Artificial Piety: Between Body Traps and Politic Identity

This article argues that Hijrah has been artificial piety which puts a person within both apolitical and political positions. Hijrah has been nowadays a “magical word”, which attracts women’s attention. The Hijaber Mom Community (HMC) has been the first female community that introduces the concept of Hijrah with special reference to urban Muslim women. Within its spiritual and moral practices, the concept of Hijrah has shifted from normative piety into the material-mode aspect through fashion. In the public sphere, the HMC has endeavored to show its identity by creating an exclusive group and utilizing social media. It shows us how the patterns of culture have moved from ethical-ideological to aesthetic-existentialist mode. Besides, the trans-national cultural process has now experienced what so-called a “vague separation” between the theological aspect and stylish fashion mode. It can be seen, among others, from the creation of a trendy shar’i salafy fashion, which appears in bright colorful models. This phenomenon confirms an argument that a woman’s body has become an object of presenting aesthetic-populist matters. Employing an interdisciplinary approach and ethnographical method this study attempts to answer a question whether the wear of shar’i fashion becomes an essential condition of Hijrah in which, ethically and normatively, it explains the identity of popular piety as well as confirms women’s theological inclination and their politic of identity.