Historical Hijab: The Bosnian Feredža

Ive always had an interest in historical, traditional & vintage clothing and clothing traditions around the world but especially in the Muslim world. As I have a Masters in Library & Information Sciences and am an RN; Research, particularly of the Academic sort has always been an interest of mine which I actually enjoy pursuing. Id like to add a regular series devoted to Traditional styles of Hijab to this blog, I also plan to rejuvinate my Cultural Hijab feature as well. Unfortunately too many people; Muslims and non-alike have a very false misconception as to how diverse Islamic dress is and has been around the Muslim world.

Let me know what you think of the first installment of this series… what would you like to see next?

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Many Bosnian Muslim women in urban areas during the latter half of the Ottoman Empire until the early 1950s wore an outfit called Feredža when outside the home. Technically the feredža meant a face veil or niqabto Ottoman-era Bosnians, but during this later time period the entire outfit (over garment & face covering alike) worn outside the house by Ottoman Muslim Bosnian women was termed feredža.

Like most places around the world where women engaging in active physical labor required more freedom of movement, the feredža was worn primarily by urban Muslims in Bosnian cities, particularly by those who did not have to work to survive. Hence the wearing of feredža was an overt marker of a higher social status.

According to my research the feredža and other forms of religiously associated attire was banned when the Soviets took over Bosnia and neighboring countries in the early 1950s. Interestingly, unlike in Uzbekistan and several other areas, there did not seem to be much push back by the Bosnian Muslim population to the sudden banning of the feredža, although I did read how some urban Bosnian Muslim women refused to leave their homes after the ban. 

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Please note: There is very little information on this garment in English and as I am unable to read Bosnian I had to rely upon information gleaned from the Bosnia Subreddit & Wikipedia, keep that in mind, there may be errors in information.

(Vintage photos culled from a variety of sources online)

Ok, I shall end here. Let me know what you think of this first installment in this series.

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-❤️ Bailey UmmIbrahim