Fashion and religion: 'jilboob' divides Indonesia

While some women simply see it as a fashion statement and a way to accentuate their feminity, others object to it and want to ban it. The controversy is about tight clothing that according to some, does not go with wearing a headscarf, called jilbab or hijab. Thus, the 'jilboob' trend, a combination of the

words jilbab and boob, currently divides Indonesia.

„Don't they have anything better to do than to comment on how some people dress?" comments Rahma Laela in Ahmad Pathoni's article on fashion and islam (see "Mode und Islam: Ein Trend mischt Indonesien auf"of 15th September). The 26-year-old saleswoman at one of Jakarta's swanky malls is up in arms against the latest criticism.

That Muslim women wear tanktops and hotpants is quite normal for Laela and can often be seen in the city. "We women want to look fashionable," says Laela who wears a headscarf.

Does fashion and Islam go together?

If fashion and Islam go together is a question whose answer currently keeps Indonesians on their toes. With around 88 percent of the population being Muslim, Indonesia boasts of the world's largest Muslim population. The fall of dictator Haji Mohamed Suharto in 1998 meant the beginning of the democratic era for the country and since then, the number of women wearing the headscarf has actually increased as under Suharto, this was frowned upon and even forbidden in some areas.

But that doesn't mean that Indonesian women want to compromise on being fashionable or miss out on wearing the latest trends. They happily combine hijab with tight clothing while the top Muslim clerical body MUI recently declared this wasn't allowed.

„We respect women who have decided to wear jilbab," says MUI chairman Ma'ruf Amin. "Some of them cover their heads but show other provocative body parts." This is strictly forbidden according to the clerical body.

However, fatwas or other declarations by the MUI are not mandatory and many Indonesians choose to ignore them. The jilboob ban thus draws reactions from anger to sarcasm from Indonesian women. Some, like feminist author Julia Suryakusuma, see it as chance, especially in view of religion and globalization, to reflect on the rules that Muslims follow. And that not only in Indonesia as this is a dilemma that Muslim women face worldwide.

The Indonesian government sees the debate as a chance to establish the country as a global hub for Muslim fashion that is chic and fashionable while following the rules at the same time. A new generation of designers has thus been combining traditional clothing for women with new, modern influences for a few years now. And as the Ramadan collections of various international fashion houses like DKNY, Salma Khan, Zad for Zakia Attar Designs and Max have shown, this is a global trend that's here to stay (see also the FashionUnited article "Designers bank on Ramadan collections" of July 4th).

Photos: Facebook jilboob