Read: Lewis, Muslim Fashion, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, conclusion
Jones, "Fashion and Faith in Urban Indonesia" (Moodle article)

1. In contrast to those who might see religiously motivated dress as traditional or anti-materialist, Lewis argues that Muslim dress "needs to be taken seriously as fashion" (3). Why?

2. Lewis argues that modest dress is part of a youth subculture. How does her account of subculture differ from Hebdige's?

3. What dynamics of agency and constraint emerge through modest dressing in the different contexts Lewis researched? What forms of habitus are involved? What discourses of choice are invoked?

4. Why has the tesettur industry in Turkey developed extensively in recent years? How is it connected to claims to consumer citizenship?

5. How does labor performed by hijabis in retail contexts create a kind of aesthetic capital? Who benefits?

6. How is the internet creating opportunities for the formation of transnational Muslim identities? With what consequences?

7. Jones notes that, in contrast to being understood through an opposition between religion and consumerism, the rise of Islamic fashion in Indonesia "should be understood within a context of national debates about modernity and piety" (211). What are those debates, and what is the position of Islamic fashion within them?

8. Why, according to Jones, is Islamic fashion a commodity fetish? How has Islamic dress moved from being anti-fashion frugal to fashionable?

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu