Islamic-style fashion? The women are swimming in it

By AMBERIN ZAMAN
Los Angeles Times

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Reha Muhtar, a popular Turkish writer, was vacationing on Turkey's Aegean coast when he saw two young women, hair tucked under hoods, bodies cloaked in ankle-length outfits, diving off an expensive yacht.

"Not in all my years had I ever seen anything quite so bizarre," Muhtar wrote in a recent column in the daily Sabah newspaper.

The women were wearing Islamic-style swimwear that is becoming popular among religious women who want to bathe without baring their flesh. The outfit consists of a full-body suit and hood that is pulled over a tightly fitted bonnet. A long vest completes the ensemble.

Muhtar's column has touched off furious debate on the merits of such outfits in a country where most women wear Western-style swimwear, and some even go topless.

Yet the flurry of opinion has remained refreshingly free of the politics engulfing the Islamic-style head scarf, which is banned in Turkey as a symbol of religious militancy in all government institutions and schools. Rather, the emphasis has been on style.

"Silly, tasteless and weird," wrote Ahmet Hakan, a commentator in the daily Hurriyet.

Hakan's assertion that modest women should forgo swimming rather than ridicule themselves in such gear has angered some conservatives. Mustafa Karaduman, the founder of Turkey's biggest Islamic-style fashion chain, Tekbir Giyim, or Allah Is Great Clothing, went so far as to suggest that Hakan was a poor Muslim.

All of this is welcome publicity for Mehmet Sahin, who while attending law school designed the first modesty-style bathing suit in 1993 not for women, but men.

"As a pious Muslim, I wanted to wear a bathing costume that did not cling to my genitals," he said in a recent interview. His baggy, mid-calf-length shorts became an instant hit with similarly religious-minded students.

Sahin, who abandoned law, has branched out into women's swimwear and now commands the country's largest Islamic swimwear empire, Hasema. His customers include Hayrunnisa Gul, the wife of the Turkish foreign minister.

Sahin's latest collection features special material that lets the sun through. "Customers who want a tan can now get one without undressing," Sahin boasted.

Sociologists say the success of Islamic-style fashion is closely linked to the surge in upward mobility of religious Turks. "For this new Islamic bourgeoisie, clothes have increasingly become a vehicle for asserting status rather than piety," said Jenny B. White, an anthropologist at Boston University who has written extensively on Islam in Turkey.

Designer head scarves have become ubiquitous in such circles. Favored by the wife of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the British designer Burberry, with its trademark plaid print, is among the most popular.

It is not just the garment industry cashing in. Business is booming at liquor-free hotels with segregated beaches that speckle Turkey's coast. Away from male eyes, women sun themselves in the most daring bikinis at such establishments.

Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal, an Islamic theologian and advocate of women's rights, notes that such resorts are unaffordable for most Turks.

Islamic-style bathing suits enable religiously observant Turks to enjoy the country's beaches "just like any other citizen," she said.

Tuksal owns three Hasema models and insists they are very comfortable.

They can also be downright sexy, fashion photographer Zeynel Abidin Aggul told Sabah, the newspaper, during a recent photo shoot: "Wherever there are women, there is eroticism. A bit of ankle ... . a pair of eyes is all it takes."