The influence of important values and predominant identity on South African female Muslim students’ dress practices

Abstract

Due to acculturation, South African Muslim women follow a variety of dress practices, ranging from traditional Islamic dress to more revealing Western fashions (Muthal, 2010, pp. 3 & 86; Kopp, 2002, pp. 64). The integration of new values and the creation of a new identity is a possible result of the acculturation process, when different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact. Values and identity are both expressive in nature, and individuals are motivated to communicate them to others through their appearances or dress (Kaiser, 1997, pp. 290). This study investigates a) the most important values (i.e., Social, Religious, Economic, Political, Aesthetic, Theoretical, Exploratory) and b) the predominant identity (i.e., Muslim, South African, Hybrid) as reflected in c) the different dress practices of South African female Muslim students. Everyday dress practices (material culture) are a reflection of underlying values and identity (non-material culture) (Kaiser, 1997). The cultural perspective recognizes the relationship between these two components and provided a framework for this study to determine how abstract concepts, such as values and identity manifest in dress (Kaiser, 1997, pp. 33, 48-50).An exploratory survey design was followed. Reliable scales for values were adapted from Allport et al.