Muslim Women in Community and Society

Original Text:
http://www.islamicstudies.info/family/ideal_muslimah/ideal_muslimah.php?id=13

Ramadan Kareem

When it comes to the Islamic Covenant, both muslim men and muslim women have a mission in life. As muslimahs we adhere to this mission by contributing towards fulfilling the needs of communities to which we are exposed. This purpose is partly implemented thru our interactions with others in communicating True understanding. We also accomplish this Divinely Inspired goal with the impressions we make, as well as by our actions, words, and deeds. Wherever we go we are as beacons of guidance along The Way, as well as positive sources of inspiration.

Muslim women, truly Guided by Al Qur'an and Sunnah, have an enlightening social presence which streams encouragement into the experiences of both the muslims and the non-muslims with whom we interact. The sincerity we exude causes us to brilliantly shine with chaste, polite, discerning, and sociable attributes, opening hearts and minds to a vast array of Scripture-engendered awareness that produces God-fearing benefit. To this inspiration our deen is devoted, rewarded for follow-through, or called to account for avoidance.

Within each of our beings is a huge store of True vision that radiates thru our social stance, conduct, and interactions. From this rich, pure source we cleanse our souls, develop our voice, and devise our manner of connecting with others. Thus our presence stands out wherever we go as our nature enacts the values of these worthy attributes.

The American experience is in many ways a challenge to muslim women, as we sometimes experience freely diverse social arenas as in schools and untraditional social gatherings, while at times also facing the more defined classical customs predominant within business and its surrounding platforms. It is the purpose of AnNisa Designs, rooted in this American cultural paradigm, to humbly offer the dress that by Islamic standards promotes our social interaction as muslimahs within American culture. At AnNisa Designs we humbly strive thru fashion to introduce an upright, compelling impression into the mission-inspired expression and intent of our customers.

AnNisa Designs is expanding, emerging out of the cocoon of Creation to spread our wings into the styles and colors we envision as distinctively God-fearing, discerning, and sociable. Our purpose in this expansion is to grace women who cover with apparel that is uniquely lucid as deen-inspired expressions of Islamic purpose. 

InshaAllah our new web site at AnNisa Designs will launch in August, 2013 (next month), at which time we invite you to join us in celebrating our 'Site Warming,' as well as the continued development of our fashion concepts. 

See our current selections at www.annisadesigns.com. 

And at intervals check into this blog for further announcements of our new web store!

Finding Your Fashion Colors

Origingal article:
http://www.thefashionspot.com/life/177555-color-theory-learn-which-colors-look-best-your-skin-tone/

1. Determine Your Undertone

Those of us who wear colors need to know, even though there are many different shades of skin, there are only two undertones. To our advantage it's the undertone that counts, making this process much simpler. Go ahead and turn your hand over, palm up, taking a gander at the underside of your wrist. What color are the veins? If they look blue or purple, you're cool toned. If they look green or have a yellow cast, you're warm toned. That's it. Simple.

Warm Up: Warm tones look beautiful in "earthy" shades like burnt orange, cream, saturated sunny yellow, brown, dark leafy green, and that shade of red maple leaves turn when autumn comes your way. Taupe, heathered brown, and camel are also in your wheelhouse. When in doubt, these are your basics. Heap on the yellow and rose gold, it'll make your skin glow.

Cool Down: Cool toned women, not surprisingly, look best in what we call "cool" colors like white, black, royal blue, gray, navy, etc. Think of colors that remind you of water, sea, and sky. Again, when in doubt, you can't go wrong with one of these. When it comes to metallics, silver is your go-to.

It's A Shade Thing: Basics will help you out in a pinch, but when it comes to color theory and experimentation, you should know that different shades of colors can create a cool-warm crossover. For example, there's warm-red, which has an orange cast to it and there's cool-red which has a blue undertone. This is especially important to consider when you're picking your signature color of red lipstick. Think Picture One (warm) and Picture Two (cool) versus . Green and pink are two other crossover colors. What color tends to look good on everyone? Plum. For warm toned women it's less harsh than black and for cool-toned lwomen it coordinates well. Notice that both pictures above are enhanced in plum shades and colors.

2. Get to Know the Color Wheel

Ever notice when someone puts together two colors that you would never have thought looked good together? Chances are, she's up on her color wheel and knows her undertone. Color mixing is a huge trend for the past few years, so it's worth taking the time to understand how colors work off each other. If you split the color wheel in half along the darker - lighter green / plum - orange-red division with an invisible line, one side will be warm and the other cool. Very convenient.

Pick a color, any color. Trace your finger over that line to its direct opposite and you have two complementary colors, one warm and one cool. If they complement on the wheel, they'll look complement in your wardrobe. For your most flattering look, place the color that works best for your skin tone closest to your face and work the other color in further away. For example, if you're cool, choose the cool tone for your hijab cap, or top and the complementary warm tone for your hijab scarf, or your second scarf.

Now, pick another color, any one. Look to the color directly to the left and to the right of it. These are the original color's analogous friends. If it's analogous on the color wheel, it works in your outfit. Here, you can stick to your side of the color wheel to ensure the best possible palette for your skin. 

So, two undertones, two sides of the color wheel, get to know each and you'll be less afraid to go for a color the next time you shop for apparel. You can also restructure your best colors into better color combining decisions.

Coverage of “Fashionable” Muslim Women Cramps Our Style

Coverage of “Fashionable” Muslim Women Cramps Our Style

July 19, 2010 By diana

While the front pages of newspapers feature Muslim women in flowing black abayas, burqas, and chadors, the often thrown-aside life and style sections are offering a very different picture of Muslim women: stylish! “Hijabistas,” trendy up-and-coming Muslim designers (predominantly from the U.K.), and fashion-forward hijabis are appearing on the covers of fashion and entertainment sections in newspapers across the world.

Designer Hana Tajima (right) and model. Image via Susannah Ireland for The Independent.

These “hijabistas” are wearing and designing clothes to reflect “Western fashion” reconciled with a “Muslim dress code,” according to British media outlets BBC andThe Independent.

Following this trend of covering “hijabistas,” the Los Angeles Times recently ran a piece on the trend of stylish, hijab-friendly clothing worn by American Muslim women, and the recent emergence of blogs, magazines, and online boutiques that cater to fashion-forward American Muslim women. The article calls on Sama Wareh, a stylish Muslim woman; Tayyibah Taylor, editor in chief of Azizah Magazine; and Jokima Hamidullah, founder of We Love Hijab, to explain this fascination with Muslim fashion that has now captured the attention of newspapers.

Tayyibah explains, “In America, we have a microcosm of the Muslim world. There are 80 different ethnicities. It’s a cultural and spiritual buffet table. American Muslims pick and choose and create their own. Establishing hijab, as both fashion and spiritual, is part of that as well. These young bloggers and the new magazines are part of the building of a cultural architecture, and what is being created is distinctly Muslim American.”

Is this why newspapers seem to be obsessed with reporting on hijab fashion: to contribute to the creation of a distinct Muslim American—or, in the case of BBC and The Independent, a distinct British Muslim identity? While I am glad to see a focus on hijab that is not as “othering” as the typically marginalizing coverage, this seemingly benign widespread news trend still echoes previous discourse surrounding the hijab. The similarities are subtle, but nonetheless they are present.

Sama Wareh. Image via Christina House / For The Time.

Each article assumes that “Western” fashion or concepts are, at the least, very difficult to reconcile with Islamic standards. The articles take on an astonished tone as they explain “just how” these Muslim women are reconciling their different identities. The Los Angeles Times article even points out to readers that Sama’s “…personal sense of style is so unique that she’s been asked by non-Muslims if what she’s wearing ‘is allowed.’”

These fashionable women are presented as liberated, autonomous, and modern Muslim women of the “Western world.” A dichotomy is created between these stylish ladies and the “un-modernized” Muslim women who wear niqabs or drab-colored clothing often compared to tents or shrouds.

The “hijabista” coverage is located within an existing discourse about the “veil” that posits this piece of fabric an affirmation or rejection of Islamic principles, instead of being taken as an individual’s expression of her personal choice. For example, the BBC poses the contextualized question, “But doesn’t the showy nature of fashion contradict the essence of Hijab?” This question is similar to the question of whether personal style is “allowed.”

There’s also the issue of Western-ness (which is presented in conjunction with modernity).The Independent touts “hijabistas” in the U.K. as those whose presence reflects the shift of British Muslims toward “the mainstream” and “forging their own indigenous identity.” Why is it that the presence of Muslim women creating hijab-friendly fashion seen as a movement toward the “mainstream” or “forging their own indigenous identity,” while a British Muslim woman’s decision to wear the niqab (face veil) seen as a security risk, a rise in fundamentalism, or ablow to British values?

This sort of ostensibly well-intended coverage seems to be one step forward for Muslim women and two steps back. Media outlets and newspapers ensure that we are merely speaking and acting from within an existing discourse, so that something benign and lighthearted like fashion becomes a symbol of something much larger.

For now, I will stick to media outlets created by Muslim women to follow the trend on hijab-friendly fashion. These women can speak from a new, unoccupied space, where questions are not riddled with assumptions and answers aren’t affirmations.

Every Night and Every Day, Never Forget to Say 'La ilaha il-lallah'

SIGNS for people who understand !

اعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, and the ships which sail through the sea with that which is of use to mankind, and the water (rain) which Allah sends down from the sky and makes the earth alive therewith after its death, and the moving (living) creatures of all kinds that He has scattered therein, and in the veering of winds and clouds which are held between the sky and the earth, are indeed Ayat (proofs, evidences, signs, etc.) for people of understanding.

2:164 Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow) - سورة البقرة