The abaya is a symbol of so many things; of the rejection of Western values, of liberation from unwanted male advances, and of submission to God’s will. And it’s here to stay. For the time being, at least.

When the Prophet Mohammed said: “And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze. And guard their modesty; that they must draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty...,” Islam’s modesty rule for woman’s dress was born. (Qur’an 24:30-31)

One thousand four hundred and twenty seven years later, “drawing their veils over their bosoms”, regarded as a metaphor for modest dressing, is a command still obeyed by millions of Muslim women across the globe. But what exactly “modesty” means, is like asking for a definition of beauty. Some say a hijab (headscarf) suffices, while others, like the Saudi religious establishment and their followers across the world, insist every bit of the woman’s body should be swathed in plain black, including a thin veil over the eyes and gloves on the hands. Incidentally, the term “hijab” comes from the Arabic word “hajaba,” means “to conceal” or “to shield” and is used generally to refer to modesty, and more specifically, to mean headscarves and formless gowns. In Saudi, hijab is used to describe the head covering; the abaya the black overdress; niqab the veil pulled over the face, revealing only the eyes, and khimar the full face covering.

Veiling  and wearing modest clothing predates Islam, and the Assyrian kings of about 1500 BC used to relegate their women to harems, and expect them to veil when going out in public. Modest dress was followed in classical Greece, the Byzantine Christian world, in Persia, and in India among upper caste Rajput women, and has been part of orthodox Christian, Jewish as well as Hindu cultures for centuries.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, a time referred to as “Arab Jahiliya” (age of ignorance, marked by barbarism and unbelief), things were pretty much “out of hand”. Women would join their men during war to provide for their physical needs, or would bare their chest to spur them on as they trotted across the dunes to do battle. Women were often captured and raped by the winning tribe’s men, bringing dishonor to the losing clan. Also during this time, in the busy urban centres of the Arabian Peninsula, veiling and seclusion at home was seen as a sign of privilege and a luxury afforded to women who didn’t have to work. They were distinguished from slave girls and prostitutes, who were not allowed to veil or cover and risked lashings if they did.

One of the catalysts for the modesty rule in Islam happened during the time of the Prophet. At night women often slipped out to the fields or sand to go to the toilet with the result that many men thought they were prostitutes or female slaves, as they were unveiled and uncovered, giving no outward sign that they were in fact free women. People complained about this to the Prophet and in an effort to temper barbaric practices and to protect all women, the verse at the beginning of this article was revealed. The wives of the Prophet were required to cover their faces so that men would not think of them in sexual terms since they were the “Mothers of the Believers”, though many scholars believe this was not extended to other women.

As Islam spread across its vast empire, traditional clothing styles were adapted to fall in with the requirements of Islam, which is partly why modest clothing in Islam differs from country to country, even within regions. In Saudi, traditional loose garments and headscarves worn by Bedouin out of practicality, contributed to style of the black, flowing abaya and hijab we see today.

In the Gulf States especially, modest attire is still reinforced by the belief that the family’s good reputation depends on the conduct of its women. Honour requires of a woman to remain chaste and should she be violated in any way, the men of the family risk being seen as weak and perhaps even being ostracized. So to be respected by men, and protected from them, a woman should not flaunt her looks in public, and that includes showing her hair or any part of her body, excluding her hands and face, depending on who is interpreting the Qu’ran. Most scholars consider a woman’s chest, hips, legs, neck (basically her whole body) as zeenah (beautiful), and should thus be covered. This ensures she will be respected by men, and not sexually harassed by them. Parallel to this is women’s personal obedience to the Qu’ranic principle of dressing modestly, and despite cultural differences in what this means exactly, most Muslim women follow the rule in submission to God.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and you’ll notice that more and more Muslim woman living outside the Middle East, in Europe, the U.S or Australia, for example, are donning the Saudi abaya, a hijab along with gloves, niqab and khimar. Too often this instills a moment of panic; fear born out of ignorance, in Westerners. And many feminists, even Muslim feminists, cringe in horror at the thought that a woman should chose to live in such a dark spot, designated her by man.

In Saudi Arabia, home to the holy mosques of Mecca and Medina and where it all started, conservative Wahhabi Sunni Islam holds that women’s modest clothing is best expressed in flowing, formless, solid black robe (worn over normal clothes) that falls to the ankles, stretches to the palms, and comes up close to the neck. Those who don’t comply, or wear an abaya that doesn’t fulfill the requirements, risk being reprimanded by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, locally known as the Muttawa, whose duty it is to uphold the strict religious codes of the Kingdom.

Just recently the Saudi government reiterated these requirements via a magazine program on Saudi national TV, and to many (but not all) modern Saudi girls’ exasperation a poster was put up in the entrance hall of the King Saud University in Riyadh which laid things out quite clearly. On the one side was a woman, dressed in a black abaya and wearing a face covering (but not a veil over the eyes), and a handbag. Next to her an arrow pointed to the fires of hell, which is where this woman was headed. The woman on the other side was completely swathed in black, including wearing a veil over her eyes, and she had no handbag. Her arrow pointed to a green pasture, occupied by dozens of black-clad women facing the horizon. This was heaven.

Earlier this year huge banners dotted around the Kingdom reminded women that the abaya should not be transparent or ornamented and that the veil should cover the head and face. Stores carrying unapproved types of abaya were reported to the Commerce Ministry, and the offending items confiscated. The newspaper Al-Eqtisadiah said that in February the Ministry in the eastern province of al-Baha ordered a wide-scale search for abayas that had “Don’t follow me ... I’m engaged” written on the back.


Curiously, for most of the 20th century, many Muslim scholars advocated that covering was a traditional, cultural phenomenon and had nothing to do with the teachings of the Qu’ran. Egypt’s Qasim Amin, an early advocate of women’s rights in Islamic society who in 1899 wrote The Emancipation of Woman, called for new interpretations of the Qu’ran with regard to limited divorce, polygamy, and wearing the veil. He argued that such practices had nothing to do with Islam, but were a result of customs of peoples who had become Muslims. His work sparked huge debate. One of his detractors was female Egyptian writer Malak Hifni Nassef who worried about women “moving from that dark and familiar state” before they were ready. She said that first women needed education and better knowledge of the world, and men needed to learn not to harass unveiled women. She resented man telling woman what to do: “If he orders us to veil, we veil, and if he now demands that we unveil, we unveil. There is no doubt that he has erred grievously against us in decreeing our rights in the past and no doubt that he errs grievously in decreeing our rights now.”

But just as things seemed to ‘loosen up’, putting the definition of Islamic modesty in women’s hands, key world events saw the cloak being drawn even more closely around  them. One of these events was the 1979 Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, and the creation of Iran as a theocratic state. In 1981, Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr, the first president of the Islamic Republic, announced that scientific research had shown that women’s hair emitted rays that drove men insane. To protect the public, the new regime passed special legislation in 1982 making the new form of hijab (along with conservative clothing) mandatory for all females aged above six, regardless of religious faith. And despite a study showing that the imposition of hijab on young girls caused “serious depression and, in some cases, suicide”, supreme leader Ali Khamenehi responded “Casting off the hijab encourages the culture of nudity and weakens the sacred values of Islam.” The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the fundamentalist rules the mullahs laid down for their women included wearing the all-covering blue burqa with its mesh-like window for the eyes, and restrictions on education and employment. In these countries, women were seen as key elements in achieving changes in public morality and private behavior.

Soon after that came the West’s interference in the Middle East via the First Gulf War, and most recently that dreaded date, 9/11, and the resulting war on innocent Iraq. Muslims began to feel the West was committed to eradicating Islam and destroying the Muslim culture. Western television, magazines and businesses set up in the Middle East were seen as encroaching on their values. One way to defend against the intrusion was to look deeper into the Qu’ran. This is, generally speaking, why we see so much of the black abaya, hijab and niqab as well as an upsurge in demand for modest Islamic fashion. Even Western converts to Islam in Europe, the U.S. and Canada search for abayas on the Internet as a sign of allegiance with their Muslim sisters and Islam.

In Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the U.A.E, Yemen, Oman, Iraq and pockets of other Middle Eastern countries, and places across the world where Middle Eastern Muslims live, women wear the same abaya out of choice, or social or family pressure. At the same time, paradoxically, in Iran many women, especially younger ones, have taken to wearing transparent hijabs instead of chadors (a full-length semi-circle of fabric open down the front, with no hand openings or closures but held shut by the hands or teeth or by wrapping the ends around the waist) to protest but keep within the laws of the state. And in Kuwait young girls wear abayas, but ones that have slits right up to their armpits, or are so diaphanous they’re more sensual than anywhere near modest.

While the abaya may be a symbol of political protest, and at the same time fundamental obedience to the revelations in the Qu’ran, women in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, have different views on it. Asma, a Saudi woman in her late twenties who wears a niqab along with her abaya, says it’s essential to avoid being harassed by men, and forces men to deal with women on an equal footing. It prevents, what she feels is the case in the Western world, women from being judged solely on their physical appearance. “To me it’s liberating, and not a sign of being inferior, but rather of being unique, being true to myself, my cultural heritage and religious obligations”, she says.

Prompted, she agrees that the abaya is sometimes not such a practical idea. Originally, black was a good colour as women rarely left the house; Saudi women didn’t work then, still certainly not outside. But it has caused the death of women pedestrians at night, as they become as invisible as ravens. And terrorists in various countries of the Middle East have donned abayas to go about their clandestine activities, and back in Saudi assorted deviant men have thrown on abayas to enter women’s quarters and schools. And why the confused one, Michael Jackson is allowed to swan round Bahrain in an abaya, hijab and niqab, is another question that will remain unanswered.

Some Saudi women quietly admit that if it weren’t law, they’d thrown their abayas in the back of their closets the first chance they get. Or they’d prefer to wear colourful abayas, or alternate modest dress of their choice. But what Malik Nassif said all those years ago about emancipation of Egyptian woman, is true for Saudi society as a whole today. In Saudi Arabia, women are still largely confined to their homes and without opportunity to work (only about 7% of Saudi women work) due, in part, to the fact that the working environment is sexually segregated, just like the mosques and restaurants. By sticking to the abaya and hijab, it actually gives them the opportunity to actively get involved in the country’s economy and business while still enjoying the, even if it’s only symbolic, protection the abaya and hijab give them. Many shout - as loud as a Saudi woman can shout - that liberation for them is less about throwing off the abaya than being able to participate in the country’s economic, political and legal systems.

Despite the Saudi government’s repetitive call for plain black abayas that start at the forehead and end at the tips of the fingers and toes, it’s not what all women want. Some in the Saudi blogosphere are going so far as to say they’ll obey the Qu’ran in terms of dressing modestly, but not what Saudi men say. Stories of Saudi women casting off their abayas as soon as their airplane leaves Saudi airspace are legendary. But not all of them do it, especially not after 9/11, the one event which seems to have stirred up Saudi nationalism. You’ll see them in Kuala Lumpur, New York and London dressed exactly as they do at home because they say: “This is me. I am a Saudi. And I’m proud of it.”

Interestingly enough in Mecca and Medina, where Islam was born, black abayas are not the norm. But this is more because the cities are constantly visited by scores of Muslim pilgrims from all corners of the earth, many of whom do not have black abayas but simply dress modestly as they understand it in the Qu’ran. Policing them would be completely impractical, though the Muttawa does ensure all heads are covered, regardless of with what colour fabric is used.

While outside the Middle East Muslim women are clamoring for their plain black abayas, things are already changing at source. Gulf region shops and malls are packed with boutiques doing a brisk trade in funky new abaya designs, ones with bold designs, slightly revealing openings, some that are a little transparent, with shorter hems, and many with elaborate trimmings and even slogans embroidered on the back. There is also a new kind of abaya in stores that’s more like a dress, and can be worn as one, i.e., without regular clothes underneath. This abaya-dress is popular among expats in Saudi due to the extreme heat during summers. Black is the traditional color for abayas, but muted shades of brown, blue and green are often seen, though not worn in Saudi Arabia.

For wealthy Saudis, Bahrainis or Emiratis, for example, abayas and hijabs designed by the likes of Versace, Hermes, Yves Saint-Laurent, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Giorgio Armani are de rigeur. While on the topic of designers, less than two years ago a small town in northern Italy sparked uproar by fining a woman for venturing outdoors in a burqa (an abaya-like dress and veil). A member of Italy’s Northern League denounced the burqa as a “symbol of death” because women involved in the bloody attack on a Russian school in Beslan had worn the robes. Italian fashion guru Armani jumped to her defense by dismissing as absurd the view that women clad in burqas are a possible terror threat. He told an Italian newspaper: “It’s a question of respect for the convictions and culture of others. We need to live with these ideas, we need to learn how to do it. To see a veiled woman on the streets of Paris used to have an exotic appeal. Now they are seen as terrorists and people take fright,” Armani said.

International fashion houses have been quick to (try to) cash in on the demand. One example is a fashion show hosted by U.S. department store Nordstrom in McLean, Virginia. The show, called “Interpreting Hot Trends for Veiled and Conservative Women,” was attended by well-heeled Middle Eastern immigrants who wish to remain true to their religion but in step with the latest fashion. Sometimes derivatively called ‘hijabis’, these women call themselves “muhajabah,” or “women of hijab.”

In an article for Slate, Asra Q. Nomani, author of Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam, describes the event as something of a non-event because the a-line skirts had slits in them, or were too short (they hit the calves), and the tops were inappropriate because they had three-quarter-length sleeves.

But even if Nordstrom missed the mood of the “fashionable fundies (as in “fundamentalists”), others will keep on trying. Late last year a collaboration between Arab and French Canadian designers showcased Islamic caftans worn in North Africa. Closer to home Dubai-based designers such as Muhammed Bahrani for Eve N Black has just held a fashion show in cahoots with Swarovski crystal people and it was purportedly a hit. His designs are unlikely to go down well in the Saudi public domain due to the almost Gautier-like peepholes and lattice-like openings in the back and sides of his black abayas, but the abayas are sensational, and with the average abaya costing $5,000, it’s the most wanted on the well-heeled’s list. At the same time other leading brands such as Burberry in the U.A.E. are working on producing a “Gulf chic” range of branded abayas, head scarves and sandals.

In an interview for this article Ms Nomani is adamant: “The explosion of hijab chic with slick fashion shows and hot ad campaigns for the newest, latest abaya reflects the effort of Muslim women to navigate the deep conflict between traditional Muslim society’s desire to control women in the public space and the intrinsic – and, I believe, Islamically legal – desire of women to define their own identity. But, cultural sensitivities aside, we’ve got to admit that we’re in a pretty dark place in the Muslim world when we think a woman is expressing herself when she adds a stretch of yellow crocheted lace to the black shroud that is the abaya. She is still in the dark, and, as a Muslim world, we remain in the Dark Ages.”

At the other end of the spectrum, puritanical Muslims complain women are putting too much fashion in their hijab. In response to Versace and Hermes-branded scarves and abayas, an anonymous web writer says “it’s ironic that the most modest of dressing—the cloak and scarf—should become contaminated by advertising the names of some of the most shameless and perverted people in the world.”

Abaya styles in the Gulf have evolved much like fashion anywhere in the world. Some twenty years ago, the all-in-one abaya that started at the head made way a decade later for the “Abaya ala al kitf”, abaya that started at the shoulders. Edging closer to the turn of the century, the (almost) figure-hugging French abaya was the most wanted, fastened with buttons at the top. Until about a year ago it was still the abaya chosen by the hip and trendy, but has recently made way for the retro original Saudi abaya, known locally as the “Al Farasha” or butterfly abaya. It’s wide, with sleeves that taper tightly from the elbow to the wrist. A well-cut Al Farasha can make any woman look quite regal, and often these, which sell upwards from SAR 1,500 would have exquisite hand stitched embroidery and beading on the hemline and cuffs. Another popular style remains the plain black “Bin Laden abaya”, which as expected, is all- covering, revealing only the woman’s eyes.

While styles are changing, decorations are becoming more elaborate, with fur or feather trimmings, beading and crystal designs, crochet, lace, and leather beautifully incorporated in black raw silk, crepe, velvet, gabardine, chiffon, georgette and cotton. There are scores of people in the Middle East making a living out of creating abayas the women want. Saudi princesses are purported to wear beautiful designer abayas, embellished with precious stones and silk thread, and these could cost tens of thousands of Saudi riyals.

But abaya designers aside, Saudi has produced at least two fashion designers who are plying their trade outside of the Kingdom. Amina Al-Jasim and Zaki Bin Aboud have both showcased their creative skills at Beirut Fashion Week in Lebanon where they focused not on the abaya, but on the beautifully, revealing, sexy, slinky, glittery, bejewelled and beglitzed fashions the ladies of Arabia so love to wear under their abayas.

So where to from here? Is wearing the abaya out of choice a way to reject and hide from a world you don’t understand or agree with, or can’t control? Or an opportune political statement in turbulent times between Islam and the West? Asra Nomani says “The abaya is a symbolic representation of the most puritanical interpretation of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia and indoctrinated to so many in the world as pure Islam. It is an interpretation that subordinates and controls women, hyper-sexualizes the woman as awrah, or forbidden, and denies the feminist and progressive spirit with which the Prophet Muhammad brought Islam into the world. At a time when Islam seems under attack from the West, the abaya is the most powerful way for a woman – or the men who make the rules – to reject the West. It’s a political weapon, but, sadly, as a result of it women live in the shadows and we all lose.”