In Mecca Cola and Burqinis: Muslim Consumption and Religious Identities, Nabil Echchaibi discusses the growing and gigantic Islamic marketplace. Islam, as with most religious traditions today, have had to find new ways to reinvent, 'sell' or market their values and ideologies as the world has changed. For instance, last week we discussed religious communication and prayer through social media platforms and now we discuss consumption and religious products.
An at first seeming-paradox of some of these anti-Western sentiment products is that although they denounce and serve as a means for campaigning against said Western or American values, they use the very Western framework (capitalist consumer market, mimicked products) to achieve the success' of their products. Upon closer inspection these business practices may not be paradoxes at all as 'their creative inversion- not rejection- of the flow of global cultural products' and their aversion and denunciation of the secular or Western market really aides and reinforces their religious identities, which in themselves is anti-Western (Echchaibi 2012, p. 32). In fact it could be a genius and witty business and social move; to renounce disliked values or social systems by using the very same social system to renounce it. Such clever witticism. It's more than that, it's the king of all rebuttals in a wordless, consumeristic debate!
In the article Echchaobi discusses the Fulla barbie-esque doll, created for young Muslim girls. The Fulla does mimic the original Barbie but the big difference is obviously that it invests it with new values (Echchaibi 2012). I do partially disagree with the article when it seems to infer that the burqa and other aspects of the Fulla is an exemplification of patriarchy. By all means, of course this can be the case in some instances, but it is not the rule. In her book Barefoot in Baghdad, Manal Omar discusses as an American born Muslim working for an NGO in Iraq, she was belittled, laughed at and even insulted for wearing the burqa and traditional Muslim female attire. When her local compatriots found out she was American, the laughter reached a crescendo. In the area Manal was working, the women fancied themselves as fashionably progressive Muslims. They definitely were not wearing skimpy Western clothes and the women's fashion identity was still strongly Middle Eastern, but within Manal's working circle, the burqa was seen as terribly archaic.
I also had a close Muslim friend of mine whose husband is indifferent to the niqab, however she chooses to wear it as her interpretation is romantic. She told me the idea of a part of you being saved and only being seen by your love was the most beautiful idea she could have imagined. I cannot do her words justice, when she described it to me though, I thought wow! How beautifully poetic. In addition she did note that she also enjoyed not having the pressure of looks, figure and body. She said what better way to have control over your own sexual and romantic self, where your partner can only judge you on your true inner self and not be swayed by outwardly appearances, ultimate female control. She does have a point there. Besides the Muslims fashion industry for the burqa and niqab is amazing and growing very fast! My friend could be described as what I call an archaic modernist. The whole idea of people seeing an ancient or older tradition as being romantic, whimsical or tres chic. For instance, when young people decide to become a 'fashionable Buddhist' or New AGe. As in the romanticism of historical ritual, philosophy and orthopraxy is so appealing due to it's age. Even vintage clothing etc.
References
Echchaibi N. 2012 Mecca Cola and Burquinis: Muslim Consumption and Religious Identities. In Lynch G. and J. Mitchell with A. Strhan. Eds., Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader. pp. 31-39. London and New York: Routledge.
Omar N. 2012 Barefoot in Baghdad: A story of Identity, My Own and What it Means to be a Woman in Chaos. Sourcebooks: Chicago
Photo
http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=243658
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBJmj5l0Z6M
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