Interpreting Islam through the Internet: making sense of hijab

Abstract

Hijab, the practice of modesty or "covering," is one of the most visible and controversial aspects of Islam in the twenty-first century, partly because the Qur'an offers so little guidance on proper dress. This forces Muslims to engage in ijtihad (interpretation), which historically has resulted in vast differences in dress around the world. By transcending some of the boundaries of space, time and the body, the Internet has emerged as a place where Muslims from diverse backgrounds can meet to debate ideas and flesh them out through shared experiences. After discussing hijab in the Qur'an and other traditional sources, this article explores the use of cyberspace as a multi-media platform for learning about and debating what constitutes appropriate Islamic dress. The last section focuses on a case study of the multi-user "hijablog" hosted by thecanadianmuslim.ca, which represents one of the largest in-print discussions on hijab ever recorded in the English language. On this blog and other forums like it, ijtihad has become a critical tool for debate on matters such as hijab, which are important but sparsely discussed in the Qur'an.

Artificial Piety: Between Body Traps and Politic Identity

“…In the context of the popular culture of hijab community in urban middle-class groups, hijab blogs on the Internet together with the Instagram or WhatsApp application in social networking have become their practical needs to overtly explain about selfperceptions as Muslims [19]. The Hijaber Mom Community (HMC) community was formed by young Indonesian designers, one of whom is Dian Pelangi along with her colleague Ria Miranda in 2010 (Hijaberscommunity.id).…”

Women undercover: exploring the intersectional identities of Muslim women through modest fashion

“…Rather than examining dressing in modest fashion as an everyday lived experience, current scholarship has exhibited a fascination with the rise in demand for modest fashion and the response from the grassroots community to meet those needs. This includes studying magazines (Lewis, 2010b), online business and community activities (Akou, 2007(Akou, , 2010, bloggers and vlogging (Lewis, 2015a;Peterson, 2016) and other online practices as social media platforms like YouTube channels and Instagram accounts became ubiquitous around the world (Kavakci & Kraeplin, 2017;Zappavigna, 2016). Scholarship on the business of Islamic modest fashion began with early writings such as Akou's exploration of the emerging Islamic fashion world (Akou, 2007).…”

“…There is a consistent body of academic research that seeks to understand Muslim women's veiling practices and the phenomenon seen in the growth of the modest fashion industry. Generally, I have found scholarship has focused on the business of modest fashion and its influencers (Akou, 2007(Akou, , 2010; Lewis, 2010aLewis, , 2015bPeterson, 2016), has used problematic frameworks and analysis when exploring Muslim women (Kavakci & Kraeplin, 2017;Williams & Vashi, 2007), or focused solely on veiling practices, lacking an intersectional understanding of the whole person (Anderson & Greifenhagen, 2013;Mansson McGinty, 2014;Marcotte, 2010).…”

The dressed body, material and technology: Rethinking the hijab through sartorial sociology

“…Their focus is on male garments and materials considered appropriate for believing men rather than women (El Guindi 1999: 135). But today there is a wide field of interpretation by Islamic scholars about the hijab, and individual Muslims discuss the topic both in face-to-face and online contexts, seek information and guidance, and develop their own perspectives on appropriate dress (Akou 2010a). While the significance of political and fashion developments for these debates about female dress is well documented (e.g.…”