I have a hard time believing that. I’ve lived in Egypt (though largely outside of Cairo), and have never seen modestly-dressed women being sexually harassed.

I recently attended a presentation by the Islamic Council of Victoria called “My Faith, My Body, My Choice” (or something like that) to get Muslim and non-Muslim women together to explain hijab for the uninitiated, why do we wear it, are we pressured by our husbands/fathers etc. It took the format of a “fashion parade” (our hosts were most keen that it was NOT a fashion parade as such) with pop music, where the volunteers modelled basically their own clothes for different situations, ie uni, work, weddings, etc. They spoke about their reasons for wearing it, acknowledging that it is not going to protect you against rape or assault (there is at least one incident I know of where girls have been raped *because* they were veiled - immediately after 9-11, natch), and also covering the fact that not all Muslim women veil and that this is a “conscience vote” for each Muslim.

The volunteers and organisers went around and sat at the large tables, the idea being that non-Muslims would be able to meet their first Real Live Muslim and ask unbelievably stupid questions that you’d hopefully be too polite to ask normally. I got lucky because the Real Live Muslim at my table already goes to my uni, so I was able to open a “so, how are you enjoying having working escalators in the Ming Wing” conversation. It was actually pretty enlightening for me - her mum, a white Australian, looked in appearance/dress like a totally conservative hardass, but from what I could hear of the conversation sounded like a genuinely tolerant and open-minded person, not just of Abrahamic religions but of non-monotheistic traditions, which was a real eye-opener for me.

Another person coped less with the whole thing, abusing an 18 year old woman of Lebanese descent who had decided to veil up a couple of years ago by saying “I’m sorry, I don’t accept you as an Australian” (!) and flouncing out of the event! So I guess this is the sort of person who will benefit from puff pieces in the liberal media about Muslim ladies’ fashion choices. But yeah, I totally hear you about the vapidity of the fashion-as-freedom agenda. After all, absolutely NO Western women wear high heels or shave their legs because of social pressure. NO THEY DON’T! AND IF YOU QUESTION THIS YOU ARE A TERRORIST!!!

Wouldn’t “brash modernity” in clothing mean something fairly obvious to the average person? Revealing, colourful, individualistic, non-conformist, weird…Is that in any way related to traditional Islamic dress?

Re consumerism and self-expression - I agree in the abstract with your idea, but in practice, the same argument could be used for expression through music, art, reading, sports, hobbies…..Sometimes assumptions just deserve to go unquestioned. The problem with this kind of deconstruction is that once you start you cant really stop until you have invalidated everything, everywhere.

What is “traditional” Islamic dress? The veil? Because the veil that Muslim women wear today in the Middle East and elsewhere is the product of an Islamist revival that is thoroughly modern. It is not–in the way it looks or in what it means–the “traditonal” veil that women wore say 50 or 100 years ago. The very idea of asserting your Muslim identity vis-a-vis the West through the way you dress is also the product of a series of thoroughly modern processes. “Tradition” and “modernity” as Ethan pointed out are artificial categories that we’re constantly in the process of making up.

As for deconstructing the New York Times–perhaps you’re right and I should spend my time more productively! But I do think that this article is representative of the
kind of glib generalizations that seem particularly common in discussions of Muslim/Arab issues. I would just like to see coverage that was a bit more original and critical. I don’t mean to take this particular reporter or this particular publication too much to task.

Finally, on the issue of “expressing oneself” through fashion. I’m really not sure how much we express when we buy an item of clothing–our taste, and how well we’ve responded to a certain advertisement campaign, and how much we want to belong to a certain sub-culture. My point was the unquestioning assumption that buying trendy Western clothes was somehow an act of emancipation–whereas Western feminists, for example, have long criticized the impact of advertising and the commodification of experience and identity.

Whereas the existence of modern Islamic fashion should force us to question that dichotomy.

I mean, it’s not a stretch to say that the fundamental concept here of defining what “modernity” and “Islam” mean in relation to each other is the root conflict that drives al-Qaida and the entire GWOT from both sides. Which is why deconstructing fluff pieces matter.

And women do use clothing to express themselves - and most of those clothes get purchased from stores. Women do express themselves through consumerism and fashion.

It’s a fluff piece on hip urban muslims trying to look cool while staying halal - why read into it 5 layers deep to discover some orientalist capitalist sub plot?

It’s surprising that Asra Nomani shows up in this article as she’s not veiled and actually makes a point of protesting the assumption that Muslim = veiled. Also kind of funny that these American Muslim women are looking for clothes that will hide their curves while their counterparts in Cairo are wearing super-tight tops and pants with high heeled boots along with their colour-coordinated hijabs.