Islamic fashion houses, including Hijab House, targeted by racist hackers

A girl wearing a hijab waits to cross the road in Melbourne.

Three weeks ago Tarik Houchar opened the Instagram account for his fashion outlet Hijab House to find it had been hacked.

The hacker had vandalised his page, posting anti-Islamic content and Donald Trump videos.

Hijab House sells modestly clothing in the form of floaty dresses, floral hijabs, skirts and trousers in assorted prints and fabrics.

"It really hurt our business and, more than that, it really hurt our customers in our community," Mr Houchar, Hijab House's director told ABC News.

"We had girls, hundreds of girls emailing us everyday saying that they're very upset and they're really sad and they miss seeing our photos on the internet. And it really hit me that day that our brand does have a significant to these young girls," he said, adding that he also received racially-incensed emails.

Mr Houchar reported it to the police who referred it to overseas investigators. Instagram has since reinstated his account with the help of its head of fash ion, and former Lucky magazine editor, Eva Chen.

External Link: Hijab House Instagram post: The beauties of Hijab House ^[1]

The attack comes at time when more and more fashion houses are entering the conservative clothing market, eyeing a key demographic that prizes individuality and beautiful clothing.

At the same time Mr Houchar's page was vandalised, a number of other Muslim fashion Instagram accounts from around the world were also targeted in an attack that deleted images and posted denigrating content.

Mariam Moufid, a fashion and lifestyle blogger from Stockholm, and Russian and Algerian stylist and blogger Nabiilabee were among those who had their accounts hacked. Each have hundreds of thousands of followers.

According to a report produced by Thomson Reuters, Muslims spent $266 billion on clothing in 2013, with that figure expected to top $484 billion by 2019.

"Muslim women fashion industry is growing and I think it's a positiv e step, and I think it's doing a lot not only for the economy but a lot for young Muslim women who want to look and feel good at the same time," said Widyan Fares, a fashion blogger based in Sydney who sometimes models for Hijab House.

"I think that's something important that we should all embrace."

External Link: Tweet from Nabiilabee: "Instagram hacked again. Instagram are just gonna keep letting this happen." ^[2]

The top market for conservative fashion is Turkey, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

The United States ranks 13th with a consumption value of $US6.7 billion, according to the Thomson Reuters report.

However, modest clothing can appeal to people outside of religious connotations.

Hijab House, for example, also sells many shawls and scarves to cancer patients, a market that remains relatively untapped.

Street fashion chains including Uniqlo have also started to release collections featuring Hijabs, while Swedish retailer H&M was commended when it released a campaign with its first hijab-wearing model in September last year.

External Link: Widyan Fares has a popular Islamic fashion Instagram account ^[3]

The luxury Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana in January debuted embellished Hijabs and Abayas featuring floral prints, delicate satin fabrics and lace embroidery.

"It also allows us to still look beautiful, feel beautiful but really adhering to requirements that we believe in," Ms Fares said.

"Certainly I've had negative comments, anti-Islamic comments made on my Instagram, but also I think those comments can be an opportunity to educate people, and to have a genuine discussion about the hijab and what it means."

In response to questions put forward by the ABC, an Instagram spokesperson said the company "works hard to provide the Instagram community with a safe and secure experience".

"When we become aware that an account has been compromised, we shut off access to the account and work to return the account to its rightful owner," she said.