It has been two years since Harini, 39, opened her salon and spa business for Muslim women at the biggest residential complex in Malang city, East Java.
On the flyer bearing the name of the salon, Cantik Solehah, she still offers hair straightening services regardless of a Islamic forum recently issuing an edict declaring it haram (forbidden in Islam) for Muslim women.
“I just heard of the edict yesterday. I haven’t decided anything about it,” Harini told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
She said, however, that she preferred not to consider the edict a problem especially because it was not issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI). “I respect the edict, but choose not to decide anything until an ijtma [consensus of opinion among ulema] from the MUI is made. If it says it is haram, then I will follow it,” she said.
Yet, according to Harini, hair straightening is not something that needs an edict from ulemas. “It all depends on the individual,” said the woman that has a post-graduate degree from a Malaysian university.
In principle, she added, Islam obliged a wife to please her husband. Therefore if a wife decided to have her hair straightened because she thought doing so would please her husband, then it was permitted under Islam.
“Many of my customers say they have had their hair straightened because their husbands asked them to do so,” she said, adding that she would continue to offer the service at her salon.
What is most important, according to her, is that she only uses halal cosmetics and doesn’t offer services that are not permitted by the Prophet Muhammad.
As an example, she said, the salon did not offer hair coloring services as it was not in-line with the hadith (a collection of the traditions relating to the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad). “I opened the business in the first place to introduce body care treatments to Muslim women that are in-line with the prevailing sharia [Islamic law]. So, it’s doing business and preaching at the same time for me,” Harini said.
Islamic sociologist Syamsul Arifin of Malang Muhammadiyah University said the decision made by a gathering of Muslim clerics at its meeting at the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school in Kediri last week was not binding. “It’s just a legal study and therefore it is still open for review and discussion before it is made final and binding for every Muslim,” Syamsul said.
He added that one could not just generalize hair straightening as haram as it had to be put in context.
“If it is done in the context of just treating the hair and not for exposing oneself to others then I think it’s not a problem,” he said.
The same context, he went on, also prevailed for the issue of pre-wedding photo shots. Photos showing intimate scenes of a couple before they are married, he said, were not permitted. If otherwise, they needed further review.
Syamsul also said the community did not need to worry about the legal study conducted by the ulemas especially because the MUI had not decided on the issue. “Let’s just wait for the MUI’s decision on the matter. For the time being there is nothing to worry about,” he said.
