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Muslim Opens Ladies-only Beauty Salon in NY

BROOKLYN – A Muslim women-only beauty salon is opening in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, offering hijabi women a place where they can safely let their hair down without fear of any privacy intrusion.

“I’ve heard client horror stories where they had to be taken down to the basement so they could get their hair done,” said owner Huda Quhshi, who was born and raised in Greenpoint, Brooklyn Daily reported.

As a measure of modesty, many observant Muslim women do not let men outside of their family see their hair.

Instead of being forced to move to closed rooms or basement in some beauty shops, Quhshi’s forthcoming Le’Jemalik Salon and Boutique on Fifth Avenue wanted to give fellow Muslim women a more dignified solution to a unique conflict.

“Just experiencing and hearing that over the years — where people have to be taken to a back-room closet just to get their hair done — I said, ‘You know what? I have to do this for them,” she said.

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“They need this. We need this.’ ”

The reception area of Le’Jemalik — which means “for beauty” in Arabic — separates clients from the main space and allows husbands and brothers to make appointments or wait for their loved ones without impinging on salon-goers’ modesty.

The new shop has been praised by many for catering to their religious needs.

“It’s great that it’s just women, because when men come in we literally have to cover up in the middle of getting our hair done. We’re a huge population, but we are very overlooked. And I think it’s because people don’t understand the culture,” said Bensonhurster Yomna Negm.

“But here I know a man isn’t going to suddenly come in. It’s a beautiful idea. It’s like a beauty safe haven.”

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.