Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion, and Society in Sanà

Most Sanàni women appear in public completely covered in black, often including a face-veil. At first sight, this locates Sanà, the capital of Yemen, outside the world of fashion. This article, however, argues that fashion is part and parcel of women's outdoor dressing styles in Sanà. While some women link their dressing styles to authentic Sanàni customs and traditions and others highlight ideological and religious convictions, all refer in one way or another to matters of style and aesthetics. Not only modernist women are engaged in wearing fashionable outerwear, but also women protagonists of an Islamist position, who may be critical of fashion as an institution, find it hard to avoid fashion altogether. Young women who wear covered dress and face-veils in order to conform to what is common in their social circles are also affected by the globalization of dress and attach much importance to being fashionable. Such sartorial practices are not simply a form of Islamic fashion, but rather are a strong example of a shift from a localized aesthetic to a more cosmopolitan style of dress, which remains within the boundaries of what Sanàni women consider morally and religiously acceptable.