BTW: Get ahead, get a jilbab
President Joko Widodo’s Ten New Balis campaign could boost tourism from 12 to 20 million visitors before we hit decade three
They’ll need hotels with English and Chinese-speaking staff, restaurants with menus they can read, and culture guides to avoid offence.
Particularly when faith’s the factor. Like understanding what’s fast becoming the national uniform - the jilbab - seldom seen in their homelands.
What does it represent? What signals does it send? Is it a disguise? Are women wearing hoods, hoods?
A demonstration of piety, an expression of reserve? Protocols, please.
Maybe a feminist statement forcing focus. Look me in the eyes; it’s rude to gaze down. Jilbab smother curves. Concentrate on my mind, not my mammaries.
Perhaps a fashion trend destined to wear out, like safari jackets and flared skirts. Cynics snicker it’s handy to hide dandruff, blemished cheeks and turkey necks, or cope with bad-hair days.
In sun-saturated Australia where the dangers are marsupials and melanoma, pale, male and stale conservatives snarl that the jilbab symbolizes repression, radicalism or both. In truth it’s an effective skin protection. The only threat is to the income of dermatologists.
Once the jilbab was as rare as Rp 100 notes today. For proof head to Blitar in East Java, resting place of the Proclamator.
Also a museum, a window to yesteryear with pictures from an era when Bung Karno’s oratory drew World Cup crowds to political rallies.
Combing through photos of his admirers, it’s striking that in the age before selfies few wore the Islamic head dress - as opposed to the well-covered thousands who now visit his grave.
I’m open to all explanations. As a bemused bule (Westerner) wandering this astonishing archipelago, I humbly question what I encounter.
Before sunup neighbours cluster around the kaki lima, pushcarts laden with fresh produce to start the day, like vegies and chickens. They (the customers, not the fowls) wear pajamas and dustcoats; no mirror stalled their rush to buy, so tousled hair, and oftentimes no underwear.
Or so I’m told by sources with intimate knowledge of the dawn traders. I smile, not stare, and they wave back, unashamed.
Two hours later they head to work well lipsticked, fully powdered, decently jilbabed.
Three have live-out maids. All arrive on motorbikes wearing jilbab under their helmets. They remove both as they park their bikes, spend time combing and preening before sweeping the street of leaf litter.
If the headgear is designed to deter carnal thoughts, so men can concentrate on what’s between their ears, then this notion goes limp.
Another puzzle: Those who exit salons with their glory covered aren’t showing the world how much they’ve spent. Discount the retail therapy theory.
During last month’s provincial elections it was great that numerous women sought high office. To muster the Muslim majority most wore jilbab. But to attract the votes of the secular and followers of different faiths, candidates pushed back the peak exposing some hair, though not all - a sort of bob-each-way.
If donning a headscarf is meant to convey modesty it fails. This campaign style is a tease - it conceals but reveals. Like the bikini.
If the jilbab is supposed to be an equalizer, like Mao’s unisex outfits during the Cultural Revolution, then it does the opposite at upscale functions.
Under hotel chandeliers jilbab are worn as crowns; many are magnificent, rich fabrics and richer designs, bristling with jewelry and worn with sumptuous style; even one stray wisp of hair would spoil the majesty.
The Brits do coronations well, but their diadems, coronets and tiara look tawdry ranked alongside the Republic’s royalty on a night out.
Yet whatever their finery the cunning are well prepared. Squirreled away in secret wardrobes, separate from their hundreds of designer handbags, are drab jilbab, sober tones, coarse cloth. Insurance.
‘See my client, your honors. It’s inconceivable such a demure lady could be guilty. Observe her downcast eyes, wet cheeks, holy attire. A case of mistaken identity. The KPK have got the wrong person.’
So visitors, welcome to Wonderful Indonesia. Here the jilbab rules - how a lady chooses to express herself is her business. In the fashion game, men are guessers and losers. Our job is to wonder why, and wonder.
(First published in The Jakarta Post, 4 August 2018)
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