Policing (Im)Modesty in Modest Fashion: Islamic Feminist Renegotiations of Modesty in Influencer Culture

Abstract

This article examines how Muslimah influencers based in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are policed for, and negotiate with the policing of their Islamic modesty in influencer culture. Data come from interviews with 14 Muslimah influencers, and a survey distributed amongst 188 self-identified followers of Muslim female influencers. Findings show that Muslimah influencers are policed by their followers, fellow modest fashion participants, and sometimes their families for prioritizing their nafs (self), violating Islamic principles of awrah (covering of private parts), and inviting their sexualization by others through the pursuit of influencer celebrity. Data show that Muslimah influencers respond to this policing through Islamic feminist Ijtihād (critical reasoning), positing their aesthetic labor as a form of dawah (proselytizing). This article argues that Muslimah influencers operate as ‘pious critical agents’ who employ Islamic feminism to broaden understandings of modesty as it operates in the lived realities of Muslim women in anti-Muslim contexts.