A little help?

mehfesto2

Hello everybody.

I'm doing a project for college, whereby we find two similar images and compare and contrast them. One of my images is Sigit Pamungkas' depiction of Muslim women praying on the eve of ramadan:


I've scowered the internet and believe I have the gist of Ramadan, but I cannot seem to properly identify their dress. It covers their entire body, but not their faces. I have been told it is a bura/berka, but other sources tell me that these cover all but the eyes. Can somebody clarify it for me, please? I just don't trust Wikipedia!

Also, does the color of this dress have any significance? As you can see in the picture, some wear yellow, some an orange tinted one. Or is this merely just personal preference?

Alnd finally, am I right in assuming that children don't have to wear these clothes until they reach sexual maturity?


Thank you for your help!
Sean

hivizman

The photograph was taken in Indonesia. The women are wearing a hijab (head scarf) in the normal South East Asian style, where the head scarf is folded diagonally into a triangle and placed on the head so that the point of the triangle hangs down the back and the long side of the triangle comes across the forehead. The two parts of the long side of the triangle are brought together under the neck and secured with a pin or brooch, and the ends hang down to cover the chest.

The women (or most of them) are wearing white prayer gowns - these are loose one-piece garments worn over the top of normal clothes. Perhaps the women wearing non-white garments haven't got a white prayer gown - I don't think there's any other significance.

mehfesto2

Thank you, hivizman!

hivizman

The Muslim day begins at sunset, so this picture shows women praying during the first evening of Ramadan. Sunni Muslims (who predominate in Indonesia) make prayers called tarawih (sometimes transliterated as taraweeh) after the normal Isha prayers in the evening. It is common practice for one juz, equivalent to one-thirtieth of the text of the Qur'an, to be recited each evening, so that the whole Qur'an is recited during Ramadan.