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Muslim Athletic Wear Covers Skin Without Cramping Style Jennifer Cutraro for National Geographic News April 27, 2006 The design of most modern sportswear puts many Muslim women athletes in a curious bind: adhere to their faith and have their motions hampered or compromise their beliefs in the name of athletic performance? The Koran requires women to cover everything except their faces, hands, and feet, says Tayyibah Taylor, editor-in-chief of Azizah Magazine, a publication geared toward Muslim-American women. "The idea is that your modesty in dress and behavior is a passport to public space," Taylor said. "It makes the statement that...

A modest backlash against the culture Dec 9, 2005by Mona Charen The following is from a new blog: "Waiting to meet an old friend for lunch the other day, my eye fell on the young woman at the table across the aisle. She was attractive, nicely put together in a casual way: T-shirt, jeans, Eskimo-style boots, and a neat ponytail. The lady with her appeared to be her middle-aged mother. Ultimately, I noticed that her T-shirt had some strange writing on it, which is hard to do justice to, while being sensitive to the fact that ModestyZone has some...

.."Not in all my years had I ever seen anything quite so bizarre," Muhtar wrote in a recent column in the daily Sabah newspaper. The women were wearing Islamic-style swimwear, which is becoming increasingly popular among Muslim women who want to bathe without baring their flesh. The outfit consists of a full body suit and hood that is pulled over a tightly fitted bonnet. A long vest completes the ensemble. Muhtar's column has touched off a debate about the merits of such outfits in a country where most women wear Western-style swimwear, and some even go topless. Yet the flurry...

I want to relay to you the story of our family. My husband and I have been married almost 10 years. We both had been married previously and each had sole custody of our young sons (mine was 16 and his was 8 at the time). My husband is a cradle Catholic and I am a converted Catholic. 8 years ago we gave birth to a beautiful little girl. Then 3 years ago we decided to become foster parents. Both of us, for reasons of our own, had become very conservative over the years prior to our meeting. Now we...