I'm an American who converted to Islam ~2 years ago. At first, I wore long shirts/tunics with pants and a turban. Then I started wearing maxi dresses with cardigans and the traditional hijab. I moved to Egypt with my husband about 5 months ago, and now I wear abayas like this with the hijab. I personally find it to be so comfortable! It just a baggy dress. is it the material that makes yours uncomfortable? I also have this overhead jilbab/sirwal set that I wear on occasion, alhamdulillah, but I should note that the sirwal is so baggy on me that it looks more like a maxi skirt than pants like in the picture.

I would love to start wearing khimar and niqab like this, but even in a Muslim-majority country like Egypt, I am dressed more modestly than most women I see/meet, which blows my mind. My husband's older female family members wear hijab, but the women my age either don't wear it and instead wear totally Western clothing like skinny jeans or leggings as pants with t-shirts or off-the-shoulder tops...or they wear basically what I was wearing when I first converted (long shirts, pants, turbans).

My husband knows how much I want to wear niqab, but his immediate family fears that women who wear niqab in Egypt are on some kind of list and are being watched by the government. They think that because I'm an American, if I start wearing niqab and speaking English in public, I'll get arrested and questioned for being a spy. Wut? I don't even speak a lot of Arabic and I mostly stay at home unless we have to go out somewhere, so I wouldn't make a very good spy! And I left the U.S. simply to live in a Muslim land. I'm not doing anything wrong for anyone to be paranoid like that. And, also, all power is with Allah, s.w.t., so why would I be put in a situation where I am treated with injustice? So weird!

Anyway, I'm rambling, but I just wanted you to know that while you dislike abayas and have a family that would be delighted if you wore niqab, other women, like myself, are struggling to convince the people around them to let them wear truly modest clothing because they're afraid of what other people are thinking.

My husband introduced me to his friend's wives who either don't wear hijab and wear jeans and t-shirts or who wear pants with long-sleeved tops and scarves that show a lot of their hair, and they all kept telling me how I "don't have to wear" such loose clothing and that pants with long shirts would be fine. They all seem to think I'm going "too far" and "so extreme". They also told me I would look better if I threw the part of my scarf that covers my chest behind my back or wrapped it in a turban. I was shocked! It's hard to live according to the Qur'an and sunnah when the people around you are trying to make you take a step backward.

If you gave up wearing the abaya, sister, it would truly be a step backward, not forward. The way non-Muslims treat you or act around you when you wear an abaya should not affect your way of dress at all, and although you may hate the way it looks, it's better to deflect attention away from yourself than to attract unwanted gazes from strangers by dressing in something more trendy, modern and eye-catching.

There is clothing that covers all the skin, but that makes people do a double-take. I know that sometimes I'm scrolling through Instagram and see a gorgeous printed maxi dress or bright hijab that makes me stop and scroll back up to get a good look at it. Lol. Imagine the looks a person gets in day-to-day life wearing prints, colors and textures that attract attention like that. It's just not worth it at the end.

You can dress however you want around your mahram, but it's more pleasing to Allah, s.w.t. if you stick to the abaya in public. May Allah, s.w.t., grant you the strength to continue as you have been!