Over the last several years, the world Islam has taken on many meanings and Muslim people have been cast into contrasting roles in Western society. Since the early 2000s, the media has been flooded with news regarding Islamic nations and people of Muslim faith, both good and bad. This has lead people, particularly within the United States, to gain an understanding of what a Muslim person should look like, act like, and believe. Our American understanding has been heavily impacted by stereotypes and traditions that are representative of Muslim people, with many of our preconceived notions of Islam coming from Muslims themselves. We have begun to see Muslims, in particular, Muslim women, taking on more secular identities that transcend cultural tradition over the later half of the decade, with women like Malala Yousafzai and Linda Sarsour destroying stereotypes left and right. However, our physical perception of Muslim women has generally remained the same—with the stereotype being that Muslim women are generally from Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern countries, are born into their faith, and present themselves in a traditionally modest fashion.
Each of the three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, are rooted in conservative values which centralize on patriarchy, however, we have come to accept secular forms of Christianity and Judaism within our society. There are plenty of people who identify as Christian or Jewish who express themselves with tattoos and their faith is not brought into question, yet for Muslim people—tattoos are still considered haram or forbidden.
With the help of MTV and the Huffington Post, Kendyl Noor Aurora, a modest fashion blogger from Albany New York has gained public attention for being one of the first tattooed Hijabis.
Over the last several years, the world Islam has taken on many meanings and Muslim people have been cast into contrasting roles in Western society. Since the early 2000s, the media has been flooded with news regarding Islamic nations and people of Muslim faith, both good and bad. This has lead people, particularly within the United States, to gain an understanding of what a Muslim person should look like, act like, and believe. Our American understanding has been heavily impacted by stereotypes and traditions that are representative of Muslim people, with many of our preconceived notions of Islam coming from Muslims themselves. We have begun to see Muslims, in particular, Muslim women, taking on more secular identities that transcend cultural tradition over the later half of the decade, with women like Malala Yousafzai and Linda Sarsour destroying stereotypes left and right. However, our physical perception of Muslim women has generally remained the same—with the stereotype being that Muslim women are generally from Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern countries, are born into their faith, and present themselves in a traditionally modest fashion.
Each of the three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, are rooted in conservative values which centralize on patriarchy, however, we have come to accept secular forms of Christianity and Judaism within our society. There are plenty of people who identify as Christian or Jewish who express themselves with tattoos and their faith is not brought into question, yet for Muslim people—tattoos are still considered haram or forbidden.
With the help of MTV and the Huffington Post, Kendyl Noor Aurora, a modest fashion blogger from Albany New York has gained public attention for being one of the first tattooed Hijabis.