Visible Minorities: Constructing and Deconstructing the ‘Muslim Iranian’ Diaspora

This chapter discusses the production of Muslim bodies in post-Suharto Indonesia by reading mass-mediated but historically situated images of and debates on the veil and polygamy. Different socio-political periods in Indonesian history have allocated different meanings to the praxis of veiling and polygamy. Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world. While a great part of the Muslim population is considered to be nominal Muslims the other is regarded as being devout Muslims. The terms abangan and santri are terms coined by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz in his famous work on the religion of Java where he classified Javanese society into three groups, the abangan, santri and priyayi. The representations and discourses on the veil and polygamy as analysed apply mostly to urban bodies. The public contestation relating to the veil and polygamy in contemporary Indonesia refers back to both the legacy of Suharto’s authoritarian New Order and to the process of Islamization.