fashion muslim colection: November 2010

Senin, 15 November 2010

In Canada Honour killing over hijab gets life term

Toronto: Just days after a Punjab man was jailed for life in honour killing of his daughter-in-law, a Pakistani father, along with his son, here too faces life behind bars for honour killing of his young girl for her refusal to wear the hijab.

In what was a first case of honour killing among Pakistanis in North America three yeas ago, 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez was strangulated by her father Muhammad Parvez, 57, in the family home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga in December 2007. Appearing in a court here on Tuesday, both Parvez and his son Waqas, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of Aqsa.

Man held for killing daughter for honour

The duo, who were arrested after the sensational murder, admitted before the jude that they killed the grade-11 student by compressing her neck. After strangulating his daughter for bringing shame to his family by refusing to wear the hijab, Parvez had called police to confess his crime. Police found his daughter's blood on his hands. The DNA of his son Waqas was also found the girl's finger nails. The girl was found lying fainted. She was rushed hospital and put on the life support system. But she didn't survive.

The court heard how the young girl ran away twice to avoid living under strict Muslim customs at her home. She was not allowed to wear jeans and hang out with friends or talk to boys on the phone.

When she returned home, her father, a local taxi driver, allowed her to wear jeans and shirts, but forbade her from speaking to boys and hanging out with friends. Just days before she was strangulated, Aqsa had told her school mates that her father had sworn in the Koran to kill her if she ever ran away from home again.

When questioned by police, the girl's mother admitted that her husband thought his daughter's behaviour had brought disgrace to the family. 'This is my insult. My community will say you have not been able to control your daughter. This is my insult. She is making me naked,'' Parvez had told his wife.

Tradition no excuse to back honour killings: NHRC

Shockingly, the court also heard how the girl's brother - who is a tow truck driver - in a electronically-recorded conversation with a fellow driver had admitted choking his sister till she died. The fellow driver named Steve Warda also revealed that the girl's brother had asked him to get a gun to kill his sister.

Now one in FOUR Americans believe Obama is Muslim as Ground Zero mosque row intensifies

Nearly one in four Americans are convinced that Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to a poll. Up to one in four people, or 24 per cent, said they think Mr Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, practices Islam after he announced his support for a the building of a mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks.

The Time poll released today also revealed that more than 70 per cent of those questioned believed that to build the mosque would insult the memory of victims . In a second poll, the proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 per cent.The largest share of people, 43 per cent, said they don't know his religion, an increase from the 34 per cent who said that in early 2009.

The second survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site.

The poll emerged as the mosque developers refused to rule out accepting funding for the plan from Iran and Saudi Arabia.

When asked, spokesman Oz Sultan said 'I can't comment on that'. Last night Mr Obama said he has 'no regrets' over the comments he made about the right of Muslims to build an Islamic centre near Ground Zero. He was asked about his comments while he was concluding a meeting with the public on the economy in Ohio yesterday.

Mr Obama sparked outrage from Republicans and the families of 9/11 victims after supporting the right of developers to build the mosque. He inserted himself into the debate over the mosque last week when he said Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in the U.S.A day later, he told reporters that he wasn't endorsing the specifics of the mosque plan.

Emergency crews who dealt with the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks have condemned his support for a mosque near Ground Zero and accused him of deserting them.

New York firemen, police and ambulance workers said the President was happy to speak up for Muslims but not support the crews in their fight for decent healthcare. Since the terrorist attack by Islamic extremists, many who risked their lives saving others have been plagued by serious health problems. A bill which would give them £4.6billion compensation is stuck in Congress.

Their call came as a poll showed that Mr Obama was deeply out of step with the American people in his backing of the mosque, which will be two blocks from where the twin towers once stood.

Muslim woman who hasn't shown her face in public for 18 years ordered to remove veil to give evidence in Australian court

A strict Muslim woman who says she has never shown her face in public, has been ordered by a female judge to remove her veil when she gives evidence in an Australian court. District Court judge Shauna Deane said in the Western Australian Supreme Court today that in the interest of a fair trial against a man accused of fraud, she should not be allowed to wear a niqab, which allows only the eyes to be seen.

The 36-year-old woman, known only as Tasneem, said she was a strict Muslim and it was against her religion to show her face anywhere except in the confines of her home. The defence has argued that her whole face should be seen so the jury could decide on the veracity of her evidence.

But prosecutor Mark Ritter told the court that Tasneem had not shown her face in public in more than 18 years and would find it stressful to reveal her features to strange men. The judge agreed that the jury should have the opportunity to assess the facial expressions of the Islamic Studies teacher to help weigh up her credibility as a witness.

Her decision, she added, was not to set a precedent for other courts - it was up to them to assess similar circumstances on a case-by-case basis. Tasneem worked at a school as a tutor where the accused man, Anwar Sayed, ran the Muslim Ladies College in Perth's southern suburbs. He has been accused of stealing up to £400,000 in public funds by artificially inflating student numbers.

Outside the court Mr Sayed said he was worried about his safety and that of the witness but pointed out that he had no objection to the niqab being worn in court. 'This was a legal matter in which I had no role to play,' he said.

He claimed he had been stabbed the previous week after receiving death threats in hand-written notes and phone calls about the niqab issue. One of his lawyers, Mr Ludher Swaran, said the accused man had become 'quite isolated' within the Muslim community.

'There is quite a bit of pressure on him. He is a Muslim, the witness is a Muslim, the issue of a niqab is very sensitive among Muslims, so he would rather not have had this argument done in court.' Mr Swaran said Mr Sayed had been stabbed with a bottle in the attack. 'His shirt was torn, there were lacerations on his chest, lacerations on his forehead.' A date is to be set for the hearing.

Muslim Disneyland employee outraged after she's told she 'cannot wear her hijab to work'

A Muslim woman has filed a complaint claiming that the Disneyland restaurant where she works would not allow her to wear a hijab. Imane Boudlal, 26, claimed that when she wore the hijab to work Sunday, her supervisors told her to remove it, work where customers couldn't see her, or go home. Boudlal, who wore the scarf in observance of Ramadan, went home. When she showed up for work the next two days, she was told the same thing, she said.

'Miss Boudlal has effectively understood that they're not interested in accommodating her request either in timing or good faith,' said Ameena Qazi, an attorney from the Council on American-Islamic Relations who is consulting with Boudlal. Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said Disney has a policy not to discriminate.

The resort offered Boudlal a chance to work with the head covering away from customers while Disneyland tries to find a compromise. 'Typically, somebody in an on-stage position like hers wouldn't wear something like that, that's not part of the costume,' Brown said.

'We were trying to accommodate her with a backstage position that would allow her to work.
We gave her a couple of different options and she chose not to take those and to go home.' Boudlal, who is from Morocco, has worked at the Storyteller restaurant at the hotel for two years.

However she only realized she could wear her hijab to work after studying for her U.S. citizenship exam in June, Qazi said. She asked her supervisors if she could wear the scarf and was told they would consult with the corporate office, Qazi said.

Boudlal didn't hear anything for two months and was then told she could wear a head scarf, but it had to be designed by Disneyland's costume department to comply with the Disney look, Qazi said. She was fitted for a Disney-supplied head scarf - but Disney never told her when it would be finished.

Boudlal wore her own hijab to work for the first time Sunday. 'After these two months and this complicated process, she decided to come forward,' Qazi said. 'She really wanted to be able to wear it on Ramadan.'

Disney, Muslim worker agree on hijab substitute

ANAHEIM -- Disney is allowing a Muslim employee at its Orange County park to wear a specially designed headscarf after initially objecting to her religious head covering.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says Monday that 22-year-old Noor Abdallah was told she couldn't wear the hijab while working as a vacation planner at a Disneyland Resort Esplanade ticket booth. She declined to take another job away from the public.

Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown says the park worked with Abdallah to design a covering to match her costume and meet her religious needs. She's been wearing a blue scarf topped with a beret since early this month.

Brown says the case is separate from that of another Muslim Disney worker who refused to accept a costume headpiece and filed a federal discrimination complaint.

marni soupcoff add some bling to your hijab

People tend to go into serious policy-discussion mode when talk turns to the hijab. As a form of covering for Muslim women, the hijab is seen as an object of subjugation — a way for men to impose a sense of servitude and modesty upon their wives, sisters and daughters.

The trouble is, it’s hard to maintain a sense of either gravitas or moral outrage about the subject when you come across websites like Hijab Style, which features all manner of colorful, flashy and fashion-forward hijabs — and the usual fluffy style/fashion blather you’d find at any mainstream fashion site. There are even the requisite runway shots (attention everyone, MaxMara’s showing maxi skirts this fall!) and over-priced clothing finds (a long-sleeved tunic for $78). The only oppression of women that comes to mind is that imposed by high-end designers and fashion mag editors who make us feel that we must look like garbage if we don’t have a $20,000 clothing budget — which seems a different issue entirely.

No, one website pushing hijab bling does not put to rest all serious concerns about the treatment of women in Muslim cultures; and it’s especially hard to see the niqab — which covers a woman’s entire face with the exception of her eyes — as anything but repressive, no matter how colorful, luxurious and bejeweled it might be.

Still, Hijab Style is a useful reminder that you can’t necessarily judge a woman’s autonomy by her head covering. Clearly, for at least a small number of Muslim women (Hijab Style gets about 2,500 hits a day), the hijab is a form of self-expression and showing off one’s chicness by staying current.

One Hijab Style reader writes, “My style is classic with some trendy items. I always buy trendy items in an accent colour or in a basic neutral, to give it a long life even after the trend is dead and gone. I also like to set trends myself, or at least try to.”

She sounds no more subjugated or dominated than the average woman with a subscription to In Style magazine.

Something to keep in mind the next time a government proposes a hijab ban in public buildings in the name of protecting women.

Selasa, 09 November 2010

HIJAB STYLES FOR LESS: HIJAB FASHION TRENDS SPRING 2010

Today’s hijab style set has two purposes. 1. I wanted to demonstrate a more subtle way to mix prints within one outfit. And, 2. I also wanted to do a post (as requested) about Hijab Styles For Less (thanks Mira for the title!).

Mixing prints is a pretty hot fashion trend for Spring, but in my opinion, that look can leave you looking like you got dressed in the dark. Nevertheless, I still love this trend and I think that mixing prints can look more chic than crazy by following a few tips:

1. Keep one of the prints neutral in color.
2. Keep one of the prints simple.
3. Keep the shapes classic.

The long skirt that I’ve used in today’s hijab style set fits those three requirements perfectly. It’s black and white, it has a simple striped print, and it’s a classic a-line shape. The blazer is also classic in shape, but it has a bright pink, floral print which carries this look in to Spring 2010.

I finished the look with neutral pieces: black booties, a black pashmina hijab, and a large mother-of-pearl cocktail ring.

Hijab Styles For Less : Striped Long SkirtHIJAB STYLES FOR LESS

This striped long skirt by Xhilaration costs about $17, so it’s a very affordable alternative to the skirt featured in the hijab style set above. I don’t think it would look good with the floral jacket, but if you want a striped skirt in your wardrobe, this one would be a great choice.

So, what do you think? Would you mix prints? By the way, I’m sure that some of us have mixed prints before by wearing a floral scarf with a pinestriped pant or something similar — even if not on purpose. Have you?