BLENDING OR ADJUSTING MODESTY IN STYLING FASHIONABLE HIJAB? A STUDY AMONG MALAY WOMEN ACADEMICIANS AT A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN PERAK

Hijab has always been related to religious terms. It is donned in order to observe the aurah of a Muslim woman. However, as the fashion industry continues to blossom, fashion has been applied to the styling of hijab. As a result, what is supposed to be modest has been turned into a fashion statement instead. With this, the rise of fashion hijab raised an alarming issue that the fashionable hijab styling contradicts with the Islamic rule of modesty. Therefore, this paper aims to find out the way modesty entails in styling fashionable hijab among Malay women academicians in a private university located in Perak. The research employed an in-depth interview of four female Muslim lecturers with the age range of 35 to 40 years old. The criteria for selecting the interviewees are Muslim women, hijab wearer, wearing hijab style of the current trend and having the purchasing power to buy the latest hijab brands. In this research, it is found that modesty can be affected by fashion when hijab is donned. The hijab wearers understood the Islamic guidelines of modest clothing but tend to integrate the concepts in betting the fashionable component. However, hijab wearers that are motivated by fashion adjusted the modesty component in their style. The adjustment of modesty was conformed by society via media and celebrity portrayal of fashionably modest hijab. As a result, fashion has been pushed into being seen as modest, and modest means fashion.