Hijab cosplay takes off as Muslim women embrace fan culture

In this article, Reuters illustrates the means through which female Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia (again, evidence of a regional, not merely national, trend) partake in cosplay - an activity where people dress up as anime, manga, or cartoon characters, showing off their artistic creations at events and conventions.

Usually aiming for characters who don't wear very revealing outfits, Muslim cosplayers adapt their hijab in very creative ways. Sometimes the hijab functions as the "hair" of the costume, while other times they are employed to imitate certain hooded characters (some examples: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/06/15/hijab-cosplay_n_17125496.html). Indeed, cosplay is not a recent phenomenon, but using the hijab as part of the costume is "a new phenomenon that appears to be growing in appeal among the wider Muslim community." This testifies not only to the increased creativity with which women use their religious dress in Southeast Asia, but for this trend to be growing they must possess a higher sense of agency within their own communities. Sind Yanti, a cosplayer featured in the article, says, "Wearing a hijab should not be a barrier to anything. We are free to be creative." It seems that recently, there is a growing number of women taking their identities into their own hands. Sind Yanti, like many women in the previous articles I have posted, feels unhindered in her efforts to cosplay, perhaps indicating that overall there isn't much inertia coming from society against her work (something which is worth looking into).

Another interesting aspect to this trend is that the hijab allows Indonesians to adequately balance participation in another foreign culture while maintaining key tenets of their own. Nursyamimi Minhalia, a cosplayer from Malaysia, did not use to wear the hijab with her costume, which suggests that previously, cosplay was seen as an act that can only be enjoyed by sacrificing, albeit for a limited amount of time, a core belief. Now, women see the act of cosplay as less of a tradeoff, less of a rigid set of rules that cannot be transgressed. Through their creativity, women in Southeast Asia are able to blend cosplay with their own religious practices, permitting them to pull in this foreign activity into the orbit of Southeast Asian cultures while they themselves are able to join in this international art form.