I’m supposed to present a class on traditional Islamic dress, and I’m having trouble coming up with a complete list and also differentiating between various articles of clothing. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
abaya and burqa: outer garment meant to cover clothing while the woman is in public. How are these different? Is the jilbāb the same as either of these?
khimar: head covering or scarf
niqāb: face covering. Can this sometimes be the veil style? The pictures on wiki are all the solid material that covers everything except a slit for the eyes.
I also found the salwar kameez. Many of the articles on wiki mention Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc, but not many make mention to Iran.
Can anyone a) add to this list, b) clarify the roles of or differentiate between some of the similar clothing, c) speak to which of these are worn in Iran, or d) help me with pronunciation of these terms?
Meant to post this earlier, but now my class is in 2 hours
Most of the items you listed aren’t typically worn in Iran. Women in contemporary urban Iran generally wear European-style clothing under either a chador (traditionally a large sheet of fabric draped over the top of the head, held closed by the hands and/or teeth) or a *mantoo * (an overcoat-style outer garment). Women cover their hair either with a large scarf or a *maghneh *(sort of a cross between a headscarf and a hood).
I’ve seen pictures of women in rural Iran wearing costumes similar to *shalwar-kameez * with a scarf tied over the hair. Older artwork usually depicts women wearing either shalwar-kameez or ankle-length dresses.
Abaya - term used in the Arabian peninsula and Iraq and environs. Not used in Iran. Burka - term used in Afghanistan.
The all-encompassing coat that Iranian women usually wear in public is the chador.
A niqab is a face covering. It is not typical for Iranian women to wear it.
I would drop abaya, burka, and niqab from your presentation.
I was reading the wiki stuff and it didn’t really differentiate as clearly among which countries wore what clothing. I didn’t know what differences there were among the outer coverings. Anyway, it was all somewhat useful, because along with Iran I’m also talking about Islam, so it was good for the kids to see what other countries are wearing to be in accordance with the Koran or Sharia law.
There are a lot of countries in the Muslim world and the clothing varies to an enormous degree. Moroccans dress nothing like Saudis who dress nothing like Indonesians. Lumping them all together seems to really marginalize so many cultures and portray them as far more unified than they are, doesn’t it? It seems especially important today that we understand the differences between Iran and Oman.
For these kids, it’s a task just getting them to understand that a) there are more countries in the world than Japan and the US, and b) not everyone who lives outside of Japan is the same person or looks the same. The fact that I even mentioned that there are differentiations in clothing styles among Muslims was a step in the right direction.
Even within the Gulf, Omanis, Yemenis and Saudis dress completely differently. After living in the Gulf for a while, one can also usually pick out differences between all the Gulf countries.
The salwar kameez combo (salvar = the baggy pants, kameez = the long tunic/shirt) is mostly restricted to north India and Pakistan. While the style originated in Persia, it has been mostly unknown there for several hundred years at least.
