Islamism and Nationalism among Niqabis Women in Egypt and Indonesia

The phenomenon of the increasing number of niqabis in Indonesia and Egypt has become concern to the government, academics and also civil society. This is due to the involvement of the niqabis or women with the niqab in terrorist networks. Those piece of cloth covering the face is not merely the manifestation of faith but apparently entails a certain ideological doctrine of the so-called Islam kaffah (ultimate Islam) through the establishemnt of Islamic khilafah (Islamic caliphate) as opposed to democracy and modern state. This study aims at observing the extents to which the niqabis negotiate Islam and their nationalism in their respective counties in Indonesia and Egypt where Muslim are the major population. This study employed a mix of methods, qualitative and quantitative involving 205 Niqabis from Indonesia and 87 niqabis from Egypt. The quantitative data were obtained from 292 respondents. While the qualitiative data were collected from 27 niqabis in-depth interview through life story technique, 6 Eqyptians and 21 Indonesians. twelve prominent figures in Egypt and Indonesia were interviewed and two focuse group discussions were conducted in both countries involving women activists, academicians, government employees, and religious leaders. The framework of this study is the contestation between Islamism and nationalism. This study indicated that there is a significant difference between the niqabis of Indonesia and Egypt percieved the national pride. Around 30 percent of Indonesian niqabis are not proud being the Indonesian citizen while in Egypt only about 3 percent. Bank interest is used to measure their Islamic refinement through which Niqabis in both countries share a similar view where almost 90% of them believe that the practice is not Islamic. Moreover, more than 50% support the Caliphate system which means that one in four niqabis consider that the existing government is thoghut (non Islamic) and nearly 15% agree to defend Islam by means of violence.