This phenomenon is becoming a trend called ‘Muslim Chic’. There is a similar hashtag #muslimchic which is gaining popularity on Instagram. These women are representatives of this social group and they are becoming the subject of media interest and researchers.
“It’s not that the girls who love traditional but first-class things did not exist before. It is just that they are gradually increasing in number and as their opinion spreads they are starting to talk about it more,” The Financial Times reported 29-year-old Hyulya Aslan as saying.
Hyulya is a former employee of a local women's magazine, Alâ Dergi, and now is a marketing consultant developing strategies for new brands for ‘Muslim chic’.
It is obvious that if a woman stays at home and is engaged only in household chores, she doesn’t have any particular requirements regarding her clothes, accessories and cosmetics.
“But if she works, goes to university, she needs very different things,” Farkan Ortakayya, founder of one of the country's first fashion brands specializing in traditional clothing ‘Kayra’, said.
In the last few years there was a boom in the conservative clothing industry, which not only brought the Turks what they wanted, beautiful but modest things, but also made them an important economic force in the country, especially as dozens of brands were working for them.
Some brands are well known to western ‘fashionistas’, whereas, others are unknown outside the Islamic world.
Hashtags like #muslimchic, #hijabchic, #modesty, #modestfashion are popular not only in Turkey but also in other secular Muslim countries.
Hyulya Arslan, who has more than 400 thousand subscribers on Instagram, says that there is a lot of online criticism towards her. Opponents of the ‘Islamic chic’ say that glamor and religion are not compatible. They believe that it encourages empty vanity and consumerism in girls and pushes them to sin.
“Prophet Muhammad encouraged the desire of women to adorn themselves, but that does not mean you have to wear bright make-up and spend thousands on a scarf,” said Turkish author Sam Marasli, who writes about the role of women in Islam.
But according to Aslan, such traditional critics want Muslim women to simply remain at home and not attempt to study or work.
