Conforming Choices: Peer Influence, Adoption, and Interpretation of the Islamic Headscarf in Indonesia

This article examines the role of peer influence in structuring adoption and interpretation of the Islamic headscarf among young Muslim women in Indonesia. I argue that approaches to the jilbab fall into two broad-based categories of practice, each of whose practitioners play distinct roles in the social process driving both adoption and interpretation of the headscarf. Proactively pious Muslims act as “influencers” who encourage adoption by morality signaling (i.e., signaling “virtue” and “correct-ness” to others) in the immediate social environment. The reactively pious adopt the practice in response to the internalized urge to conform to new expectations within a pietized field, but then transform the practice by treating it as a commodified element in broader repertoires of fashion and femininity. The result is both a pietized social field and one in which piety has been informalized.