International Muslimah Fashion Week quickly turned into a scandal where rumors of a scam erupted.
Salaams my lovelies! Happy Friday to everyone. I typically do a Follow Friday post, but I wanted to address the rumors of scandal regarding a modest fashion event called International Muslimah Fashion Week. Unfortunately, what was promised to be a few days of bonded sisterhood fun, has quickly turned into a scary situation because of what seems to be either poor planning or bad intentions. Allah (swt) knows best as to what truly did happen, but I will say I was very sad about the sisters who invested so much money and time to be part of what could have been a great event. So many vendors, bloggers, and Muslims were planning to attend and to be told it was cancelled is one thing. However, it is whole other thing to wait till the last minute to cancel. Countless bloggers traveled from all over the world to attend this event and were ultimately stranded in a foreign country! My heart truly does go out to these hard working ladies. However, I am sure they will find the kindness of Muslim Americans can be felt wherever they go. I feel even WORSE for the sisters who scraped and saved to spend over a hundred dollars just to attend this event and meet inspirational hijabis. They may have even flown cross country or internationally to attend. What is their recourse?
When it comes to events, we should demand that they be put on with some professionalism and organization. Last year, I attended a Halal Fest here in the Bay Area and it was chaos! I truly wanted to support a Muslim event, but we need to start expecting that they are organized like all events should be. Melanie from Haute Hijab wrote a great piece on the fallout from the IMFW scandal here that highlights just that. It is time for the Type A Muslims to come forward and start organizing Muslim events that are timely, affordable, and accessible to all with good intentions.
I will make a confession: I was tempted to attend just so I could meet some hijabi bloggers I truly admired and to get the word out about Hijabi Life. I may not be a glamorous hijabi blogger, but I wanted to ensure that my readership got the scoop on all things modest fashion. However, I am really selective about which events I attend and my OWN intentions. If I find it digresses and I am just feeding my nafs for “fame” in the modest fashion scene, I actually pull away. For example, I did MC for Fashion Fighting Famine SF because it was a good cause, but I didn’t want to use it as a means to promote myself. It was more to ensure we helped a local charity in the community. Since I had no such basis for IMFW, I personally did not want to attend it because it felt like I was digressing from my true intent of this blog which is to support my fellow Muslims sisters.
I really do hope for the best for all the ladies involved. Let’s all make dua and think of a better event that inshallah will take away the confusion, hurt, and hate this one may have caused. Perhaps we can have a redo of this event, but at a lower cost per ticket and also with a charity or cause we can all be proud of. OR we can just use this as more reason to BACK organizations like Fashion Fighting Famine who do modest fashion shows but are legitimate and help others. Let’s learn from this and truly come together as a community.
