Many Splendid Dimensions of the Muslim Woman

• New York

• Early 1980s

Photo from a fashion show organized by the activist sisters. Umi is modeling with Nawal, daughter of fashion designer, Lubna Muhammad.

Notes: M.E.A.R.C. dawah activities included fashions shows that were about style but also pedagogy — to teach Muslim women how to achieve what Aliyah Abdul-Karim called, “that Covered Girl look.” Specifically, Kareemah Abdul-Kareem describes the impetus for their first show in 1976 as wanting to teach Muslim women that they could be modest without looking “frumpy” or “dreary.” As I discuss in a lecture delivered for the de Young Museum's symposium on contemporary Muslim fashion, Kareemah and Aliyah, along with Lubna Muhammad and Mama Rakiah Abdur-Rahman, were architects that laid the foundation for contemporary Muslim fashion in the United States.