Catalogs Cover Needs of Conservative Muslims
After nearly 20 years of looking for the ideal wardrobe, Rahmah Qawiy found the solution: a shopping catalog that caters to conservative American Muslims.
Victoria’s Secret it’s not. Instead of long-limbed models lounging in lacy undergarments, the Caravan Xpress catalog’s most revealing offerings leave only the hands and face uncovered.
“I was so overjoyed,” said Qawiy, of Oakland. As soon as she saw the catalog, she ordered three embroidered, floor-length overgarments for Friday prayers and a more festive, loose-fitting satiny dress with a matching face cover and a head cover that reaches her waist.
And she plans to buy more.
“Inshallah (God willing), I’ll get my wardrobe together like I want it,” she said.
Caravan Xpress and another catalog, Modesty, offer clothing for Muslims who like to dress according to the dictates of the Koran. The holy book says male believers “should lower their gaze and guard their modesty” while women “should not display their beauty and ornaments . . . that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands.”
“I like the fact that the clothing meets Islamic standards,” said Najma Mohamed, 20, of West Palm Beach, Fla. “It covers, it’s not revealing and it’s quality wear.”
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the catalogs are one facet of the growth and maturity of the Muslim community in the United States, which has 6 million adherents.
Nationwide, Islamic catalog shopping made its debut in December 1994, with a two-hour video launched by Caravan Xpress. The video had a section for men’s clothing featuring knee- or full-length shirts with baggy pants, abayas--long open overgarments--and colorful kufis.
The second part was just for “sisters”--men were admonished not to view it--with models displaying the garments in a studio or outdoors.
Umm Zamzam, a Norfolk, Va., biology professor, said she started the business because she had a hard time finding Islamic clothing in the U.S. She would usually ask students to buy her clothes when they went to the Middle East or Asia.
Soon after mailing the videos, Umm Zamzam realized that for her business to grow, she had to switch to a paper format. Many of her potential shoppers didn’t own videotape players.
In 1995, her customers--whose number grew from 200 to 25,000--began receiving a black-and-white, 26-page catalog.
The name, Caravan Xpress, was conceived by Umm Zamzam’s mother because the mail-order service is much faster than in the times of Prophet Mohammed, when camels carried wares through the desert.
To avoid controversy, Umm Zamzam hired mostly non-Muslim women to model her conservative outfits. Muslim models were used for shots that showed them with their backs to the camera or their faces fully covered with a burquah. All the male models are Muslim.
The Modesty catalog, which was started in December 1995, used only mannequins--some headless, others faceless.
