World documentary, goes behind-the-
scenes at Ala , a glossy women’s
monthly magazine aimed at Muslim
women who think that fashion and
Islam are compatible.
The magazine has 30 000 readers,
serving a market that has grown
rapidly in recent years for women
who wear the hijab (headscarf) but
want to dress fashionably, with colour
and style. It reflects the way a new,
female middle class has emerged in
Turkey, less worried about being
socially accepted and more
comfortable sharing public spaces
with secularists.
Ala sets trends for the roughly
500 ‘conservative fashion’ companies,
a multi-billion-dollar industry
where modest dress no longer means
just ‘pardessus ’ tunics but includes
colours, glossy magazines and high
street ‘ hijabi fashion’ stores.
But Ala has its female critics who feel
it’s promoting consumerism and, by
revealing ‘feminine curves,’ is
immodest and ‘portrays women as
sexual objects’.
Cover Story screens on Al Jazeera
World on Saturday, 9 May at 20:00.
Via media update
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