Abstract
<p>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 an instrument of da’wah to expand the influence of Salafi ideology. That is, the niqab has become a symbol of resistance to both the hegemony of religiosity and the established dressing culture for Indonesian Muslim women. It is also a symbol of the struggle towards the kaffah Islam and an essential instrument for the regeneration of Salafi Islam. Overall, the niqab phenomenon in Indonesia indicates that the salafization in Indonesian Islam has been running in a structured, massive, and sustainable way.</p>
Highlights
The study does not stop at the conclusion that wearing the niqab is a conscious choice for Muslim women in the name of comfort, fashion, and modesty following religious reasoning (Wagner, Sen, Permanadeli, & Howarth, 2012); instead, this study shows that the wearing of the niqab by Salafist Muslim women is intended as a religious expression but a form of protest, resistance, and strategy to expand the influence of Salafi Islam
This study differs from previous findings that the niqab is an ideological doctrine that deals with democratic systems and nationalism (Dzuhayatin, 2020); identity politics (Pirol & Aswan, 2021); political identity (Saputra, Tanjung, & Augus, 2021); the niqab policy damages human rights and group welfare (Syed, 2021); and the ban on the niqab is a form of social injustice (CohenAlmagor, 2021)
This study is designed to analyze the niqab in socio-political construction, contestation, and its dynamics within the Salafi community, both as a symbol of protest and resistance movement and as an instrument for the regeneration of Salafi Islam in Indonesia
Summary
The study of the niqab, Salafism, and the Salafi Muslim women’s protest movement has become an engaging issue along with the increasing interest in wearing the niqab. This study intends to explore and analyze the use of the niqab by Muslim women as a protest movement, political resistance, and regeneration instrument in expanding the influence of Salafi Islam in Indonesia ( known as the salafization). Another study reveals that the niqab symbolizes the self-image of a community whose meaning depends on the cultural and contextual situation (Hochel, 2013). Unlike those studies, this current study proposes different perspectives. This study is designed to analyze the niqab in socio-political construction, contestation, and its dynamics within the Salafi community, both as a symbol of protest and resistance movement and as an instrument for the regeneration of Salafi Islam in Indonesia
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