About

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Dar el Lina was born of its founder’s frustration with the offerings available to Muslim women in the West. Though we comprise a vast subset of the market, it feels at times impossible to find clothes that meet the Islamic requirements of modesty. How often do sisters pick up a beautiful dress… only to turn it over and find it backless? Or wish that the longline top also had long sleeves, that the skirt had just a couple of extra inches in length, that the “oversized jumper” was not cropped? How often are we forced into multiple layers, even in summer? Worst of all, how many of us have bought the dress that felt a bit too figure-hugging because it also made us feel beautiful, only to be enveloped in guilt over it later?

Modest fashion trends in recent years have certainly helped, but one has to wonder how important modesty is to a company when a “modest” keyword search brings up garments that are decidedly not, or made immodest by the bent-over, heavily made-up model with the seductive gaze. Modesty is of course subjective, and it is neither our aim nor our right to judge anyone’s individual choice, but the inadequacy of Islamically modest offerings raises questions about the authenticity of intention. Surely, someone in the company thought it important to at least look into the clothing requirements shared by 1 in 10 people on the planet?

It’s deeply saddening that Islamic brands face similar struggles, at times seeming to compromise on uncompromisable values in favor of casting a wider net. What’s more, with modernity increasingly seen as the antonym of modesty despite the hundreds of millions of Muslim women living, working, and leading in the Western world, our choices are often reduced to traditional Islamic clothing, impractical in many settings… or a loosening of the definition of modesty against such a backdrop.

The resulting picture is one of Muslim women as unworthy as they are, acceptable only when we have reduced our faith to its bare minimum. Situated in the context of hijab and Islamic modesty as oppressive, a thing to be pitied or feared, it’s no wonder why. Again, Dar el Lina is not here to judge or condemn, but to assert with as much force as we can muster that this is not the case, that modesty is beautiful, freeing, and increasingly an act of bravery to be lauded and uplifted.

Enter Lina, the signature, patented design with which our brand opened its doors and that we hope will introduce our values and intention to the world. Gone are the days of undercaps, scarves, pins, magnets, and fashion tape. Gone are the days of unflattering, unsupportive, and uncustomizable instant hijabs. No longer will our sisters struggle in the face of weather, physical activity, and the ever-looming threat implicit in the knowledge that the thing protecting our modesty is a piece of cloth hated by some, feared by others, and banned by still more.

These are barriers with which every Muslim woman is intimately familiar, yet without any viable solution… Until now. Lina is one piece, eliminates the need for attachment devices of any kind, and allows for dozens of styles according to individual preference, cultural background, and level of modesty. It is ان شاء الله the first of many designs by Muslim women, for Muslim women, and the start to a lifetime of uplifting our sisters worldwide.

We pray you are blessed and protected in our garments, and always reminded that as Muslims, we could lose everything in this worldly life, but so long as our faith was not harmed, we would only gain.