Trademark Muslim headscarves are definitely back “in”, partly thanks to Turkey’s first fashion magazine for conservative Islamic women.
The monthly Ala (“Beauty”) glossy features charismatic Turkish beauties modeling the must-have accessories with long dresses, arms and necks fully covered.
The magazine promoting deep-rooted Islamic traditions was launched just last year, and is already neck and neck with the Turkish versions of Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Elle.
Fashion designers, both local and international, recently started reacting to the growing demand from conservative Turkish women, the majority of whom prefer to wear some type of hair covering.
In fact, according to AFP agency, Ala’s editor is among those who have suffered from wearing a headscarf, often viewed as a political symbol. When 24-year-old Hulya Aslan insisted on covering up, she had to give up her university education, instead finding a job at a bank.
Headscarves are off-limits for civil servants and are banned in most universities.
“Now there is normalization, an improvement. Now our veiled comrades can enter university and have more professional opportunities,” Aslan told AFP.
“For the last five or six years we can say we have turned the corner,” Hulya Aslan explained.