees from difficult places. She posted pictures. :)
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Dress Muslim Male
OK, I admit it. I'm tired of hearing the tired old complaint that says that women have to dress modestly and men don't. Usually said about those very conservative Muslim women and men. Well, men DO have to dress modestly too. And they do. A recent article in Business 24-7.ae, called "Tailors see brisk sale of custom-made kanduras," illustrates this. The caption for the photo above reads: Demand for the traditional Arab male dress, kanduras, have remained high in the UAE. (AFP)
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Wear a Hat
Janel Messenger of "Pearls" at blogspot tried having a "Hat Fair", in which women who love hats are to post about it and link to her blog. One cute response was: "Sensibility Hat Fair, by "the Primrose Way". One thing she wrote: "Yes indeedy, those wonderful accessories that have been in decline since the beehive hairdo buzzed by. It's a shame that after centuries of never being seen out of doors without a chapeau, that they disappeared so quickly." I also found an interesting blog because of this too - "Jill's World of Research, Reaction, and Millenary," a blogger who really likes her hats. I found a quote on the page, with the photo above: "Intelligent, beautiful women all wear hats - It's a known fact!"
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Book Review: "Light through the veil"
From The Telegraph of Calcutta, India:
~~~~~~~~~~~~"40 days and 1001 nights: One woman’s dance through life in the Islamic
world (Jaico, Rs 295) by Tamalyn Dallal talks about a journey that may have been inspired by an Arabic proverb. “To understand a people”, the saying goes, “you must live among them for 40 days.” The author, enthused with this bit of ancient wisdom, travels across five points in the Islamic world — Indonesia, Egypt, Zanzibar, Jordan and Xinjiang, a Mulsim-dominated, autonomous region in China. Dallal is no tourist, though: she embarks on the trip to learn the truth about Islamic culture, and ends up making many other wonderful discoveries. In Banda Aceh, Indonesia, she stumbles on to one of the last surviving matriarchal cultures, while in Jordan, she delves into a traditional world, carefully hidden under a plush, modern exterior. Crucially, the journey also helps Dallal shed her apprehension about the Islamic world being intrinsically violent and intolerant. Dallal uses a lucid prose, free of the burden of politics or ideology which makes her work enjoyable. The dull images accompanying the text could have been improved upon."
Removing the Veil
An interview article with two women from Sweden who took the veil, and years later made the choice to quit wearing the veil. Trying to present some more of the various points of view on the headcoverings of the world. In this case, the wearing of the scarf seems to have been more political, or even rebellious, than modest. "They Removed the Veil", in Eurozine.com. A secular European publication.
It started as an act of radicalism. Anne Sofie Roald and Pernilla Ouis adopted the headscarf back in the 1980s at the same time as political Islam began to grow. Now they are part of a global trend towards secularisation in which more and more women are shedding their headscarves and veils.
2 comments:
Greeting in Peace,
You get blog hits from "dress Somali" ? I don't even recall you mentioning Somalis. Those sisters, by the way, have the best skirts. Where I live there is a large sub-culture of Somalis. It is inevitable if I ask a sister at my University where she got her super cute skirt, it's from a rockin Somali skirt store. Even nice jean with simple patterns.
Although I'm all about men needing to dress modestly too.. those thobes, often called mandress really crack me up(the funny thing is, that's one of the actual Arabic words used to name it... it's pronounced "man-dress"). In Emirate spots it the kanduras or whatever. They totally look like pj's.
Is it wrong that as a Muslimah I feel it's ok too poke fun at those outfits? Just a bit wrong I suppose. Hmmmm.
I would prefer my husband to dress modestly... but what's immodest or modest in male clothes? Overly tight clothing or super small shorts I guess?
Thanks for your thoughtful posts, I hope to check out that book soon.
Peace,
erica aisha
I posted an article about a high school "Somali fashion show" in April, and I guess there are enough people looking for Somali head covers (or super cute skirts?) that they find me. :)
I really thank you for your comments! I think your light hearted spirit isn't too mean, and I can appreciate your smiles about the term "man-dress". The extremely modest dress of the Amish Christians and Chassidic Jews are poked fun at too sometimes, because it seems so extreme and unnecessary to others. I guess for my part, even though I don't go that far myself (my hair shows when my head is covered, for example), I can honour their devotion and perseverance in adopting a dress code that is extremely different from most people, and sticking with it in spite of what other people say. Maybe some of them are closed minded - maybe some of them really have made a thought out choice. It's all a part of being human and using that ability to think differently from everyone else. Keep thinking and living!
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