Egyptian fashion league says it wants to fight the "nudity trend"
CAIRO/RABAT (Mona Madkour, Hassan al-Ashraf)
Hijab is the new black. The veil worn by many Muslim women has become a fashion accessory that indicates more than just religious observance as models, actresses and fashonistas use their headwear to make a statement.
In Egypt, a group of young women have formed the first organization for "hijab fashion" in hopes of catering to the increasing numbers of veiled women and proving that elegance can still be modest.
In Bahrain veiled models are increasingly preferred to their Western, unveiled counterparts because they more accurately represent their society. And in Morocco the popularity of tight, seductive hijab styles have earned the trend the name "shoufouni," Arabic for "look at me."
The founder of the Egypt group, Yasmine Mohsen, calls herself a "veiled model" and told AlArabiya.net that she wanted to offer suitable clothes, makeup and accessories to meet the demands of women who choose to wear the veil.
Mohsen says many veiled women come from rich classes and need to dress fashionably
"Now many veiled women come from rich classes and need to dress fashionably," she explained. "Some of them even hesitate to wear the veil as they think it will make them less elegant."
But Mohsen's goals for the group also go beyond the fashion industry. She hopes that seeing models in hijab will help change stereotypes in the West about Islam and women.
"We are saying that hijab is elegant and that being veiled is not equivalent to raggedness and lack of femininity."
" With the increasing number of veiled women the idea of a veiled model became more acceptable "
Yasmine Mohsen, founder of fashion league
When Mohsen started her career five years ago, she said she was criticized and treated as an intruder in a field that is not usually associated with covering oneself.
"With the increasing number of veiled women the idea of a veiled model became more acceptable. It didn't stop at women's products; I also made a video clip and several commercials for Gulf channels," she said.
More than 300 professional models who work in fashion shows, video clips and commercials have joined and found work through the group.
" It is well known what kind of clothes we model and what kind of commercials we can do "
Mohsen, founder of fashion league
Through its Facebook group and seminars the Cairo-based professional organization hopes to attract more members, explained Mohsen, who said that part of her goal is to fight the "nudity trend" in modeling.
"We are here today to fight the nudity trend that objectifies women and present them as bodies for show and sale," she said, explaining that the industry often pressures veiled models to take off their hijabs or limits their job opportunities. "Exposing the body is not by any means elegant or feminine," she added.
"It is well-known what kind of clothes we model and what kind of commercials we can do. So, whoever works with us must be seeking to offer something decent and respectable."
Hijab styles in the Middle East range from traditional wraps to spanish ties
The group has rules for the kinds of clothing its members can wear, which forbid sleepwear or lingerie, for example.
"This type of clothes needs unveiled models since normally a woman doesn't stay veiled at home," she explained. "On the contrary, she wears clothes that highlight her beauty."
Those who want to hire its members also must abide by certain rules. Photographers and directors cannot, for example, use their hands to direct the position of the model's face or body in front of the camera and must rely only on verbal instructions.
The king makes some striking changes, but gradualism is still the watchword
King Abdullah sends a Valentine
REFORM-MINDED Saudis cheered when Abdullah became king four years ago. The avuncular Custodian of the Holy Places, as Saudi monarchs title themselves, had a reputation for probity, tolerance and humility that augured change for the better. Yet few of his tentative reforms have stuck. Initiatives to modernise state schools and courts have stalled in the face of entrenched religious conservatives.
But in a move of rare boldness for the stately kingdom, on February 14th the 86-year-old king decreed sweeping changes in government. His reshuffle affected top posts in education, the courts, the armed forces, the central bank, the health and information ministries, the religious police and the state-appointed religious hierarchy, as well as the royally-appointed, 150-man proto-parliament, the Shura Council.
It was not the scale of the turnover that raised eyebrows; most senior ministers retained their posts. More striking was the injection of reformist blood into the ossified school and court systems. With his background in intelligence, and as a son-in-law of the king, the new minister of education, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Muhammad, may be better equipped to flush out teachers who are failing to comply with curricula that have been revised to emphasise tolerance in Islam.
The departure of Sheikh Saleh Luhaydan as head of the supreme judicial council, along with several other senior judges, suggests a new push to modernise the courts. Mr Luhaydan was notorious for rulings such as one that said it would be legal to kill the owners of TV channels broadcasting "immorality". During his tenure judges faced little pressure to adopt new rules meant to make the kingdom's unique and often harsh forms of sharia justice more open and consistent. Similarly, the sacking of the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will be seen as a response to a chorus of demands to curb the morality police, whose puritanical agents have often been accused of harassing law-abiding citizens.
Equally significant, the new appointments are markedly diverse. The 21-man board of senior clerics which issues official religious rulings, or fatwas, now for the first time includes representatives of all four schools of Sunni Islam, so breaking the monopoly, exercised solely in Saudi Arabia, of the arch-traditionalist Hanbali school associated with Wahhabism. The body still excludes Shias, a minority numbering about 10% of Saudis that faces widespread discrimination. But King Abdullah has compensated in part by increasing Shia representation in the Shura Council.
A far bigger slice of the population that has been kept to the margins of society, namely women, also got a boost with the appointment of a female deputy minister, the highest-level government post yet to be filled by a woman. Nora al-Fayez, an American-educated schools administrator, is to run the girls' section of the ministry of education, a division managed until recently by Wahhabist clerics.
Should such personnel changes give an impetus to the deeper reforms that many Saudis long for, King Abdullah will have secured an important legacy. But a quite different reform, decreed by him three years ago, may bear fruit sooner. Addressing concerns that the line of succession to kingship, which traditionally passes between brothers before reaching their sons, would produce a series of brief reigns by dotards, King Abdullah created a 25-man family council to elect future kings.
The council was to meet only after his own brother had succeeded. But the current crown prince, Sultan, is in his 80s and said to be very ill. In all likelihood, it is the council that will choose Abdullah's successor, in what might prove to be, even if restricted to a handful of senior princes from the Al Saud family, the first quasi-democratic transition of power in Saudi history. It would be a momentous feat. But it will also set nerves jangling.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia shook up his kingdom by boldly appointing the first female minister to his government cabinet earlier this week.
Norah al-Faiz is now the deputy minister of women's education — the most senior role ever held by a woman in Saudi Arabia.
Though al-Faiz occupies a new post, she is still very much bound by the stringent laws that dictate how women live within the kingdom. Like all women in Saudi Arabia, al-Faiz is only permitted to do what her closest male relative allows, based on the guardianship system.
Al-Faiz, who received her master's degree in education from Utah State University, is fully cognizant of the challenges ahead of her, stating that the "guardianship system" is the first thing that should be removed by the new Saudi government.
During my own time living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the late 90s, I recall needing my father — my closest male relative — for anything that required me leaving our compound walls. From driving me to the mall (women aren't permitted to drive) to accompanying me to a doctor's appointment, I needed a male escort for everything. And while there is no law stating that a male must accompany a female to the doctor (though a male often has to authorize all procedures at the doctor's office), females are not allowed to interact with unrelated males—and almost all doctors in Saudi Arabia are males.
Even when it came down to something as simple as getting a shawarma sandwich, I would have to ask my father to order because it was frowned upon for women to enter the restaurant and interact with men. My mother and I would wait in the car as my father walked into the restaurant crammed with men ordering for a parking lot filled with hungry women.
Putting all shawarma aside, women aren't even permitted to testify in a criminal court unless there isn't a male witness and the testimony is related to a personal matter. And even then, the testimony of a woman only counts for half that of man's testimony, leaving it up to the court to decide whether or not it is to be accepted as valid.
Saudi feminist and writer, Wajeha al-Huwaider, said it is unclear if al-Faiz will have any real power, or if she will follow the path of other Saudi women who had been appointed to lower councils but were never heard from.
But Haifa Jamal Al-Lail, dean of Effat College in Jeddah, is more optimistic. "This is not just about having the first woman deputy minister. It's about having more women in important positions. Al-Fayez's presence in the Ministry of Education will make women's voices heard."
For a country where, under Saudi law, women are considered the property of men, appointing al-Faiz as the first female minister, though she's only in charge of women's education, is a big step in the right direction.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Canadian author Margaret Atwood has pulled out of an international Dubai literary festival after organizers banned a forthcoming novel by a British author because it contains references to homosexuality.
In a letter addressed to the festival's director, Atwood said she could not attend Dubai's inaugural International Festival of Literature next week because of the "regrettable turn of events surrounding" the book "The Gulf Between Us."
Atwood was referring a novel by British author Geraldine Bedell who said the festival banned it because of references to homosexuality. The book, set in the Persian Gulf, is scheduled to be published in April.
"I was greatly looking forward to the Festival, and to the chance to meet readers there; but, as an International Vice President of PEN — an organization concerned with the censorship of writers — I cannot be part of the Festival this year," Atwood said in the letter, posted on her Web site.
Festival director Isobel Abulhoul described Atwood's decision not to attend the Feb. 26 to March 1 festival as "regrettable."
The festival has not given a specific reason for why it banned Bedell's forthcoming book. But Abulhoul said decisions can be driven in many cases by "simple attendance imperatives."
"I would hope that anyone informed and interested in the differing cultures around the world would both understand and respect the path we tread in setting up the first festival of this nature in the Middle East," she said in a letter posted on the festival's Web site late Wednesday.
Dubai has struggled over the past year to merge its glitzy international appeal with its conservative Muslim values. The UAE has also come under intense pressure this week after it barred an Israeli women's tennis player from a lucrative Dubai tournament. On Thursday, it announced that an Israeli men's doubles player would be allowed entry into the country to play in next week's men's tournament.
Other well-known authors such as Frank McCourt, Louis de Bernieres and Jung Chang are also scheduled to attend the Dubai festival.
On Monday, Bedell, a journalist for the British Observer newspaper and the author of several novels, said the organizers had first discussed launching her book at the festival because of its Gulf setting. But later, Abulhoul wrote to Penguin, saying Dubai didn't want the "festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book," Bedell said.
According to Bedell, who lived in Bahrain for five years in the 1980s, the book was not acceptable because one characters, Sheikh Rashid, is assumed to be gay. Homosexuality is illegal in the United Arab Emirates.
The author also said festival organizers complained that "it talks about Islam and queries what is said."
