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Traders at Pukka Bagh in Moradabad, which is UP\u2019s biggest Islamic clothing market, claim that instead of adversely affecting the business, anti-Hijab protests sparked spurt in sales. It seems the row made the community to take to wearing of hijab with more zeal, writes Kulsum Mustafa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In the narrow, long, meandering lanes in Moradabad\u2019s congested Pukka Bagh which houses Uttar Pradesh\u2019s biggest Islamic clothing outlets, out of the 200 odds shops, \u00a0largely selling women’s clothing, jewellery, and cosmetics around 50 shops exclusively sell abayas, hijab, chaddar, stoles, scarf caps, and traditional burqas and umera clothing. These are available here in retail and also wholesale.\u00a0Peetalnagri<\/em>\u00a0or City of Brass is also the state\u2019s leading center for Islamic clothing.<\/p>\n \u201cOurs is the biggest market in Uttar Pradesh,\u00a0compared only to Hyderabad and Mumbai. While we supply to the nearby districts like Bijnore, Bareilly, Najibabad, Rampur, Lucknow, etc, \u00a0our products are also distributed to other parts of India,\u201d said Shehzad Raja, owner of the biggest store of these clothing, which dates back to over 25 years..<\/p>\n Explaining the difference between hijab and burqa, he said that\u00a0Abaya<\/em> is the Arabic word for a \u00a0loose outer garment. It is worn both by men and women. Burqa, also an \u00a0Arabic term for a loose-fitting garment that covers the head, face, body, and sometimes the eyes. It is exclusively for women.<\/p>\n Shehzad claimed that instead of affecting their business, the sale of these Islamic clothing increased after the anti-Hijab protests in Karnataka and also in parts of UP.\u00a0 Explaining the fashion of designer hijabs and Abaiyas instead of the traditional black burqas, Shehzad gave the credit to the trend of holding large wedding receptions, many times in mixed gatherings in banquet halls instead of at home.<\/p>\n He explained that women now have to travel far for wedding functions which are organized in hotels and resorts, because of this the traditional burqa, which was an outer garment and was taken off at the threshold of the wedding venue has changed into a formal abaya, which serves the dual purpose of both a covering as well as the formal dress. He said that Abaya or hijab is a style statement now.<\/p>\n Shehzad\u2019s 20-year-old son Aman Ali, who has been in this business for nine years agrees to his father\u2019s contention and states that it is now all the more important that they stock the latest designs. The range of Abayas in his shop is huge. They start from\u00a0Rs\u00a0 600 and go up to Rs 1500. \u201cYoungsters are forever looking for new designs and thanks to the internet, they are aware of the hot-selling designs in Saudi and Dubai. So we customize what they desire,\u201d added Aman.<\/p>\n Agreeing that the customers have become very choosy now regarding the abaya and hijab, Mohd Imran of MA Cloth House said that the sellers have to stock the latest replicas which are trending in Muslim countries. He said most of the material for these garments is imported from China, local tailors are used for turning them into copies. The price in Moradabad market is very low compared to the original garment prices which may go up as high as 35,000.<\/p>\n According to Abdul Qadir, the Abaya trend has picked up in the last few years and the anti-hijab stir, which, according to him, was a political gimmick, only made the community take up the wearing of hijab with more zeal.<\/p>\n \u201cGirls in the age group of 6 to 10 are also donning hijab nowadays and that has given a thrust to the Hijab industry all over India,\u201d said Mohd Imran who manages his grandfather\u2019s shop of over a quarter century.<\/p>\n Retail Prices<\/p>\n Abaiya —————Rs 700 TO Rs 7000<\/p>\n Hijab \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026Rs 150 TO Rs 600<\/p>\n Chaddar\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.Rs 200 TO Rs 600<\/p>\n Stole\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.Rs 150 TO Rs 500<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Traders at Pukka Bagh in Moradabad, which is UP\u2019s biggest Islamic clothing market, claim that instead of adversely affecting the business, anti-Hijab protests sparked spurt in sales. It seems the row made the community to take to wearing of hijab with more zeal, writes Kulsum Mustafa In the narrow, long, meandering lanes in Moradabad\u2019s congested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":340479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340480,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340478\/revisions\/340480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/340479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}