A Seller's Sincerity: The Fashionably Veiled Designer-Entrepreneur in Turkey. Issue 3 (27th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Crăciun, Magdalena
• Is Part Of: Ethnos. Volume 84:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 415
• Page End: 435
• Publication Date: 2019-05-27
• Subjects: Sincerity -- piety -- social media -- digital entrepreneurship -- Islamic fashion -- Turkey; Ethnology -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Periodicals; 305.8
• DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2018.1551236
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0014-1844

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A seller's sincerity is important for the viability of his/her business. This claim is substantiated ethnographically through a study of the challenges fashionably veiled designer-entrepreneurs face in Turkey. Their fashionable veil raises suspicion. Their critics claim they are not as devout as they want to appear. The performance of their piety through public-facing social media further nourishes mistrust. Their critics think this is driven by pragmatic calculation rather than religiosity. They respond to this criticism, arguing for the sincerity of their piety and striving to make their businesses work. The ethical dimension in any act of selling, as either reality or expectation, is hence brought to the foreground. Simultaneously, by emphasising the importance of the digital in the proclamation or, on the contrary, trivialisation of faith, a line of thinking that connects sincerity, piety and the material in the discussion of Islam is updated through the addition of the (im)material.