In the past seven years, hair straightening, also called hair rebonding in Southeast Asian countries, has mainly been the preserve of glossy fashion and beauty magazines.

Early this year, however, hair rebonding has made headlines in all kinds of media — thanks to a group of East Java clerics who issued an edict forbidding Muslim women from modifying their hair — the way rebonding does.

A war of words ensued as people bounced arguments around. But of course, not everyone joined the game. Din Syamsuddin, leader of Muhammadiyah, one of the biggest Muslim organizations in Indonesia, decided to keep his lips sealed. “There is no need [to discuss this],” he said.

The former chairman of Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Tifatul Sembiring, opted for the same tactic. “Don’t ask me,” said the now minister of communications and information. A number
of famous hairstylists also refused to comment.

“No comment,” said Rudy Hadisuwarno, although he seemed to say it a less serious way.

Is that even enough?

Nope. A number of Muslim hair salons took a vow of silence almost, worrying about whether they would say the wrong things.

“I don’t think we want to discuss this,” said the owner of a famous Muslim salon, one of three The Jakarta Post visited. OK, but does this salon actually offer hair rebonding? Yes, the woman admitted.

“But we shouldn’t talk about that — it would be sensitive,” she added.

So, maybe, everybody has their own reasons to stay silent. But what this small phenomenon actually shows is that perhaps we should be asking another question. What do those “no comments” mean?

“They’re just afraid,” said woman activist and Muslim scholar Masruchah. In the case of those the Muslim salons, she continued, “it’s a matter of conflict of interest. This strongly relates to their living and comfort.”

Muslim scholar Siti Musdah Mulia nodded in agreement.

“This is the thing — we know how odd such an edict sounds to many of us, but we never have the guts to speak up against it,” said Musdah of the Indonesian Conference of Religions and Peace (ICRP).

“It’s about the silent majority who is afraid of discussing [controversial] religious issues, when it actually has the right to do that.”

This frightened silent majority, consequently, she said, “has caused the voices of smaller groups like those in East Java to be heard more than theirs.

“They [the silent majority] have excluded themselves from the debate, leading to people thinking they actually agree [with that smaller group],” Musdah added.

The small group, as Musdah referred, is the Forum Musyawarah Pondok Pesantren Putri (FMP3) comprising 250 leaders of female Islamic boarding schools across Java and Madura.

Besides hair rebonding, the forum also banned Muslim women from changing the color of their hair, holding pre-wedding photo sessions, working as ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers and using ojek services to go to certain places, as this forum believes these actions may incite immoral acts.

Riding on an ojek, they argued, has the potential to bring women into contact with the male ojek drivers’ skin, and expose their aurat (parts of the body that must be covered). Previously, the same forum had also forbidden Muslims from using social networking site Facebook.

However, Islam does recognize the rights for women to beautify themselves, Masruchah explained.

“It has to do with the motives behind us doing so,” she said. “We do not necessarily do that to attract the opposite sex. Many of us want to look pretty for ourselves — we just want to feel comfortable and confident,” she added.

Despite women having to bear all the blame for inciting immoral acts, Masruchah reminded, Islam views both genders equally.

“So, let’s ask: what about men ‘rebonding’ their hair?” she said. “How come that has never been an issue?”

Once again, Musdah shared a similar view.

“Islam talks about morality — and it applies to both women and men,” she said. “The Koran has asked both genders to protect their appearance and sexual organs.”

The Koran, Musdah went on, has no explicit rules about beautifying oneself — it is not prohibited
to wear lipstick or other kind of makeup.

“It merely asks both men and women to not do too much to beautify themselves,” she said. After all, she underlined, we know the hadith saying, “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty.”

And it’s the same hadith that tafsir expert and former religious affairs minister Quraish Shihab cited to his daughter Najwa Shihab — a MetroTV news presenter, when she asked him about hair rebonding.

“So I asked Dad Quraish Shihab about rebonding,” Najwa tweeted in her Twitter account. “[He said] Allah is beautiful and loves beauty. As long as [rebonding] doesn’t harm us or others, it’s allowable.”

Quraish’s words were then quoted in many other people’s tweet messages — making it one of the trendiest Twitter topics.

“If we disagree about something, we should speak up — for everyone’s sake,” Musdah said. We shouldn’t doubt our own religion,” she added.

Musdah said she couldn’t understand why mundane activities like hair rebonding or hair coloring had become such an issue in Indonesia, while in fact, she revealed, women in Arab countries had never fussed about them.

“Have you ever been to hair salons in Arab countries?” Musdah said. “Have you ever seen the hair of Arabic women?”

To tell you the truth, she said, “Arabic women are very sexy — although they wear veils, dye their hair in all kinds of colors — red, green and blonde.

“They perm their hair, rebond it… and are always taking advantage of beauty technology!”

Arabic women, Musdah continued, love to visit hip salons and spas.

“They do it regularly — and there has never been any fuss about rebonding, coloring and so on in their countries,” she said. “So, why does it have to cause such a ruckus here in Indonesia?”

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