|
Attention: Year 2009 is here
Wishing a very Happy New Year to all members of FFI. Our new and improved site is ready. To visit main site, click at faithfreedom.org and to visit our new forum, click at forum09.faithfreedom.org and register again. Do not worry about your old forum posts and PM, everything is saved here till 31st December, 2008 for future references.
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
cherryblossom
Joined: 14 Dec 2005
Posts: 1020
|
 Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 12:16 am Post subject: Glitter and leopard print enliven abayas |
 |
|
| Quote: |
For Saudi women, bright is the new black
Glitter and leopard print enliven abayas — causing a backlash from some
A model takes to the catwalk wearing a designer abaya during the Dubai Summer Surprises Festival 2008 at Burjuman Mall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Such fashion abayas are gaining popularity in Saudi Arabia as well, and some Saudis are unhappy that what is supposed to hide women's curves and detract male attention is becoming a fashion statement sure to turn a man's head.
updated 12:27 p.m. ET, Wed., Oct. 1, 2008
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - For years, the only thing sold openly in Saudi stores selling women's cloaks were of the all-black, drab covering variety. Now, streaks of vibrant color, bands of glittering crystal — even sheaths of sexy leopard skin prints — are showing up on the racks.
And that's not all. Women are snapping them up and even sometimes wearing them in public.
For stores to openly stock the new generation of cloaks, or abayas, and for some women to wear them in public are not just fashion statements. They are risky acts of defiance in a nation where the powerful religious police have for years raided stores to confiscate "illegal" abayas as part of their mandate as guardians of the kingdom's rigid interpretation of Islamic teachings.
These days, the "legal" abayas that conform to the strict standards of the religious police have been relegated to the back of many stores in major Saudi cities. In their place are the new ones.
While salesmen and designers say women are snapping up the new abaya models and feel pressured to produce more styles to meet demand, some Saudis are unhappy that what is supposed to hide women's curves and detract male attention is becoming a fashion statement sure to turn a man's head.
"You look around you and you find abayas that are embroidered, fitted or with wide sleeves. Most abayas now need abayas to cover them," says a religious pamphlet available at malls in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
"When some girls go out they (look) like prostitutes who invite people to carry out lewd acts. How else can you explain how some women adorn themselves with their abayas ... ?" it says.
Girls in Saudi Arabia are required to wear abayas when they hit puberty. And all women expatriates have to wear them in public. The religious police say the abayas should be loose, worn on the head and left to fall down to the ground without outlining the body. They should not be transparent or ornamented, they say.
A new style or old-fashioned?
Things were not always that strict.
Sarah Kennedy, an American who has lived in Saudi Arabia for almost 30 years, said that in 1979 when she first arrived in the kingdom foreign women were not obliged to wear abayas. But as the kingdom became more conservative in the 1980s, foreign women began wearing abayas too, but ones that looked like capes and fell just to mid thigh.
"But then, suddenly ... you couldn't find the ones you normally wanted," said Kennedy. "So you bought them anyway."
No one really knows why or how it became OK to sell the new stylish abayas. Major stores in big cities carry them openly and there have not been reports in the local media of religious police confiscating them.
But like everything else in the kingdom, the change was subtle and incremental.
Glitter started adorning wrists or was sprinkled on the edges of the veil that must be worn on the head. Then color began creeping on the black fabric and the loose shapeless cloaks became more fitted. The cumbersome panels that hooked to the shoulders to ensure that nothing peeked from underneath the abaya as a woman walked slowly disappeared.
Today, the new abayas are without the panels and close straight down like a long coat.
The new styles cropped up first in the more open western seaside city of Jiddah and in the Eastern Province.
"We in Jiddah are fashion conscious," said abaya designer Ghada al-Sairafi. "I try to come up with a new model every week because of the demand."
Hanan al-Madani, another Jiddah designer, said abayas are "no longer just abayas."
"Today, they reflect a woman's taste and personality," said al-Madani, whose custom-made abayas sell between $402 and $2,145.
Jiddah boasts the most daring abayas. In one store, there were cloaks with red lace hanging down from the black sleeves, some with crystal sprinkled around the collar and waist and a few double-layered ones with bold reds, greens and yellows underneath a sheer black chiffon top.
The best-seller among these was one with a leopard skin pattern underneath the top cover.
But not everyone in fashionable Jiddah likes the new abayas. Tahani al-Jihani, 42, is one.
She bustled into one Jiddah store to choose abayas for her daughter and her sister and later announced: "I don't like the new styles but my sister and my daughter love them.
"I feel they attract too much attention," said al-Jihani as she watched her daughter try on one with balloon arms.
Despite Jiddah's relatively liberal atmosphere, many Saudi women avoid wearing the daring abayas in public places such as malls and restaurants.
Hala Ahmed, a 21-year-old interior design student, said she wears the new styles to weddings and to college, which are segregated.
"They're more like dresses, so I wear them to places where no men will see me in them."
|
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26973542/
Islam is soo obssessed with sex. Even color is sexualized. Totally ridiculous. Who would have thought that an abaya could be too "racy."
_________________
"One day these people will be our slaves." As said by a British Muslim woman in the 1970's. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Rat_bytes
Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 539
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 2:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
When left alone and given choice, women naturally lean towards incorporating different colors and shapes into what they wear, it's what they've done since time immemorial. Women do not like to wear drab, shapeless, colourless garments. This story is further proof that it is not natural for women to be swaddled up in black garments that cover everything.
_________________
The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. - Abu’l‐Ala al Ma’arri |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
sun
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1570
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:14 am Post subject: Re: Glitter and leopard print enliven abayas |
|
|
[quote="cherryblossom"]
| Quote: |
"You look around you and you find abayas that are embroidered, fitted or with wide sleeves. Most abayas now need abayas to cover them," says a religious pamphlet available at malls in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
"When some girls go out they (look) like prostitutes who invite people to carry out lewd acts. How else can you explain how some women adorn themselves with their abayas ... ?" it says.
Islam is soo obssessed with sex. Even color is sexualized. Totally ridiculous. Who would have thought that an abaya could be too "racy." |
What is the use of praying 5x per day when even color causes Muslim male to lose sexual control, no wonder allah initially wanted Muslim to pray 50x per day.
If theese religious police enforce allah original 50x prayer per day on the Muslim male, it will also curb their lack of sexual control over color cloth. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Chewchy
Joined: 02 Feb 2008
Posts: 1774
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:19 am Post subject: |
|
|
The whole point is for women to not bring attention to themselves so the colors, prints and "bad hijab" are all about wanting to express themselves in a way that can get past the roaming hijab and vice/virtue police.
To wear the hijab is stifling not only in body but in mind and spirit. Some will convince themselves that is is something beautiful and pure but in reality it is a jail for women to endure because some men have absolutely no control over themselves... like animals they cannot control their lust and self-hate because they desire the woman.
Essentially, every woman uncovered just illustrates to them how very weak they are and they hate women for it as well. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
katlike
Joined: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 4015
Location: If I told you, it would be a lame game of hide and seek.
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Just one more example that allah could not ever be the creator of woman, not only does he not understand woman, he keeps trying to attach male sexuality to women's motives. Get a clue allah, women are far more complicated. 
Peace, Love and Health,
Katlike
_________________
[/islam].
 FYI~ It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nymph
Joined: 09 Jul 2007
Posts: 461
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:55 am Post subject: |
|
|
The worst part of the abaya is the dehumanizing factor.
I don't think the main reason it exists is merely because of lack of male control.
I think the reason is that it disempowers half the adult population, the exact half that is the least likely to go for wars, rape, pillaging, and pedophilia.
Lack of individuality and expression = lack of human respect.
It is much easier to disrespect someone when you can't see their face, maybe not even their eyes. and make their opinions and worth half of a man's.
Muslims would love to have women disappear off the face of the earth. the next best thing is to hide them under blankets. I'm not kidding. There is a reason why that female Afghani parliament member asked rhetorically, "Why did God create women?" This is an often-asked question in Muslim countries because they are so male-centered, women are seen as an anomaly. Why would God create women and then make laws that make them suffer so much?"
Fitna, meaning mischief, is considered the domain of women. Women are disruptive to the Islamic social order because it is unliveable. Think of the kind of religion a bunch of illiterate desert pirates would come up with. that is islam. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
