Travelling Korea in a hijab

Honorary Reporters Slawa Elzeny (left) and Esraa Elzeny travel across Korea wearing their hijab. (Korea.net DB)

By Korea. net Honorary reporters Esraa Elzeny and Salwa Elzeny 

“My hijab is not only my religious identity. It’s part of my existence, my life.”

— from the movie "My Name Is Khan" (2010)

The veil or headscarf is referred to by many names, the most common being the word "hijab," which simply means "head covering" in Arabic.

"Hijab" is an Arabic word that describes a Muslim woman's entire dress code, including a veil and whatever else is needed to cover everything except her face and hands. It's adopted at puberty, an age when, according to Islam, people become accountable for their actions.

According to God, “O, prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw over themselves their outer garments. That is more suitable, that they should be known and not harmed. Is God not oft-forgiving and the most merciful?" (Quran 33:59)

Many people think that the headscarf is limited to only Muslim women, but this is not true. Some Christian and Jewish women also wear headscarves as a kind of commitment to their face and simply out of common decency.

Although there are some criticisms about wearing a headscarf or hijab, sometimes linking the simple clothing article to female persecution or to religious militancy, this has not prevented activist Nazma Khan, who lives in New York, from wearing her hijab. It's a symbol of faith, beauty and humility. Hence, the idea of a worldwide Hijab Day was celebrated for the first time in 2013.

The word 'hijab' covers a Muslim woman's entire dress code, and the attire covers not only the head, but also the whole body, except for the face and hands. (Esraa Elzeny)

Khan tried to change this stereotype of the headscarf by launching World Hijab Day to attract sympathy and to encourage both non-Muslim and Muslim women who don't wear the hijab regularly to wear hijab on at least one day and to try it. She added that the aim is to promote religious tolerance around the world by raising awareness about the hijab. She notes that the veil not only covers the head, but also covers the whole body, including the head, chest, arms and legs, as well as any other articles of loose clothing.

World Hijab Day is held on Feb. 1 every year in nearly 116 countries.

The hijab is a distinguishing feature of Muslim women. Although Islam is not well-known across Korean society, many people see veiled women and know they are Muslim. Korean society is open-minded and everyone has the freedom to act and believe as they want. So Muslim tourists don't suffer any persecution here. On the contrary, when I visited Korea, many people helped me and many of them asked me about my country. One day during our trip across Korea with Korea.net, it was zuhr prayer time and my Korean friends helped me until I found the qibla direction, and the whole team at Korea .net made sure that our food was always halal.

The Korean government is currently seeking to increase the facilities on offer for Muslim tourists by increasing the number of halal restaurants and helping tourists find places to pray. Muslim women, like women everywhere, like adornment and beauty, and Korea is famous for its people's beauty and for their elegance. So certainly there would be demand for beauty salons suitable for veiled women, because they can't remove their headscarf in front of men. There's only one salon in Seoul to which veiled women can go. It has special rooms and only employs women. It's located near Samsung Station, and it's called Satin hair salon.

As for fashion, there's no problem. Korean stores are filled with clothes that Muslim women can wear, and they're very elegant and beautiful. Throughout my time in Korea, I found a lot of clothes that fit Muslim women, although I had the impression from Korean TV shows that all the clothes are extremely short and revealing, and that all the sizes were tiny because Korean women were thinner than Arab women. However, I found the exact opposite. All tastes and models are available in all sizes, and there are some stores that even help choose the best and most suitable outfit for Muslim customers.

The hijab and traditional Korean Hanbok attire are from two vastly different sets of traditions, but they can be a good match, too. (Salwa Elzeny)

As for traditional Korean Hanbok attire, it's very suitable for Muslim women. During one of the events at the Korean Cultural Center in Egypt, the teacher showed the Egyptian students how to sew some Hanbok. She saw that Hanbok is very suitable for the hijab, because the ritual of wearing Hanbok is to tie back one's hair. From the Islamic point of view, Hanbok is a loose set of clothes that covers all of a woman's body. It's very similar to the Arab abaya. So it goes well with the hijab. During my visit to Korea and on our first day in Korea, we wore Hanbok clothes and along the Cheonggyecheon Stream. We found that many people stopped us and told us that we were quite beautiful, in Korean. That's proof that they were impressed by the combination of Hanbok and our hijabs.

Even though some Koreans may not be fully familiar with the hijab or with Muslim society more generally, they showed great respect for our differences. Also, people showed us during our trip that two totally different societies can fit together well. We hope that the hijab can become better and more widely known across Korea and that people around the world will be able to break their prejudices and have a better understanding about this.   

wisdom117@korea.kr

Chuseok in Egypt

By Korea.net Honorary Reporters Nagwan Amer and Hanan Salim Mohammed Ali

Photos∙Video = Nagwan Amer and Hanan Salim Mohammed Ali

The harvest festival of Chuseok is one of the biggest holidays in Korea, celebrated on the full moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Like any other festival, people have their own traditions that they perform. For example, they travel to the towns where they were born to spend time with their families, visit their ancestors' gravesites and perform ritual worship ceremonies.

We here in Egypt also celebrated this special event in a Korean manner. It was really an awesome experience and a great chance to share these sweet moments with our lovely Korean friends.

First, we started with a traditional Hanbok show, where everyone picked a suitable set of clothes and got dressed in it. It was a very comfortable and stylish outfit.

Traditional Hanbok attire is still worn today on festivals and other special occasions.

We enjoyed some delicious sweets that are eaten on this special occasion. Surprisingly, they tasted like snacks we have here in Egypt called semsemya and balh el sham.

Traditional Korean snacks are similar to some Egyptian snacks. 

Then we learned how to perform a traditional Korean greeting, which reflects the respect and good manners of all the Korean people. Here’s a video showing how to perform the ritual.

Hanbok fashion show in Egypt

A range of modern and traditional Hanbok is on the stage during a Hanbok fashion show in Cairo on Oct. 22 last year. 

By Korea.net Honorary Reporters  Dina Khaled and Sara Khaled

Photos = Korean Cultural Center in Egypt

October is Hanbok Month in Egypt. On Oct. 22 last year, the first ever Hanbok fashion show in Egypt or the Middle East, showing off the great beauty of traditional Korean attire, was held at the Ramses Hilton hotel, one of Cairo’s top five-star hotels and organized by the Embassy of Korea in Cairo. My sister and I participated in the event as models for the Hanbok dresses. We learned a lot of new things about Hanbok and we had a lot of fun at the show. 

Hanbok is one of the key elements of Korean identity that distinguishes Korea from other countries around the world. Hanbok is a traditional form of clothes worn in Korea in the past. It symbolizes Korea. It's distinctly Korean and doesn’t look like any other type of clothing from anywhere else in the world. The beautiful Hanbok colors and patterns each symbolizes something that makes Hanbok a special thing to wear. Hanbok is really comfortable and practical to wear, too, more so than other countries' traditional forms of attire. We think Korean Hanbok would suit any person who wears it, whether they're skinny or fat, because Hanbok design is somehow loose and doesn’t restrain the body, making it suitable for anyone's body shape.

Hanbok attire differs according to sex, class, profession, social status and season. In general, there are two main components to Hanbok. For men, their Hanbok is composed of an upper jacket known as a jeogori (저고리) and a pair of pants known as a baji (바지). For women, their Hanbok is composed of the jeogori (저고리), which is a jacket, and the skirt known as a chima (치마). Over time, there have been slight changes to Hanbok in terms of materials, preferred colors, and the length of the skirt or jacket sleeves. Korea has done an amazing thing in keeping traditional attire updated until now. People in Korea still wear Hanbok on special occasions, like weddings, 61st birthdays, first birthdays and holidays.

Hanbok designer Ham Eun-jeong (center) poses for a photo with Korea.net Honorary Reporter Dina Khaled (right). 

Wearing a Hanbok dress is an awesome thing, but what’s even better is that the Hanbok dresses that we wore were designed by a professional and famous designer who came from Korea specifically for this show, designer Ham Eun-jeong. She’s really professional, as she designed various types of Hanbok, with beautiful complementary colors. Different types of Hanbok clothes were worn by different social strata and at different times: queen and king Hanbok, wedding Hanbok, gisaeng female entertainer (기생) Hanbok, 16th century Hanbok and today's modern Hanbok. One's clothes reflected the rich history and traditions of the people, and the colors and fabrics used to make Hanbok reflected the social status and the times of the person wearing it.

Designer Ham Eun-jeong worked on many of the Hanbok dresses recently on display in Cairo.

Differences between traditional Hanbok and modern Hanbok

As we were participating in this event, we learned that each color and pattern on a piece of Hanbok attire represents something. For example, the colors and fabric used to make a particular Hanbok reflect the social status of the person wearing it. Rich people wore Hanbok that was made of brightly colored silk and high-grade lightweight materials in the warm weather and of plain and patterned silks the rest of the year. Commoners wore Hanbok that was made of durable and inexpensive fabric, like hemp or cotton, in earth-toned colors. On the other hand, modern Hanbok ignores this distinction, and people of all social classes choose vibrant colors that appeal to them.

Hanbok colors are decided according to the "five colors theory," obangsaek in Korean (오방색). It refers to the theory of yin and yang and the "five elements" of metal, fire, wood, water and earth. The most popular colors reflect hues from nature, including jade green, indigo, white, red, blue, black and yellow. The color red symbolizes good fortune and wealth. Thus, it's often used for a woman’s wedding dress. The color black symbolizes infinity and the fountainhead of all creation. Black is often used for a man's hat. The color yellow can also represent the center of the universe, and it was often worn by royalty.

Jeong Sameul (left), director of the fashion show, poses for a photo with Korea.net Honorary Reporter Dina Khaled. 

Going on stage and modeling in a fashion show was a really amazing experience, but what’s even more amazing is to be trained by a professional director. He and his training team came all the way from Korea specifically to train us. Jeong Sameul, the director for this show, and his team were very diligent and kind, even though we were making many mistakes, as it was the very first fashion show for many of us. They were very patient and  trained us really well. The training lasted for three weeks as we learned not only how to walk on stage but also how to walk probably in Hanbok. We were divided into groups and each group learned a different walk according to the type of Hanbok and traditional social status of the wearer.

Some Hanbok designs from the 16th century are included in the recent Hanbok fashion show in Cairo. 

Son Hwa-young, assistant director for the fashion show, poses for a photo with Korea.net Honorary Reporter Sara Khaled. 

Egyptian media writes about the recent Hanbok fashion show. 

This was the first Hanbok fashion show in the Middle East, and it garnered a lot of attention from Egyptian magazines and newspapers. After the show, a lot of famous magazines and newspapers wrote about the event, talking about the beauty of Hanbok and fashion in general, and also numerous articles were written online about this event. Moreover, many famous Egyptian designers showed an interest in the event and attended it personally. They praised the beautiful and comfortable designs and they may add Hanbok elements to their future designs now. 

In "The Wonders of Korea," a promotional TV program produced and aired by KBS World, included on entire episode about Hanbok, episode seven, "Hanbok, the Art of Line & Color.” The show introduces all things Korean to the world, showing off its traditions and arts. This episode highlighted traditional Hanbok attire. It said that, “The key to Hanbok is the lines and the color combinations. In Western attire, there are usually two colors, one for the upper body and one for the lower body. This isn't the case with Hanbok. The skirt, jacket, ribbon and neckband are all different colors. Even with four different colors, however, harmony still exists. This works for two colors or even just one color.” We think this is really true.

wisdom117@korea.kr