Sunday, October 11, 2009

Thank You Stylish Muslimah

Assalamu alaikum,

I sent a request to another blogger whose blog is about stylish modest Islamic clothing...

She actually did try to find something, and when she couldn't, she tried to come up with something
http://stylishmuslimah.blogspot.com/2009/10/equestrian-hijabi-hardest-request-yet.html

I appreciate it, really I do.

I'm internally really conflicted about the skirt issue. When I converted I was under the impression that a very long shirt with loose pants would be fine. Now I'm hearing that a skirt is the only way to really be modest. Unless the pants are so loose that they look like a skirt. :(

A lovely woman named Joyce that I found on muslima sewing blog had this to say to me: "My attitude is not to sweat the small stuff and make Islam harder than what it was intended to be......It's all about intention."

I find this to be somewhat comforting, although I know there are people that would argue with her. I want to ride AND still be modest. When I do give in and take another set of riding lessons, I try to be as modest as I can. Even before converting I never noticed anyone looking at my riding pants inappropriately. The vast majority of people around me when I have worn riding breeches were women, and even with a few males scattered around I was basically just one in a sea of girls wearing the same thing. I supposed we looked rather scruffy though.

Finding a women's only swim time is difficult enough in the US. Imagine trying to find a women only barn...they are essentially a female domain (the ones I have been to), but it is hard to avoid having some male support staff - a vet, a farrier, the people that bring hay...

Nora

Friday, October 9, 2009

Alternative to the Olympic in Tehran

Assalamu alaikum,

Here is an article which talks about the alternative to the Olympics that takes place in Tehran, Iran. It could change locations like the 'regular' Olympics do, but so far they have not.

http://www.pitara.com/news/news_world/online.asp?story=109

It says, "Some events, such as equestrian, were open to male viewers because Iranian equestrians have designed a special horse-jumping chador for their female competitors."


Here is a picture of a lady supposedly wearing one of the special horse-jumping chador. All I see in someone jumping a horse while wearing an oversized long hoodie and a white vest. http://www.iranian.com/PhotoDay/2000/August/horse.html On further reflection, although I did find the other above article in my search results...that might not actually be the chador I wanted to see. *sigh*

Nora

Where is everybody? Where are the equestrian muslimahs?

Assalamu alaikum,

There is virtually nothing on the internet about equestrian muslimahs. Certainly nothing that gets to the top of my search results.

One purpose of this blog insha'Allah is to get something relevant into common searches that people like me might make.

At the moment all I have to write about is dressing modestly for horseback riding. That is quite enough seeing as, at this time there seem to be no relevant results for my search terms..... such as 'modest equestrian clothing' or 'muslimah equestrian clothing' unless you count something referred to as 'the equestrian trend' which is not what I have in mind (it refers only to clothing that reminds people of horseback riding).


Nora