Women wear colored butterfly abaya. Culturally this wasn’t acceptable.
Nowadays, maybe, maybe not. In other countries, if you go to Egypt, if you go to Kuwait, if you go to the Emirates, this is normal. If you go to Morocco, colored butterfly abaya is acceptable.
What is the Butterfly Abaya?
Butterfly abaya, and by the way, is the outer garment that a woman wears. So if a woman wears a shirt and a skirt, she has to wear an external dress covering her physique.
And usually it is black, as black is the most conservative color that draws no attention and does not provoke any desire.
Practice of the Female Companions
The companions of the prophet—among the females of course—used to wear such butterfly abayas in that color, in the black.
Mother Aisha tells us that when the Fajr prayer was over, the female companions used to go back home unrecognized due to the blackness that they’re wearing and the blackness of the Salat ending time.
Unlike the vast majority of the time, the prophet used to conclude the prayer when it’s still dark. So Mother Aisha described that they used to wear black butterfly abaya.
Islam and the Choice of Colorful Butterfly Abayas
Nevertheless, Islam is not restricted and did not restrict women to only wearing black butterfly abaya. It’s a cultural thing.
In Saudi Arabia, the norm used to be that all women wore black. So there was no distinction—everybody was like everybody else.
Appropriateness of Color in Butterfly Abaya
Wearing butterfly abaya in grey, dark blue, dark green—all of these are okay, inshallah, without any problem. A woman wearing a red or pink butterfly abaya is also acceptable, as long as it is modest and not intended to attract unnecessary attention. The key is to maintain the spirit of the abaya, which is about modesty and dignity, regardless of color.