Reconstructing Hijab Normativity in Indonesia’s Digital Religious Sphere: A Content Analysis of the Hijrah Indonesia Facebook Page

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines how the Hijrah Indonesia Facebook page reconstructs the normative meaning of hijab in contemporary Indonesian digital religion. It focuses on the alternative narratives that challenge dominant understandings of the hijab as a compulsory religious obligation, the communication strategies through which these narratives are disseminated, and the ways in which audiences negotiate and contest such interpretations. Methodology: The study employs a qualitative content analysis of posts, captions, visual materials, and publicly available user comments published on the Hijrah Indonesia Facebook page between 2020 and 2024. Lasswell’s communication model is used to examine the relationship between communicator, message, medium, audience, and communicative effects, while Berger and Luckmann’s social construction of reality provides an interpretive framework for understanding how alternative religious meanings are externalized, objectified, and potentially internalized in digital environments. Findings: The analysis identifies three dominant forms of narrative reconstruction. First, the page semantically differentiates the Qur’anic terms hijab, jilbab, and khimar in order to challenge their conventional identification with women’s head covering. Second, it employs historical-contextual interpretations of QS. Al-Ahzab: 59 and QS. An-Nur: 31 to present prescriptions concerning women’s dress as culturally and historically situated rather than universally uniform. Third, it frames hijab primarily as a matter of personal religious awareness and choice rather than coercive obligation. These narratives are communicated through five recurring strategies: counter-narrative, critical-contextual education, emotional and empathic appeal, visual-symbolic communication, and digital advocacy incorporating explicit calls to action. Audience responses reveal a polarized interpretive field in which supportive users employ contextual, cultural, and individual-freedom arguments, whereas opposing users defend textual-normative interpretations grounded in Qur’anic verses and established religious authority. Implications: The findings demonstrate that Facebook functions not merely as a channel for disseminating religious information but as a contested space in which Islamic norms, interpretive authority, and Muslim women’s religious identities are actively negotiated. The study highlights the growing importance of digital and religious literacy for evaluating competing claims to Islamic authority in platform-based environments. Originality: This study contributes to scholarship on digital religion and religious authority by demonstrating how a specific online community constructs and legitimizes alternative interpretations of an established Islamic norm through platform-based communication. It extends social construction theory into the study of digital religious discourse and provides empirical insight into the contestation of hijab normativity, Muslim women’s representation, and interpretive authority in contemporary Indonesia.