Liberal Raiments?

Dear Miss/Ms/Mrs Khan,

How many women who wear chador are currently holding high level office in Pakistan?

Just adding another angle to the dress for those special occasions.

To exude a touch of sensuality and a mild tingling sensation, which is not to be confused with vulgarity, the dress has to be under-stated and of a darker shade. No frills and flappers. They create a distraction.

It should be just tight enough to accentuate at the right places letting the erogenous body mass, both above and below, to glow out of it.

The neckline to be deep enough to show both of them parting. Not too deep or it would be distracting.

Add to that, a smiling face (not lips), a haunting look with a fleeting eye contact with the target. Upright with hair occasionally thrown back. Deep voice. Delibrate breathing. Short halting phrases.

That should create a stir & electric in the air with target slipping, getting confused and tending to melt.

Re: Jay
That is exactly what I had gone on and on about, that one does not have to monkey anyone for societal and peer approval. Dress the way you think is right, culturally senstive.
For those who think I dragged religion into my piece, sorry I never did so deliberately.
Re nazarhayatkhan: To each man his own.
Re: Tahmed32: Thanks a lot for the rule of thumb, luckily I already was well aware of it and that saves me from a new wardrobe shopping spree.

Finally! An article on something that REALLY matters: covering up the furless skin of the human being. Hear the tragic cry that arises from millions of homes across the globe every evening: ``I have NOTHING to wear``, as the lady of the house examines her closet full of clothes in preparation for a dinner out. Listen to the man with enough cologne on him be mistaken for a French whore who went around the world`s capitals, and all he can talk about is that great tailor he found in Bangkok. In the subcontinent, my extensive research indicates, women have discovered the shalwar kameez, which makes my panjabi chest swell with price (evan as pathans claim panjanis stole the dress from them).
So what does one wear? Use the...
Simple rule of thumb: Any dress that does not draw attention to itself, or to any part of your anatomy, may be considered a dress in good taste. Anything else, and you are dressed in bad taste.
Corollary (call it the Tahmed Theory of Dress Relativity): a dress may be in good taste at one place or occasion, and in bad taste at another place of occasion. shalwar kameez is a dress in good taste on the streets of Rawalpindi. It is a dress in bad taste in an office in NYC. And vice versa for a business suit and necktie.
If this is the first time you heard of this rule of thumb, then it is time to buy new clothes.

Welcome to CHOWK aaisha khan

Good to see someone give fashion a dressing down!

Ras

Poor religion is dragged into everything. That nut Zia wanted to Islamize mathematics, history, geography, everything. How would you Islamize philosophy?

Dress has something to do with culture and its modesty has to do something with the prevailing times, value systems and with the norms of the society.

As for me, frankly, I find Hijab and Burka quite erotic!

aaisha,

This is typical of the so called educated writing by the pakistanis. You criticise the western clothing as imitations, assert that clothing has nothing to do with liberalism.

You fail to admit that the burkka that the pakistanis are wearing is an imitation of the arabs. You are only using the modern terms to present yourself as a modern person while supporting the burkka with out really admitting to it.

As can be expected, a nation founded on hatred is incapable of any form of creativity. Then again, in an islamic country everything is in the book, what does the book say about western attires.

Aaisha and everyone else: Salam.

Well, I read through your article, and I definitely agree with you about not labelling people at first sight. I don`t know about you, but I`m alwasy torn when I ask myself what exactly I define as `liberal`, `Islamic` and I guess now more than ever, `secular`.
Sorry I`m bringing religion into this; but I think that Pakistan being a majority-Muslim nation at the end of the day (like it or not) has everything to do with how we, and the general public (lets, for the sake of argument, assume to be generally more conservative than Chowk`s patrons) view sensitive issues such as dressing, etc.
Let me just clarify first, that I`m not going to side with the Maulvi`s view, nor the liberal`s view.
I think with issues such as dressing, skin-baring, etc, there can`t be any hard and fast rules for decision-making. Though you`re absolutely right about not judging people by their appearance, one thing that must be said is that morality is one of themost difficult things to describe. Time-honored traditions of reverence of one people can be seen as absolute superstition or even barbarism by another (Read Wole Soyinka`s ``Death and The King`s Horseman``). When I tell someone ``I think what you`re doing is quite immoral``, it is only validated by the context I and the person I`m addressing are living in.
You can`t expect to see a Zulu tribesman in his minimal clothing and accuse him of exposing his `Aura`, because it is more than likely that your context and his, are very, very dissimilar.
Enter the concept of religion; Abrahamic religion. Religion, as those who understand it to some extent will tell you, is always a way of life. It`s not true just for Islam. In America, it was planned from the moment the US Constitution was penned, that there would defintely be separation between the Church and State. That model is clearly evident today. In my three years as an undergrad here, I`ve come to realise that even within Christianity, there are the `believers`, and the `non-believers`, in the sense that religious (I`m not talking about Orthodox) Christians will always dress moderately. You may ask, what is moderation?
Well, moderation ties in with the concept of morals, which again tie in with the concept of context. But here lies the beauty of religion (I only know about Abrahamic religions, no disrespect intended towards other faiths). Judaism, Christianity and Islam, when interpreted properly, all lay down pretty much the same morals, thereby putting us all in more or less the same context(s). What is considered reavealing clothing by a `conservative` Muslim would, more or less, be considered reavealing by a conservative Christian and Jew.
As an example, back when Israel was not the semi-secular state it is now, Orthodox Jews had made it a routine to take to the bazaars and streets on I think Sundays, and throw rocks at women wearing shorts and otehr `revealing clothing`. Our Maulvis are just as efficient to pelt diatribes out at `inferior` women through their loudspeakers.
Since we (the modern world being overwhelmingly populated by Muslims, Christians and Jews)are all in the same context, our gut feelings DO, don`t deny it, tell us what is revealing and what is not. One could argue that Islam still asks too much of a woman, ``You know,with the Hijaab and all...``, but the hijaab is in essence, the only difference you could see between a conservative Muslim woman and her Christian and Jewish counterparts. Things like the Saudi `abaya`, the desi `burqa`; I`m no expert on Islam, but I have always thought these things to be more regional and ethnic than Islam. We can`t even call them cultural...would we be referring to `religiously` cultural or `ethnically` cultural?
I think the problem that led you to write your piece, and rightfully so, lies with Pakistani society`s wrangle between religious, and ethnic culture (by ethnic I`m implying people indigenous to Pakistan). My sister wears a hijaab, and lives abroad. Abroad, she`ll wear pants, sneakers and anything else anyone else does, and her hijaab. When she`s in Pakistan, she`ll wear her hijaab with a shalwaar qameez. But the moment she puts on a pari of track pants and a sweat shirt with her hijaab in Lahore, she`ll get stares,stares and more stares. See, I guess it IS different. But her argument is that it`s Islamically O.K.; the garb she has on, as long as so-and-so is covered, etc. But the reason for the stares is indeed, society`s unfamiliarty with `Western` dress. Yes, we can all lie to ourselves about Pakistan being a modern nation now, complete with Indus Music and cable TV, but values will take time to change. And even if they do, will they be going in the right direction?
Who will decide? When will they decide? I think you can argue on and on about an issue, but if given proper, respectful insight and thought, the ultimate argument(s) is(are) made by religion. I know that`s very hard for a lot of people to absorb, but hey, this is just MY reply, with my opinion!
Secularity is important, because religion in itself is not halfway as closed as today`s zealots have maimed it to be. However, where do we decide `how much` secularity to add into the brew? I mean, secularity was Attaturk`s hope of removing the `stagnant Islam` the later Caliphs had infected society with, but on its way to recovery, Turkey went a bit too secular, and we all know Turkey approaching dormancy within the Ummah.
Well, that`s where religion comes in. I`m not an expert, but I have enough faith, in faith, to see the answers to lie within. The way I see it, some secular ideas are not too different from divine ones; its just how the religious ones have been interpreted that changes perspectives. The arguments in the holy books, the words of God Himself, make too much sense to me to consider choices otherwise.

Aaisha.

I thank you for your thoughts regarding dress. Gave some good insights. Your style of writing, however, oof Allah! Must you use such a passive voice? How about picking up Strunk & White - Elements of Style - and looking into the use of the Active voice? It will make your writing much more powerful. You have good thoughts. Don`t let your writin be like a tiny little breeze that may, gently, carress us. Smack us with your words. Slap us with your words.

Some people. like my own mother, are apprehensive of the new trends in clothing. It has nothing to do with modesty, they are apprehensive of new (or modern) trends in literature, education, philosophy and religion as well. They have a conservative mindset.

Others, like my father, welcome new trends, accept the changes and become a part of the new (modern) world. They can be referred to as liberal. They accept changes.

Changes and modern trends of the society are not always from modest to immodest. Sometimes they are the other way round. A conservative person will tend to argue about the immodesty of the new trends if they`re the former type and their disagreement from the socio-cultural norms if theyre the latter type, the fact of the matter is, some people apprehend changes, and anybody, no matter how immodest they are or whether they go to co educational colleges, who apprehends new trends is conservative.

This article revolves more around how girls and women dress up. Here in the Pakistani society, you can guess almost to certainty, by the appearance of a girl, what her parents(or Husand) score on the conservative-to-liberal scale.

For guys in the urban middle class Pakistani society, appearance does not depict much. I knew of a guy who was 25 and his father forced him to have a long taleban style beard, wear a nimaz-cap, shalwar kameez and did not let him watch cricket.

re: 12-head


{Dress Islamically !!! }

...why don`t we put you in a hijab and tighten it around your neck and cranium till you get blue?...

Our society is judgemental to say the least and, more often than not, people definitely will form an opinion about a person based on his/her appearence without actually giving the person a chance to prove themselves. Not that it does not happen in the `other side of the world`.........but I guess it plays a pivotal role in the desi culture, so to speak and not that I am denying that we are not plagued by it ourselves!!!!!!!!

ps: apologies...almost creatd a new name...s/b aaisha!

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Uh...yeah....but how many of those chadored women hold positions of power in Pakistan today, hhmmm?

aaisah:

interesting sartorial musings...

understanding of people involves several levels of perceptions and assimilations of those perceptions in our mind for the final profile...

...manners and mores, appearrence, carriage, conversation, all contributes in part ...as does the sartorial elegance or its absence...why they do or should they are another set or rhetorical questions...

...t