"How to Sell a Hijab in Malaysia"

"Yusof is now among the growing number of Malaysian women who are trying to revolutionize the hijab’s contentious image. While the scarf has tended to be viewed primarily as a marker of Islamic duty and identity, and sometimes, especially in the West, of female subjugation and oppression, in Malaysia women are free—even encouraged—to inject glamor and prestige into the hijab, and to make money from it...

the packaging had personal significance as well, she said. “Everyone buys scarves and they just put them in plastic bags,” she said. “Wearing the scarf is a celebration of my religion. When people buy scarves they should be well-presented.” In her posts, she tells readers that choosing to wear the hijab should be an upgrade to their lives. “She is changing the whole reputation of the head scarf,” Farah Alia Razali-Tyler, a law graduate, told me. “When people thought of the hijab, they thought, ‘I don’t want to look like a makcik’ ”—a frumpy older woman. “Now they’re saying it’s okay to be more modern.”

http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/how-to-sell-a-hijab-in-malaysia?intcid=mod-latest?reload