The carefully selected team usually trains in a military-style fashion for months before the ceremony, so that those chosen to be sent to Jakarta are seen as top students who bring pride to their families and schools for their achievements. This year, however, the pride of being included on the team was marred by a new rule that some see as “impacting diversity.”

The National Paskibraka Council (PPI), which organizes the flag-raising group, said 18 female students removed their hijabs during an inauguration event with Widodo at the State Palace in Jakarta on August 13.

“Why was it ‘forbidden’ to wear a hijab during the inauguration? Why were (the girls) uniformed and not allowed to wear a hijab? Isn’t this a detriment to diversity itself?” asked Gousta Feriza, chairman of the PPI, in a statement on August 14.

The hijab rule also led to a personnel change in the team: Hijab-wearing student Maulia Permata Putri from West Sumatra was originally assigned to carry the team’s flag tray before she was replaced by headscarf-free Livenia Evelyn Kurniawan from East Kalimantan.

On August 14, Yudian Wahyudi, head of the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP), which has overseen Paskibraka since 2022, denied allegations that she forced schoolgirls to remove their hijabs.

All students in this year’s flag-raising troop “voluntarily” agreed to follow the BPIP regulations, including “wearing uniform dress and posture when carrying out their state duties,” Yudian told reporters.

The BPIP’s response sparked outrage, with some demanding that Widodo fire Yudian.

The Indonesian Supervisory, Control and Prosecution Agency, together with the civic organization Megabintang Foundation, have filed a lawsuit against Widodo and BPIP in a court in the city of Solo in Central Java.

They are demanding 200 million rupiah ($12,800) for the “recovery costs” of Paskibraka members who removed their hijabs during the inauguration. They also want Widodo to broadcast a public apology across the country, both on television and online, and for Widodo to sack Yudian as head of the BPIP.

Eventually, the BPIP gave up its rule and some girls from the flag-raising corps wore their hijabs at the subsequent Independence Day ceremonies in Nusantara and Jakarta.

The Hijab Dilemma

Rina Tiarawaty, a women’s rights activist in Jakarta, said she was “torn” by the fact that many female students in Indonesia are forced by their schools to wear a headscarf.

“We need to ask the students if they felt relieved and comfortable when BPIP asked them to take off their hijabs,” Rina said.

Peer pressure

The NGO’s report found that Indonesian women who do not wear hijab or do not wear it in a manner deemed appropriate face bullying, harassment and psychological stress. The bullying was even more pronounced among those who had removed their hijab after years of wearing it, as in the recent case of Camillia Laetitia Azzahra, the daughter of Ridwan Kamil, the former governor of West Java and a candidate in this year’s Jakarta gubernatorial election.

“When I took off my headscarf, people said to me, ‘Your poor father will bear your sins, your poor husband will bear your sins,'” said Merida, who spoke to This Week in Asia under a pseudonym due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The 34-year-old mother of one grew up in a strict Muslim family that forced her to wear a hijab from the age of eight, she said. At university, Merida studied philosophy, where a lecturer required students to “analyze Islamic verses based on their respective beliefs.”

“As it turns out, we have different views on the same verse, even though we are all Muslims,” she said.

“(I found out that) the interpretations of the hijab (verse) are also complex. But I wondered why (the rule) was issued by a man? It is about the woman’s body. Women will feel the heat when they wear long clothes, they will feel how uncomfortable it is to wear a Abaya (long dress) when riding a motorcycle or bicycle or doing sports,” said Merida, who lives in Depok.

In 2017, she finally decided to take off her hijab and a year later she changed religion to marry her Christian boyfriend. Interfaith marriages are banned in Indonesia and her Muslim family condemned her decision.

“My mother and father did not agree with my decision. My mother was never proud of me because she saw me as a failure. Just today my mother said, ‘I went through a difficult time when I was pregnant with you and gave birth to you, but you turned out like this,'” Merida said.

Merida, who previously worked for a human rights NGO, says: “Peer pressure to wear a hijab in Indonesia is instilled in society from a young age.”

“When you are pregnant, society expects you to wear a hijab immediately. A husband is only a really good husband if he has guided his wife to wear the hijab,” she said.

According to Rina, a women’s rights activist, the abolition of the hijab in Indonesia is a “sensitive issue” as many interpret it as a sign of the declining number of Muslims in the country.

“Unfortunately, Muslims in Indonesia are still very focused on numbers. When there are people who say that hijab is not compulsory (in Islam), many Muslims immediately fear that women will take off their hijab and leave Islam,” she said.