Forbidden Hair Styles for Women
Jan 20th, 2010, in Opinion, by Ross
Women’s hair issues dominate discussions at an East Java clerics’ meeting.
MENTAL HEALTH IN EAST JAVA
Held at the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school in Kediri, East Java, scene of last year’s fatwa against Facebook controversy, this year’s meeting of the East Java “Forum Musyawarah Pondok Pesantren Putri” (FMP3) saw the following practises condemned as unIslamic, for unmarried Muslim women:
- hair dyeing
- hair rebonding / straightening
- pre-wedding photo shoots
And for both married and single Muslim women:
- punk hair styles
- rasta hair styles
- working as ojek drivers
- riding ojeks
- actors playing non-Muslim characters
Hair
Darul Azka, a spokesman for the Lirboyo meeting, spoke for his fellow-dinosaurs when he said that hair straightening (for women, he emphasised, so I guess any of us guys who are a bit crinkly are entitled to get it ironed out!):
could lead to immoral acts if the intention was to improve physical appearance.
In Islam, especially in the study of the kitab kuning (traditional yellow book), women wearing accessories or changing their hairstyle, with hopes of attracting members of the opposite sex, is the same as revealing parts of the body that must not be exposed under Islamic law, and this is forbidden.
Darul Azka
And if they choose, inexplicably, to make themselves look worse, to deflect admiration, then Islam endorses that? But suppose some bloke dyes his hair!?! Okay?
And they try to tell us that their religion is fair to both sexes?
Daffy Darul went on to say that a woman was allowed to change her appearance if she intended only to please her husband, and that she must ask for her husbands’ consent before changing her appearance. Therefore, there should be no excuse for unmarried women to change the shape and color of their hair. Stepford Husbands, all is forgiven.
Ojeks
Another forum spokesman Muhammad Nabiel Haroen also warned women against working as motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers:
forbidden for women to work as ojek drivers because of the difficulty of eliminating the possibility that immoral acts could be committed under such circumstances, especially if the women were married.
I see lots of ladies of all ages, shapes and sizes, mostly Muslims, this being a 90% Muslim city, and lots of them with jilbabs, getting much closer to all kinds of men on Jakarta’s crammed metro-minis and angkots every morning, and despite some measure of wishful thinking on the part of a number of men, probably, no sign of even moderate vice, much less the ‘eternalised’ sort.
Muchammad Nabil Haroen on Facebook
It may well be possible to engage in some slap and tickle astride an ojek bike, but why should married women be more at risk? Are they better-versed in such shenanigans? I’d have thought young innocents would be in greater jeopardy, though as another recent post about Tangerang indicates, (not to mention the dirty beast Shek Puji) girls might be in greater danger from pesantren types than ojeks!
Just imagine if a female ojek driver carried a male passenger who was not her muhrim, or a close relative who was forbidden to marry but allowed to associate with her. Women are not allowed to become ojek drivers because it would be hard for them to avoid sinful acts and matters that could lead to slander
The only slander evident here is the clerical buffoon’s suggestion that decent housewives and secretaries are open to indecent advances from the biker cabbies.
It is also haram for women to take ojek because her skin could brush against that of the opposite sex, she could expose her aurat, or be in close proximity…
I know lots of serious female Muslims who use ojeks daily. Maybe their bare wrists brush against the guys as they dismount but gimme a break! That is ‘sinful’?
Wedding Photo Shoots
The conference also condemned pre-wedding photo sessions because in such circumstances women would be mingling and being too close to men, namely the photographer.
Such photo sessions mean eternalizing the vice.
Acting
The forum also forbade Muslim artists from playing non-Muslim roles in movies or TV soap operas. Why? No reason apparent, though one is left to conclude that such is the attraction of other faiths that even sinetronic simulation may cause the dread conversion.
The edict is binding for all Muslims in Indonesia, but it’s up to individuals to abide by it because Indonesia is not an Islamic state
Muhammad said. Thank God (Allah) for that. But what a crowd of sex-obsessed, insecure, paranoid…ah, what’s the use? But it had to be said.
45 Comments on “Forbidden Hair Styles for Women”
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ET says:
Actually I’m beginning to love islam. It never ceases to provide a source for astonishment, amusement and ridicule.
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Ross says:
Hey, Patung, we should author joint posts more often. The blend of railing and rumination has appeal.
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The lunatic element of Islam will hopefully incur more and more ridicule and thus opposition, but will it be in time to roll back the persecution of other faiths, such as the Protestants in Tambun?
One hopes their courageous resistance to Islamist bigotry will continue, and more voices will be added to theirs.( There is a good thing on FB now, devoted to opposing closure, wrecking and burning of churches.)Interestingly, yesterday at lunchtime there were 3 Christian evangelists shouting their heads off at a fairly bemused crowd outside Blok M Square. “Repent, etc.” Gutsy or crazy? I admired them (though I didn’t repent.)
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You know what I think one of these days the women will really stood up and rebel against their own religion. This so stupid and personally, I think it is nothing more than power and control against women. What is wrong with women attracting and encouraging the opposite sex? What is wrong with women being sexy? Can’t men keep their own body parts to themselves that they have to fear women? Can’t women decide what they want, what they want with their own bodies, etc.? Can’t a woman even be a human? Even if all the women in the world wore mobile tents that showed not a millimeter of the women herself, don’t think for a moment that women would not still face being raped or molested. Men know where to find “that” when they want “that.” That “that” is not about sex. It is about power, control, and violence.
Unfortunately, it is not just the Muslims who will do this to women. It just happens to be the most visible group doing it in a more extreme manner there. -
laughed out loud when i read about this in the newspaper, these guys have really lost it huh? women can’t take a ojek anymore? what are they going to do? provide them with skate-boards?
new years eve a discotheque in bandung was raided and closed down by the pigs accompanied by our beloved mayor because there were a few girls dancing way to sexy for the tastes of our beloved mayor, a man whose integrity is beyond doubt:
(http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1242/47/
he then goes on in local newspapers how bandung must and will become a “religious” city…
personally, i would like it if bandung would become a city where the roads deserve to be named roads, not riverbeds. i would also like it if they would stop making money by issuing permits for angkots (there are 400.000 of them in bandung it was reported last year)..
then again, the man is awfully busy doing very important stuff like that trip to a sistertown in texas last year where he managed to trim down the costs (paid for by his servants, the people of bandung) to a mere 75.000 dollar for a week…
errrrrhhh…
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Swagman says:
I think it is nothing more than power and control against women
Newsflash!! Religion linked to power and control ….. off with her head!
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Farah says:
… dyed, straighten my long hair… if i caused lots men go to hell-because of somehow my hair cause them some forbidden lust… then so be it, they deserve that.
If those people could say haram for smoking, then i will might consider follow it. Natural more sexier tho hehehehe….
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and where is the fatwah against ass-bleaching???
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Swagman, LOL yeah I think I won’t make a very good Muslim then since I’m opinionated, smoke and drinks. Power and control to do us humans good, to direct people not to dictate and imprisoned their women, stripped them their rights to do as they see fits in their lives.
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Power and control to do us humans good, to direct people not to dictate and imprisoned their women, stripped them their rights to do as they see fits in their lives.
…. and mutilate male genitals … ouch!
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I don’t understand this hullabaloo about hairstyles. Aren’t muslimahs supposed to cover their hair with a jilbab or hijab? Are they going to ask women to take off their jilbab to see if everything is halal underneath? And expose the ketombe, the horror, the horror…
Daffy Darul went on to say that a woman was allowed to change her appearance if she intended only to please her husband, and that she must ask for her husbands’ consent before changing her appearance. Therefore, there should be no excuse for unmarried women to change the shape and color of their hair.
I support this. Too much household money is being wasted on luxurious beauty products and hairstyling with little or no effect because in the end we husbands will always look at something younger and fresher.
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The net wasn’t too good earlier, so I have just had a chance to see the faces of the frothing buffoons. What amazes me is that the two pictured appear to be young men, not grey got-beards at all.
What is wrong with these guys? Oldsters, even guys my age, may tend towards a more censorious attitude because ‘things were different back then.’
But of course I am looking at it from a Western point of view, for pre-Swinging Sixties ideas were much more conservative (not always a bad thing, given the state of the West today)
But here in Indonesia, judging from veteran expats’s accounts and from watching old movies, people were a lot less uptight and much more easy-going, and the gals dressed as they pleased, often with pleasing results.
God forbid that the brace of begos represent young Indonesia. -
deta says:
They’d better put their energy on a discussion of how to provide education and skill to empower women so they don’t have to be ojek drivers to support the family. If other job opportunities available, being an ojek driver is the last thing these poor ladies want to do.
They’d better come with a suggestion on how to provide a better transportation system so women don’t have to take ojek, cause if there are more convenient and cheaper modes of transportation available, ojek is the last thing women want to take.
They’d better use their creativity to think of how the media can provide some attractive yet educative programs instead of intoxicating the audiences with sinetrons in which the actors play roles of non-muslim or whatever…what a crap.
Well, they’d better straighten more essential things out before giving a damn about women straightening their hair….
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Odinius says:
I have a dream: it’s called “idiot island.” All the idiots from all societies can move there, and the rest of us can watch them on CCTV cameras for amusement, but never have to actually be affected by their idiocy anymore.
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All the idiots from all societies can move there, and the rest of us can watch them on CCTV cameras for amusement
And how can you be so sure that we’re not one of them? 😉
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Silky says:
I wonder if any woman can be happy if she has not even right to define her appearance?
I also can not guess what is the main purporse of this official statement? What will be the next step?
Would be very interesting to know what do indonesian woman think about this idea.
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Nay says:
What is wrong with women attracting and encouraging the opposite sex? What is wrong with women being sexy? Can’t men keep their own body parts to themselves that they have to fear women? Can’t women decide what they want, what they want with their own bodies, etc.? Can’t a woman even be a human?
When men decide that it’s no longer a good idea to treat women as personal property… to be bought, sold, and discarded, is when women will be treated as human.
In order for that to happen in Indonesia, you’d pretty much have to get rid of religion as well, because it’s the driving force behind making men believe that they have the “moral authority” to treat women like that.The only reason why men do this to women, is intinctually because they they don’t trust or like women. If they’re going to have a child with one, they need to ensure that the child is theirs if they’re going to spend money on it and you.
To top it all off, women are told that they are “selfish” if they do whatever they want… but for a man to do whatever he wants is completely OK.
I could go on and on in regards to the double standards… -
timdog says:
I don’t understand this hullabaloo about hairstyles. Aren’t muslimahs supposed to cover their hair with a jilbab or hijab?
That did occur to me too. A friend of mine is a jilbabber. She is fricken way cool too; another friend claims the jilbab’s just a phase to shock here other leftfield friends, which could be true, but anyway, underneath it she’s got punk spikes… She plays good basketball too…
PREWEDDING PHOTOS HARAM!!!
Alhamdullilah! Now this is good news. For some reason the very concept of “pre-weds” (actually, what is the “concept” of pre-weds?) incites in me a sort of consuming rage at the tasteless banality of which Indonesia is sometimes capable…
All those soft-focus poses, all that terrible – and often ungrammatical – poetry in English, even if bride and groom speak not a word. And all the money they spend on this sh*t!
Fifty lashes thoroughly deserved, I say… -
A friend of mine is a jilbabber. She is fricken way cool too; another friend claims the jilbab’s just a phase to shock here other leftfield friends, which could be true, but anyway, underneath it she’s got punk spikes…
Sometimes I think this jilbab fashion has more to do with female herd mentality than with piety and devotion. A few cool chicks or celebrities start with it and the rest will follow. Like the tattoo rage that is now going on in the West.
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PREWEDDING PHOTOS HARAM!!!
Alhamdullilah! Now this is good news. For some reason the very concept of “pre-weds” (actually, what is the “concept” of pre-weds?) incites in me a sort of consuming rage at the tasteless banality of which Indonesia is sometimes capable…
All those soft-focus poses, all that terrible – and often ungrammatical – poetry in English, even if bride and groom speak not a word. And all the money they spend on this sh*t!
Fifty lashes thoroughly deserved, I say…Heya timdog, you’re not being fair to indonesians. The chinese do it too….
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deta said:
And how can you be so sure that we’re not one of them?
Idiot Island is a meritocracy. Thus, people from any national, religious, ethnic or other group are welcome, provided they show distinction in the realms of a) idiocy; b) ignorance; and c) blatant, piss-taking hypocrisy. If so, then one becomes eligible for a residence visa. If one happens to demonstrate such qualities on a regular basis in a public forum, then he or she will get fast-tracked to citizenship!
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Heya timdog, you’re not being fair to indonesians. The chinese do it too….
I know. Actually – whisper it very quietly – the “pre-wed” craze could be said to be just another manifestation of something that’s been going on for a very long time. Some of the cultural borrowings are pretty good – noodles, for example. Some of them – the idea that drinking cold water will make you ill – are silly. Some of them – “pre-wed photos” – are fricken retarded. All come from the same neck of the woods.
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passer says:
hello everybody, i am new here and please excuse my poor english.
I think the next ones will be forbidden to perming the hair, not allow put on make up because its can make us look attractive so its better to banned the salons. And most of the tv’s program are not educative at all, how to deal with this??? there is more thing to do rather than this, think how to improve our country life, how to fight the corruption. -
Odinius –
Idiot Island is a meritocracy. Thus, people from any national, religious, ethnic or other group are welcome, provided they show distinction in the realms of a) idiocy; b) ignorance; and c) blatant, piss-taking hypocrisy. If so, then one becomes eligible for a residence visa. If one happens to demonstrate such qualities on a regular basis in a public forum, then he or she will get fast-tracked to citizenship!
Much as I like the idea I fear that it is fatally flawed. Idiot Island is surely a classic Catch 22:
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. ‘Orr’ was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to
Surely no one will ever self-apply for a visa to Idiot Island. Which means someone else (clearly presuming themself to be a non-idiot) will have to decide who qualifies, and then deport them from non-idiot land. And then we have what amounts to nothing more than a pogrom.
As I said, I love the idea, but on the grounds outlined above, could a radical interpretation not be that the very first inmate could only be the architect of Idiot Island himself? 😉 -
bs says:
How about I’ll self-apply as the first idiot and decide who gets to join me?
A pull instead of a push, that’s fair enough right?We’ll call it Terra Nova Duo.
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Well, the great thing about Idiot Island is that its Immigration office utilizes the points system, in which case anyone conscious enough of their own idiocy to apply is penalized. Not excluded, mind you, but subject to further review.
Does this individual truly represent the island’s national ideal of constructing an Idiocy, Ignorance and Piss-Taking Hypocrisy Collective (IDIGPISSTAHYC)? Would he or she generally follow the Island’s Concentration of Noticable Fools Directive (CONoNFODIR)?
These are serious questions that need addressing before any immigration petition can be seriously considered. Given sufficiently evident levels of national, religious, racial or ethnic bigotry, a proclivity to violent solutions or a zealous need to declare mundane pastimes or behaviors illegal, immoral or a threat to the children, the immigrations office will consider IDIGPISSTAYC and CONoNFODIR requirements fulfilled.
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shorty says:
nonsense like this is one of the downsides of the internet/blogs.
it gives ‘legs’ to ridiculous propositions put up by intellectual pygmies.
Darul Azka is probably rejoicing in his 15 minutes of fame.
the best way to upset a zealot ( or politician) ? ignore them.
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nonsense like this is one of the downsides of the internet/blogs.
it gives ‘legs’ to ridiculous propositions put up by intellectual pygmies.
Good point, it’s one of the reasons I don’t post much anymore, it’s all, no not all, half, rubbish. This story though just about qualifies as ‘all’ rubbish. But it can be fun, have to be in the right mood for it.
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molceonly says:
welcome to the ages of lesbian!!!
sex appeal are no longer permitted, you need to let the bush-bush underneath to grow and be a forest! probably women could help the endanger ecosystem by reducing the global warming.
duh! such stupidity in the name of Allah…
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