How related is the niqab to radicalism?

Azis Anwar Fachrudin
Holds an MA degree from the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS) of Gadjah Mada University

PREMIUM

Yogyakarta / Fri, November 8, 2019 / 11:01 am

Regardless of such interpretations, if the government wants to ban the niqab, where should we draw the line on religious freedom, especially for Muslim women who regard the niqab as a religious obligation? (Antara/Seno)

There is little difference between the recent plan by new Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi to recommend banning the niqab (full-faced veil) in government offices and last year’s cancelled niqab ban for students of Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN) in Yogyakarta. The minister’s explicit justification was one of security; the UIN rector cited the face as a primary identity marker. But implicitly, both had the same underlying assumption: The niqab or cadar signifies an embrace of radicalism. Although it’s ill-defined, the term radicalism here simply means the ideology that attempts to change the Indonesian republic into an Islamic state. However, there is only a thin connection between wearing the niqab and radicalism. While there is no denying that women who — or whose husbands — conducted terror attacks over the past few yea...