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Significant discrimination is directed towards Muslim women who dress modestly. Despite this, Muslims around the world continue to spend tens of billions of dollars on modest fashion. Past research in modest fashion has focused on modest fashion influencers, the industry or on veiling. Muslim women’s everyday dress practices and their lived experiences have not been studied through an intersectional lens. Through an intersectional theoretical framework, this research uses wardrobe interviews with sixteen Muslim women to explore how they embody their identity through modest fashion, how intersectionality impacts their clothing choices and what contexts influence their sartorial decisions. Three themes emerge: what influences their style; how they shop and style outfits; and what consequences are faced. By prioritizing modesty as a sartorial practice, these women are diverting the western gaze, navigating away from superficial and oppressive western beauty ideals and challenging narrow Islamophobic stereotypes.
Romana B. Mirza (Thu,) studied this question.