A'ishah (ra) wore pink

A'ishah (ra) wore pink!  https://sunnah.com/bukhari/25/103

Clarification on the hadith regarding A'ishah's (ra) pink hijab/niqab/jilbab from a student of knowledge:

مزمل أحمد A few points :

1. Islam never forbade women from wearing colors. Anyone that says so may be confused. Clothing resembling the other gender is more open to discussion, but even then there's a lot of things to consider before outright making something impermissible (as people tend to do with things like jeans, shirts, etc.)

2. The general majority of the Sahabiyaat would observe niqab, and the term hijab was more general in reference to just covering up. Over time the words became more specified and the fiqh developed alongside it. So while hijab (with the face left open) might be the only fard (as opposed to the Niqab), the general practice of the sahabiyat (and where arguably the istihbab among the madhahib lies) is the covering of the face as well.

3. Aisha (رضي الله عنها) was known to wear multiple colors, and this included pink, red, and black (as in the Hadith of al-Ifk). As for whether she usually wore a black outer garment and inner colorful one (as some people indicated, and the wording of the Hadith leaves open - and as we see in popular culture today), this is up for further discussion.

4. The usual practice of the sahabiyat became to wear black after the revelation of the veil as it was seen as the furthest from displaying zeenah (because their understanding of veil was broader than just a headcovering), not necessarily because it was obligated :

عَنْ أُمِّ سَلَمَةَ قَالَتْ : لَمَّا نَزَلَتْ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلابِيبِهِنَّ خَرَجَ نِسَاءُ الأَنْصَارِ كَأَنَّ عَلَى رُءُوسِهِنَّ الْغِرْبَانَ مِنْ الأَكْسِيَةِ

Umm Salamah (رضي الله عنها) said that when the ayah of the veil was revealed, the women of the Ansar would leave looking like there were crows on their heads because of their clothing.

I) The women of the Ansar implies the vast majority of the sahabiyat (hence the general culture).

II) Crows on their heads means black clothing draped across their heads and bodies.

5. That being said, and keeping in mind the conservative culture of the Indo-Pak world (and maybe the Arab world to a lesser degree), one can understand why the culture is to wear black.

The ahnaf would have a tendency to consider the culture of the first generation of Arabs as something Islamically legislated, and this includes other matters too like their understanding of mustakhbath for example, and we see it here as well.

They legislated black for their women because it's seen as part of the original Islamic culture and they see that as something to be legislated, when in fact, it doesn't need to be (it's arguable whether it can be deemed preferred or not though).

Eventually this school of thought became widespread and so did the culture which is why we see women wearing, or being made to wear, black as the default dress code and any color outside of it being seen as taboo.

6. Should wearing colorful clothing be taboo? Absolutely not. We see it from the sahabiyat. Should black be given preference? Depends on circumstance, culture, and individual. Allah knows best.

7. As for the mention of Turkey, then this isn't a later addition by a rawi. It's the qawl of the sahabi. It's also used elsewhere such as in the books of i'tikaf and includes other sahabah such as Abu Saeed al-Khudri (رضي الله عنه).

There was a lot of contact between the Arabs and the Turks (of Byzantium at the time) as well as many other cultures. It's a myth that the Arabian peninsula was isolated from the rest of the world. There is a ton of proof to establish vast connections between cultures during the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in hijaz and the jazeerah. And the term turk/turkey had been coined across cultures (with each culture including Arabic having their own rendition of the word) before the advent of Islam. So it's no surprise seeing it used in ahadith just like 'Indian sword (مهند) or persian/roman this or that...'

Modern day Turkey is just an example, like many others, of cultures and nations wanting to reach back into their history and coin themselves titles from the earliest independent parts of their culture. They see other titles as having been forced upon them by external influences and they want to shed that for their own identity (and in Turkey's example they shed the title of the Ottoman Empire under Mustafa Kemal - he sought identity within the original 'Turk' title and created a secular Turkish state, as opposed to maintaining the Islamic Ottoman one).

From Shaykh Younus Kathrada:

The word "muwarridah" in Arabic means reddish-pink. It was common for the Arabs of the time to make dyes out of various plants, and it was a commonly worn colour. The word "mu3asfar" is usually translated as "saffron," but in fact refers to the same shade of reddish-pink in this hadith.

There are some scholars who say that A'ishah's pink garment was her qamees (shirt/ dress - loose and thus equivalent to what we would consider jilbab today), and in that case, it is an even stronger evidence for the permissibility of women wearing colourful clothing in public or around nonMahrams.