she's featured in the daily kos' diaries in an excerpt from a chapter entitled "Size 6: The Western Women's Harem" from her book sheherazade goes west:
The elegant saleslady in the American store looked at me without moving from her desk and said that she had no skirt my size. "In this whole big store, there is no skirt for me?" I said. "You are joking." I felt very suspicious and thought that she just might be too tired to help me. I could understand that. But then the saleswoman added a condescending judgment, which sounded to me like Imam fatwa. It left no room for discussion:man, don't you know it: check out my infamous post from when i was living in san diego."You are too big!" she said.
"I am too big compared to what?" I asked, looking at her intently, because I realized that I was facing a critical cultural gap here.
"Compared to a size 6," came the saleslady's reply.
Her voice had a clear-cut edge to it that is typical of those who enforce religious laws. "Size 4 and 6 are the norm," she went on, encouraged by my bewildered look. "Deviant sizes such as the one you need can be bought in special stores."
incidentally, abayas'n'stuff and shukr (the latter of which is having a post-eid sale) have lovely collections of islamic clothing - not that i'll wear the hijab, but their dresses and shirts are quite lovely and are made to accomodate women's bodies. i'm a petite in their standards but my shoulders and hips make me a twelve in american sizes - i'm 5'9" tall and emphatically not generously-sized and yet finding clothing for me requires serious hard work.
i rather like the former over the latter site, incidentally; shukr is much more conservative and that's not my issue.
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