THINGS I MISS FROM THE WEST... Coloured Abayas

I miss... being able to throw on whatever I wanted, and the only people who cared were people afraid of Muslims out of ignorance. I converted to be a Muslim. Not any people from any particular country. I should be able to maintain my self, within the guidelines of my spirituality and beliefs, which are Islam. I mean, in Oman, I still can legally, but culturally... I don't love being the odd one out.

Back in the West I mainly wore black abayas. They are easy, elegant, match everything, and don't get stained easily. So go figure they are a Muslim woman's favourite.

But sometimes I wore loose maxi dresses with long trench coats or super loose tunic tops overtop and colourful silk Turkish hijabs. These I could find in Western stores (usually super expensive but I could at least find them).

I had a few coloured abayas in my closet, pink, aubergine, navy blue, and a greysih green colour. In Oman, well, they don't really have much a selection of them, what colourful dresses they DO have are too decorated for daywear, and men think they can hit on you if you wear a loose Muslim dress in a colour other than black. Which is retarded.

Because actually, there isn't a single hadith in Muslim history documenting a woman of the Sahaba (first Muslims) wearing black. Sure, they favoured darker dyes out of necessity of making the clothing non-see-through, and most darker dyes besides olives, browns, and black are more expensive. Hadiths do say that the women of the ansar favoured the darker indigo dyes (common to Yathrib, Madinah of today). So, navy blue for the Ansarri was most common.

Black can be made from goat's milk, so it was universally affordable even in the desert. But Aicha R.A the Prophet's wife wore a burnished yellow orange common to Mecca, Um Salamah R.A wore russet brown, one of the women who came to ask the Prophet S.A.W questions wore green. There are so many ahadith about colour and the only colours that seemed to be questionable were only so for men, and why? Because the dyes were expensive. Yet women were allowed to wear the expensive dyes if they could afford it, such as oyster purple, saffron yellows and reds, ect. Much like gold, which Muslim men are not supposed to wear. Men should avoid showing off their wealth in their dress, but women were permitted still to wear their wealth so long as they paid any charity that was due on it. Black was not common but became so because of its availability, and then, because of its durability (which is why I still cherish it).

But any idiot who tries to tell me a woman who wears colours is sinning or going contrary to Islam better go back and read the Seerah (history of the Prophet Mohamed's life and Islam).

See, I can choose to wear it, but doing so, me not being Omani and all, will not make one smack of difference. Unless Omani women want to make it halal and acceptable for themselves again, there's nothing a foriegner like me (as Omani as they claim I am) can do about it but whine.