Is Your Purse Made of Pig Skin?

I went to my dentist recently, and his assistant was admiring my purse and very innocently asked me if my purse was made of pig leather. You should have seen my face, because I really did not know. She continued saying how pig leather is very durable and stuff. All I heard was Blah Blah OMG and more Blah. My purse is a Nine West and I luv luv luv it, I carry it everywhere including the mosque.So I asked her wouldn't they label something like that, and she very nicely educated me that they are not required to label for leather but are supposed to for other animals. Shocking I know, based on the fact that there are, I don't know just OVER A BILLION MUSLIMS!!!!!

I turned to Google and looked every where to see if Nine West used pig skin for their leather products, I couldn't find anything. What I did find was there are labeling laws for wool and fur, but I couldn't find anything for Leather, Subhanallah! I started thinking, leather shoes, leather seats, leather EVERYTHING. What about those mum's, with crawling babies who put everything in their mouths? GGGRRRR! gave me the jitters. So not getting my answer, I started looking at it from a different angle. How is this leather made?

Well here is the deal, leather is made using a Tanning manufacturing process and this is how it goes.
The animal skin is re-hydrated from a frozen or what ever state it was before, by using different chemicals. Then the remaining flesh is removed from the skin, and its de-greased to remove as much grease as possible.It then gets soaked into more chemicals, gets Tanning solution added with oil to soften it up, then its dried. So the question remains, is it still Nagis/Non-Halal/Forbidden? Hopefully you guys can help me answer this question, I think its a good question for the Scholars to discuss, maybe you can ask your imam next time you see him?

So next time you find a leather couch that's cheap, you probably need to find out of its source.At the moment I am a little scared of my purse and still trying to find out what animal its made of.

Update:
I just wanted to give you guys an update on this matter. I sent two inquiries to Nine West through their website here , but no one responded back to me. However, further google search showed that Pig leather can be purchased for cheap online to make leather items. I did find out that real Italian leather is always made from Cow, and when in doubt if its too cheap and has no information, I would say its made from a little piggie. Happy Shopping people, just remember to shop wisely.