--- title: Yuna Says Modest Clothing and Her Hijab Are 'Liberating' description: Malaysian pop star Yuna shared how she thinks modesty and her hijab are "liberating" canonical: https://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T22:38:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:46.907Z og:title: Yuna Says Modest Clothes and Her Hijab Are 'Liberating' og:description: "I don’t see it as a restriction or limitation — I can still be me" og:url: https://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a64306ab78deee0/6988954bcd1bbadd29700e18/yuna-showing-hair.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: AOL Build Presents: Singer Yuna's New Album "Chapters" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yuna Says Modest Clothes and Her Hijab Are 'Liberating' twitter:description: "I don’t see it as a restriction or limitation — I can still be me" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a64306ab78deee0/6988954bcd1bbadd29700e18/yuna-showing-hair.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Singer Yuna Says Modest Clothing and Her Hijab Are 'Liberating'  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 26, 2016 10:38 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 27: Singer Yuna attends the AOL Build Series to discuss her new album "Chapters" (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 27: Singer Yuna attends the AOL Build Series to discuss her new album "Chapters" (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)Rob Kim—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 26, 2016 10:38 PM UTC For Malaysian singer Yuna (whose discography includes collabs with [Usher ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGHPQ2FVm8)and Pharrell), staying true to herself is an integral part of her career as a musical artist — and that’s especially relevant when it comes to personal style and her Muslim faith. In an interview with [_New York Magazine_](http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/05/yuna-on-fashion-race-and-not-showing-her-hair.html?mid=twitter%5Fcut) on Thursday, Yuna addressed the assumption that Muslim women are oppressed, specifically when it comes to things like dressing modestly and covering their hair. “I really like the idea of modesty. By the time I got into music, I was already wearing the scarf all the time, and it’s really personal to me, my Muslim beliefs, so I decided to keep it and find a way to work around it,” she said. “I don’t see it as a restriction or limitation — I can still be me and get into music and be an entertainer.” In fact, the 29-year-old singer finds that her decision to wear modest clothing affords her a certain kind of freedom in the music industry, which can be decidedly sexist, especially when it comes to women’s appearance. “It’s my personal choice — it’s just kind of weird when people say ‘take off your hijab and be you’ because this is me, I’m being myself,” she said. “I’m not oppressed. This is very liberating that I get to do this and be in the music industry. I like that I don’t have to conform to the normal women-in-music-selling-sex-appeal thing.” Yuna is putting her empowering message into practice too — she’s the face of [Uniqlo’s Hana Tajima hijab capsule collection](http://hanatajima.com/uniqlo-x-hana-tajima/) and is working with a friend on a clothing line that has modest offerings. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/"},"headline":"Singer Yuna Says Modest Clothing and Her Hijab Are 'Liberating'","datePublished":"2016-05-26T22:38:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:46.907Z","description":"\"I don’t see it as a restriction or limitation — I can still be me and get into music and be an entertainer.\"","url":"https://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a64306ab78deee0/6988954bcd1bbadd29700e18/yuna-showing-hair.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a64306ab78deee0/6988954bcd1bbadd29700e18/yuna-showing-hair.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"AOL Build Presents: Singer Yuna's New Album \"Chapters\"","caption":"AOL Build Presents: Singer Yuna's New Album \"Chapters\"","creditText":"Rob Kim—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/","name":"Singer Yuna Says Modest Clothing and Her Hijab Are 'Liberating'"}}]}] ```