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When Dewi Maulani decided to start wearing a headscarf, or jilbab, six years ago, it wasn’t because her mother had always worn one. She said it was a personal decision. “I just felt that I was ready,” the 25-year-old kindergarten teacher said.

Dewi felt comfortable with her choice to wear a headscarf. But as a girl who loved fashion, she became bored wearing it the same way all the time.

“I decided to experiment with my jilbab ,” she said. “I wanted to wear a jilbab that wasn’t like any regular jilbab .”

Dewi tried using different types of scarves tied up in various ways, while still sticking to the religious standards of modesty. For her, the jilbab c ould be worn fashionably, as long as it covered her hair.

For many Muslim women, wearing a jilbab, or hijab as it is known elsewhere, is important to cover their aurat , the parts of their bodies that are considered private. For some women, this means concealing everything but the hands and face, while for others it is simply dressing modestly.

Wearing a scarf to cover the hair is a common way for Muslim women to dress in many countries. Dewi found inspiration in global styles to experiment with her own head-covering.

To her surprise, other women who wore the jilbab showed an interest in her creative headscarf styles. “They began asking me how they could create their own fashionable jilbabs,” she said.

Encouraged by her friends, Dewi decided to organize a short course to teach others about trendy headscarf options, with some help from her longtime friend Imelda Putri, who has been wearing a jilbab for nearly 11 years. They named the program ID Hijab Style Class — the ID stands for Imelda and Dewi.

The duo has already conducted three workshops this year, with the first held in July. About 20 women attended each session, paying an entrance fee of Rp 200,000 ($23).

“Besides sharing our interest [in fashion], we wanted to inspire other Muslim girls by telling them that they can still look beautiful and modern in Islamic ways,” said Imelda, who works as a secretary. She said she didn’t think it was against Islamic teachings to try to look be autiful in the jilbab, because, sh e said, “even the Prophet Muhammad appreciated beautiful things.”

At the two-hour sessions, with the help of other Muslim women’s organization members, Imelda and Dewi demonstrated fashion tricks that women can do with their headscarves. The first step is the introduction of jilbab types.

“There are actually several types of jilbabs that many Muslim women don’t know about,” I melda said. “Some of the variations include the shawl, paris, scarf and pashmina.”

Dewi and Imelda find inspiration from books, magazines and the Internet to find Muslim styles from around the world that are suitable to be worn in Indonesia. With different types of cloth, they show participants how to “create simple, unique jilbab styles for different occasions.”

Dewi said that a woman should not stick to just one style of jilbab. “You want to always look attractive and beautiful,” she said, but was quick to add that religious modesty was still the first priority. “Fashionable Muslim clothes for women still shouldn’t be tight.”

The pair said that because the jilbab is an important marker of identity for many Muslim women, they should feel comfortable in their headscarf.

Imelda said that light, easy-to-find and sweat-absorbing fabrics like cotton are best for Indonesia’s tropical climate. “Once a fabric is chosen, the things that need to be considered are the style and color-matching,” she said. Loose clothing like harem pants and blouses can help make up a casual outfit, she added.

For more formal occasions, Imelda and Dewi will go to people’s homes to give private consultations.

“Many of our friends come to us when they want to look different for important occasions such as their graduation or wedding reception,” Dewi said.

With the slogan “Be Different and Unique,” the fourth ID Hijab Style Class workshop is scheduled for Nov. 26 at Jakarta’s Al Azhar University.

“We’ve been receiving positive comments from our friends and they’re very enthusiastic about joining our next event,” Dewi said.

The pair has big dreams for the future. They plan to produce their own line of fashionable Muslim wear and publish a tutorial book on how to mix and match styles, so that other women can feel as comfortable in their headscarves as they do.

ID Hijab Class Style
085 6813 4261
idhijabstyle.blogspot.com