“Modesty is not the goal. Liberation is the goal,” says Syrian American artist Mona Haydar of why she wears the hijab. “It’s liberation from the beauty-industrial complex, liberation from the male gaze, liberation from our egos.” Haydar is a Muslim rapper, poet, and activist whose music video “Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab)” is part of Contemporary Muslim Fashions, an exhibition opening at the de Young Museum on September 22. The show follows on the very high heels of the museum’s blockbuster fashion exhibitions celebrating designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Yves Saint Laurent, and Jean Paul Gaultier. But it departs from those showcases by spotlighting traditions that don’t always adhere to Western standards of beauty and that come wrapped in cultural and religious complexities.
It is a distinctly political show, in other words, albeit one in which aesthetic issues take precedence—or at least provide some stunning cover for weightier conversations. “Fashion is a very soft way to make your political point,” says Jill D’Allessandro, the de Young’s curator of costume and textile arts, who developed the show with assistant curator Laura Camerlengo. “The idea of making something beautiful and accessible to all faiths, ages, creeds, and religions is really an important stance right now.”
It’s also a profitable stance. Practitioners of Islam make up 24 percent of the world’s population, and they spend $254 billion per year on clothing (a figure expected to rise to $373 billion by 2022). If you’ve never heard of the “Muslim modest” fashion market, maybe don’t mention that if you’re applying for a job at a global apparel brand. Over the past few years, American Eagle, Carolina Herrera, DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, H&M, Mango, Tommy Hilfiger, and Uniqlo all offered collections that observed modest Muslim dress codes. In its Fall/Winter 2018 presentations, Max Mara sent Somali American Muslim model Halima Aden down the runway in a hijab and a floor-skimming maxi skirt. And Nike released its Pro Hijab in December 2017, with a headline-grabbing campaign that featured Muslim athletes such as Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari, and German boxer Zeina Nassar.
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About a kilometre into the road which leads to Laddhewala in Muzaffarnagar city, a dirty signpost welcomes visitors to this small, nondescript locality.
A few minutes past 3 p.m., after Henna Qureshi and Adeela Khan take a moment to pray, they settle on a living room rug with two more friends to talk. It’s a drizzly July afternoon, and Qureshi, Khan and Freshta Mohammad have gathered in Nafisa Isa’s family home in Ashburn, Va., for their monthly halaqa, an Islamic study group. Isa tucks her feet beneath her knees as she spreads colored pens across the floor for all to share. The topic of the day is “Nice for What?” — title inspired by the 
When people ask Todd Green why Muslims don’t condemn terrorism — and they do ask, often — he has a quick response: “Have you ever Googled ‘Muslims condemning terrorism’?”
IN HIS first presidential campaign, George W. Bush received 42% of the Muslim-American vote, compared with 31% for Al Gore. The 9/11 attacks, and the wars that followed, changed that affiliation. Eight years later, Muslim-Americans overwhelmingly backed Barack Obama. This was a big change for a religious minority that tended to have conservative views: traditionalist Muslims and LBGT advocates are strange bedfellows. Donald Trump’s election, though, has brought a clutch of progressive Muslims into politics. Some are now heading to Congress.