Die arabische abaya in Malaysia

Verhandlungen von muslimischen Kleidungspraktiken, weiblicher Körperlichkeit und Modernität

Abstract

Ways of dressing play an important role in bodily self-representations and in communicating one's self-image to the outside world. In Malaysia, a country with a predominantly Muslim population, a trend has emerged of Muslim Malay women increasingly wearing the abaya, the long black cloak which is usually worn by Arab women. Some female Arab tourists, however, take off the abaya when on holiday in Malaysia, thus evading bodily restrictions in their home countries. In this article I argue that, through the use of the abaya, Muslim women (and, to a certain extent, men as well), are negotiating not just their respective interpretations and concepts of Islam, but modernity as well.