colours of the world

lucky you - two posts today...

this is one i wanted to write for a while and since i have down a bright red based outfit post underneath - i wanted to add this in.

im not at all against using colour and i dont believe we are meant to wear dark colours and only dark colours. i believe that is a cultural thing. (check your hadiths about the women of the sahaba wearing colours for proof).

if you wore something bright red, like in the outfit below, and wore it say on the streets of saudi arabia where everyone traditionally wears all black, then you are sure to cause a scene and would be looking like an attraction/distraction.

but if you wore the same outfit somewhere in egypt (where i am at the moment) then no one would give you a second look. women of all ages here wear bright colours all of the time, so you walking down the street here looking like a popsicle rainbow wouldnt look out of place. you wouldnt be an attraction - it would be considered normal. i have seen girls here in head-to-toe bright pink and they just seem to blend in with the crowd.

the same could be said for places like malaysia or indonesia where girls like their colourful outfits as well - some african cultures as well. in the west its kinda half-half. we are not immune to bright colours, but if you walk down the street looking like a bright green highlighter then people will stare. and at the same time - a hijabi wearing all black is a distraction on the street and is a sight that sticks out. i find in the west we are sort of in the middle of the colour spectrum. we dont go for overly bright colours and at the same time too dark is off-putting as well. i guess we are more in the 'neutrals' range of acceptance.

so i think the colour argument only really depends on where you live and what your particular culture stipulates as being too much.

a popular style for young muslimahs in egypt:

malaysian hijabies:
dark is traditional in saudi:

bright and patterned to the hills in india:

put one of the saudi sisters from the pic above smack bang in the middle of the indian lot and she will for sure look out of place.

where are you from and what is the norm where you live? are brights accepted? are darks? or are you living somewhere where the in-between is normal (such as the west)?