"I’m always keen to buy the latest in fashion and try to go to the market as soon as the new season arrives," Ruba Khais al-Beidhan, a Baghdad resident, told IslamOnlione.net, dressed in a large, black abaya.
The 25-year government employee says that, just like many Iraqi women, she sports fashionable clothing under the abaya.
"Every time I go out to buy some clothes, people start to show me what isn’t fashionable. As if I don’t have interest in wearing something that might bring some attention because I wear abaya and cover my hair with a headscarf. "
Beidhan, studying for masters in pharmacy, added that while she covers up her body in the loose cloak on the streets, she enjoys showing her sense of fashion while among family members and girl friends.
"I do have pleasure to show that although I’m wearing something without glamour from the outside, I can be as fashionable as other women underneath it."
Shop owners affirm that many like Beidhan are attentive to the latest fashion trends and keep them under their traditional abayas.
Fua’ad Ibraheem al-Samaraye, owner of a women clothing shop in Baghdad’s Mansour district, reports an ever-increasing number of customers looking for fashionable clothes.
"Before I was having both men and women clothing, but as soon as I turned to sell only women’s, the number of clients increased by 80 percent."
In his shop, abaya-wearing women make the majority of buyers once the new season collection arrives.
"Many of them come with fashion magazines issued in Lebanon or Europe, and look for designs printed on them, being wore by models or actresses," says Samaraye.
"This has showed me that like any other women; they care about their appearance, even if is to be used only for their families."
Unfazed
Suha Hayett, a Lebanese fashion designer who pays regular visits to Baghdad, affirms that Iraqi women are highly fashionistas despite the war.
"Once I was speaking with a woman who had even her face covered and she was aware of all fashion updates from around the world," Hayett told IOL.
"She said that she spends hours over the internet printing pictures of new style releases from all over the world and take them to her seamstress."
Hayett is amazed to see such insistence on being fashionable despite the violent targeting of women who do not comply with the traditional dress codes.
"There are still some of them who take the risk and go out showing their fashionable clothes but the majority prefers to keep it under abayas and show them when they have special events."
Many women have been attacked for wearing Western clothing in public, rather than traditional dresses.
The weapon of choice for attackers is corrosive acid, according to police and several survivors.
In some cases, women who refused to shun Western clothes were forced to leave their jobs.
"It is sad to know that you might get killed or burned with acid when you go out wearing fashionable clothes," says Latifiah Kareem, 31, an activist.
She laments that before the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraqi women were the most fashionable in Middle East.
"But years of war and oppression, have driven Iraq years back.
"I want back the old Iraq, when we used to go out without concerns or fear."
