The life of Muslim women

The life of Muslim women

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Kato Satona

I didn’t think that Islam was kind to women. I heard Muslim women can’t wear what they want to, can’t drive car and can’t fall in love with man they chose freely. Are those true?

Fashion and Shopping

     Enjoying fashion is important things for women. Can Muslim women enjoy fashion? I am going to write about fashion in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries whose state religion is Islam. When I hear Saudi Arabian women, I imagine women wear cloth that coverer the whole body and masks. We can only see their eyes. So we think that they can’t enjoy fashion.

But, actually, there is no rule that decide what they should wear under the cloth called Abaya. Abaya is a cloth to cover from neck to foot like a mantle. Saudi Arabian women wear modern cloth under the Abaya. This is not only in Saudi Arabia but in many Islamic countries.

 Muslim women enjoy fashion, but they can show only women, their husband, parents, brother, father-in-low, nephew, a little children their cloth under the Abaya. This is the rule written in Koran (“Koran” chapter24:31). But, women want to stand out when they are in the place only for women or only relatives.

 So there are a lot of shopping malls. Recently, people in wealthy Islamic countries came to get information about the latest fashion by developing Internet, increasing the number of people who travel abroad. There are some European and American brand shops. Of course, there are a lot of shops that sale Abaya. There are many Abaya whose figure is modern.

And shopping malls also develop. Some shopping malls have the floor only for women. Men can’t enter that floor. Women enjoy shopping without Abaya or their mask called Niqab.

Love

     Generally, in Islamic country, women marry man who their parents introduce. There is little marriage for love. Muslim women don’t have opportunity to communicate with man except relatives. Muslim men can’t see even face of women except relatives.

Car

     In strict Islam country like Saudi Arabia, women can’t get a license. But there is movement to get the light to drive by women.

Women who are treated cruelly

     In Afghanistan, when the Taliban control country, women were treated cruelly. We can see cruel information or picture about their treatment of women. These have great influence on us. Some of us may have a misunderstanding of these. Taliban is one of the groups of Islamic fundamentalism. They are radicals. I want to write about radicals someday.  We should understand not all Islamic countries treat women cruelly.

Conclusion

     What do you think after read above? Is Islam country discriminatory for women? Is Islam country kind for women? There are a lot of rule restrict women’s action. Is it a rule for protecting women? There are a lot of answers because of our different perspectives.

References

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). (2012, March). A market survey of women fashion in Saudi Arabia. http://www.jetro.go.jp/jfile/report/07000937/sa_fashion.pdf

Sakurai, k. (2004, November). Women in modern Iran and Islam culture. ACCU News, 346, 4. http://www.accu.or.jp/jp/accunews/news346/346_01.pdf