Islamic dress put in perspective

Sharon Siddique The Straits Times Asia News Network Singapore

The tudung (head covering), like any fashion item, has a history. It is part of a distinctive form of Islamic dress invented by young Muslim female university students in the 1970s.

As the dress form became popularized, its original meaning also evolved. Observing this provides a fascinating vantage point from which to comment on Islamisation of the past three decades.

In the past few decades, the clothes Muslims women wear have become the focal point for discussions on the role of women in society.

Young Muslim female university students initiated the contemporary debate when they invented what has been termed "Islamic dress" in the 1970s.

The original outfit consisted of a loose, long-sleeved, ankle- length gown in an austere solid color like black, brown or beige, and a matching tudung, draped low to the forehead, that completely concealed the hair, coming under the chin to conceal the neck, and falling down over the chest and back.

There were three main reasons for inventing Islamic dress as a fashion statement.

First, university women who donned Islamic dress were reaffirming their sense of being good and pious Muslims. Second, they were rejecting Western fashion. And third, they were reinforcing their universal solidarity by rejecting culture- bound, ethnic-based, traditional Muslim women's fashion.

Thus, in the 1970s, donning Islamic dress was as much a political as it was a religious statement. It originated in, and was identified with, support for the Islamist cause.

When Islamist regimes came to power, for example, in Iran and Afghanistan, Islamic dress for women became mandatory. Conversely, in secular regimes, such as Turkey, the wearing of Islamic dress was restricted.

This Islamic dress first began appearing on Southeast Asian university campuses in the early 1970s, and became known as dakwah fashion (fesyen dakwah).

In Malaysia, the reformist (dakwah) movement led by then student radical Anwar Ibrahim appropriated this Islamic dress and, by the mid-1970s, it had become the official dress of women who joined Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia -- the Muslim Youth Movement.

Other dakwah groups, such as Darul Arqam, also promoted this Islamic dress. Female Darul Arqam followers favored the color black.

Influenced by Muslim student reformist groups abroad, many young Malay women who studied on campuses in America, England and Australia, returned to Malaysia wearing this distinctive Islamic dress.

Because of the political connotations of the dress choice -- this was long before Anwar became a mainstream UMNO politician -- Malay parents were in a quandary.

In the mid-1970s, dakwah fashion was considered by many to be extremist. This prompted the joke about which was worse -- having your daughter return in a mini-skirt, or a tudung.

Of course, today, the tudung is no longer a laughing matter. This highlights the fact that in the mid-1970s, few would have predicted the speed with which the popularity of wearing Islamic dress -- particularly the tudung -- has accelerated.

From university campuses, it entered schools and workplaces, and is now as popular in the kampung as it is in cities.

Now, it is not unusual to see five generations of tudung-clad females on a family outing, from the one-year-old granddaughter to her 80-year-old great-great-grandmother.

Thus, dress preference has become a useful barometer to measure Islamisation. In fact, throughout the Muslim world, the Islamic dress has been in a three-cornered fashion competition with Western dress and traditional Muslim dress.

The growing popularity of Islamic dress in the 1980s and 1990s has been at the expense of two distinct fashion alternatives.

Those who choose to wear Islamic dress generally eschew the wearing of Western dress styles. What is less often recognized and discussed is that those who wear Islamic dress often also reject the culturally-rich and diverse traditional fashions.

Much of Western fashion is rejected on the grounds that it does not conform to the Muslim idea of female modesty. But this is not true of traditional Muslim dress styles, which generally reflect concurrence with the requirement for women to cover their bodies, from neck to ankle to wrist, and cover their hair and neck.

In Southeast Asia, Muslim women from various ethnic groups have evolved unique costumes. In Sumatra, for example, there are distinctive Minangkabau, Batak, Achenese, and Malay fashions.

Baju kurung, a long skirt or sarong, with a loose-fitting, long-sleeved over-blouse, is a traditional Malay costume. The traditional head covering is the graceful selendang, a long shawl which is draped loosely over the hair and neck.

There are many varieties of baju kurung. Some styles are associated closely with a particular region, others with a particular type of cloth.

An elaboration of traditional female fashions among the many Southeast Asian Muslim communities could fill several volumes. The point here is that they have all fallen victim to the universal Islamic dress. One sees more tudung than selendang on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Singapore, or Tanjung Pinang. Western dresses are even rarer than baju kurung as a fashion preference.

One reason that traditional Muslim dress forms appear to be losing ground to Islamic dress is that they celebrate diversity rather than enforce uniformity.

As its popularity increased in the 1980s and 1990s, the adoption of the universal Islamic dress became an affirmation of the internationalization of Muslim solidarity.

Encoded in this dress style was a new, global public modesty that reaffirmed an Islamic identity and morality. The question is whether this trend will continue into the 21st century.

There are some signs that the trend is being modified, if not reversing. And this is reflected in the constantly evolving fashion scene.

Two interesting new trends have emerged in the last few years.

First, it has become clear that the original Islamic dress of the 1970s is itself being adapted.

The simple, sombre, single-colored tudung of the 1970s has evolved into multi-colored and patterned silken headscarves, pinned together with intricate jeweled brooches and clasps.

Second, tudung are being combined with a much broader range of dress styles. Some Muslim women continue to wear the original Islamic dress style of the loose-fitting, long-sleeved, ankle- length gown in austere colors.

However, tudung are increasingly being combined with baju kurung and other traditional dress forms, which appear to be slowly enjoying something of a revival.

Sometimes, tudung appear with Western dress, particularly trouser suits. On university campuses, the fashion of choice appears to be tudung with blue jeans and a T-shirt.

To sum up, the latest trends indicate an elaboration of the tudung and the merging of dress styles. In this process, the meaning for tudung wearers has also broadened.

For some, wearing the tudung may continue to be politically motivated. For others, it is more a personal statement of religious commitment. But for many, it has become primarily a fashion statement.

In the complex Muslim world of the 21st century, one should be careful when judging a face by its cover.