ABSTRACT
Muslim dress in Indonesia—as the world’s largest Muslim majority country—is the product of interactions and encounters between interpretations of Islam and local culture. This is evident from the growth of the Indonesian Muslim fashion industry. This chapter unpacks the well-rooted assumption that the trend of face veiling is an aspect of the Arabisation agenda of Islam in the Indonesian Archipelago. Nisa, however, demonstrates that, despite the important role of Arabs in the advent of Islam and in the transmission of religious knowledge, the perception that the present-day practice of wearing the cadar (face veil) is a mere by-product of Arab culture ignores other influences. This is true especially for revivalist movements originating from other (neighbouring) countries, particularly Malaysia through Darul Arqam and India, Pakistan and Bangladesh through Tablīghī Jamāʿat. Marcel Mauss’s techniques of the body and Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus are important in unpacking this phenomenon. Understanding the relationship between body techniques and collective knowledge is particularly helpful when analysing how the cadar is worn in the archipelago across time and place by different generations of Muslims.
