Turkish fashion magazine targets female Muslim Professionals

ISTANBUL — The fashion industry is booming in Turkey as a result of a youthful population and strong economy. And with that trend has come the emergence of a new fashion magazine called Ala, whose target audience is the young Islamic professional woman.

In a swanky five-star hotel in old Istanbul a fashion shoot is taking place. But it is not for your typical fashion publication. It’s for Ala, a magazine catering to pious head-scarf-wearing, working woman.

Within a year it has shaken the Turkish fashion world, attracting a number of subscribers rivaling its secular counterparts.

The woman behind Ala, 24-year-old Hulya Aslan, said “This magazine is aimed at conservative women who need a magazine to offer alternatives in their lifestyles, she says. The other magazines did not represent them, they could not find things that corresponded to their needs and desires. They did not offer them a lifestyle they aspired to. They were in search of something and at that moment we offered them Ala magazine and filled a gap in Turkey.”

The magazine has tapped into the growing Islamic middle class in Turkey that has prospered under the Islam-inspired Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The party eased a ban on the wearing of religious dress for women in universities, a ban that forced Aslan to forgo her education.

“Before, our covered friends, covered sisters were not even able to study at universities, they did not have the way of life they wanted, she says. They were constantly being subject to obstacles. They could not even work in state offices. So then, the situation was like that there was not even a possibility of such a magazine.  But in the last 10 years, the situation has changed and with this change the needs and demands increased. By answering to these demands Ala magazine has gained incredible success,” she said.

Such is the success of the Ala magazine, it has given its name to a new generation of Turkish women, who balances her religious beliefs with a desire for fashion. Ala Fashion Editor Tuba Tunc explains, saying, “Both feminine and covered, chic and with quality. I want to say this in all my sincerity, this is my goal, because this is how I am and I love being like this, she says. This is an Ala woman and this is what our magazine represents.”

But Ala magazine has been criticized by some in the pro-Islamist media. One writer accused Ala of corrupting women and said the fashion publication undermines the principal of Islam which he claimed calls for women to dress modestly.

But Tunc dismisses such criticism. “Being covered does not mean you do not follow fashion. I think any woman whether covered or not can follow and dress up according to fashion if they want and if they do it correctly. Tunc says.  There is no problem in that. I want modern, covered, attractive, elite women who know how to dress and who can carry well what they wear,” said Tunc.

With Turkey in the midst of a consumer boom and Ala circulation over 200,000 and rising, in one of the fashionable high streets of Istanbul it is not difficult to find an Ala woman.

“The stores we can shop from are very limited. Ala magazine is helping us with that. They offer alternatives to us such as recommending outfits in stores, places to go that are appropriate for women like me,” said one woman.

And with the magazine already well established in the Turkish fashion world, it is already planning a fashion TV program, and ultimately editions in the Arabic world and in European countries where large Muslim populations live.

The real war on women While attacking Romney, Obama continues to largely ignore abuses in the Muslim world Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/real-war-women-article-1.1164157#ixzz2Ic90hGKW

For the greater part of this election cycle, we’ve heard a good deal from the left about a fictional Republican “war on women.” Everyone from President Obama himself to Georgetown-law-student-turned-Democratic-mouthpiece Sandra Fluke has tried to convince female voters that Mitt Romney is hostile to the female portion of the electorate.
But thousands of miles away, there is a real war on women. It is one that Obama and his supporters would prefer to ignore.
In the same region where four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, were brutally murdered on Sept. 11, women suffer each and every day. Radical Islamic thugs were behind the fatal attack in Benghazi, as well as the riots that spread across the Middle East; Muslim females, however, are persecuted and oppressed not by terrorists, but by their own communities, governments and even families.
Obtaining insurance-covered contraceptives (a big concern for the American left) is the least of these women’s worries. Instead, females in many Muslim countries are focused on having their bodies fully covered from head to toe, aren’t allowed to drive and cannot leave their homes without the supervision of a male family member. Laws and cultural norms vary from country to country, but it is undeniable that, as a whole, the Muslim world has a serious problem with how women are treated.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Time magazine investigated this problem in an article called “The Women of Islam,” a piece that remains relevant today. It diagnoses the problem as a profound one, dating back centuries: “The Koran allots daughters half the inheritance of sons. It decrees that a woman’s testimony in court, at least in financial matters, is worth half that of a man’s. Under Shari’a, or Muslim law, compensation for the murder of a woman is half the going rate for men.
“In many Muslim countries, these directives are incorporated into contemporary law. For a woman to prove rape in Pakistan, for example, four adult males of ‘impeccable’ character must witness the penetration, in accordance with Shari’a,” writes Lisa Beyer.
And while all religions must grapple with how to integrate ancient texts, with their sometimes-outdated notions, into modern life, the Muslim world seems to have done far too little in this regard,
Take, for example, Islam’s attitude toward domestic abuse, with the Koran (sura 4:34), which has been “interpreted to say that men have ‘pre-eminence’ over women or that they are ‘overseers’ of women and that the husband of an insubordinate wife should first admonish her, then leave her to sleep alone and finally beat her,” as Beyer chillingly wrote.
Not much has changed in the decade or so since. It was only two years ago when Time magazine ran the horrific and now infamous cover picture of, Aisha, an Afghan woman with her nose and ears cut off by the Taliban for fleeing her abusive in laws.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/real-war-women-article-1.1164157#ixzz2Ic98cOsr