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Time was when hijabs were simply religious garb for Muslim women that covered their head and chest of religiously observant women. But hijab design has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, with wearers wanting elegance while expressing their religious identity.

In Bangladesh, for example, online fashion influencers have been particularly influential since the mid-2010s, promoting different hijab trends and styles online, with local entrepreneurs increasingly producing and selling hijabs online, especially via Facebook.…

Indonesia, which holds the presidency of the G20 group of major economies this year, wants to us this position to increase the role of Islamic finance worldwide, to boost consumer access to affordable financial products and services.

Financial inclusion is one of the goals of the G20, made more important by the Covid-19 pandemic widening inequality for the most financially vulnerable and underserved groups, said Dian Triansyah Djani, Indonesia’s ‘co-sherpa’ (diplomatic coordinator) for the G20.…

India’s predominant vegetarianism, religious complexities and a recent spurt in Islamophobic politics has stalled the development of a halal segment in a food and drink sector that serves a country of 1.38 billion people.

Despite serving the world’s second largest Muslim population of more than 210 million, according to the US-based Pew Research Center, Indian food manufacturers do not generally display ‘halal’ on any food labels, except meat.…

As the Italian economy recovers from the particularly hard two-year coronavirus pandemic, Italy’s paints and varnishes sector is among the few to have weathered the storm well. “Our sector has probably never seen such a jump in growth like that of the past two years,” said Gianni Martinetti, president of the Paints and Varnishes Group of AVISA (1), which is part of Italy’s national chemicals industry association, Federchimica.  …

China’s textile industry has been under intense pressure during the first half of this year (2022) to deal with the country’s continuing struggle to contain Covid-19, imposing tough lockdowns, even as much of the rest of the world eases social distancing rules.…

Observers of the global Islamic finance industry are predicting significant imminent growth in sharia-compliant environmental and social governance (ESG) investment, as demand for financial institutions to deploy funds in ethical ways expands, along with awareness of climate change and social justice.…

The Muslim world is extremely diverse culturally, so it is no surprise that colour cosmetics trends are many and varied. However, one clear universal trend is that Muslim women are on average becoming more knowledgeable about make-up, especially with internet influencers spreading advice on products and techniques.…

A campaign to boycott Indian products in Islamic countries because of anti-Muslim comments made by leaders of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have died down for now but given the continuing Hindu-Muslim tensions in India, the risk of future supply disruption remains, warn economists.…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – which as of June 10 had killed 4,339 civilians (UN figures) – sparked an unprecedented range of sanctions against Russia’s financial, business and political elite. But there is little evidence as of June – with the invasion entering its fourth month – of upset Russian oligarchs pressuring President Vladimir Putin to abandon his bloody invasion, because they had lost access to their yachts, mansions and bank accounts.…

FATF has announced it will “severely limit” Russia’s role within FATF, following it invasion of Ukraine, which as of June 17 had killed 4,509 civilians (UN figures). Following its plenary from June 14-17, FATF announced Russia “can no longer hold any leadership or advisory roles or take part in decision-making on standard-setting, FATF peer review processes, governance and membership matters”.…