Since the late 1990s the development of an Islamic pop culture in Indonesia has taken place. One of the most conspicuous symbols of this powerful new trend is the jilbab gaul – the trendy veil1 . In this research I explore the significances and underlying codes of veiling among students of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. By analysing young women’s experiences of veiling I want to see the changing image of Islam in a larger process of social change occurring in contemporary Indonesia. It is my aim to show how veiling reflects the dynamic interplay of the personal and the social, as Indonesian Muslims face the challenge of reconciling the mixture of practices of Western consumer culture, global Islamic influences and their local traditions. I argue that the new forms of trendy veils as well as other forms of the emerging Islamic pop culture are an expression of hybridisation as a process of cultural interactions between the local and the global. I see this hybridisation as a process of cultural transactions that shows how global influences are assimilated in locality and how locality is assimilated with global trends. The trendy veil and some forms of Islam no longer stand in opposition to practices of consumer culture; on the contrary, Islamic symbols have become part of it. It is trendy in contemporary Indonesia to live an Islamic lifestyle, especially for the young generation, for students.
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