'Insania in sania' A glimpse of humanity

Bachelorarbeit, Fachbereich Fashion Design, 8 Seiten, engl.

Summary:

In 2011, the French government announced that the Niqab and Burqa, a traditional Islamic veil that partially and entirely covers the body and face of a woman, is banned in the country.¹ In 2016, Berlin experienced the tragedy of a terrorist attack in one of its famous Christmas markets resulting in moral deaths. Following the event, Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, declared that the ‘full-face veils should be prohibited.’² Moving forward to 2018, BBC news headlines stated that Denmark implemented its first fine of approximately 133€ for a niqab woman after the ban of the veil issued earlier that week.³ In Western China, a secret ‘concentration’ camp has been indicted for locking up and detaining over hundreds of thousands of Muslims without a humane trial.⁴ Arising concerns of violating human rights, provoking counter-terror, extremizing Islamophobia leads to the questioning of what Islam is beyond the beliefs, subcultures, and fear. I chose to challenge the association of the religion of Islam with unreasonable norms by emphasizing the beauty within its traditions by combining of it with fashion, culture, and politics. In order to better understand the topic of Islam and its presence within Europe, it is important to juxtapose certain lexicon used to associate the cultural behavior of Muslims. First, there is a thin line separating religion and tradition based on beliefs and customs: As Mustafa Akyol, a columnist of Hurriyet Dailey news, a political commentator, and the author stated:

“If you’re going to speak about a Muslim culture, this has a core: the divine message which began the religion. But then many traditions, perceptions, practices were added on top of it. And these were traditions of the Middle East medieval traditions [...] the Westerners who look at Islamic culture and see some troubling aspects should not readily conclude that this is what Islam ordains. Maybe it’s a Middle Eastern culture that became confused with Islam.”⁵

Over time, traditional beliefs within the Islamic realm and the Middle East region progressed and became essential features to cultural values of a nation, and vice versa. Believing in religion and its customs results in a pattern of behavior passed along generations; ultimately, such repetition results in traditions. Conversely, as these patterns become part of people’s daily lives, they become less about religion and more about customs and traditions. In other words, the cultural inheritance feeds into the vicious cycle of religious mores expressed in societies.⁶ One of the traditions expressed, which is a common issue today in many Muslim families, is the restriction on having a female driving. Some families tend to oversee the fact that it is not stated in the Quran that women are not allowed to drive, thus limiting their freedom based on misinterpretations of a religious saying.⁷ Nevertheless, what we overlook today as traditions have deep roots in Islamic society, and vary from restrictions and behavior to cultural legacies. This is particularly evident when looking at the art world.

As a result of the ideological conflict of what is considered Islamic culture, there has been a neo-renaissance of its expression within Germany. According to Dick Hebdige on subculture: the unnatural break, he states: “Subculture represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media.’’28 This movement can be seen in parallel to the classical example of the punk subculture, as the sequence of events that lead to the rise of it has been reached today. The intensive publicity in the media of¬ten exaggerating its presence or possible benevolent or malevolent outcomes and the outraged reaction it resulted within people clearly suggests that an Arab Subculture has been growing.29 In the last, eight to ten years, Pop-Islam, the youth culture of second-generation Muslims, has emerged in Germany. Pop-Islamists started to express themselves as a response to their categorization under the umbrella of extremists and preachers of Islam. To reverse such labeling, they tend to invest in integrating within the society and defining themselves as essential and function¬ing elements of the city, or as conventional Germans in Germany. From a unanimous point of view through my research, society reacts to hijab people in the same way as they react to those dressed as punk as if their aesthetical choice defines them as aliens within the urban space. This estrangement of people of whom their sty¬listic choices do not fit into the pattern of the homogeneous society left a vacuum that allowed the growth of a new form of expression, where pop-Islamists redefine their identity as an attempt to lessen the friction in new countries.30 Therefore, the movement of Pop-Islam be¬came in the key in attempting to reshape the way in which is Islam is perceived and created a new concept of religion within the city. With that being said, it became its own form of fighting Islamophobia. Islamophobia is described by the violent interrelationship be¬tween the religion of Islam in the West and the blurred line distin¬guishing religion from beliefs and culture which leads to prejudice.31 As a result, the understanding of who and what are Muslims becomes simplified into acts of extremists and the religion becomes a synonym of terrorism. However, Nick Cohen, a journalist, and credited author, states “No one is as murderously 'Islamophobic' as Islamists are.”32 Accordingly, the rise of Islamophobia is due to lack of awareness of cultural differences where there is little to no distinguishing between the fundamentals of religion, terrorism, and cultural traditions. In addition, the overwhelming condemn Muslims produced toward all the terrorist attacks repeatedly is overlooked by the media. The neglection of the media to associate people of the Islamic faith with humane acts feeds into the beliefs of Islamophobic, who are kept from the full picture of the Islamic world. As I spent hours appreciating the vibrancy of the decorated ornaments at Pergamonmuseum on the Museumsinsel Berlin in the Islamische Kunst, it is hard to put into words the sensory flooding I experienced there. Islamic Art aggregates a range of art forms from decorated lettering and artifacts to perfectly geometric and organic patterns. To keep the scope of my research succinct, I chose spe¬cific aspects within the field to further explore through my collection, elaborating on my personal experience within traditions in the Islamic art world. The beauty of Islamic Art, which aggregates geometric and vegetal patterns and Arabic calligraphy, has been idiosyncratic throughout the art scene. It resembles the Islamic way of self-ex¬pressing due to the influence of beliefs from the Quran stating: As I spent hours appreciating the vibrancy of the decorated ornaments at Pergamonmuseum on the Museumsinsel Berlin in the Islamische Kunst, it is hard to put into words the sensory flooding I experienced there. Islamic Art aggregates a range of art forms from decorated lettering and artifacts to perfectly geometric and organic patterns. To keep the scope of my research succinct, I chose spe¬cific aspects within the field to further explore through my collection, elaborating on my personal experience within traditions in the Islamic art world. The beauty of Islamic Art, which aggregates geometric and vegetal patterns and Arabic calligraphy, has been idiosyncratic throughout the art scene. It resembles the Islamic way of self-ex¬pressing due to the influence of beliefs from the Quran stating: According to my understanding and the understanding of Is¬lamic scholars, this quote translates to that it is forbidden to illustrate images which mirror the human figure. As a result, the main features in art pieces are found within color choice and detailed yet perfect¬ly geometric patterns; these fit into single structures to tell their own story through decisions made by the artist during the process of cre¬ation.9 This is projected onto the ceiling of mosques, doors, fountains, and tile work used to decorate walls. In Morocco, the geometric pattern is one of the main charac¬teristics of the city of Marrakech. It is also known as Zellige, the mosa¬ic geometric tilework assembled together to ornament spaces, which flourished in the 16th century.10 Within my collection, a similar style of Zellige is quilted into my outfits; although, rather than illustrating the harmony of the pattern, I chose contrasting colors to portray the beauty of the diversity of Islamic traditions.11 Another main feature of Islamic traditions of art involves danc¬ing. One of the most famous dances of the Middle East is belly danc¬ing, which originated as a form of entertainment in nightclubs around the Arab World and especially in Cairo.12 There, it was first established and transformed into a cultural Egyptian style of controlled and pre¬cise movements of the hips. These movements emphasize the tor¬so of the dancer while the clothes are used as tools to highlight the grace of each of the dance moves.13 With that in mind, I was inspired to further explore the shape and movement of the garments of my collection while accentuating the torso as the center. The costumes involved in the dance trigger the hearing before the sight due to the clicking of the coins and metals which are found wrapped around the women’s hips and bust. These sensory fashion forms are also associated with the sound of the heels clicking on the concrete floor; it mesmerizes the audience. Over time, as belly dancing has traveled across countries and regions, it has evolved into different variations of its traditional dance form. This was echoed among different folk dances, such as Dabke. In the region of Greater Syria and along Tigris River, Dabke was born as a circular and lined dancing involving jumping and ‘stamping on the feet’. This dance is used on festive occasions, such as weddings and parties, as people hold hands to dance in a circular line while danc¬ing in sync. The form of dance started as a ritual to when the mud would crack in small communities as a result of weather changes. To make the floor even again, families would come together by holding hands and stomp the mud. Soon, music was added into the ritual and passed along generations a symbol of unity as a way to overcome struggles.14 To the present day, this dance form is popular, especially in Lebanon, where dancers spend time adding vibrant colors and patterns into their outfit as a way to showcase their culture. The outfit used, the Sherwal, is essential for the dance as it allows the dancer to freely move - to squat and jump - due to its excess amount of fabric on the legs.15 Differing from the previous dance form, Dabke is gender-inclusive, becoming more important for its folk roots use rather than the aesthetic appearance. Therefore, the concept of this baggy Sherwal, but with a modern twist by adding pleats, is manifested within my collection. By doing so, I incorporated tradition into my collection, but with a twist of my fashion interest. To conclude, I decided to challenge the prejudice towards Is¬lam through my collection, hoping to symbolize it as the opportunity to juncture closer towards the appreciation of diversity at its best shape and form. I was inspired by the traditional clothing used in dances, tech¬niques used for weaving, and pattern-making in the craft art realm in order to combine these assets with modern practices. I believe that re¬gardless of one’s ethnic background or religious belief, there is a thread that holds people all together. With that, each of my garment repre¬sents its own approach to my cultural understanding, with a hint of the pop-culture and its mix with the European world. Thus, incorporating the possibility of a vigorous and stimulating outcome within heterogeneity of cultures. 1 Vgl. Mathew Weaver, Burqa bans, headscarves and veils: a timeline of legislation in the west, in: The Guardian online from, Tue 14 Mar 2017 13.56 GMT, S.1 2 Ebd. (6 Dec 2018) Hill, Jenny, Angela Merkel endorses burka ban ‘wherever legally possible’, in: BBC news online from, S.1 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38226081 3 Vgl. (4 August 2018) Unknown, Denmark veil ban: First woman charged for wearing niqab in : BBC news online from, S.1, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45064237 4 Vgl. (27 December 2018), Sudworth, John, China’s hidden camps, in: BBC news online from, S.1, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps 5 Transcript of “Faith versus tradition in Islam”, Ted, https://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_akyol_faith_versus_tradition_in_islam… 6 (18 December 2018), Islamic culture, Wikepedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_culture 7 Vgl. Hamdan, Imani, “Women and Education in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Achievements”, International Education Journal, v6 n1 p42-64 Mar 2005 8 Ebd. abu talha al-ansari, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: Al-Musnadu Al-Sahihu bi Naklil Adli), circa 9th century 9 Vgl. Brend, Barbara: Islamic Art, Harvard University Press, 1991, S.62 10 Vgl. (2017)Morroco:The Art of Zelige in: The City Traveler,http://www.thecitytraveler.com/2010/04/morocco-the-colors-of-zelige/ 11 Vgl. Wilson, Eva, Islamic Designs for Artists and Crafts People, S.10 13 Vgl. (Dec 10,2014) What is Belly Dance? In: DanceUs.org, https://www.danceus.org/belly-dance/what-is-belly-dance/ 14 Vgl. Dabke: Study Guide and Program Information, in: Repertory Dance Theather, April 2017, S. 4-5 15 Vgl. The Dabke-An Arabic Folk Dance, in: History and Development of Dance/ Brockport, 9 May 2013, S.1 28 Ebd. Hebdige, Dick, Subcultures: The Meaning of Style, the unnatural break, ca. 1979, pp. 15-18 29 Vgl. Aly, Rami, ‘’Would-be Arab Youth Studies and the Revival of ‘Subculture’ in: Arab Subcultures: Transformations in Theory and Practice, I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2017, pp. 18 30 Vgl. Dr. Nordbruch, Götz , Cultural scene, in: Step into German - German(y) - The TOP 40 German Inventions - Goethe-Institut, December 2010, S.1 31 Vgl. ING, Where does Islamophobia come from? How can we push back against it? In: Islamic Networks Group (ING), S. 4 32 Ebd. Nick Cohen, The secret scandal of Britain’s caste system | Nick Cohen, in: The Guardian, 25 June 2011, S.1 33 (April 23, 2018) Merkel denounces new anti-Semitism from Arab refugees, The Local, https://www.thelocal.de/20180423/merkel-denounces-new-anti-semitism-fro…