The Quest for Indonesian Islam: Contestation and Consensus Concerning Veiling (original) (raw)

Governance in the Middle East and North Africa, 2013

The purpose of this paper is twofold, 1) to give a background on the contemporary global events concerning both Muslim and non-Muslim nations that impose policies banning the niqab, or hijab, and 2) to focus closely on the various governing policies examining variations in rulings and the effects of these policies on the populace in recent years.

To veil or not to veil? Islamic dress and control over women’s public appearance

Journal of Gender Studies

Women's public appearance is subject to ongoing debates. In many parts of the world, women have been forced to cover their body, or to uncover it, due to incompatibility with local, cultural or religious values. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between August 2016 and February 2017 in Aceh, Indonesia; the only province with a special autonomous right to implement Islamic law. This paper aims to look at how Aceh's shari'a regulates people's public appearance. The research found that Aceh's shari'a regulates women more than men and that the law has homogenized the interpretation of religious texts, which is monopolized by the government. The law endorses a unitary standard of women, into one standard model of femininity; particularly regarding their dress. Through the law, the government controls women's bodies in public and imposes cultural uniformity onto them. This paper argues that the practice of Islamic law in Aceh disseminates a narrative of western hegemony through colonial legacies and stereotypes, in an Islamic culture that is male-dominated and in which women are subjugated.

Who Wears the Hijab? Predictors of Veiling in Greater Jakarta

Review of Religious Research , 2018

Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. In contrast to much of the Middle East, veiling in Indonesia is neither a deeply rooted cultural practice, nor it is universally practised among Muslim women. Just 30 years ago it was rare to see an Indonesian woman wearing a hijab or veil. Today, veiling has become a relatively common practice, particularly among middle-class Muslim women living in urban areas. Although statistics on the prevalence of veiling are scant, the fact of growing use of headscarves is widely accepted in the literature. This paper examines sociodemographic correlates of veiling among young women in the capital region of Indonesia. We analyse a representative sample of 1443 Muslim women aged 20–34 in Greater Jakarta in 2010. About 26% of the women surveyed wore the veil. We found a moderately strong association between veiling and other measures of religiosity, including self-reported subjective religiosity and frequency of reading religious texts. Our multivariate analysis suggests a positive association between educational attainment and the likelihood of veiling among young Muslim women. In discussing these findings, we draw upon the qualitative component of our study and the literature on Islam, gender, and modernity in Indonesia. The paper highlights the difficulty encountered examining the practice of veiling as a binary choice, and as a measure of religiosity.

Niqab, Protest Movement, and the Salafization of Indonesian Islam

QIJIS (Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies), 2021

This study aims to reveal the niqab as a protest movement and an instrument of regeneration (salafization) for Salafi Muslim women in Indonesia. The niqab has been one of the important symbols in the Salafi Islamic movement and has been the main dress for Salafi Muslim women. This study is of importance since the existing niqab studies are more related to religious identity, culture, motivation, stigma, and stereotypes. Data in this phenomenological research were obtained through interviews, observations, and documentation involving the niqab-wearing women from Salafi Islam activists at Majlis Ta’lim Al-Izzah of Pekalongan and Pondok Pesantren SJR Al-Salafy of Yogyakarta. The data were then analyzed with the Moustakas’ model. This study has shown that the niqab in the internal circle of Salafi Islam has a plural meaning. Among Salafi Muslims, it not only functions as a cultural identity or a symbol of piety in religion but also holds the spirit of protest, resistance, struggle, and ...

ISLAM AND THE VEILING OF WOMEN IN THE ARAB WORLD (2016)

2016

This book is neither an ethnographic study of veiling among various groups of women in the Arab world, nor does it aim at “defending” or “rejecting” the legitimacy of female veiling as practiced among Muslims. Rather, the main objective of the current monograph is to delineate the transformations of female veiling and its perception as religious and social practice among Muslims during the last century against the backdrop of the prevailing conceptualizations in academic scholarship and intellectual discourses. Pursuing that task, the book re-reads relevant foundational sources of Islamic normativity and foregrounds key exemplars from the modern Arab world to analyze and (re-)conceptualize the connection between contemporary practices and classical religious and social regulations.

Predictors of Veiling in Greater Jakarta

2015

Just 30 years ago it was rare to see an Indonesian woman wearing a hijab or veil. Today, veiling has become a relatively common practice, particularly among middle-class Muslim women living in urban areas. Although statistics on the prevalence of veiling are scant, the fact of growing use of headscarves is widely accepted in the literature. This paper examines socio-demographic correlates of veiling among young women in the capital region of Indonesia. We analyse a representative sample of 1,443 Muslim women aged 20-34 in Greater Jakarta in 2010. About 26% of the women surveyed wore the veil. We found a moderately strong association between veiling and other measures of religiosity, including self-reported subjective religiosity and frequency of reading religious texts. Our multivariate analysis suggests a positive association between educational attainment and the likelihood of veiling among young Muslim women. In discussing these findings, we draw upon the qualitative component of...

The Formalisation of Islamic Attire in Padang, West Sumatra

JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN ISLAM, 2009

This study examines the formalisation of Islamic attire among Minangkabau people-particularly among school students in Padang, West Sumatra-in the spirit of the regional autonomy of post-Soeharto Indonesia. It focuses on the conceptualisation and enforcement of the Mayor's policy concerning Islamic attire for students in the Mayoral Decree (No. 451.422/2005) in line with the rampant Shari>ah-influenced by-laws throughout West Sumatra. I argue that the formalisation of Islamic attire has been unproductive in terms of promoting Islamic precepts because veiling is an ever-contested concept within the complex Muslim social structure. The imposition of this 'contested concept' has led to veiling becoming an 'imposed choice' that has assumed a formal meaning as proper religious attire for the wearer. Instead of enhancing religious awareness, the imposition of Islamic attire on students in public schools has failed to encourage a personal awareness of religious and cultural identity in them.

Increasing Hijab Acehnes Women: A Political Perspective

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023

This research aims to explain the facts that it seeks to see the case of violations of Sharia Law (Islamic Law) related to the women's hijab(veil) and dress to implement Sharia Law in Aceh Indonesia. The Acehnese women wear the hijab due to the increasingly stringent Sharia Police (Islamic Police) raids in the city area. Since 2006, the hijab has grown in popularity among women, wearing a hijab following local regulations and environmental fashion. The article describes the Sharia Law offered to uphold Islamic change through the hijab for women. This research method was conducted qualitatively with interviews Sharia Police as law enforcement and teenage, adult, and older women in women's organisation and minority groups who are also affected by the implementation of Islamic Criminal Law. Women are not aware of implementing the Sharia Law, and the implementation of Qanun Jinayat related to hijab and women's clothing are still blurred. The modern hijab's fashion influences the dress habits of women, especially young girls and adults. Therefore implementing the Sharia Law seems to control the hijab and clothing in other ways as political interests in certain groups.