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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

MUSLIMAH FASHION VS WESTERN FASHION.

In general ,fashion ,as stated in the Oxford Learners Advanced Dictionary can be define as the style of dressing or behaving that is the most popular at a particular time. Fashion in clothes has allowed wearers to express emotion or solidarity with other people for millennia. However, fashion may vary significantly within a society according to status, age, social class, generation, occupation and geography as well as over time. As fashion plays the main role in the society, there are a lot to be discovered from fashion. Hence, it is really interesting to know about fashion in depth to ensure that we are not one of the fashion victims. Yet, we are not making a sin from our wearing. As fashion also undergoes invention, there are changes in fashion from time to time. Here, we would like to compare the muslimah fashion to the western fashion based on some features which are the style, fabric, accessories, and length.

First and foremost, what makes muslimah fashion so much different from the western fashion is that the style itself. Unlike the western fashion, muslimah fashion promotes a modest form of clothing with a loose cutting that covers all parts of body very well. However,
Muslim women can dress in line with both their faith and western styles as long as they are dressing according to the Islamic rules and regulation.

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Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.

— Qur'an [24:30]

This verse precisely mentioned about the obligation as a muslim to dress in accordance to the Quran by covering some parts of their body. Some examples of the muslimah clothing are khakis, long tunic, long shirt and skirt and others. However, the western fashion encourages sexy, revealing, and lumpy clothing which does not have a specific guideline to be followed. The examples of clothes are mini skirt, legging, baby tee, jeans and others.

Moving to the next point, there are slightly differences between the fabric used in making muslimah clothes and western clothes. It is because the western people dress according to the seasons as they have four seasons in a year. For instance, they will wear fewer clothes on summer and yet have thick clothes such as the coat from the sheepskin in winter. It is totally different in the Islamic country like Malaysia which only has one season. Therefore, their dressings are the same at all time and they have to cover the certain parts of the body at anytime and anywhere.

In addition, both the muslimah fashion and the western fashion differ in the term of accessories. Muslims women always have their accessories in a modest way .They are not exaggerating too much in their dressing. The accessories are worn in very minimal and simple style. The motifs of the accessories are mostly from floral and geometrical and do not symbolize any other religions. In Islam, when wearing any accessory, the accessory should not symbolise other religion since it counted as a big sin. However, the western fashion promotes accessories that are weird and not really practical. The best example of the weird accessories can be clearly seen by the famous Hollywood celebrity, Lady Gaga. The celebrities that always come with a muslimah fashion are Wardina Saffiyah and Farah Adeeba.

Last but not least, both muslimah and western fashion are different in length. For muslimah fashion, it is compulsory to wear clothes that are not too short that covers certain parts of the body. Normally, the clothes must exceed the hips and the hijab must be lower than the bosoms. For western fashion, there are no actual limits in dressing where they can wear whatever they like, whenever they want.

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And say that 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 ...

— Qur'an [24:31]

Basically, as the fashion has undergoes series of inventions, there are not much difference between the two types of fashion. This is because the muslimah fashion has transforms to provide the muslims with latest fresh design that is more modern and easy-to-wear style. Therefore, there are no limitations for the muslims to be fashionable. They can also feel free to choose all colours by not just sticking to dark colours such as black. As long as the colours do not attract the attention of the men, it is okay to wear any colour that suits them.

To put it laconically, invention in fashion has make the people to dress in a proper way depending to the occasions. Many designers have come out with stunning designs to provide the people with the best outfits but still covering the aurah and following the lines of clothing as a muslim. It is because fashion reflects the personality and identity of a person. Therefore, we as the muslims should stick at our fashion and not to imitate the western fashion. Don't let our faith shaken by the western fashion ideology.

With love,

NUR FARAH ASYIQIN BINTI HAMDAN

&

MUFIDAH BINTI MOHAMMAD

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