The Scented Winds of Change: Conflicting Notions of Modesty and Vanity Among Young Qatari and Emirati Women

Wearing modest Muslim dress in public is intended to conceal women’s sexuality and promote a virtuous public domain. Nevertheless, emerging bodily adornment practices in some Gulf region countries serve the contradictory purposes of revealing female wearers and celebrating fashion. We explore the conflicting notions of modesty and vanity embodied in Qatari and Emirati clothing and cosmetic choices in the public sphere. Using insights from in-depth interviews with twenty-four Emirati and Qatari female students we explore the dynamics underlying these conflicting imperatives of virtue and beauty and capture some of the ambivalence inherent in these performative constructions of female identity and conceptions of the self.

Citation:

Rana Sobh, Russell Belk, and Justin Gressel (2009) ,"The Scented Winds of Change: Conflicting Notions of Modesty and Vanity Among Young Qatari and Emirati Women", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 342-343.