No visitor to Qatar, or any other Gulf country, would fail to miss that women’s flowing outer garments, known as abayas, are almost unexceptionally black. Even though there is no specific law in Qatar that enforces this particular color, there is indisputably a national norm that prescribes it. The black abaya has the status of national dress: Qatari women from all classes and status groups, including women of the royal family, wear it in public.

However, there are signs that the hegemony of black is under challenge. Abayas in other colors, even in white, have begun to appear, especially among young Qatari women.

To determine what this color change signifies, the first question to ask is why the abaya is black in the first place. For Qatari women, the color black represents modesty. The long black abaya is a perfect equalizer, masking all marks of distinction due to wealth, status, or beauty among women. This modesty also fulfills the Quranic injunction for women to hide their adornments in the public space.

Still, while modesty and other virtues such as chastity and dignity are also associated with the color black, there is additionally a sociological aspect. Many Qatari women relate this dimension of the abaya to a famous story.

One Iraqi merchant, so the story goes, came to Medina to sell women’s garments, called khomar. At the end of his trip he had sold all of his garments except the black ones. Distraught over the financial losses he would incur, the merchant met and complained to a prominent poet, Rabia bin Amir al-Tamimi, also known as Miskiin al-Darmi. To help this merchant, Tamimi wrote a poem and recited it in public:

Ask her, that beautiful lady in black,
What did you do to the worshipper?
Austere and always in his prayer garments,
He used to sit at the door of the mosque.
Please send him back to prayer and fasting,
Do not waste him for the sake of Muhammad’s religion.

Women of Medina were surprised to hear this poem, because Tamimi was known to be a very pious person who spent most of his time in the mosque. How could such a person fall in love with a woman wearing a black khomar, or abaya? The women of Medina thought, it must be due to the color of the khomar! And they, therefore, rushed out to buy all of the black khomars the merchant had in stock. Since then, so the story goes, black has been the favorite color for women’s garments.

The story speaks not to the women’s desire to attract men’s attention – far from the case for most Gulf women I have met. But rather it speaks to the desire of women to distinguish themselves from one another, and to do so within the cultural context in which they find themselves. Today the black abaya of many young Qatari women hardly speaks to modesty. The quality of its fabric is eye-catching. And the colorful designer bags, and expensive watches and sun glasses many Qatari women love to own attract even more attention against the background of a shimmering pitch-black abaya. Furthermore, the black gown looks extremely elegant worn with the high heels many young Qatari women wear as they regally walk Qatar’s many shopping malls.

The black abaya has been changing in the hands of a fast-growing fashion industry in the Gulf. Individual abayas have become more distinctive due to embellishments, especially on the sleeves. Certain parts of the abaya have also became more colorful, defying the black color that still forms the basis of the garment.

Yet some fashion-forward Qataris have gone further, and have begun to challenge the hegemony of the black abaya. It started closest to black with the color gray. More boldly, various shades of white have begun to appear for sale in local stores. Some daring young women in Qatar began to wear white abayas in protected public spaces, such as universities, if not openly in public.

One of them is Maryam al-Subei, a young Qatari woman who wears mostly white abayas. “I think more and more people are keen to wear color,” she argued and added, “Once they try it, they can’t go back to black. We see more women wearing color for special occasions, still the majority are timid to wear it in public places such as markets.”

The 30-year-old entrepreneur feels that the color white better expresses her personality than the color black. She explained, “I wear all colors except black. I decided to stop wearing black more than a year ago, because I was sick of blackness. If I have to wear traditional clothes here by norm, then I will wear them my way.”

Whether wearing the white abaya is a limited and temporary fashion trend is yet to be seen. But, it seems to be gaining popularity, especially among the youth. More and more young women dare to go out in white, which is considered to be the traditional color of the gown worn by Gulf men, the thobe.

Not surprisingly, the reaction to white abayas from society is not entirely positive, as Maryam experiences. “I get stared at all the time for sure. The local people are 50/50 when it comes to seeing the color. Some like it and praise it, some think it is too daring and breaking tradition,’’ she explained.

Maryam also recounted a dramatic encounter in a local television station. When she came in a white abaya to the station to be interviewed in a morning show, the program director specifically asked her to change to a black abaya. When Maryam refused, the director asked whether she could wear at least a black head cover. Maryam refused again and insisted that she would be in her white abaya. Maryam appeared in the program that day because there was no time to cancel the program or bring in anyone else to replace her.

The color change in abaya Maryam and others are spearheading is to a certain extent unsurprising given the broader cultural changes Qatar and other Gulf countries have been undergoing. Qatari women have more educational and work opportunities than their mothers and grandmothers had. Furthermore, Qatari women have become more exposed to other cultures and world fashion trends thanks to advanced communication and greater opportunity to travel to world capitals of fashion. This exposure has likely boosted Qatari women’s confidence and encouraged them to claim their individuality against an imposing social norm.

A growing fashion industry specializing in abaya models has been happy to accommodate. In collaboration with world fashion giants, the market has grown so much that the pre-eminent fashion magazine, Vogue, recently launched the regional issue, Vogue Arabia. This industry has already organized couture shows in Gulf cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha. Supplying to a consumer base with high purchasing power, this industry is itself actively contributing to the changes in the color of the abaya.