^ Crystal, while this is true, even if her husband agrees with her, it can just make the situation worse if he does anything about it. He can say it completely from himself and his own initiative but at the end of the day it will still be the case that he is vocalising that Hareem is not happy with what she has received and that his Mother needs to change something in her behaviour/attitude. That will not go down well for either husband or wife.
I have learned that you have to pick and choose your battles (for want of a better phrase) and she may need her husbands support in the future for a much bigger issue (god forbid), so don't create situations out of small matters.
I don't think this is about clothes at all, which is why the pain exists. It is about what is contained in this gesture, Hareem wants to feel that she is being treated with the same love and care as her MIL's daughter's. Annoyance at someone is a horrible thing to have in your heart and I think she just wants to feel genuine happiness and gratefulness towards her MIL when she receives a gift, instead of having to subdue ill feeling that she is not genuinely considered.
There is nothing I want more than to have my wife treated like a daughter by my mother, but then I also expect my mother to be treated like a mum by my wife. Just ideality?
Not possible, at the end of the day they are not really mother and daughter. I think people forget what our own parents forgive us that no one else would. This kind of bond is almost impossible to forge with others. We can always try with sincerity but one has to be aware of the boundaries that may not exist in the real parent/child relationship.