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Dress Anneleis Moors

Figure 10 From “Real Dutch” poster campaign by Al-Nisa.

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Does dress matter to religion? For those who employ a modernist notion of religion and consider religion first and foremost to be about interiority, about belief, faith and conviction, dress has little or no relation to religion. Others, who recognize the relevance of outward appearances for religion, would disagree. To them, sartorial practices may very well be, simultaneously, religious acts. In other words, if we consider the study of religion to be about how believers themselves speak about and live their religion, then we need to take dress seriously. This then raises the question of how people do religion through dress. Dress matters in many religious traditions. Here I will focus on one major tradition, namely Islam, not only because this is the tradition I am most familiar with, but also because sartorial practices of Muslims, especially of Muslim women, have been at the center of much public and political debate. This is the case in both Muslim majority countries in the global South and settings where Muslims are a religious minority, as in Europe. Turning from public debates to everyday life, one is struck by the strong contrasts between the public discourse that highlights Muslim women’s subordination, and their actual sartorial presence in public space, where they appear far more often as self-confident women wearing increasingly diverse, often highly fashionable, recognizably Muslim outfits. But let us first briefly turn to the image that I have selected. In material terms, this is a poster that presents a woman wearing a headscarf, an artifact that marks her immediately as Muslim. It is part of a poster campaign (called Real Dutch) that Al-Nisa, a Muslim women’s organization in the Netherlands, started in May 2010 in response to the growing popularity of Geert Wilders and his antiIslam movement among the Dutch electorate. Using humor as a tactic, Al-Nisa takes up Wilders’ earlier statement about headscarf-wearing Muslim women, that he would “like to eat them raw,” a rude expression of “not being afraid of ” or “wanting to fight.”1 Reproducing this statement (in Dutch) below an image of a headscarf-wearing woman engaged in the “typically Dutch” style of eating a raw herring holding it by its tail, Al-Nisa brings home the message that being Muslim and Dutch can very well go together. This message is further supported by the

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inclusion of a plethora of national symbols, including the Delft Blue underscarf with a red overscarf and the many red, white, and blue Dutch flags. Moreover, while the headscarf marks the woman depicted as Muslim, her style of dress, her appearance, and her body language present her as modern, attractive, and self-confident, without a clear marker of an ethnic background. Both in public debate and among scholars, questions abound about how to interpret the act of wearing recognizably Muslim dress. To start with, it would be a mistake to read a person’s religious conviction simply from the styles of dress she wears. Some practicing Muslims do not wear visibly Muslim styles of covered dress, because they do not consider covering as a religious duty, while others may be convinced of the religious value of wearing covered dress, yet feel that they are not yet able to do so. Neither does wearing covered dress necessarily point to a greater religious commitment. As also women who cover point out, wearing covered dress gives religious rewards only if it is done with the right intention, as a form of worship, not if it is done under pressure from family or friends, or simply as a fashion. Many women who wear covered styles of dress point to motivations that are intrinsically linked to religion. They consider wearing covered dress in itself as a form of devotion, a religious virtue, and a God-pleasing act, while also explaining how such sartorial practices have an effect on their inner sense of self as well as on the wider public. To many, wearing covered dress works as a means to shape a virtuous, modest self, while it may also function to present one’s inner convictions to the world at large. This fits well with recent anthropological work that emphasizes the performative power of dress. Much debate about headscarves centers on the question whether Muslim women wear covered dress “by force or by choice.” Yet, such a dichotomous framing works neither for religion nor for dress. A notion of agency that starts from the autonomous individual with an inert desire to be free from restraints does not fit well with how religiously motivated women consider their sartorial practices as a freely chosen form of worship and submission to God. Turning from religion to dress, many theorists of dress and fashion have argued that when people adopt particular styles of dress they may strive for individualization and distinction, yet they simultaneously want to “fit in” and opt for styles of dress that are deemed acceptable in their own social circle. Defining the act of covering as a religious practice or, for that matter, refusing to recognize it as such, also has social effects for the women concerned. Depending on the particular regime of secularity, considering wearing a headscarf as a religious practice, rather than as, for instance, a cultural habit, may enable or disable the presence of headscarf-wearing women in public

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schools or their employment as civil servants. In France, for instance, girls are not allowed to wear a headscarf in public schools because veils are considered as an ostentatious religious sign. In the Netherlands, in contrast, girls are allowed to wear a headscarf in public schools, as it is recognized that if they do so, it is because they consider this a religious duty. The emergence of recognizably Islamic styles of dress and fashion is closely linked to the growth of the Islamic revival movement. In the course of the twentieth century, in many Muslim majority countries, women had started to opt for secular styles of dress, especially among the modernizing middle classes. From the 1970s on, the growing popularity of the Islamic revival movement changed this. Women who had previously turned to secular dress, such as, for instance, students, started to adopt covered dress. Opting for loosely fitting, full-length overcoats in subdued colors combined with large headscarves tied in such a way that no hair was visible, this generation chose to wear rather uniform, austere outfits that were quite different from those of earlier generations, while they also differed from the styles of dress that rural and lower-class women were wearing. By the 1990s, however, with the growing presence of more reformist trends in the Islamic revival movement and its greater engagement with culture, more fashionable styles of Islamic dress began to emerge. Now catering to a wealthier middle-class constituency as well, new styles began to be adopted that were more form-fitting, with cuts that were more sophisticated, materials that were more colorful, and headscarves that were smaller and more expensive. In the course of the next decade, “Islamic fashion” became increasingly visible on the streets of major cities, in design shop windows, on catwalks, and on the Internet. As a concept and as a sartorial practice, Islamic fashion first emerged in the global South, where a thriving “Islamic fashion” production and consumption sector developed.2 Some of the pioneers were part of the new Islamic economic sector, such as the Turkish firm Tekbir, that now has a large number of subsidiaries in Asia and Europe. Elsewhere, upscale Islamic fashion houses developed, such as the highly fashionable and exclusive abaya producers in the Gulf States, or the Islamic fashion designers in South-East Asia, both of whom were also very active in organizing much publicized international Islamic fashion shows, that drew large audiences online and offline. As part of a global trend, it did not take long for “Islamic fashion” to also become popular among Muslims in Europe, where young post-migrants developed street styles that blur the boundaries between production and consumption. If some would shop at Islamic stores, far more young women would frequent the same chains, such as H & M and Zara, as their non-Muslim

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peers did. Buying similar items of dress, they produce an Islamically approved (halal) outfit through processes of layering and adding a headscarf. Through such creative acts, they are not merely consumers but co-producers of Islamic fashion. The turn to more fashionable styles invokes the question whether Islam and fashion can go together. It is true that some see strong tensions between, on the one hand, Islam as faith, conviction, and eternal truth, and, on the other hand, fashion as mundane, ever-changing, and superficial. Should we then consider the shift from the more simple styles of Islamic dress to the more elaborate and fashionable ones as a move from ethics to aesthetics? That would be far too simple. In everyday life, women do not only combine religion and fashion in the sartorial styles they adopt, but they also use religious arguments to opt for more attractive, pleasant-looking, and up-to-date styles of covered dress. They point out that presenting themselves as such is in itself an act that pleases God, as God loves beauty; that wearing more fashionable styles can make it easier for women to start to wear covered dress; and that wearing attractive styles that are in some ways similar to non-religious styles of dress may help to produce a more positive image of Islam, especially in settings that have become increasingly Islam-unfriendly. Whereas many have adopted these fashionable styles of Islamic dress, a smaller group of women has developed a critical stance toward Islamic fashion, which they consider as threatening to undermine modesty and piety. Linking fashion to wastefulness and vanity and considering popular styles as strongly sexualized and demeaning to women, their arguments intersect with secular anti-fashion discourses that also criticize consumerism and the sexualization of women’s bodies. In many settings, highly fashionable Islamic styles have become celebrated as a sign of modernity and integration, functioning as a non-verbal critique of long-standing stereotypes of Muslim women’s lack of agency. This has, however, simultaneously turned those wearing distinctively non-fashionable styles into a more negatively marked category. When discussing the everyday dress practices of Muslim women, the concept “Islamic fashion” needs revisiting with respect to both the terms “fashion” and “Islam.” The “wardrobe turn” in dress studies has shown how fashion trends only partially determine what can be found in women’s wardrobes and what kinds of dress they select to wear. Individual items of dress may, for instance, evoke memories about how they have been acquired,—as gifts or as souvenirs—and of the occasions at which they have been worn. In other words, in some cases the “biographies” of particular items of dress may be more important for how people relate to dress than their aesthetic qualities.

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Turning from fashion to Islam, whereas for many women wearing covered dress is a religiously motivated act, the particular styles they adopt are only partially influenced by religious convictions. Getting dressed is an everyday corporeal practice that relates to the multiple subject positions a person inhabits. Adopting a particular style is not simply the effect of religious conviction, but also relates to other forms of identification and senses of belonging, such as nationality and ethnicity, generation and class, and age and professionalism, as well as to individual preferences for particular styles, such as a sporty, urban, elegant, or feminine look. Turkish-Dutch women, for instance, may opt for a style that is recognizably Muslim and Turkish, but they may also adopt a style that conceals rather than reveals their ethnic background and, instead, wear an outfit that presents them as modern Muslim professionals. The poster image does not only depict a woman wearing a headscarf, highlighting Dutchness through a plethora of Dutch national symbols, but it is also an image without a strongly ethnic marker. Not only the colors of the headscarf, but also the ways in which it is tied is more based on fantasy than representative of mainstream, often ethnically marked, styles prevalent in the Netherlands, while the simple long-sleeved vest can pass as Muslim, but is also a very common item of dress among all sections of the Dutch population. Visualizing dress in such a manner, the poster successfully fuses being Muslim and being Dutch.

Notes 1. Wilders made this statement in an interview in the Dutch weekly HP/De Tijd, February 6, 2004. It got a second life when, as a member of parliament, he proposed in 2009 the imposition of a “headrag” tax. Not only did he use a highly derogatory term, “kopvod,” for headscarves, but he also labeled the public presence of headscarfwearing women as a form of pollution. 2. “Islamic fashion” is not only a term used by researchers, but also one commonly used by those producing, distributing, and wearing such styles. Using “Islamic fashion” as a search term online, one can immediately evidence both its popularity and its tremendous variety.

Bibliography Korteweg, A. and G. Yurdakul. 2014. The Headscarf Debates: Conflicts of National Belonging. Standford: Stanford University Press. Lewis, R. 2013. Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies: Mediating Faith. London: I.B. Tauris.

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Moors, A. 2009. “‘Islamic Fashion’ in Europe: Religious conviction, aesthetic style, and creative consumption.” Encounters 1(1): 175–201. Moors, A and E. Tarlo. 2013. “Introduction: Islamic fashion and anti-fashion. New perspectives form Europe and North America.” In Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion: New Perspectives form Europe and North America, edited by E. Tarlo and A. Moors, 1–30. London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomington. Tarlo, Emma. 2010. Visibly Muslim: Integrating Fashion, Politics and Faith. London: Berg Publishers. Tarlo, Emma and Annelies Moors. 2007. “Muslim Fashions.” Special double issue of Fashion Theory 11: 2/3. Tarlo, Emma and Annelies Moors, eds. 2013. Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion: New Perspectives form Europe and North America. London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomington.

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