(Jelbab from Lebaas)

I’m kicking myself…seriously, back in the USA, packed away in my dads attic is a heavy wool Shukr jilbab, dark slate grey Corduroy jilbab with pants from Jordan and a nice heavy-weight lined jilbab in a funky print, also from Jordan. I’m kicking myself for NOT bringing them! They would be perfect for winter here and give me a nice break from the black abayaahs that are so pervasive. (and don’t get me started on all the Irani manteau I have packed away, though they would be too short for KSA-life)

Don’t get me wrong, I like black abayaahs but I have started to miss having the option to switch it up with different colored jilbabs and abayaahs (or even just long tunics and skirts/pants)…the lack of choice  in the overgarment department is starting to irk me out. Unfortunately, I can’t get any jilbabs here, if I could Id go out and buy one in a muted color like purple or khaki. Here are some ones I like… (and yes they do look much better inrl than on a mannequin).

(picture from sajeda.com)

pretty too..

(picture from sajeda.com)

(picture from sajeda.com)

I don’t know what I’ll do…maybe I should just wait until I go to Iran in March and enjoy colorful clothing there…LOL

(jelbab from Lebaas)

I recently received this comment about a old post of mine on the wearing of Niqab in Iran, the writer brought to my attention how I overlooked the historic style of niqab worn by Persian women in Pre-Pahlavi Iran (pre 1930’s), thank you for bringing this to my attention! fekr mikonam, I am kind of silly for not remembering this!

She is talking about this style;

(Pre-Pahlavi-era urban Persian women)

Lily jaan, I believe the white “niqab” is called a ruband, but I am not entirely sure. I know now a days the Persian women in Qom who wear the flip-down style face covering called a boushiyyah in Arabic call it a poushiyyeh. I have heard of some Iranians talking about niqab as a ruband, but it seems to be pretty old fashioned terminology. If anyone knows the modern terminology please share!

I am sure it was only better-off urban Persian women who wore this, first because  the women normally lead a secluded lifestyle and two because it would be hard to work in the fields in such attire, and normally rural Persian Iranian women did a lot of field work, along side their male family members.

Before I finished University I looked through this hand-written, hand-painted book by this American guy who worked in Esfahan for a few years in the late 19-teens (around WW1 era) and one or two drawings showed urban, upper class Persian women sitting in public cafes wearing the knee length flapper dress with their chadors open around them, drinking tea, legs crossed, tights on with low heels and their rubands flipped up, so their faces and some of their hair was visible. I think eventually this style of dress became more like a “show” of ones background and social status, with little regard for it’s purpose.

Thats interesting how you have seen Persian niqabaat boarding in Dubai for Tehran. I wonder if maybe they were Khaleeji Persians (Gulf Arabs of Persian background) which there seem to be a lot of them. Or maybe they were headed to Qom. Hmmm.  I have yet to see any Persian Iranian women wearing niqab in Iran, except for in Qom. I have seen many Gulf Arab tourists in Esfahan wearing it though and their attire got a LOT of stares and comments from the Iranians around them.

I am slated to go back for several months sometime this spring so we’ll see whether I see any this trip. Without further blather, here is her comment in it’s entirity. Please note that all the pictures in my Niqab in Iran post have suddenly disappeared, so I will try to find them and replace them in the next few days.

(Armine Hafsa silk hijab-taken from hijabplanet.com)

Thankfully, HijabPlanet is back in business (now you can get you’re silk fix). Remember when they went off-line and the owner was trying to sell his business last fall/early winter?  They seem to be back alhamdullah! I really love the pure Turkish silk hijabs they feel so fantastic, work with most types of clothing and are really long-lasting (if treated well). Unfortunately, they can be difficult to get outside of Turkey and cost a mini fortune even if purchased in Turkey, but they have the ability to immedietly give you a very chic and put-together look.  You know, if I was independently wealthy and not in black-cloth loving KSA I would purchase an entire wardrobe of Turkish silk hijabs, just because they feel so fantastic. I’ve always admired them on the Turkish women I saw back in the states and occasionally here in KSA I glimpse Turkish muhajabat rocking a plain black abayaah with a beautiful silk scarf.

Anyway, the scoop is HijabPlanet back and  along with offering beautiful silk hijabs they are now selling muhajabat-friendly clothing from the Armine line! I know this will make some of you happy because there are quite a few western Muhajabat who dig the Turkish “tesettur” look. And fyi, I did order from them once, the hijabs were fantastic, much nicer in real life I got them incredibly fast (I think 1 week!) and they came in these neat little boxes for storage.

Here are some clothing designs I totally love!

(Armine Farah silk hijab-taken from hijabplanet.com)

(Armine Raadia silk hijab -pic taken from hijabplanet.com)

(Armine Baseema silk hijab-taken from hijabplanet.com)

It’s finally gotten quite nippy out which leads me to the question I’ve sometimes been asked…what will you be wearing this winter and just what do Saudi women wear during winter anyway? Well, U have yet to experience December, January of February here but I have been told that it rarely gets down to the level of needing say a parka (at least in this are) and that you can usually make do with a thick sweater or thick hoodie or a lighter-weight winter jacket, I expect a corduroy or velor lined jacket would probably work. Items which would normally be worn towards the end of Fall where we moved from in the States.

Interestingly enough though, unlike what I remember most over garment wearing Muslimaat would do in the states, usually Saudi women wear these items under their abayaahs. Obviously you wouldn’t want to wear a heavy jacket under an abayaah but many women wear thick hoodies or those polar-fleece zip-ups under their abayaat. It seems to work because unlike abayaah styles in most other countries, Saudi abayaat usually have snaps down the front and generally come with sleeves wide enough to push up for wuduh and the current trends are for the extremely big and wide “kimono” style sleeves, big bell sleeves and bisht-style abayaahs, all of which are rather ideal for wearing over a slender-fitting jacket or hoodie. Because, hey, it would be rather hard to stuff those kinds of sleeves under a traditional-style jacket!!

Another popular type of cold-weather item here is the poncho and shawls. A lot of the shops here are well stocked with wool-blend and acrylic ponchos, many have buttons down the front or a tie-feature, Ive also seen a few faux-fur wraps as well. These are good for wearing over the abayaah.

Personally, I like the hoodie/jacket under the abayaah trick. I think it looks quite nice and definitely stylish. Only downer of course is, it would be hard to take the hoodie off once inside, I assume you’d have to run to a restroom and peel off the layers, but thats not *that* bad right…I’m sure we’ve all gone out in blizzards and freezing temps in several layers which we need to peel off once we reach our destination anyway.

Received today:

August 21, 2009 Where do I begin?

The depths of the depravity of the actions necessary to maintain power against the will of a people are only just sinking in for me (viscerally). I have always been aware of what this government has been accused of doing over the years to consolidate and maintain power, but it is only now that I am beginning to truly understand. It is shocking to the senses to say the least.

This week I observed a lot of soldiers (Basij and Pasdar for the most part) in our neighborhood. There were also a lot of patrols in our area. I don’t know if it was a one day affair or a long term move into the neighborhood to keep an eye on the opposition elements revealed through the nights of Allahu-Akbaring. Have we marked ourselves for attack? I don’t know yet. But like a deadly virus, the Basijis and Pasdars are spreading out everywhere in our town.

The people though have their own passive aggressive ways of fighting back. I still see tons of green everywhere – t-shirts, manteaus. Pro-reform graffiti is not cleaned up all the time. Two weeks ago as I was driving I had to go around a major traffic round-about (like what you would find in England). It is four lanes wide and very big. A mini-bus full of Basiji soldiers was trying to make its way through the heavy traffic. They were signaling people to make way for them or to slow down. No one paid any attention. They just kept driving and cutting off the bus. Finally, one of the soldiers was forced to get out of the bus and walk in front of it, signaling cars to let it through. Of course the cars had to let it through because they did not want to have to pay damages (diyeh) to the soldier’s family for running him over!

Later that week I had to drive along a major thoroughfare (3-4 lanes wide again) that passes by a Sepah Base (IRCG), a Basiji base and a big mosque. Traffic was heavy and fast down this boulevard. A middle-aged Basiji in full black beard was standing in the middle of it all trying to get to the other side. By the time I reached him he seemed very frustrated and signaled for the car in front of me to slow down (so he could pass presumably). The woman in front of me reflected his gesture back at him and drove right on – full speed. I followed her. As I looked back in my car mirror I could see that, about ten cars further on, the man was still standing there, in the middle of heavy traffic – no closer to getting to the other side.

Two days ago I was driving my kids to soccer lessons when I saw two Sayyed’s (mullahs with black turbans) trying to cross the road. Again, no one slowed down or stopped for them to pass. They had to wait for the flow of traffic to end in order to cross!

The other day I heard a car honk viciously as it passed two Basiji men in military uniform on a motorcycle. The Basijis reacted, so I know they knew the honk was directed at them.

During the past 30 years, the clerics have become well aware that they are not liked. In fact, in popular culture there are movies that show mullahs dressing in civilian clothes just to be able to catch a cab or go shopping without being harassed. I think we have entered a time when our security forces will be subjected to the same ill treatment by the population. The security forces have shown themselves for the violent animals that they are, and the people are rejecting them. (They have actually behaved worse than animals. Animals do not behave in such depraved manners as the security forces here have).

Anyway, the insidiousness of this government knows no bounds. I heard this story from a university student. He said that he knows a young man who entered university at the same time he did. The guy is not very studious or ambitious, but like this fellow, he is now a graduate student. Anyway, a while back this student noticed that the other student had a paycheck for $1,100.00. He asked the laid back fellow what that was all about. The guys said he was a university employee. The other student asked him what it was he did exactly (as universities normally don’t hire students to be full time employees). Eventually he found out that this student is paid almost equivalent to a professor to spy on other students. His job is to observe his fellow students and inform the authorities when there is going to be a demonstration or gathering or something. He also told me that some students bust out their cameras when there is any agitation and quickly start taking pictures of their protesting fellow students. How sick is that?!

I am coming to the conclusion that it’s all about money. Over the years I have heard story after story about how much a young woman can make if she is willing to enforce the Hijab [muslim headscarf and other "uniform"] restrictions on other women; how much these Basijis made during the current unrest; how much other security personnel make for enforcing these arbitrary religious laws. In addition Iran sends millions of dollars a year abroad to foment unrest in Gaza, Lebanon, Morocco, Iraq and Afghanistan to name a few. And meanwhile we hear news of millions of dollars smuggled out of the country continuously.  All of this while basic government workers are paid wages that make them below the poverty line. In Ahvaz, the city employees sometimes don’t even get their salaries for 2 or 3 months at a time.

These guys are good at maintaining power. They keep the main population completely dependent on them, starving them from time to time so they don’t have the energy to rise up in revolt; then they ruthlessly put down any opposition that does arise with threats, fear, intimidation prison and outright murder; and finally, they pay the rest of the population good money to enforce the brutality. It is sick, sick, sick!

The people are dissatisfied. There is a lot of grumbling going on. It is not dying out. The people have retreated, but they are not beaten. Unfortunately we have some major problems here though. While a significant percentage of the population never accepted the Islamic government from the beginning, a majority did. They thought that their religion would save them. Many of them realized within the first few months of the Republic that this religion would kill them instead and withdrew support – too late. Now, over the past 30 years many more are coming to the realization that religion and government must be separated – that the problem is the Muslimness of the republic, not the republicness of the government. Unfortunately there is still a significant portion of the population that thinks it isn’t the Muslimness of the government that is at fault, but that Islam has not been implemented “correctly”, which is why there is all this abuse. This last attitude has to wear out before anything significant can happen here.  We are hearing more and more these days of people who are quitting their namaz and turning away from the religion. Iran is getting ready to become a full blown secular democracy, but it doesn’t seem it is there – quite yet.

In the meantime, Mousavi has established a social organization to deal with the political issues. His biggest problem is that he wants it to be legal; be Muslim and support the current constitution. It seems however that many people have moved beyond that.  For those wanting to belong to an opposition movement these days that movement needs to promote an Iranian Republic, not a Muslim Republic. The current reform leaders (who are not in prison yet) are not fighting the system. They are just trying to make the system more responsive to the real world. The real fight in Iran though is shaping up differently. The people, who were out on the streets and have witnessed and been subjected to the violent aftermath of the elections, are totally fed up with the system and are looking for leadership to take them to the next level! That leadership does not exist in any tangible form yet.

I got this idea off of Diana of the Otowi blog and Bibi Zaynab of the Tales from an American Nomad of doing a meme on how I dress.

First I gotta say that I tend to jump all over the place and really have no style that I always stick with. I’ve always gone through phases (even at my advanced age of almost 30!!! *screams*) here for a few months I dress in Turkish style and then I switch it up and do the Khaleeji style and then I switch it up and go back to Iranian style and some months I just do the shleppy American style . It’s all good and variety is the spice of life! My husband always knew I was a bit weird and after almost 7 years of marriage he’d stopped commenting when I go through my phases, though that doesn’t mean people who know don’t comment but we ignore them anyway. (as a side note, these Bosnians my husband was working with awhile back commented to him that it’s good I dress Turkish style…the Arab style is so depressing and the Iranian style is so scary. LOL…I guess they didn’t know me too well then, huh!)

Anyway. I can’t seem to find my camera so I’ll refrain from snapping pics of the random stuff hanging in my closet (actually folded up in a suitcase as we are subletting and are closet-less!)

First…my favorite NON-clothing items

Perfume…yes I do wear a little perfume almost every day. No NOT enough that people can really smell it, but just enough so I feel fresh.

I LOVE Harajuku Lovers Perfume. My favorite scent from this line is LOVE. It’s very light, floral and fresh. I tend to just spritz it on whatever I am wearing, let it air out a bit and then wear the item of clothing. The scent lingers all day and through several wearings.

I also really, really love this little lilac perfume balm from France. My husband likes it too and will swipe a bit on his hands when I have it out. It’s a balm so the smallest dab is enough and the scent lasts all day. Sometimes I will rub a little into my hejab before going out, especially if it’s a hot and humid day! I hate sweaty, stinky scarves!

Makeup & skincare.

I admit, I’m a total skincare junkie…I prefer Origins and Physicians Formula for skin-care and makeup. I don’t really wear much makeup, though. Just the barest minimum. For everyday wear I use a bit of sheer powder (to control oil) and some sorma (kohl) or eyeliner and some mascara. I nix everything else unless it’s a special occasions. I rarely use foundation or anything like that as I’ve always found the women who are most obsessed with foundation tend to have the worst skin!

Although, I can’t live without the Origins No-Puffery “cooling mask for puffy eyes” gel. It works to de-puff the skin around the eyes, it’s awesome in the morning and works to keep dark eye circles away. I naturally have very dark eye circles and really need this stuff to appear semi-normal sometimes. I know Kiehls has something similar but I havent tried it.

The other product my entire family can’t live without is…

Unrefined shea butter! It’s so awesome and has a ton of different uses. Not only does it help to soften and protect the skin but it works great on rashes (especially baby and toddler diaper rashes) and sooths minor burns and small cuts. We don’t buy the expensive refined kind that is odorless (or scneted) and a strange petroleum white. We buy the large tubs of wonderfully stinky, yellow raw shea butter imported from West Africa via  Naturally Mimi’s and the African-Islamic store we have here in town.

Purses & Shoes…

Lets just say I wont go there! I tend to find most shoes horribly uncomfortable and so loath shoe shopping to the extreme!

I love purses though and especially enjoy finding normally expensive, designer, leather purses on sale at Burlington or TJ Maxx. Ive found Dooney’s, Saks, Coaches and others this way.

I recently got this Coach wristlet from the Poppy line and am drooling over a fuller sized Coach Poppy purse. I think the Poppy C line is so bright and cheerful and nothing looks funkier than wearing all black with a bright, splashy purse and heels/sneakers/flats!

I also really like purses by Kathy Van Zeeland…now they aren’t real leather but some of them look so good you’d be hardpressed to tell. They are also amply sized, fit a lot of “stuff” and make a big statement. I have one in turquoise I wear frequently.

Onto clothing…

Scarves:

Until about 2 years ago I almost exclusively wore square scarves and maghnehs (Iranian slip-over scarves) because I found them most comfortable and really didn’t know of an equally comfortable way to wear a shaylah.  The only way I knew how to wear a shaylah was to drape one side longer, pin under the chin, wrap the longer end around the head and tuck under at the opposite chin. Like what’s still popular in Jordan or Lebanon. It’s a cute style but can come un-done quickly and the ends that dangle can be a real annoyance.

I prefered Turkish squares or Malaysian cotton voile squares. When I was a teenager and in my early twenties I normally just pinned the square under my chin and brought the two ends around to the back of my head and knotted them. Fuss free and worked pretty well although there wasn’t much chest coverage (but hey, I didn’t really know better!). When I do wear a square I go for a modified Malaysian or Turkish style as seen in this picture:

Right now I’m on a bit of a shaylah binge and wear them almost every day. I prefer plain colors and very simple designs and tend to wear them in the manner that I see a lot of the female students from Saudi Arabia wearing them-seriously, that’s purely accidental. I like how there’s stay out of their way while keeping everything covered…you just keep wrapping and then push the end under a wrapped edge at the top of the head. I like how there aren’t any bits hanging down and going all over the place.

Here are three of my favorite shaylahs…

The first one is from UAE and has a lot of hand embroidery, the crepe is very light yet not slippery. This shaylah was given to me by a sister Ive known for years who had worked there for awhile and was moving back to the States. I literally opened my mailbox one day and found 2 large boxes of stuff from the UAE that she was getting rid of. LOL…talk about a dream come true!

and a close up the embroidery on the back…

These other two scarves are favorites as well, the blue stripes one is from New York & Co. and is made of a high quality viscose material while the black ones with the white/beige and brown yarn ieces is from Turkey, although I purchased it in Iran.

Although I still wear squares about 20% of the time and maghnehs about 10% of the time

In this picture I have on a brown maghneh with my new shirt from Artizara.

I rarely if ever special order hejabs from an online-Islamic store…I find most of my Shaylahs at stores like Target, Burlington or New York & Co. I get my maghnehs from Iran. If I want square I go for AlHannah.

Strangely enough, it seems to me that squares have really fallen out of favor and aren’t as trendy or popular now. Particularly compared to how ubiquitous I remember them being 5-8 years a go. Although they remain quite opular with Lebanese and Iraqi Shia’a women who do the chin-covered and pinned style.

I admit to not be very innovative with the scarf styles. I always wear my squares in the way seen above and I always wear my shaylahs another way. LOL… I figure hejab ain’t really meant to be too trendy, it’s nice to do fun and different styles for special occasions but for daily wear I really don’t mid it up…after all, I’m trying to be modest so why make it all showy and fussy.

I also own a few Turkish silk square scarves which I find so beautiful and are a class unto themselves. But, I don’t wear them too much because I find them a bit difficult to handle and they just don’t give as much chest coverage as I like. They are great for special occasions and feel wonderful to touch and have such a nice sheen and luster . They do require special care, attention and storage (hence are pesky!). I got mine straight from Turkey  (anyone remember hijabplanet?) and they are all Aker brand!

2 very cute books I wanted to mention are;

(picture taken from islamicbookstore.com)

Scarf Styling circa 1994! This book is a classic!  before there was YouTube and homemade “how to style a hijab” movies that are in abundance there was this book! It had the trendiest hijab styles from the 1990’s…several of them I remember eagerly wearing. Unfortunately all the designs are pretty hopelessly “out of date” now adays, it’s still a classic! I’m waiting for some of them to come back in style…

(picture taken from islamicbookstore.com)

This is a very beautifully done ‘coffee table’ book on the hijab published in Singapore…seriously inspirational!

Clothing:

I wear both “western style” hejabi clothing and overgarments…I feel pretty comfortable dressing either way. regardless of whether I have on pants, skirt or a jilbab I am well covered up and I don’t subscribe to the thought that “western dress” is inherently immodest and that if you have on pants your mimicing the “kafiroon”. I also don’t think that jilbabs or abayahs are inherently more modest. I believe quite strongly that it boils down to ones personal intentions. If you want to be showy you will…even in a chador or an overhead abayah!

As far as “western style dress”…I’m not really a skirt person. I move too fast and skirts cramp my style. I find the clothing from Shukr is tops in this category. I LOVE their stuff. Regardless of whether it’s work wear or casual wear their items are seriously top of the line. They last forever, fit good and are very very modest. If I’m wearing pants out I only ever wear Shukr pants. I have yet to find a pair of pants from a mainstream store that feels modest enough. My tops are also really long-atleast knee length and so the combined look of very wide leg pants with a long top is extremely modest. I really can not fathom why any hejabi would wear a tunic with skinny jeans! It looks really silly and just the look doesn’t blend well.

(2 Library School students @ the Library of Congress in DC!)

There was quite a long period of time (like 6 years) where I only wore overgarments…again not because I felt they were superior but because they were extremely convenient. I could run out the door and be in class basically with my PJ’s on. Seriously! My laundry bill was pretty small and I could wear the same black jilbab or abayah for a week straight and noone would know the difference. hehe.

Once I had my son, I stopped wearing overgarments while he was still young. Only in the past 8 months have I started to wear them again. I had two reasons for this change, first was I take public transit and live in an urban area and I was paranoid that I would trip while holding him, getting on a bus OR that I would look like an “easy target” to some stupid punk. I also “wore” my son…I never had him in a stroller…any time I took him anywhere he was either on my back or in a sling on my hip and it can be very hard getting a jilbab or abayah to work with a carrier. At least I felt so…but more so because I was a new mom and didnt want to be an easy target for a dumb punk w/ nothin’ to prove.

(in an Espoir brand Chunei)

So anyway, I will *hopefully* finally finish this meme in the next few days!

Artizara has been around for quite a few years and is based here in California.  I always blew them off because their designs were-originally- geared towards like your middle aged Muslim mother…usually the type that doesn’t wear a scarf but still dresses fairly modestly. Most of their designs were not…what I would call very cute or youthful or would really be that great for a sister who wore hejab and preferred longer, looser pieces of clothing.

Apparently all that has changed as I just checked out their site… and wow…they have some seriously cute stuff!!!  YI for all who don’t know…Right now is the BEST time to be doing some shopping online because on almost every site Ive checked out the past few days there ave been sales and coupons with a plethora of new designs in stock. After all everyone online is rushing to get their latest stock up just in time for the Ramadan shopping season.

But, back to Artizara. I was really pleased to see their designs have lightened up, freshened up and gotten a bit more youthful because hey…who really wants to dress too mature & dowdy anyway?

(The Samar Handspun Cotton Tunic with Textural Embroidery - Artizara.com)

I ended up purchasing a shirt, the one pictured above in that same yellow stripe shade because…one the coupon and two the design is really adorable and fresh. The fabric looks cool and it’ll look awesome with a pair of wide legged jeans or a skirt regardless of whether I wear it here in the states or in Saudi. They had the same shirt in a nice blue-ish shade but since I normally wear darker colors I figured i’d go for a bit of citrusy pop, and yes I got the matching shaylah. Now I just hope I get it before we leave for Saudi. en’shallah…

Here are some other designs which I think are really gorgeous.  All the fabrics being used seem to be in light-weight, natural fabrics like cotton and silk and the quality looks quite excellent. Ofcourse I’ll find out when my tunic gets to me!

(The Samar Handspun Cotton Tunic with Textural Embroidery - Artizara.com)

The Baluchi style tunic above is totally calling my name…

(The Sophie Double Layer Beaded Long Kurta Tunic -Artizara.com)

Reminds me of a Dubai style abayah…LOL…very slinky and sophisticated.

(The Nashida Cotton Tunic Dress - Artizara.com)

(The Nina Light Black Denim Coat-dress -Artizara.com)

(The Heba Long Hand-spun Cotton Tunic - Artizara.com)

And check out these cute skirts! I loved the ruched one! Alas I dont wear skirts nearly enough to justify more of them but if I did both of these would top my list…

(Ensemble with Lightweight Long Ruched Adjustable Length Cotton Skirt - Artizara.com)

(Ensemble with Soft Blue Full Length Denim Ruffled Skirt - Artizara.com)

UPDATE:

I got the tunic speedily fast and its very very bright…a lot brighter yellow in real life than in the pictures…I was expecting a subtl mustard instead it’s a very sunny yellow. The fabric is like the “homespun” hand-woven sort of fabric. I like it but I’m paranoid it would rip easily so I don’t think this would be a shirt you could wear all the time. One downer is the neck opening is very very big, well, bigger than most tunic shirts and when worn with a shaylah there could-potentially be some neck showing depending on how you move. It is extremely lightweight and cool and the colors and the appliqués are totally unique. This is a VERY hippie shirt! I so far have worn it with a denim skirt and a pair of black super wide leg rayon pants from Shukr. Very chic…not a huge fan of a shaylah but I am fond of it with a black Irani or ‘Arabi maghneh.

I am really adoring the latest abayah designs coming out of SunnahStyle.  I’m a fan of the butterfly style anyway and as far as i have been able to find out they are the only North American store online that stocks the farasha and the bisht designs.

Here are their latest abayah designs…

(Black onyx abayah from Sunnah Style)

(Henna-inspired sleeved Abayah from Sunnah Style)

(Black shisha-sleeved Abayah from Sunnah Style)

(Black elegance silk Abayah from Sunnah Style)

Ive purchased from them several times and overall was pretty satisfied with the purchases. Their customer service is really great and although they are in Canada they ship fast and here in the eastern half of the USA I got my items within about 5 working days. The first item I ordered from them was one of their half sleeved farasha’s…I purchased it late last winter and although the design was cute I do admit I was a bit miffed about the quality. Yes for the price it was good but not *as good* as I would have hoped (i’m picky). I emailed them about this and they were very kind about it and said they were working on improving fabric quality and garment construction.

I then purchased the silver sands bisht below at a later date (mid-spring) and a niqab with a larger eye opening for use in Saudi Arabia and I have to admit that the quality of their new items was improved and they told me that are continually working on improving the quality.

The bisht is a really cute style…I still prefer the farasha though as it has a bit more of a defined shape and is also a bit easier to handle while the bisht is huge…simply huge. I did end up stitching 2 small side seams inside the bisht from about bust to navel just to make the abayah a bit easier to handle. O fcourse when it comes to coverage the bisht can’t be beat. Just know it’s a lot of fabric to handle.

(Silver Sands Abayah from Sunnah Style)

I also got this niqab…just a plain and simple One Piece Tie-Back Niqab. No eye veils or anything…I inquired with them which would be the most comfortable to wear with glasses and for a sister that is new to wearing Niqab and they suggested this style.

(picture from sunnahstyle.com)

They also told me about this new kind of niqab they designed with a wider eye opening,called the “No-Pinch” which is supposed to be even more comfortable for those who wear glasses, have wide faces (and wide set eyes) or just find normal niqab eye openings not comfortable enough. These only just came out or else I would have purchased one of these as well.

(picture taken from sunnatysle.com)

They are also pretty innovative with styles…they have this neat niqab which mimics the popular khaleeji shaylah draped-over head style with niqab. Instead of the extra fabric and bulk the top eye veil is actually really long and is cut on a curve so the wearer brings it up and lays it over the head in the shaylah style. I really think it’s so gorgeous…I wonder though whether the style is comfortable to wear and whether there arent problems with the fabric sliding around or off your head when walking…anyone know?

(picture taken from sunnahstyle.com)

So because I’m still in the States, I havent really worn the niqab I got off of them yet…I’m not a niqabi, but I needed something to take with me to Saudi as I am definetly wearing niqab there so I guess once I start wearing it I should be able to rate it better. Sofar though it seems like a good niqab. I really dislike niqabs with cotton backings as the fibers can get in your mouth (I wore niqab briefly before 9/11 and so remember the cotton backed ones best) and I am not a huge fan of some of the fabrics used for niqabs…like some are even available in cotton jersey! The trend also used to be for the headband niqabs to have a very stiff wide headband…those were hot and could be uncomfortable to wear as the headband would stick up really high, giving you a darth vader sort of look plus all the stiffening really served no purpose. This niqab has a narrower headband and there is no stiffening in it, the crepe used is very light and sofar feels very breathable.

Update…so, one of the sisters who runs SS saw this post and mentioned something about the butterfly style niqabs to me in an e-mail.

“You asked in your post whether the butterfly style is comfortable to wear and whether the flip layer moves around.  In response, yes the style is comfortable to wear and like all of our niqabs it is without the cotton lining and stiffened headband.  The flip layer will be blown back if there is a breeze or if you are walking so it does need to be pinned.  One stick pin on the top of the head or two on either side keeps it in place very well.  A number of customers have asked how to wear this style so we are planning to add a tutorial for it to our blog soon inshaa’Allaah.”

Jazakhallakhair sis Ruqayyah!

I am now slightly addicted to Emirate television…I’m not even in the Gulf yet but I’m trying to get up on the pop culture over there by watching the Emirati programs available online-in English of course.

I decided I’d share some random screen shots from some of the Emirate women in the programs I’ve seen, . In addition right now I don’t have too much time to really sit down and write a decent post on anything because we are moving out of our apt into an August sublet this weekend and are getting our Saudi visa paperwork together so we can en’shallah move there by the middle of August. eltemas doa’a!

The first set are just random snippets while the second set are shots of HerSay’s Emirati presenter,Aida Al-Busaidy…I love her scarves & her abayaat…though I’m not a huge fan of her  cultural way (not religious) of wearing them…but,whatever, it’s between her and God.

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The niqab from a shaylah style… (I’ve tried this and I always feel like i’m suffocating!)

This was from a talk show: نلتقي مع بروين

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Old Emirati style

These 2 pictures below were from a talk show program which showcased a film about traditional Emirati life…I don’t know the title of the show.

Apparently there is a show that is supposed to show modern Emiratis what life was like “back then” and is set in a old=-style Emirati village and everyone dresses traditionally and they discuss and show traditional life. Here is the title in Arabic البراحة: الحلقة

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Onto the television show called HerSay and Aida’s style.  I really adore her abayaat and scarves, they are all so gorgeous…and it’s awesome she is so popular because it’s nice seeing a women in an abayaah and a scarf (even if it isnt worn religiously) on a national television show, it kind of reinforces the belief that you can do anything without sacrificing who you are…

Design 1

Nice rhinestone accents and apparently her abayaah is 2 layers, the underside is green satin and the outer is black crepe.

Design 2

Nice pop-ish colored shaylah…

Design 3

Alas, gorgeous shaylah but I think she had scarf issues that day because within a 15 minute time frame the shaylah slide everywhere and she kept readjusting…really…I know they aren’t terribly hip for the cultural hijabi crowd but a strategically placed pin and an underscarf does wonders…

Design 4

Okay I LOVE her shaylah but alas…not a huge fan of the “drape” look w/ the scarf…plus she has the freshly tanned, back from Palm Beach with “nude” makeup look…no, alas girl…the “look” just doesn’t suit you.

Now onto two designs which I absolutely ADORE!!!

Design 5

I love this, it’s so beautiful…red roses and red accents on a black shaylah and abayaah. wow! mashallah…I actually have a shal I got as a gift during my last trip in Iran and it has the same theme going on…black with a few big, realistic looking red roses…

Design 6

I think this last design is the absolute tops! She also has henna on her hands and her “look” is so classic and mature. mashallah.

]]> http://muhajabat.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/just-some-designs-from-hijabs-high-that-i-had-to-share/ Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:51:17 +0000 Umm Ibrahim http://muhajabat.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/just-some-designs-from-hijabs-high-that-i-had-to-share/

well, I don’t really have a lot to say right now as I’m trying to finish my last weeks of work. I just stumbled across the blog Hijabs High where sisters can snap pictures of another sisters hejab style and then share it on the blog.  Anyway here are some which I liked or thought were just totally krazaaaay.

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Mashallah…I chose this one first because this is exactly how I used to dress when I was a teenager…way way way long time ago. I also wore this style right after 9/11 occurred and like every individual who looked like a Muslim was targeted for some “nice” verbal and/or physical harassment. While it’s not hejab in the “shariah” sense it is a nice “beginners” hijab…like good for the sisters who are new to covering and aren’t comfortable jumping into the deep end (i.e. full covering) quickly, it’s also good if you live in an area when covering fully would make you a a target for assault. I remember right after 9/11 occured a lot of sisters wore their scarves like this and sort of modified their outfits, there were also a LOT of fatawah that came out from the Marjah that wearing your hejab like this, during that time period was OK. Anyway, that was just a side-note.

But when I was a teenager I wanted to cover…like the full hejab soo badly but my mom was extremely against it so being young and under the parental thumb I covered like this, it worked and helped to get them used to seeing me covered.

Wow!!! WOWWW!!! For a womans party this would rock…but me thinks because she has on her hejab maybe it’s a mixed gender party. hmmm… I have never seen this-personally, but I bet I’ll have to get used to it once I’m in Saudi Arabia…huh? Must be an ‘Arab thing…Iranians are sooo not like this. LOL

Mashallah…she looks like a model! seriously…she belongs in Hejabi Vogue or something…Not 100% perfect hejab according to shariah but still beautiful and really, really close. mashallah!!! I have 2 pairs of hareem pants…maybe I should bust them out sometime!

Mashallah…I stuck this in because she’s Irani…ay dokhtar-e Irani…kheili ghashangi!… I never was a huge fan of the tie under chin look  but the whole ensamble is really unique and cute and would totally fit in, in Tehran or Esfahan or here in the west… I’d probably wear a forest green crepe maghneh with this instead of the roosari.

She does the Khaleeji big head look REALLY REALLY well…she’s in S’pore though…go figure. I think as soon as I move to Saudi Arabia I’m going to buy one of those hijab hair clippy thingies so I can achieve such a look as well..it’s very slendarizing…

Mashallah… I LOVE her design, it’s totally funky street cool…you know…like she grabbed a Egyptian malhafah and paired it with a cardie, cool sneaks and some shaylah layers…VERY New York (she’s in London, I think)…very East Coast…

There are so few places online which sell the trendy, Dubai style abayaat which are so in vogue right now…fewer still which are accessible to those of us in Western countries! I can think of only two places which are online and in either the USA or Canada which sell these designs. The first is SunnahStyle in Canada which has the trendy farasha style and the uber vogue-ish bisht style abayaah…the other which is here in the USA is Al-Sundus.

(Tulle Sleeved Abayah from Al Sundus)

I remember Al Sundus from ages ago, I ordered a long jacket and hejab from them in 2003 but most of there designs were not really to my taste and so I rarely, if ever stopped by their online store. All that changed when a few months ago I was browsing around for a Gulf style abayat and saw that they were finally carrying them! I liked one in particular but, gasp…they were out of my size. Anyway, I recently emailed the owner about them and she mentioned their new line was coming out soon. Well, it’s here! They are gorgeous, seriously…seriously gorgeous! mashallah!

Here are a few which I really liked…there are more on the website.

(Borello Abayah from Al Sundus)

close up of the sleeve… I sooo want this abayah! (The tulle sleeved one above is also my dream abayah but I fear my son would probably try to swing from me with those sleeves…hehehe)

(Rhinestone cuff abayah from Al-Sundus)

Close up of the cuffs, which I think are just so awesome…how exotic and unique and definetly a neat hyrbid of the two trendiest abayah sleeve designs.

…and this one which is equally as brilliant…

(Rhinestone cut out abayah from Al Sundus)

And if black isn’t you thing there is this one too…

(henna ruffled neck abayah from Al Sundus)

When I inquird about the fabric and place of manufacture the sister who runs Al Sundus said that she designed them all herself before sending them off to be made. She said some of her items are made here in the USA and some abroad. For these abayaat the crepe used is a very fine, high quality Japanese crepe. Ive felt Japanese-made crepes before…they are all the rage in Iran and used for chadors. If these are similar then, wow…I’m sure the feel and flow of the abayah is really nice. Another plus to this kind of crepe is that it’s quite breathable. The prices for them range from the 60’s up about 125 which is very very reasonable…usually Dubai style abayaat come with an authentic Dubai style price tag while the cheaper ones are crude and totally unwearable. For the designs and crepe used the prices are quite decent.

(picture is by Rania Matar, picture taken from her website)

I had stopped into my Universities bookstore yesterday to find a decent book on Gulf Arabic and although I could find no such book (amazon, here I come…) I stopped by their Journal sections and I saw that picture, the one above…gracing the cover of this months issue of the literary magazine Postroad (no. 17). I stopped in my tracks and said, cool…an Irani women in chador with an iPod!

Now, I am not a huge fan of fiction in general and have never really read a literary magazine but the picture was sooo beautiful, mashallah, that I picked it up and tried to find the article attached to it. Well, on page 33 was a very short 1 page blurb about the hejab called “Why Veiling” written by  Sheila Blaire and Jonathan Bloom about the hejab…I scanned it and didn’t really see anything too interesting. That blurb prefaced a series of photos in the book taken by the Lebanese born, US-based photographer, Rania Matar. The pictures were all taken in Lebanon and show Lebanese women (probably Shia’a) wearing their hejabs in a variety of locations, by the Ocean, at the University in Beirut, etc.

I ended up purchasing the magazine, I then went onto her website and found the PDF of the photos and the short blurb about hejab used for the book.

Anyway, I’m really impressed by her photographs. There are many many more on her webpage.  Although most of her photos were taken in Lebanon and focus on Lebanese women & children there are some series she did here in the USA and also, I believe in Mexico as well. She is definetly talented!

But to get back to the girl on the cover, I really thought she was Iranian wearing a Chador, when I went through the other photos she took in Lebanon I was surprised at just how much Lebanese shia’a women dress like Iranian women! They don’t wear the Iranian chador, but many seem to like the overhead abayaah which in Iran is called the “chador-ye melli”…the overhead abayah with sleeves. They also wear their hejabs in a very Iranian style, covering their chin and their over garments are similar to the longer Iranian manteau!

Take a look at this picture below, mashallah…She really looks like a pasdar in Tehran… She would fit in perfectly in an Iranian city. This style of hejab is actually my favorite and what I wear when I am in Iran, in the US I go sans overhead abayah though.

(picture taken by Rania Matar, from her website)

Here are some other pictures which I really, really liked. mashallah!

(Picture taken by Rania Matar, from her website)

(Picture taken by Rania Matar, from her website)

(Picture taken by Rania Matar, from her website)

I’m so glad I stumbled upon these photographs because I really had no idea how much Iranian “hejab-eslami” impacts the way that Lebanese shia’a women and plus, to be frank…the one Lebanese girl I know who IS Shia’a definitely does NOT dress like this, so yeah. I had no idea.

Mashallah!

Now, if you want to do some reading, check out this article from a Turkish online magazine. The first half is in Turkish the second half is in English…

…”Lebanon at the Crossroad: Women and Children in the Aftermath of War

The focus of my photography is on the Middle East, on women and children especially.  Lebanon in particular is interesting to me because of its key location between the West and the Arab world, witnessing a blend of Western and Arab cultures, of Christianity and Islam, of Sunni and Shiite Islam, of modernity and traditionalism.  With the Middle East largely in turmoil, Lebanon bears the brunt of unresolved issues in the region, issues that become magnified in such a small country….”

I finally got my my anticipated Somali diraacs from Umm Abdullah at Diraac Fabulous about 2 weeks ago. They were perfect, I just had to shortening the under skirt a wee tad (because the trend is for the “empire” look and I prefer my skirts to be at my waist). Anyway, they were perfect!

I dont have really good pictures yet but I did manage to take this picture using my husbands laptop of me modeling one of the diraacs. This one is a regularly cut one and I have on arm covers. The dress is tucked into the waistband of the skirt and I am wearing a matching hijab with the shawl draped over my shoulder.

The other one is a farasha or butterfly style diraac where the dress is actually sewn into a butterfly style and it’s tucked into the skirt in a slightly different way.

I admit it took me a few tries to get the diraac looking right, but I think I have it. I am now totally loving these things! I could dig this for everyday wear even.

Umm Abdullah has a new website called Diraac fabulous and a Facebook group, called Diraac Collectors, where she sells her authentic diraac creations

I think they will be great for a sisters party and I am also thinking that you could wear them around the house pretty easily and/or have one made where the dress is like ankle length and just wear that with the skirt so you dont need to tuck the skirt in. Either way, they r pretty neat!

Here are some pictures I found froma Somali-owned shop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia which sells the diraacs and other traditional Somali items. I sooo hope shops like this exist in the Eastern Provinces because I can forsee lotsa happy shopping ahead if there is!

( I want one of those dresses!)

…You know, after my verbal altercation with a crazy JW lady @ the grocery store sunday all i can say is…subhanallah we r moving to Saudi.

So heres the scoop…in hindsight, I could of just popped my ipod in my ears and ignored her or straight up threatened to call security, but I didn’t because I wanted to let her know that NO, she can NOT go around harassing people!

So, I was over at my moms all weekend, out in the sticks, enjoying the country air and quiet. On the way home Sunday we stopped at this grocery store in a small town nearby and I ran in which my son stayed in the car w/ my mom. Just to get some cake, spaghetti and sauce. I also wasn’t dressed ‘too’ exotic, just a plain long Shukr linen top, Shukr linen pants and a colored shaylah. I walked in and this very random, older lady comes up to me and says “where are you from?” and I said, “uh, here!?! why?” And gave her a quizzical, your crazy sorta face and then I said, “why you wanna know?” She said, “aww that’s nice, so your not tooooooooo far from home now are you?????”

I rolled my eyes and strutted off. uhhhhhh huuuuuuuh.

Okay so i get my stuff and I get into line and there was someone infront of me, she jumps in behind me with her 1 thing of chocolate powder and I turn around, eye her and think…oh shizer, she’s crazy. LOL

She proceeds to get downright rude and nasty to me, which…I heartily gave it right back. Wonderfully enough I ended up offending her enough back that I doubt she’ll try what she tried with me…again.

anyway soo…I turn around and after my heart sinks she says
“sooo, are you a born Muslim? a convert? did you convert because you got married? does your husband beat you”?

So i said, in a firm voice…that is NONE of your business…and each time she said the same dang thing, finally I said, “that is none of your D**N business” and thought “girl…it’s ON!”…

To which she said, well, i’m a JW and I want you to know that God loves you and wants you to go back to him! And she then said all kinds of crazy stuff which I totally blocked out because I was starting to see red!!!

So then when I realised she was going to be VERY persistant and not back off. I turned back around and said, rather loudly…You know, where I’m from in the city you DO NOT go around asking people personal questions, you dont know me, that is NONE of your D**N business!!!” she said, “So you did convert because you married one of those men…didnt you!”

(lol, I dont know why she thinks I must be a convert in the first place…what because I dont have an accent or something?!? LOL)

To that i said…you dont know me, that is none of your business.

she said, “well, your in a small town and yes it IS my business I’m a Christian women, I want to know!”

To which i said “It doesnt matter, whether your in a small town or a big city you dont go around asking people personal questions, dont you know any manners?”

In the meantime I ended up letting her go before me in the hopes she’s shuttup and move on!

Well, she started to get really offended because I was telling her off!
So then she started to say some stupid stuff.

I finally just was like, this is crazy and said “oi vey, what a shmuck” slightly audibly… (because in this fair city, yiddish is a popular language when your angry, regardless of what you roots are!)
and she jumped on that, she said “You were a Jew! yes thats it! you were a Jew!”.

LOL

I just said, lady, whatever…

she then said, “well your SOOO rude! I hope Barack Obamas father was not as horrible a person as YOU obviously are!!!”

To which I said…”I dont give a flying kr@p lady, I didnt vote for him anyway!”

She huffed and stomped off

LOL, what a psycho…

now, I could have gotten much nastier…but she WAS an old lady and I, unlike her WAS taught some manners!

I remember when I was still a teenager and I wanted to start to wear hejab and my family, especially my mother was extremely against it. She always said I would never be able to have a career with hejab, I’d never be respected at a job, that I would look “foreign” and strange and that well…noone would hire me!

Over the years and through various part time jobs I’ve proven my mom very wrong on this point. I’ve found that in some jobs having hejab actually works to your favor. Most corporations need to have a diverse work force and having hejab can actually help you land that job! Ofcourse this might not be true in  every field and maybe not in every part of the States, but atleast in my experience it has worked to my advantage.

Now I’m on the cusp of finishing my Masters and will soon be…within 6 months a full-fledge librarian. I’m also working 2 part time jobs right now…one is a desk minion at an Academic library and another as an actual reference librarian at a Public one. I am obviously loving the real job at the public library better because I am doing what I will be doing upon graduation and moving to Saudi Arabia. Reference work and assisting patrons (aka “customers” in pub. library speech). So before I go completely bonkers between classes and 2 jobs… I wanted to share some general thoughs about being a hejabi with a career (or soon to be career).

First the idea that if you have hejab and are dressing modestly that, that will impeed you from getting the position that you want. Now, I dont know about “corporate” America with it’s power suits but I have a hunch that for the most part, this is a fairly accurate assumption, and rings true even there. Look, as long as you dress professionally and act professionally and are suited for the position, you should be able to get the job. the hejab might even work to your advantage, esp if the corporation needs a diverser work force.

So now what about professions which are very publically visible. Well, frankly…how much more visible can a hejabi at a reference desk in a very busy, downtown public library be?!? hmm…not much! Everyone walking in that place can see me. Ditto for working anywhere else. I know some places might be apprehensive about putting a hejabi out in a visible place…banks are a good example, but again, I would hope this would not be the case. But, I think if you show your professionalism and attitude it’ll work to your advantage.

I know a lot of Muslimahs with professional jobs and careers and many work downtown in law firms and corporations but I know of only 2 that wear hejab. It makes me kind of sad because I think, if all those Muslimahs working in those law firms or other corporations wore hijab…then, wow! The barriars that some people erect, deeming us unfit to work would be crushed. Also, I know some of them would love to wear hejab but are scared too, and think they will loose their job or not be able to work and wearing hejab “part-time” would be stupid. They always get so surprised to hear me working downtown, in a very public job with hejab.

Or, hey…I donno..maybe Librarians tend to be more open-minded when it comes to diversity.

(picture from CafePress...i'm soo getting a tote bag with this quote!)

Before I go into the whole career appropriate clothing thing I wanted to go off on a tangent about why I think it’s awesome that more and more muhajabat are getting into careers and actually working in society. First off because it’s totally okay for a Muslimah to work outside the house according to every hadeeth and scholarly interpretation I’ve ever read about working and education (and no I wont go dig around to get them, u want them you need to find them…I have studying to do after this. LOL). Secondly it gives a non-Muslims a better view of Muslims and especially Muslim women who cover. So often non-Muslims think we, Muslim women, esp those who cover are down-trodden and forced to be in the house, that we cant seek education, that we can’t work, that we can’t be independant or contribute to our families betterment. Those is baloney and the more Muhajabat that work (if they want too) the less this idea will be propogated. Additionally for Muslims, seeing Muhajabat in the workforce is equally as beneficial. So many sisters come to the USA from countries and cultures where women working is considered shameful or a sign of abject poverty or whatever negetaive connotation you can conjur up. For Muslim brothers, esp Muslim brothers from these countries it raises the awareness of a Muslimahs rights to gain education and employment (if they choose) and maybe, just maybe it’ll open their minds to their wife or daughter having a career. en’shallah.

Onto the whole clothing/suit thing. It’s obvious as a muhajabat that you need to dress modestly and that there is more to hejab than just the headscarf (yes I know, duh, but unfortunately there is a trend amongst Muslim women to forget this) and that when you work you need to dress appropriate for the job.

This could mean, depending on where you work that you can dress casually or you need to dress professionally either business casual or business NOT casual).

 If you have a casual working atmosphere you could probably get away with a nice pair of wide-leg Shukr jeans and a tunic top or even a nice, simple yet sleek abayah or jilbab and a splashy hijab. If you have to wear business casual (like I do) it’s best to not wear jeans (unless they are darker in color and dont really look like jeans) and stick to simple wide-leg trousers or skirts in neutral, basic colors like black, navy, beige, olive, etc and pair them with a nice, simple tunic in equally neutral colors. pair with a nice hijab that isnt too “out there” and voila…insta business casual. For dressy business you will need a suit or atleast have items of clothing that when combined look like a suit. Some only stores offer hejabi suits made in Jordan or Syria and are a long plain dark skirt or pants  in the apprioriate suiting fabric with a long (knee length) suit jacket. You could also get away with investing in a longer length suit jacket, wearing a regular blouse under and trying to find a long, slit-less skirt. For these sorts of hejabi “power suits” honestly I think your best bet is to go to a professional suit maker and have them make you 2-3 power suits to your specifications. These look fantastic with a high quality Turkish silk scarf.

I’ve found that Shukr has the BEST articles of clothing; the quality is fantastic, the fabric are good and you can find a lot of good basic pieces in neutral colors so you can mix and match. Another is Al-Farah, they have plain longer length work blouses and Primo Moda has Turkish-made suits and suit pieces. When it comes to clothing for work I highly suggest investing whatever you can afford into good, quality pieces of clothing. You’ll also need 1-2 pairs of apprioriate shoes. For dressy business and business casual a pair of low, dark heels would work and for casual a pair of flats. Another option if you need a suit-like outfit but are on a budget, try a Jordanian style pants suit with a knee length jacket and matching pants. For budget-conscious ones try Al-Hannah, for something a bit higher quality and a bit more expensive go straight to Sajeda.

I had wanted to make a note about this store in my earlier post about my families sojourn to Niagra Falls, Presque Isle and Cleveland. Alas I sort of forgot as I have a lot going on right now.

But, in Cleveland is a seriously awesome hejabi shop called (according to their business card)

Faatimah’s Intternational, LCC (Boutique, Gifts & Spa), they are located at 11829 Lorain Ave. Cleveland, Ohio 44111 and is run by a sister named Juwariyah.

I asked for the sisters email and I got one but I ended up not working   If anyone wants their number please make a comment and ask and I’ll share.

It’s a very tiny shop but packed FULL of awesome awesome stuff and some very trendy abayaat. She has all kinds of hejabs and underscarves, a ton of long tunics in all colors and designs, tons of very very cute long skirts in a ton of different designs, and a HUGE number of sleek Gulf abayaat…Including some that are very trendy and cutting edge that i’ve seen sold online for twice the amount she charges. Her prices are very very good!

It’s a pretty new business and if we were’nt heading to the Gulf in a few mo’s,  I’d be ordering some items from her first because she has awesome stuff and two because it’s helping a sister and her business out.

She alas, dont have an online presence but if you live near to Cleveland drop by and if you wanna call and order pls lemme know and I’ll share the number.

Anyway, Just to share…I walked into the store and like went crazy and was soo upset that I didn’t have my cards with me or else I would of shopped…shopped…shopped. meanwhile when my husband dropped me and my fiend off (as he and his friend went to a halaal market nearby) he said…please don’t buy anything! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL….anyway he came by and literally had to drag me outta the store…LOL…men just don’t understand!

I am really excited!A friend of mine, Umm Abdullah (authored several of this blogs posts)  is reselling several of her sister-in-laws diraac sets on ebay.

…and I’m getting two of them! en’shallah.

One is a ready-made diraac set. It’s like a farasha dress with a matching under skirt but no shawl and another is a 3 piece set that I’ll have to sew up. It’ll have the fabric for the dress, the under-skirt and the shawl that’s draped over the dress. Apparently you tuck the dress(which is made very very long) into the skirt like this…

(Picture from Umm Abdullah. Yellow diraac with purple flowers)

The dress is going to be sheer so obviously u need to wear a light liner or wrap the shawl around your chest.

I adore this one as well…

(picture from Umm Abdullah. black floral diraac)

These will be perfect for a womens party in Saudi. According to my friend  Diraacs are popular party wear in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Western Cities. The diraac is indigenous to both Somalia and Yemen and of course Saudi is between the two countries and has a lot of people from both countries.

I honestly don’t know that much about diraacs only what my friend (Umm Abdullah) has told me. She is the diraac queen herself and is very knowledgable about them.

Hence, I asked her to write a nice post explaining what a diraac is and awesomely enough, she’s in the process of  starting her own web-based diraac business. She’s quite an expert seamstress and professionally sews Diraacs as well. en’shallah she will do so and within the next few days I’ll have a nice blog post all about the diraac!

On a side note,I honestly don’t know whether I’ve ever seen a diraac worn in real life. Our city is host to many many somali’s (mainly bantu) and the majority of the women continue to wear their traditional clothing or a westernized varient. Many of the younger women wear what might be a diraac to school or around the city. Many have on the long dress (like shown above, although the fabric is opsque) with a shawl wrapped around their chest and arms. I dont think I’ve ever seen any with the dress tucked into a under skirt.

I have also seen many of the Somali women in a variety of other outfits. Some just wear long skirts with a teeshirt and a shawl around the arms and chest. Others wear the long khimaar over a skirt and others just wear a hodg-podge of stuff.

I also found this picture…it’s of a Malaysian muslimah modelling a Somali Guntiino. No idea what they are…they look for of Saree-ish or something like what Sudanese women traditionally wear. Maybe Umm Abdullah knows.

(picture from Flickr)

(3 Somali girls)

I found these online from an Irani site. Well, the first 5 or so pictures are Irani and the rest are actually Egyptian but they were on a Irani discussion board. The Egyptian style ones are pretty typical in Montoo shops in larger Iranian cities. Maybe they arent made IN Egypt and then shipped to Iran, but the designs are pretty similar. The Irani made designs at the beginning, now THOSE ones I think are very unique and kind of “different”…I’m STILL trying to figure out where you can buy them! *sigh*

(yes, my favorite...)

(definetly 2nd fave, though w/ white pants...)

(I really...really...want this!)

Now the cute Egyptian designs…

(Nice, but I'd like the poncho to be a bit longer...)

(Definetly my favorite montoo from this set of Egyptian designs...)

A friend and I put in an order for some items from East Essence, she ordered the bulk of it…I just got a really awesome abayah and 2 kurtas.

So, anyway, here is my review of them. The site is becoming pretty popular and I am constantly reading posts on sisters groups asking whether anyone has ordered from them and what their experience was like.

First off, the items DO ship from India and via DHL, they took about 7 business days to get to us.

The quality was MUCH better than what we had anticipated, ditto for the fabric used as well. I dont know about their polyester fabric abayaat but because we were ordering for summer wear we stuck to summer appropriate fabrics.

I got this abayaah-which, yes I know IS a knock-off of a Shukr linen abayaah.

Here it is on me;

Close up; it’s actually a very deep ruddy reddish/brown.

I also got 2 comfort fit kurtas in black and turquoise. These come to about mid-thigh. East Essence also has longer, knee-length ones which as we all know can be almost impossible to find here in the States!

The rayon-flax abayah is VERY nice and perfect for the summer, they also have the same one in Lilac. I wear a lot of black so this brown one with designs is quite refreshing and “summery”. The air flows right through it. The fabric has a nice substantial feel and will last well.  It’s A-line and one thing I noticed is that their items DO run a tad on the larger/baggier size. I easily could have went down one size. Though like all linen and linen like materials I will personally stick to hand washing and air drying it.

I was surprised to see that the stitching was quite top-notch. I’ve had some subpar experiences with Pakistani and Indian made clothing so liked that these were made very very well.

The shirts are good too, though next time I will get the knee length ones so I can more easily pair them with baggy jeans. These comfort fit ones will work well with baggy jeans as well, but personally, I prefer my tunics longer.

Thankfully the fabric is NOT see-through. I don’t know abouit the white, but it seems like a lot of Indianj kurta’s you find at the Boho/Hippie type shops are made of a very sheer material so you still have to wear a top under. Which makes summer wear a pain. These are quite opaque. The fabric is cotton and is quite thick and substantial. It’s not thin and flimsy. Again, I think these will wear and last well. These are cut a bit bigger and baggier, which surprised me because most kurta I can find seem to be very slim cut or snug in the hip/behind area.

<Note:  I DID remove the sequins as I’m not a huge bling on clothing fan.>

Here are some other designs of theres that I am drooling over…

(picture from East Essence)

(picture from East Essence)

(picture from East Essence- This one would be awesome for a job interview!!)

(picture from East Essence)

Okay here r some designs from a recent issue of sayidaty;…hmm, only one really catches my eye.

I stumbled across this website, Rumah Madani about a month and a half ago and fell in LOVE with the clothing designs they were selling! Using Google Translate I was able to figure out they basically carried other clothing companies popular in Indonesia and were sort of a “one-stop shop” to buy clothing for the entire family, from moms to  teenagers to college students to little children. They offer discournts when you buy several items of one brand and overall the prices when converted into US dollars are CHEAP. VERY cheap!

So, I contacted them…all giggly and excited, ready to do some mad ordering when I learned that to ship just 2-3 items to me in the USA it would cost over $30!!!! I was seriously upset.

Another issue I learned was sizing, the clothing is made for the average Indonesian body type and while I’m not that big (compared to most Americans), i’m also NOT as petite as the average Indonesian woman. So, a lot of the very cute designs would be too snug in 1 or another area, even if I got the largest size and they technically fit. They do have one “plus sized” line called Ukhtii…but there are problems there because they are larger sized overall they do not seem to be cut wider in areas that Non-East-Asian Asian women have problems with…mainly behind, hips and chest.  Hence, if your very slim and petite and have other friends who are willing to go in on an order with you, then this site is a BOON!

Anyway, I might still sometime order, esp. if I can find other sisters interested because then the shipping cost can be split up. hey, who knows.

Here is my favorite line; Manet. Mostly longer length tunics and dresses, a bit classic and “romantic”.

Here are a few of my favorite designs;

Thy al;so carry the Indonesian style prayer outfits, the little bag is popular to store the khimaar and skirt. They also have 1 design that slips over the head and flows from the shoulders down (last picture in this series)

They have a line for teenagers and college aged girls called Oasis; Not a huge fan but cute for a teenager.

The “plus-sized” line is Ukhtii and here are some designs I thought were cute.

Ukhtii teen…for that “mommy & me” look.

They have a number of trendy-ish lines like 2Niq, Qirani and Sik. I think 2Niq is the trendiest and the models have on leggings…which are apparently the style right now in SE Asia althought it’s kind of obvious that they are NOT part of hijab, because…they show the body and the legs. I wish they would switch up the leggings with baggy jeans or something. It’s an odd look, akin to a Niqabi in a mini-skirt.

Designs from 2Niq I liked;

A nice one from the Sik line;

There are a few other lines but just for good measure…check out tese super cute kiddie designs…awww!!!

There are a group of sisters in the Gulf who are running a program providing free abayaahs to sisters in the USA. Regardless of whether you are rich or poor you can take advantage of this offer. The abayaat are plain and simple and made of good quality crepe that wont rip or wear easily. They will also provide islamic books for new shahadaat, niqabs and khimaars who already wear them or want to wear them and other items if needed. All they request is that you say dua’at for the sisters providing this service, pay for the shipping cost (if you can afford too, it’s like $10.00) and write a personal letter thanking them for the items.

It’s ONLY for sisters in the USA right now, because they send them to a sister in the USA who then distributes them, they do a couple of shipments every few months and just did their latest one.
I also got one, and it’s very, very nice, mashallah. Jazakhallakhair to the sisters who are doing this! En’shallah they will be rewarded by Allah subhana wa ta’la for doing this for their American sisters. I’m very very happy with what I got and think this would be a wonderful service for sisters who want to wear overgarments and esp. new converts who might find it hard to afford an abayah. If only this had been available when I started to cover in the late 90’s…wow, what a boon that would have been!

Here is the groups e-mail.
requests@marjaan.net

Some sisters did videos about this on YouTube, just search under “Free abayah”

andddddddd sis Kakchik in Malaysia blogged about this as well.

Here are some snaps from a recent issue of Sayidaty. They have a regular feature on muhajabat fashion. Some of the designs they come up with are, um, quite wacky and ofcourse they are heavily designed up. I would maybe pick 1-2 pieces and nix the others. But still, definetly it gives some good design ideas.

I would have to say this one is my absolute favorite design. I am really into the butterfly/poncho style anyway, and it’s really bright, poppy but very very modest and covering. Great for summer.

The yellow tunic is my second favorite from this issues spread. Thou sans belt and crazy skinny jeans and heels. I think it would look quite fly with a pair of Shukr lengha jeans.

Here are some others… what can I say?? hmm.