Muslim Activist Confronts Injustice and Falsehoods
with Fashion
This digital influencer defies the notion that clothes can't be political.
written by Rachel Bogo
edited by Taylor Martin
The Council on American-Islamic Relations office in downtown Chicago has a sophisticated, businesslike vibe. So does Hoda Katebi, a warm and friendly woman dressed in black pants paired with a crisp, white buttoned-down blouse, topped off with a decorated hijab. The go-to woman behind this polished appearance is paving the way to change, one project at a time
From the 90-day travel ban of six predominantly Muslim countries to the cutting back of funding for Planned Parenthood, there is one word to describe 2017 thus far: action. Many act by rallying in movements such as the Women's March, while others act through art, like Katebi, who expresses her political stance through fashion. With a successful blog, book and job at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, she is a trailblazer as well as a trendsetter.
Katebi expresses her feminism through fashion. "By not doing something politically you are inherently being political, and by saying fashion is not political you are taking it away from its art," Katebi says.
The word feminism is used today in such a way that people may have a difficult time understanding what it truly means. "I think feminism is a very tricky term because it has a very distinct epistemology to that word,” Katebi says. “It came from a particular context, it’s used in a different context and now applied in another context." In the United States, feminism is seen as empowering. In the Middle East, Katebi says it often is attached to the imagery of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bullying was the main reason Katebi created her blog and later developed a love of politics. "Growing up, I was forced to become a political person," she explains. “Not the fact that I wore a hijab—that didn’t really politicize me so much as my peers. The fact that I had to respond to every little thing that I didn’t know, so I had to research and have conversations with my parents about this stuff and it was not at all what I thought it was."
Katebi's friends turned on her when she started wearing her hijab, something she describes as a "shifting moment.” In 2013, these former friends became her biggest motivators to create her blog, JOOJOO AZAD. In her posts, she likes to take a political stance on news to keep her readers on their toes.
"I think it's always fun for me to have a very innocent fashion post, but then plug in ‘Oh by the way another black person was shot and killed in Chicago today.’ I think it catches people off guard," she says.
Katebi named her blog JOOJOO AZAD because it means “free bird” in Farsi. She wanted to reflect on the oppression she feels when people see her hijab and the inspiration from the strong symbolism and visual value that birds have.
Writing is a part of how Katebi is bringing awareness to the unfair politics in the world. Her blog draws attention to companies like Victoria's Secret and Gap, which are violating international human rights and labor laws, according to Katebi.
"I needed to publicize this,” Katebi says. “I wanted to do it through fashion because the fashion industry is one of the most destructive industries of the world.”
As she tells the story of her past, present and future, her metal bangles hit the table as if making background music as she talks.
After graduating from the University of Chicago, Katebi was approached by someone from the Council on American-Islamic Relations while photographing a protest in Detroit. She was later named communications coordinator and began her work with the group.
Gerald Hankerson is the outreach coordinator at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Hoda shares a heightened awareness, a focus on social justice that had readjusted our collective lenses as a local civil rights and advocacy nonprofit,” he says. “Her voice is dynamic and timely to the challenges we're facing in this country.”
The organization takes on major legal issues when it comes to Muslim civil rights. “With other legal advocates, CAIR-Chicago launched the Travelers Assistance Project, which had recruited a corps of attorneys, interpreters and other legal volunteers to respond instantly on site at Chicago airports,” Hankerson explains. “Our office welcomed an outpouring of support from concerned community members, partner organizations, civic leaders and other advocates and activists.”
Diving into another culture brings more respect to the people who belong to it. Katebi recently had her own book published called “Tehran Street-style.” “When I go to Iran, I dress in a very different way and I wear my hijab in a way that I wouldn’t feel comfortable here,” she says. The reaction to the book has varied throughout the communities she visits.
“Here in the West, we associate anyone who shows more skin as someone who is more sexy and attractive,” Katebi says. “Also, showing the multiplicity and variance that we can get inspiration from the East. Inspiration doesn’t go one way.”
Katebi visited Iran to meet with underground fashion designers for her blog and found herself bridging the gap between the United States and Iran. She says when she asked the designers what she could do to help them, they would say, "We understand and we know the United States views us as terrorists. So, we want you as someone who can go back and forth, who speaks Iranian, to bridge these gaps and to challenge what you guys are doing there.”
Katebi believes fashion has always aligned with politics, and looks to America’s history to support the idea. “Let’s take the United States for example, how did they identify a slave from a free man? By the way they dressed,” she explains.
Fashion is Katebi’s way of getting a message across when words fail to do so, and her work has only been amplified in recent months. She wants to make people more aware and show people that there are more ways to express yourself than through war. For Katebi, one solution is fashion.
"By saying fashion is not political, you are taking it away from its art."
Photos by: Hamza Quadri @hq_fotos