VCUarts Qatar professor Khaled Saouda is a physics professor who meets many art students as they fulfill their general science requirements. His fashion students have inspired him to redesign the abaya, a traditional Muslim garment worn by women, to absorb light rich in vitamin D while also blocking the sun’s more harmful rays.
“We are in the early stages of this research, but the materials, which is my field, have been synthesized and I’m looking for a way to spray it on this textile and make it bind stronger to the textile,” he said. “Then we want to test it in a real abaya. So I’m actually exploring the different funding sources for this project right now.”
While the original idea was to create a material that absorbs good and blocks bad radiation, Saoud is looking at other functionalities for the textile. For example, he may use nanotechnology to make a self-cleaning textile.
Read more via VCU News.
Image: A woman in a traditional abaya. (Getty Images) Credit via VCU News.
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