A Muslim woman wears what pleases Allah and doesn’t make her weird in the community! Wearing an abayah is the Norm. Wanting to wear colorful clothes in order to impress others is prohibited.

Back in India, Muslim women wear a variety of colours and styles of the traditional salwar kameez, just like the rest of the women. But because they add a headscarf and dress in loose garments, with a long shawl draped over themselves, they appear distinct and are recognized as Muslim women. In Qatar, where I presently reside in however, I find most practicing Muslim women are increasingly giving up their country’s traditional dress code to adopt the Gulf-style black/plain abaya and the fitted niqab, for a variety of reasons including convenience, comfort, ‘fitting in’, being more cautious about one’s appearance and so on. While I do wear abayas, I am not comfortable in using them each time I step out of the house. I’d like to wear more colours (not just black or plain) and different but modestly-styled clothing which meet the conditions of the Islamic hijab but I am not sure if we can dress like this in a mixed community. Please confirm. (FYI, while majority of women wear abayas, there are many others who dress in other clothing such as long, loose skirts and blouses, gowns, shalwar-kameez and so on in public)