The relationship of values and identity in female Muslim students’ dress practices at the University of Pretoria

Abstract

Western and Eastern societies are known to vary in terms of their important values, identities and dress practices. The Muslim culture is a typical Eastern culture, in which the veil is the most visible symbol of a woman’s Islamic identity. Today many Muslims live in Western societies. The non-Muslim cultural context has resulted in Muslim women becoming acculturated to the new context and thereby having adopted new patterns of dress. South Africa is generally considered to be a Western society. South African Muslim women follow a variety of dress practices, and take part in the acculturation process to different degrees in order to adapt to the cultural context. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, but in South Africa Muslims are a minority group. While various international studies have focused on the values and identities that influence Muslim women’s dress practices, very few studies have analysed these aspects within a South African context. This research study fills an important contextual gap in existing knowledge on the behaviour of Muslim women in terms of their dress practices, as related to their values and identity. The study makes a contribution to the fields of culture and apparel behaviour research. e fields of culture and apparel behaviour research. Female Muslim students attending a university in Pretoria follow varied dress practices. While some individuals wear traditional Islamic garments, others follow Western fashion trends. These differences in dress can be attributed to the acculturation process. The campus environment is a multicultural context. Female Muslim students must decide to what extent they are willing to adopt the new values, identities and dress practices that surround them. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the relationship between values and identity in the dress practices of female Muslim students attending a university in Pretoria. The study’s literature review includes explanations of different value typologies, identity types and acculturation strategies. All of these concepts are related to dress. A cultural perspective served as the theoretical framework for the study. This perspective recognises the relationship between the material and non-material aspects of culture and provides a framework to determine how abstract concepts manifest in dress over time. The sample consisted of 200 female Muslim students enrolled at the University of Pretoria. Participants were all between 17 and 25 years of age. Non-probability sampling methods were used, including purposive and snowball sampling. Participants were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire. An exploratory survey research design was followed with a quantitative approach to collect data. The results of the study revealed that participants could not be divided into three groups according to the different acculturation strategies, but rather into two groups, based on less modest and more modest dress practices. Only slight differences in values and identity were identified between the two groups. While the group who followed less modest dress practices placed more importance on social values, the group following more modest dress practices placed more importance on religious values and found a Muslim identity to be more predominant. All other values and identities were rated as being equally significant to both groups and were also ranked in the same order of importance.