WHAT DOES ‘AWRA’ MEAN?
IN ARABIC, THE TERM ‘AWRAH OR ‘AWRAT (عورة) DERIVES FROM THE ROOT ‘A-W-R WHICH MEANS “DEFECTIVENESS”, “IMPERFECTION”, “BLEMISH” OR “WEAKNESS”. HOWEVER, THE MOST COMMON ENGLISH TRANSLATION IS “NAKEDNESS.”
NAKEDNESS.
I just thought we would get the embarrassing part out of the way for all the arabic speakers that email us or negatively comment on our social media why we would be called something as ridiculous as AWRA.
Well, allow me to explain.
Firstly, it is not ridiculous. If you just so happen to come across our company for the first time on social media without actually taking the time to log on to our website and find out why we are called AWRA, it may come across slightly strange to you. However, I named the company AWRA as a play-off for the correct spelling ‘awrah’ because at the time when we launched in 2013, I was personally looking for hijabs, for myself, that were large enough to provide full coverage. Almost all the hijabs I purchased online were very narrow in width and they didn’t cover me properly, or they were not large enough to style and that frustrated me. I wanted for the hijab to be able to cover my hair and also large enough to drape across my chest. Spotting the gap in the market and with not many hijab companies around at the time, I decided to launch what was then known at the time as ‘AWRA HIJABS’ — so if you wanted a laugh at our name, then would have maybe been a better time, just saying.
I wanted our customers to know that our hijabs were always going to be large enough to cover their awrah. I wanted sisters to shop with ease, knowing that they wouldn’t be disappointed with the hijab sizes we design. We are called AWRA, because covering YOUR AWRA is OUR FOCUS. It may translate as ‘nakedness’ but that’s fine, we know, because our focus is on covering your ‘nakedness.’
The main purpose of hijab is to cover the awrah, which very commonly refers to the areas of the body that are required to be covered by Islamic law. This applies to both men and women, not just women. For the women however, when they leave their homes, this is her whole body with only the face and hands showing. So we could argue, her arms, her legs, her shoulders, her stomach are all part of her awrah — it’s more than just the intimate parts of the body. That would be very, very odd to just refer to the intimate areas of the body as a woman’s awrah. It’s safe to say, it’s much more than that.
I want to continue to build a company that helps sisters at all levels. This includes sisters who cover with ease and sisters who are struggling to wear hijab, you all matter to us and how ever much you are doing right now, how ever much you are struggling and in turn, are trying, it is all simply amazing, keep going. You’re doing amazing girls. It’s not about perfection, it’s about effort. Your efforts are the best thing you can present to Allah SWT.
At the end of the day, so much goodness has come from AWRA. So many sisters have started to wear the hijab since discovering us and so many have found a comfort in our designs. That’s something that really humbles me and something I am very proud of. I’m really grateful to Allah SWT for putting this company on my path. We have grown from very little and managed to impact the lives of others along the way. Alhamdulilah.
Successfully serving sisters and their hijab needs is far more important to me and the company as a whole, than the opinions of a few passers by.
https://www.awra.co/en-us/blogs/news/what-does-awra-mean
You can also read our blog: WHAT IS HIJAB?
