Embodied Faith: Agency and Obedience among Face-veiled University Students in Indonesia

Abstract

This article analyses the life experiences of face-veiled university students and their involvement in the Salafi Islamic revivalist movement in Indonesia. Studies on Salafi groups in Indonesia have often neglected the face-veiling practices of women, who are the main female constituents of the groups. Focusing on women's adoption of the cadar (face-veil) and their religious transformation, this article demonstrates how veiling shapes women's formation as religious subjects. Drawing on the life experiences of young women in several groups, this article shows that fulfilling religious obligation is the women's main priority. Their life experiences and the process of negotiating wearing the cadar reveal their struggle to reconstruct their religious identity and their capacity for exercising a specific type of religious agency.