Fashion Is Evolution and Religion Is Anti-Evolution
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
13
September 2023
"Religious fashion is still fashion. It
has its own history, evolution, and iterations of style. It requires skill and
craftsmanship to achieve a certain effect. Modesty and beauty can coexist, and
even complement each other. But beauty can’t coexist with bad taste, and that’s
what this ruling leaves in my mouth."
A Muslim reader in The Independent (UK)
A young woman wearing an abaya, centre, on a
street in Nantes, western France, on August 31, 2023 [File: Loic Venance/AFP]
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I'm afraid
this reminded me of Hugh Hefner's (The founder of Playboy) famous quote that,
'The oxymoronic term religious fashion sounds like holy porn.'
The French
court has justifiably upheld the ban on wearing abayas in schools. Fashion is
evolution and religion is simply anti-evolution. So, it's indeed ridiculous to
say that abaya is an expression of religious fashion. Both cannot go hand in
hand. You either follow fashion and new trends or follow your sartorial
specifications as Qur’anic or Islamic commandment. To project an abaya as a
fashion statement is like having your cake and eating it too.
Humans have
an embedded natural proclivity to appear nice and good-looking to their fellow
humans. There's nothing wrong with that. We're all appearance conscious
individuals. And why shouldn't we be? But the problem arises when a
religious-minded person tries to follow appearance-related diktats of his/her
religion and the natural inclination to look beautiful and trendy. Somewhere
deep down they know that however 'trendy' a burqa or abaya or a turban (in the
case of a Sikh) may be, all these are manifestations of compromised fashion.
But these people are torn between fashion and faith. So, they justify an abaya
as a fashion statement or a turban as something very stylish. The fact is, a
handsome man can never look that handsome if he wears a turban as a religious
symbol or a lovely damsel will never look breathtakingly beautiful if she wears
an abaya or a Hijab. Kabir Bedi looked handsome when he wore a turban but he
looked gorgeous when he stopped wearing it.
Now coming
back to the French government banning abayas in public and at schools and
colleges, it's the government's basic right. If Muslims don't approve of it,
they can go back to North Africa. By the way, most of the Muslims crowding and
infesting France are from North African Muslim countries like Algeria (maximum)
and Morocco. It'll be in the fitness of things if the French government bans
all religious symbols and totems of all faiths like turban, carrying a dagger
(what nonsense!), sporting a beard in accordance with one's faith and
displaying tilak, rosary and tripundi. All these symbols differentiate and
pigeonhole humans. Do away with them.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including
Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/fashion-evolution-religion/d/130662
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