Is it Okay To Contradict the Muslim Faith Based on Vanity?

By Jordan Messieh

Recently, I’ve been immensely intrigued on peoples’ opinions of plastic surgery

procedures, especially in today’s society of social media. From Instagram to Snapchat,
flawless influencers around the world are looking more or less the same: plump lips, a
defined jaw, a pinched nose, and an hourglass body with the tiniest waists in the world.
On 19 October 2018, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed per usual and came
across a gorgeous beauty blogger who happened to be Muslim. What caught me off
guard was the fact that this beauty blogger admitted to her multiple procedures
including rhinoplasty and lip fillers. Nowadays, not many influencers on social media
like to share what they got done because some are ashamed or embarrassed. After
encountering this particular beauty blogger, I wanted to look more into the religious
perspective of a Muslim undergoing plastic surgery for I was extremely curious. As a
teenager who grew up in a Christian household, I knew I had to dive in head first with
no judgment or entitlement to my own religion. I’m also half Egyptian, so I’m not
neccesarily going into this topic with no knowledge of the state of Islam but I had to do
research because I knew I didn’t know enough about it. According to the Koran’s
quotes, which is the Islam’s sacred book of religion, I found an article called “Ruling on
Performing Plastic Surgery” by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, as it states, “If a
woman's body has been altered so much during her pregnancies that she feels
ashamed to show herself in front of her husband, is she allowed to have a plastic
surgery (Al Munajjid.)” This gave me further insight to the Middle Eastern-based
religion on why some Muslim beauty bloggers are hesitant to share let alone flaunt their
procedures all over thousands if not millions peoples’ feeds.

After reading different sources and excerpts from the Koran on the web, I came
across an unconventional article from Dazed that reads, “Muslim woman so candidly
about cosmetic surgery. It’s clear that Muslim women are by no means a monolith, and
each of us has unique relationships with both our faith and our culture. Religion and
spirituality are far more than skin-deep and transcend what we can perceive through
appearances (Haris.)” People tend to stick labels on people they don’t know for their
convenience. In this article, it discusses the non-correlational relationship between
religion and plastic surgery as well as why Muslims are starting to become more
comfortable with discussing their procedures rather than hiding it from their audience,
friends, or family. This article was exceptionally unconventional for the fact that it
contradicted all of the other numerous articles I came across; it gives a
counterargument to the Koran respectfully according to Haris. I find that undergoing
vanity procedures in the doctors office as a Muslim shouldn’t be based on your religion
but contradicting what the book of religion you study isn’t necessarily the best feeling
in the world either. Various traditional aspects of any religion has definitely altered in
this generation due to social pressure on social media and the wide range of disorders
that is now being talked about more frequently such as body dysmorphia.
 In “Why Cosmetic Surgery Can Be Complex When You’re Muslim” by Ruqaiya
Haris, it reads, “I asked Nadia if she thinks social media has played a part and she told
me, ““Absolutely. Anyone who downplays this is lying to themselves. Every day you’re
scrolling on Instagram and you see these perfect women and girls, with flawless skin,
small noses, big lips, practically looking like models… and it takes a massive hit on my
self-confidence (Haris.)”” Nadia is a Muslim who underwent multiple plastic surgery
procedures admitting to pressure on socal media and genuinely a hatred for some
natural features of hers. She is arguing that it’s ok to be a Muslim woman and to get
enhancements, treatments, or procedures done because at the end of the day, Muslim
women face the same problems that non-Muslim women face on social media including
the anxiety and pressure to look perfect like your favorite beauty blogger. Having said
all of that, the Koran is also their study of faith and how they form a personal
relationship with Allah, their god. In the Koran, Allah clearly states that no woman
should alter the way he made them look based on vanity but the only time it should be
changed is due to a health reason such as a cleft lip.

Contradicting the religion people practice is an extremely sensitive toopic

because the relationship people create with God is personal despite public sins.
Regarding plastic surgery and Islam, Muslim women know the Koran and they are also
aware of social pressure in today’s society. Although this article is in no shape or form
paving the way for a one word answer regarding this topic, Muslim women face the
same pressures every other woman faces today and they also have a religion that
shapes some aspects of their personal lives. In this case, religious values and life
choices regarding vanity are connected to each other, leaving an empty room for
answer for the Muslim women if they choose to take part in plastic surgery or not.
Before doing any enhancements, everybody, counting non-Muslim women and all
genders, should think about the life-changing enhancements and how it would affect
their lives, family members, and most importantly, their conscience.

Annotated Bibliography
http://www.dazeddigital.com/head/article/41850/1/cosmetic-surgery-muslim-beauty-modesty
In “Why Cosmetic Surgery Can be Complex When You’re Muslim” by Ruqaiya Haris, it mainly
shares the experiences of Muslim women who underwent surgery and how they connect their
religion to cosmetic surgery which is considered “haram” or against the state of Islam. The
article sides with the conclusion of an indirect relationship of the specific religion and
undergoing plastic surgery. *photos for blog post taken from this article*

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/1006/ruling-on-performing-plastic-surgery
This article is pertaining to a Muslim’s point of view on plastic surgery including parts of the
Koran to educate the genral public of other religions. It mainly addresses parts of the Koran
pertaining to a woman’s body and “restrictions” as to what they could do if they want to stay
“halal” or good. It helps readers further understand the point of view of altering a woman’s body
in therms of the religion of Islam.

https://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Woman/Your-body/Boob-jobs-can-muslim-woman-do-it-
20150129
This article gives further background on the perspective of plastic surgery as a Muslim woman
but offers a new insight. It states, “Modifying the breasts is also permissible if the shape or size
is off-putting to a woman's husband.” This is an ironic statement compared to the last article
quoting the Koran because it explains a unique singular reason on why Muslim women get
plastic surgery compared to “it’s wrong.” This article gives further insight as well as flexibility to
the religion, expanding the reasons on why one might undergo a breast augmentation, etc. The
religion also stands on different plastic surgery procedures differently depending on the
procedure and what the man thinks is permissive based on vanity.
Rationale
In this section of IB English HL, Part 2 Language and Mass Communication, dealing
with rhetoric as well as textual bias, I wrote about the complex choice of choosing to get plastic
surgery procedures done as a Muslim. I looked up numerous articles to educate myself on Islam
as well as Muslim womens’ current views on plastic surgery and turns out, everyone is split on
the issue. Therefore, I decided to write about the intriguing topic in my own piece of writing as a
blog post. Although my piece of writing was not in fact persuading the reader to undergo
enhancements or not, I merely wrote about persuading the reader to weigh in the cost of getting
procedures done as a Muslim. I decided to do this topic because on social media, especially
Instagram, I’ve noticed an uprise in Muslim beauty bloggers interest in procedures and their
reasoning behind why they did it as well as how they felt going against their religion; Islam. It’s
interesting to dive into this topic because there are many elements that go into the decision
making of going under the knife as a Muslim like social media, peer pressure, and health
purposes. I created a blog post format for my “Written Task 1” to further emphasize the amount
of decision-making and thinking Muslims have while being conflicted to get the procedures
done; temporary or not. In my blog post, I also didn’t include any textual bias because as a non-
biased article, I didn’t want to give my personal opinion because I have no experience on getting
plastic surgery procedures done nor am I Muslim. Therefore, it would be unfit and inappropriate
to give my own outlook on the subject. I did in fact include quotes of Muslim women who
underwent rhinoplastys and such, so if any young Muslims wanted to get a procedure done, they
wouldn’t feel discouraged about my words in the article.