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Muslim Fashionistas in Contemporary TurkeyDevoted Mothers, Benevolent Philanthropists, and Leisure Enthusiasts

Muslim Fashionistas in Contemporary TurkeyDevoted Mothers, Benevolent Philanthropists, and... Turkey’s Islamic fashion market transformed during the 2010s with the entry of young, bourgeois, fashion-conscious Muslim female entrepreneurs. As designers, manufacturers, and retailers, these “Muslim fashionistas” not only gained the attention of young Muslim women but also became lifestyle gurus, projecting images of the successful entrepreneur, the ideal mother, the benevolent philanthropist, and the leisure enthusiast. This combination of roles resonates with the notion of the “ideal Muslim woman” promoted by the government. But its performance entails moments of imperfection and moral dilemma, as the demands of capitalism and consumerism place Muslim fashionistas in opposition to the teachings of their faith and traditional gender regimes. Drawing on practice theory, and on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Istanbul, this article explores Muslim fashionistas’ everyday performances in the fields of family, charity, and leisure. The objective is to analyze how these agents negotiate and interpret quotidian inconsistencies between their religious and social ideals and those ideals’ manifestation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Duke University Press

Muslim Fashionistas in Contemporary TurkeyDevoted Mothers, Benevolent Philanthropists, and Leisure Enthusiasts

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Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies
ISSN
1552-5864
eISSN
1558-9579
DOI
10.1215/15525864-9306860
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Turkey’s Islamic fashion market transformed during the 2010s with the entry of young, bourgeois, fashion-conscious Muslim female entrepreneurs. As designers, manufacturers, and retailers, these “Muslim fashionistas” not only gained the attention of young Muslim women but also became lifestyle gurus, projecting images of the successful entrepreneur, the ideal mother, the benevolent philanthropist, and the leisure enthusiast. This combination of roles resonates with the notion of the “ideal Muslim woman” promoted by the government. But its performance entails moments of imperfection and moral dilemma, as the demands of capitalism and consumerism place Muslim fashionistas in opposition to the teachings of their faith and traditional gender regimes. Drawing on practice theory, and on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Istanbul, this article explores Muslim fashionistas’ everyday performances in the fields of family, charity, and leisure. The objective is to analyze how these agents negotiate and interpret quotidian inconsistencies between their religious and social ideals and those ideals’ manifestation.

Journal

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies – Duke University Press

Published: Nov 1, 2021

References

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    Buğra, Ayşe Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
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    Dahlgren, Susanne Schielke, Samuli Dahlgren, Susanne Schielke, Samuli
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    Fadil, Nadia
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    Fadil, Nadia Fernando, Mayanthi
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    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
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    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
  • ‘Even I Was Tempted’: The Moral Ambivalence and Ethical Practice of Veiling-Fashion in Turkey
    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
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    Jones, Carla
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    Jones, Carla
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    Kamer, Cihan
  • Bargaining with Patriarchy
    Kandiyoti, Deniz
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    Kılıçbay, Barış Binark, Mutlu
  • Piety, Fashion, and Festivity in a Modest Fashion Shopping Mall in Istanbul
    Kütük-Kuriş, Merve
  • Marketing Muslim Lifestyle: A New Media
    Lewis, Reina Gökarıksel, Banu McLarney, Ellen
  • Fashion Forward and Faith-tastic! Online Modest Fashion and the Development of Women as Religious Interpreters and Intermediaries
    Lewis, Reina Lewis, Reina
  • Housewifisation of Women: Contexualising Gendered Patterns of Paid and Unpaid Work
    Memiş, Emel Öneş, Umut Kızılırmak, and Burça Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion, and Society in Sana
    Moors, Annelies
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    Navaro-Yashin, Yael Kandiyoti, Deniz Saktanber, Ayşe
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    Sandıkçı, Özlem Ger, and Güliz
  • Veiling in Fashion: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?
    Sandıkçı, Özlem Ger, Güliz
  • Eroding the Symbolic Significance of Veiling? The Islamic Fashion Magazine, Consumerism, and the Challenged Boundaries of the Islamic Neighborhood
    Sayan-Cengiz, Feyda
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    Schielke, Samuli J.
  • Being Good in Ramadan: Ambivalence, Fragmentation, and the Moral Self in the Lives of Young Egyptians
    Schielke, Samuli J.
  • Living with Unresolved Differences: A Reply to Fadil and Fernando
    Schielke, Samuli J.
  • The State of Female Labor in the Impasse of the Neoliberal Market and the Patriarchal Family
    Toksöz, Gülay Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Three Steps to a Historical Anthropology of Actually Existing Neoliberalism
    Wacquant, Loic
  • Islamic Chic
    White, Jenny Keyder, Çağlar
  • The Return to the Family: Welfare, State, and Politics of the Family in Turkey
    Yazıcı, Berna
  • ‘A Way to Paradise’: Pious Neoliberalism, Islam, and Faith-Based Development
    Atia, Mona
  • Variegated Neoliberalization: Geographies, Modalities, Pathways
    Brenner, Neil Peck, Jamie Theodore, Nik
  • The Changing Welfare Regime of Turkey: Neoliberalism, Cultural Conservatism, and Social Solidarity Redefined
    Buğra, Ayşe Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Moral Ambiguities and Muslim Lives
    Dahlgren, Susanne Schielke, Samuli Dahlgren, Susanne Schielke, Samuli
  • Visible Hands—Invisible Women: Garment Production in Turkey
    Dedeoğlu, Saniye
  • Gender, Society, and the Welfare State in Turkey
    Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, A. Yavuz Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Erdoğan: Başbakan Olarak Talebim ‘En Az Üç Çocuk’
    Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip
  • Managing Affects and Sensibilities: The Case of Not Handshaking and Not Fasting
    Fadil, Nadia
  • Rediscovering the ‘Everyday’ Muslim: Notes on an Anthropological Divide
    Fadil, Nadia Fernando, Mayanthi
  • Between Fashion and Tesettür: Marketing and Consuming Women’s Islamic Dress
    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
  • Islamic-ness in the Life of a Commodity: Veiling Fashion in Turkey
    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
  • ‘Even I Was Tempted’: The Moral Ambivalence and Ethical Practice of Veiling-Fashion in Turkey
    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
  • Post-secular Geographies and the Problem of Pluralism: Religion and Everyday Life in Istanbul, Turkey
    Gökarıksel, Banu Secor, Anna
  • The Brewing of Islamist Modernity: The Gardens and Public Space in Istanbul
    Houston, Christopher
  • Why So Few Women in the Labor Market in Turkey?
    İlkkaracan, İpek
  • Piety, Profit, and the Market in Cairo: A Political Economy of Islamisation
    Ismail, Salwa Dahlgren, Susanne Schielke, Samuli
  • Fashion and Faith in Urban Indonesia
    Jones, Carla
  • Materializing Piety: Gendered Anxiety about Faithful Consumption in Contemporary Urban Indonesia
    Jones, Carla
  • Kendisi de Bilmez ama İçkisiz Huqqa Fikri Murat Ülker’den
    Kamer, Cihan
  • Bargaining with Patriarchy
    Kandiyoti, Deniz
  • Consumer Culture, Islam, and the Politics of Lifestyle: Fashion for Veiling in Contemporary Turkey
    Kılıçbay, Barış Binark, Mutlu
  • Piety, Fashion, and Festivity in a Modest Fashion Shopping Mall in Istanbul
    Kütük-Kuriş, Merve
  • Marketing Muslim Lifestyle: A New Media
    Lewis, Reina Gökarıksel, Banu McLarney, Ellen
  • Fashion Forward and Faith-tastic! Online Modest Fashion and the Development of Women as Religious Interpreters and Intermediaries
    Lewis, Reina Lewis, Reina
  • Housewifisation of Women: Contexualising Gendered Patterns of Paid and Unpaid Work
    Memiş, Emel Öneş, Umut Kızılırmak, and Burça Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion, and Society in Sana
    Moors, Annelies
  • The Market for Identities: Secularism, Islamism, Commodities
    Navaro-Yashin, Yael Kandiyoti, Deniz Saktanber, Ayşe
  • Actually Existing Neoliberalism
    Peck, Jamie Brenner, Neil Theodore, Nik Cahill, Damien Cooper, Melinda Konings, Martijn Primrose, David
  • Child and Elder Care Providers: Women in Informal Sector
    Rittersberger-Tılıç, Helga Kalaycıoğlu, Sibel Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Hem İstihdam Hem Aile Uyumu
    Şahin, Fatma
  • ‘Becoming the ‘Other’ as a Muslim in Turkey: Turkish Women vs. Islamist Women
    Saktanber, Ayşe
  • In-between Modernities and Postmodernities: Theorizing Turkish Consumptionscape
    Sandıkçı, Özlem Ger, Güliz
  • Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics of the Turkish Headscarf
    Sandıkçı, Özlem Ger, Güliz Küchler, Susanne Miller, Daniel
  • Constructing and Representing the Islamic Consumer in Turkey
    Sandıkçı, Özlem Ger, and Güliz
  • Veiling in Fashion: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?
    Sandıkçı, Özlem Ger, Güliz
  • Eroding the Symbolic Significance of Veiling? The Islamic Fashion Magazine, Consumerism, and the Challenged Boundaries of the Islamic Neighborhood
    Sayan-Cengiz, Feyda
  • Ambivalent Commitments: Troubles of Morality, Religiosity, and Aspiration among Young Egyptians
    Schielke, Samuli J.
  • Being Good in Ramadan: Ambivalence, Fragmentation, and the Moral Self in the Lives of Young Egyptians
    Schielke, Samuli J.
  • Living with Unresolved Differences: A Reply to Fadil and Fernando
    Schielke, Samuli J.
  • The State of Female Labor in the Impasse of the Neoliberal Market and the Patriarchal Family
    Toksöz, Gülay Dedeoğlu, Saniye Elveren, Adem Yavuz
  • Three Steps to a Historical Anthropology of Actually Existing Neoliberalism
    Wacquant, Loic
  • Islamic Chic
    White, Jenny Keyder, Çağlar
  • The Return to the Family: Welfare, State, and Politics of the Family in Turkey
    Yazıcı, Berna