Head Turner

Shelina Janmohamed on how modest fashion encourages self-expression, revolution, and a sense of community

- Shelina Janmohamad

The phrase ‘the personal is political’ was coined in 1969 as part of the feminist movement, putting forward the then radical idea that whether in the home or out in society, women needed to start joining the dots about how power structures were rigged against them, the result of a wholesale systemic oppression.

It’s no surprise that the catchy slogan made its way onto that most personal of spaces—the front of the T-shirt. For women to claim their bodies, and fashion, as their own space for personal expression, was a poke in the eye for those wanting to control them. Where women’s voices were blocked elsewhere, fashion offered a space to take control.

Fast forward 40 years and we find ourselves with a new kind of revolution, challenging our core beliefs about fashion, identity, and faith. Can faith and fashion go together? And more specifically, can a Muslim woman be fashionable?

When we think of Muslim women, we think of imagery of women in dark garb, often only eyes showing, captioned with words like submissive, oppressed, or backward. It seeps into our consciousness. The relentless news cycle weaves words like terrorist and ISIS around Muslim women so we don’t see them on their own terms, but instead see our own preconceived ideas of who they are and what they believe.

If we lift the veil (pun entirely intended), the story of Muslim fashion and female Muslim identity is one that is already rocking the fashion—and feminist—world.