INTERTWINING BEAUTY AND PIETY: Cosmetics, Beauty Treatments, and Ḥ alāl Lifestyle in Urban Indonesia

: This article discusses the intertwinement of beauty and piety among middle-class Muslim women in urban Indonesia through the use of cosmetics and beauty treatments within the broader trends of ḥ alāl lifestyle. It uses an anthropological approach with case studies in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, and Serang, the capital city of Banten Province. Jakarta and Serang were chosen because Jakarta is a picture-perfect example of an older area characterized by the abundance of middle-class Muslims and the vehemence of ḥ alāl lifestyle, while Serang represents a newer area in this regard. Moreover, this article explores the understanding and practices of religious rituals, as well as the responses of urban middle-class Muslim women towards commodified goods and services, consumerism behavior, and communal piety. We argue that the use of cosmetics and beauty treatments has become one of the most glaring public expressions that has concurrently influenced the way urban middle-class Muslim women perceive themselves, beauty, and piety. In addition, we contend that the understanding and practices of beauty and piety are becoming increasingly complex in urban areas. Finally, we maintain that ḥ alāl lifestyle has played an important role in strengthening Islamic identity in contemporary Indonesia.


Introduction
CURRENT SCHOLARSHIP on Indonesian urban Muslim expressions focuses heavily on Islamic education, 1 Islamic conservatism, 2 Islamic populism, 3 Islamic commodification and Muslim consumerism, 4 and Islamic pop culture. 5 Despite a few critical that are used to enhance or change facial appearance or aroma and body texture. The cosmetics in this study include products that can be used on the face, such as skin care creams, lipsticks, eye and face makeup, and coloured contact lenses; on the body, such as deodorants, lotions, powders, perfumes, bath oils, bubble baths, and bath salts; on hands/nails, such as nail polish and hand sanitizer; and on hair, such as hair dyes, hair sprays, and hair gels.
Seen from a socio-economic perspective, Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety in Indonesia have become increasingly visible and developed rapidly since the 1998 socio-political reforms that witnessed the fall of the Soeharto administration. 7 The reforms have accelerated continuous economic growth in the country. The reforms that also include decentralization, which began in a structured process in 1999, have resulted in the regional proliferation (pemekaran) of new administrative regions, including new provinces and new regencies/cities. 8 Until 1998 there were only 27 provinces, and after the regional proliferation, there are 34 provinces in Indonesia in 2022. Banten, one of our research sites, is one of these new provinces that has demonstrated rapid economic growth.
In general, Jakarta and Serang are two regions that have a very significant growth rate of urban middle-class groups. Throughout history, the 1980s were an important period due to economic progress which led to the emergence of the middle-class groups in Indonesia. At that time, people found jobs as business executives and managers, stock analysts, engineers, bankers, lawyers, accountants, white-collar office workers, and other professional workers. 9 Data from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) show that the number of middle-class people based on consumption levels has grown from 25% to 43% in the period between 1999 and 2009. It means that the number has doubled in a decade from 45 million to 93 million people. 10 The main striking thing of the emergence of the middle class is the improvement of the quality of their life and the fulfillment of their social needs. The presence of middle-class Muslims in urban Indonesia can be seen in many Muslim associations, Muslim social organizations, religious activities, Muslim fashion shops, Muslim beauty care centres, and Islamic schools. 11 While Jakarta has long been a conspicuous place where urban middle-class Muslims thrive, Serang has also rapidly experienced these booming periods since the establishment of the new city in 2007.
Our ethnographic field research in Jakarta and Serang which includes methods such as observations, interviews, and documentation was carried out in various places, two of which were shopping centres and beauty treatment places. We sought middle-class Muslim women who belong to the category of Generation X and Generation Y (Generation X are those who were born between 1964 -1980, while Generation Y are those who were born between 1980 -1996) who actively use cosmetics and other beauty care products. These women are classified as middle-class 9 Mohammad Hasan Ansori, ‚Consumerism  groups according to the term defined by The Asian Development Bank (ADB). According to the ADB, the middle-class is a group of population who spend $2 to $20 per capita per day. Based on the expenditure range, there are three categories of middle-class: 1). The Lower Middle who spends $2 to $4 per capita per day, 2). The Mid Middle who spends between $4 to $10 per capita per day, 3). The Upper Middle who spends $10 to $20 per capita per day. In addition to the three categories of the middle-class, there are two other distinct groups: 1). The Poor who spends below $2 per capita per day, and 2). The Affluent who spend above $20 per capita per day. 12 In our study, all women we observed fall into all categories of the middle-class. In this regard, we observed and interviewed 24 Muslim women, 12 in each city, who regularly use cosmetics and periodically visit beauty salons and 6 workers/owners of female Muslim beauty salons in Jakarta and Serang. Most of the 24 women in our study have their own source of income, while only a small number of them obtain it regularly from their respective husbands.
Based on the collected materials from the field, we argue that the use of cosmetics and beauty treatments has become one of the most glaring public expressions that has concurrently influenced the way middle-class Muslim women in urban areas perceive themselves, beauty, and piety. For many of these Muslim women who are aware of their physical appearance, consumption of goods and services of ḥalāl beauty products have become a critical way to build a specific identity as a pious Islamic woman (perempuan Islami yang saleh), not only as a Muslim woman (perempuan Muslim). In addition, we show that the understanding and practices of beauty and piety among them are becoming increasingly complex. In terms of beauty and piety, these Muslim women hold the view that beauty and piety, despite being not always go hand in hand, are both an integral part of their daily lives, and thus are equally important. Finally, by examining the consumption of cosmetics and the visit to beauty treatments, we find that these Muslim women pursuits of a ‚true‛ Islamic identity have placed Islam in the socio-cultural, political, and economic terrains of their lives. The forms of ḥalāl lifestyle, along with Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, and communal piety have played an important role in strengthening Islamic identity in contemporary urban Indonesia.
The manuscript proceeds as follows. First, we present a review of the discussions on Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety. We then sketch the forms of Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety in Jakarta and Serang. Third, we explore the understanding and practices of beauty and piety among middle-class Muslim women in both cities. Fourth, we investigate the intertwinement of Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety with Islamic identity. Finally, the last section concludes our topic.

Islamic Commodification, Muslim Consumerism, Ḥalāl Lifestyle and Communal Piety
According to The Oxford English Dictionary, 13 commodification is the act of changing something into, or treating something as a commodity; commercialization of an activity that is not commercially natural. Initially, commodification only covered matters such as labour, land, health affairs, and arts. However, in its development, religion and religious symbols are also commodified by the community. Therefore, Islamic commodification can be interpreted as a process in which there are sacred Islamic norms and values that have been developed into commodities that are produced, distributed, and consumed through market economic mechanisms, both by Muslims, as well as by non-Muslims who enjoy it. Greg Fealy reveals that increasing Islamic commodification is due in large measure to the socio-economic, technological, and cultural changes, driving the pursuit of moral certainty, spiritual enrichment, and pietistic identity. In addition, Islamic commodification is known to have strengthened an individualized form of Islam. 14 Meanwhile, Pattana Kitiarsa suggests that the commodification of religion has formed a crucial dimension in shaping the religious and cultural aspects of many Asians. It has generated convictions from citizens who receive support from the intensive and commercially unnatural commercialization of religious goods and services. Consequently, the commodification of religion has transformed the key symbols of Asian religions into economic goods in the ‚market of faiths‛ where they operate in markets that are manifested in 'symbolic economy' moments. 15 Muslim consumerism is a trend among Muslims to consume goods and services related to religious products or related to religious matters on a large scale, which in turn has a close connection with ḥalāl lifestyle, namely the tendency of Muslims to consume products that are considered ḥalāl, either for personal religious reasons, or because they are influenced by other people. The ḥalāl lifestyle in this study refers to the use of goods and services labelled ḥalāl which indicates that even though Muslims may not have a constructive attitude towards ḥalāl goods and services, the mismatch between their attitude and the expectations of their family or friends can affect their behaviour. They may start consuming and using ḥalāl goods and services to ensure that they find a balance between their actions and how they are viewed by others. Inaya Rakhmani explains the concept of 'ḥalāl consumerism' as a socio-economic order that continues to promote the increasing purchase of goods and services in line with the fatwā (non-binding religious opinions) of Islamic authority which is sanctioned by the state. She suggests that ḥalāl consumerism is the 14  social response of Muslims to the neo-liberal reorganization of the aspects of production and consumption. 16 Unlike other religious traditions, such as English Puritanism, wherein piety refers primarily to inward spiritual states, many Muslims use the Arabic term of taqwā as an equivalent term for 'piety'. The Arabic term suggests both an inward orientation or disposition and a manner of practical conduct. 17 The term taqwā fits with the frequent use of the term piety by the women in our study, and so we interchangeably apply the Arabic term in this paper to denote piety. Furthermore, in terms of communal piety, Saba Mahmood discusses the paradox of the piety movement. She explores how Muslim women in Egypt organize a movement to educate one another and to advance the ideal and virtuous self. Mahmood argues that the subjectivity of the participants is developed within and through social norms. The Egyptian women's piety movement shows that agency is not only the subject of liberation or surrender, but also of self-development. 18 Apart from Mahmood, Rachel Rinaldo argues that the piety movement as a religious revival seeks to revive religious teachings and practices and has appeared in all major religious traditions. That is, women can develop their agency or ability to make choices and act by participating in piety movements. 19 Therefore, women will develop more power to act for themselves.
The socio-political transformation of Indonesia since 1998 has invigorated the expressions of identity of the Muslim community which includes ethnicity, religion, and social class. This is demonstrated in the variety of rapid commodification of religious practices and celebrations as well as in the creation of religious 16  identity, piety, Muslim pride, and Islamic brotherhood. 20 Overall, since 1998, Indonesia has seen more active participation of Muslims in many aspects of the nation, including democracy campaigns dedicated by the Indonesian government to formulate religious arguments within the framework of support for pluralism, democracy, women's rights, and civil society. 21 In short, Islamic commodification has transformed religion into marketable goods and services and brought them to the scale and mode of market transactions. Such a process contradicts the rational position adopted by secularization theorists who predict that religion will experience a significant decline as a determinant of social action when society and individuals experience modernization and secularization, as seen in the phenomenon of the decreasing levels of public belief in God, the decline of belief in mystical and supernatural things, and the reduced attendance of the congregations in places of worship. 22 On the contrary, religion is forging an intimate relationship with the market economy through the process of modernization. Religious commodification explains the meaning of religion as a market commodity and exchange in a spiritual market.
So far, regarding Islam as a product or commodity, there are five sectors that become the most consumed products in Muslim countries. The most important sector is the Islamic finance market, which is followed by ḥalāl food, ḥalāl beauty products (cosmetics), Islamic tourism, and ḥalāl medicines. Given the importance of these products, the expenditure spent by Muslims worldwide in these sectors is about one third of the total world expenditure. This percentage will continue to increase every year in the future. According to research from the A.T. Kearney, Muslim consumption from 2002 to 2008 for all sectors was US$ 2 trillion per year. 23 With promising patterns like this, this 'Islamic' business is predicted to increase many times in the future.
From the above explanations, we can see that ḥalāl cosmetics have become one of the most consumed products in the global ḥalāl lifestyle among worldwide Muslims. As such, ḥalāl cosmetics are considered an innovation in the cosmetics industry because they introduce ḥalāl cosmetics concerns to compliance with applicable ḥalāl criteria, starting from the supply chain of raw material sources, transportation, to warehousing and transportation of goods. In this context, Muslim consumers may repeat purchases if the product they want is in accordance with the ḥalāl values they believe in. 24 Market research analysts have identified Muslims as an integral part of the world's fastestgrowing consumer segments. To enter this promising market, a number of cosmetic companies leave no stone unturned in their efforts to convince Muslim consumers that their products conform to sharia (Islamic laws) values. This shows the existence of Islamic commodification which reveals how marketers turn cosmetics into 23 Andrew T. Kearney powerful symbols that represent the truth and religious values. 25 Product characteristics that are incompatible with Islamic values can cause cultural conflicts and ethical dilemmas. For Muslim consumers, ḥalāl cosmetics and beauty care products must strictly be obeyed by producers and countries that make regulations on ḥalāl products. The ḥalālness of these products is relevant because they will influence Muslim rituals. 26

Contemporary Urban Muslims' Expressions
The existence of middle-class Muslims in urban Indonesia can be seen in, among other things, Muslim associations, Muslim social/charity organizations, religious activities such as pengajian, Muslim fashion shops, and Muslim beauty care centres. In those places, Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety are produced in a specific cultural context that is innovative and embedded in the local-global trajectory of the market economy and religious expression of postmodernism.
As the country's capital city, Jakarta has long been the centre of Indonesia's economy, apart from, the centre of political, social, and cultural activities. It means that almost everything that happens in Indonesia starts in Jakarta, with other regions following suit, including the various trends that exist within Islamic issues. Meanwhile, in Serang, the rise of urban Muslims is partly due to the rapid growth of the city since early 2000 when Banten became a new province after breaking away from West Java in which Serang was made the capital. These new administrative areas such as Banten (the province) and Serang (the capital city) were expected by the residents to provide goods and services to the public, such as transportation infrastructure, employment and job opportunities, and easily accessible education 25  institutions. As such, these new areas would function as providers of increasingly complex and specialized goods and services. In turn, this condition gave rise to new middle-class groups and the strengthening of old ones that have contributed to socio-economic and socio-cultural transformations. These new and old middleclass groups in Serang consist mainly of Muslims who work as officials and employees of regional and national institutions, locallevel political elites, employees of state-owned companies, middleclass entrepreneurs, professionals in national and foreign companies, and other white-collar workers. 27 Indonesia's middle-class population has continuously increased as the fastest-growing segment of society, as it has expanded threefold from 14 million in 2002 to 52 million in 2016 or from 7% to 23% (The World Bank, 2019). Moreover, data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) estimates that 4.2% of the Indonesian population belonged to the middle-class groups in 1993 and 36.2% in 2014. 28 Nowadays in Serang, there is a growth of urban middle-class Muslim groups which in turn contributes to the rise of Islamic commodification and consumerism. Various supplies of goods and services under the Islamic label have emerged due to high demand from the people, which have resulted in the city's image as one of the areas with strong Islamic markets. At the same time, the city is also marked by the emergence of new James Boerk Hoesterey points out that the pop Islam phenomenon in Indonesia includes Islamic-themed novels and films, Islamic fashion, celebrity preachers, New Age Sufi networks among the urban elite, and 'spiritual trainers'. 29 The development of pop Islam has been facilitated by the expansion of new communication technologies, such as radio, television, print media, and the Internet. 30 Ariel Heryanto argues that the development of Islamic pop culture today in Indonesia is largely due to the success of Islamic politics in the post-New Order era. 31 Elsewhere, the emergence of pop Islam has provided Muslims with an important foundation for deconstructing traditional gender roles, building social capital, and acquiring the participatory skills needed to bring 'civil society' into their own communities. 32 The impact of media industrialization on mediated religious expression in Indonesia is substantial. There is an intersection between commerce and Islamic expression in a narrative that uses Islamic teachings to address the social problems experienced by middle-class Muslims. 33 The rise in consumption of Muslim goods and high-cost rituals, such as 'umrah (pilgrimage that can be taken any time) among middle-class Muslim women is influenced by mass and social media. Paul Temporal shows that Muslims represent a fragmented audience of about a quarter of the world's population 29  who have never previously been strategically engaged by the media as they now discuss, share, and explore entertainment, food, fashion, and education, apart from issues related to religion. 34 It is not uncommon for the women in our study to be members of Islamic organizations or pengajian groups scattered in urban areas. The meetings in these organizations and pengajian are often highlighted by talks about matters related to religious rituals and other matters related to non-religious matters, such as the latest Muslim fashion and related products, 35 for example cosmetics and other body care products which are the focus of this essay. In Jakarta, the same thing happens as to what happens in Serang. A young Muslim woman who comes from a middle-class neighborhood in Jakarta explains her habit of using cosmetics.
"So far, I have been regularly using skin care. In normal circumstances, I mostly just wear makeup, which is the Pixy brand. For skincare, I use it randomly. If I have pimples, I use skincare for pimples. However, I use makeup more often. I started using makeup since I graduated from high school, around 2013. I am used to seeing commercials. If the cosmetics are suitable, I will continue [using them+‛. 36 For many Muslim women in urban areas, the use of cosmetics and beauty treatments is an important activity in everyday life, both for those who work outside their houses and for those who stay at home. For those who work, both are important because the working environment requires workers to appear neat and attractive. Meanwhile, for women who stay at home, cosmetics and beauty treatments also remain important in everyday life. For them, there are various activities besides taking care of the household. Religious activities such as pengajian and non-religious activities such as arisan (rotate saving meetings) are very essential 34  for Muslim women to demonstrate their existence and beauty outside of their house. Within these activities, many women who stay at home will attempt to appear best to show their beauty and attractiveness. ‚Now I use Wardah. [I go] to a beauty salon once a month. The reason I use Wardah is because it fits more with my face, is not dry, and is also cleaner. So, I use it due to its functions and benefits. I have been using it for a long time, since I started working [now she no longer works]. Apart from that, Wardah is also ḥalāl‛. 37 The explicit meaning of beauty products that are considered ‚Islamic‛ has resulted in cosmetics brands that become very popular among Muslims, as in the case of Muslim beauty salons that are considered good, comfortable, and ‚Islamic‛. In the context of beauty salons, we visited several beauty care salons in Jakarta and Serang. Some of them indicate that they are special salons for Muslim women (they do not accept non-Muslim women, let alone men), while some others denote that they are salons for women only (although certainly most of their customers are Muslim women) that do not accept male visitors even though their aim is only to accompany their spouse or daughters.
‚Most of our salon visitors are women who accompany their children to school. During school hours, these women come to our salon. Their average age is 30 -45 years. What makes our salon a special salon for Muslim women is the fact that our employees are required to wear ḥijāb (veil). In addition, we have a special changing room for Muslim women, a prayer room on the third floor, and the treatment begins with reading basmallah (A Quranic verse). Men are not allowed to enter our salon. Non-Muslim women are not allowed to enter [for treatment] either. In the past, there were non-Muslim women who wanted to have beauty treatments. But we refused them. We have a membership database of more than 2,000 customers. We just need to check it through their ID cards whether they are Muslims or not‛. 38 37 Interview with Ulfa, 30 July 2020, Jakarta, Indonesia. 38 A conversation between the staff of Tsabitah Salon Muslimah salon and our research assistant, 28 July 2020, Jakarta, Indonesia.
In the context of cosmetic brands, most of the women we met revealed that Wardah which has ḥalāl certificates are their first choice, or even the only one for some of them. Wardah is selected because they believe that it not only has ḥalāl certificate but also has good quality at an affordable price. The affordable price is made possible in Indonesia because the country is rich in abundant and affordable natural recourses. This advantage will surely support companies to produce good and ḥalāl products with economic price for consumers as many Muslim women consider the importance of ḥalāl status and the quality of products as the inseparable values of the ḥalāl industry. Sukesi and Hidayat show that Muslim women in Indonesia consider the importance of the so-called 'spiritual beauty' in the process of their beauty products purchasing. They argue that the concept of beauty for Muslim women means both physically and spiritually. The concept suggests that beautiful women are those who obey and surrender to God. Therefore, Muslim women do not find the 'spiritual beauty' concept offered by other beauty brands that only stress the idea of beauty but neglect the concept of 'soul'. This is shown in their decision process for buying Wardah cosmetics. Wardah's strategy to attract Muslim women is obvious. Until 2019, Wardah had produced more than 400 products with 135 million products sold per year. As a pioneer of ḥalāl cosmetics in Indonesia, Wardah has received the ḥalāl certificate since 1998. 39 Therefore, the ḥalāl label clearly indicates that the product is an ‚Islamic product‛. The ḥalāl label on cosmetics is a clear indication that there has been a commodification of commercial goods which are in turn considered to be products associated with Islam.
‚For me, the cosmetics I use must have a ḥalāl label. Usually, I use Wardah and Oriflame's cream because they are good for my face. In addition, both are also labeled ḥalāl. I chose cosmetics for ḥalāl reasons and their benefits. First, it must be ḥalāl, second, it must be beneficial. What is more important is ḥalālness. If the product is not ḥalāl, it carries risks. Maybe we look beautiful, but we do not know [what will happen in] the future‛. 40 These women's narratives on ḥalāl lifestyle appear to represent many middle-class Muslim women in urban areas. Such trends are a social process, which, according to Inaya Rakhmani, involves complex social dynamics that reveal the complementarity of economic activity and religious identity. By consuming ḥalāl products that are doctrinally and morally justifiable, and available through market mechanisms, one will eventually gradually build a ḥalāl habitus, namely a feeling of one's place in the imagined Muslim community, which is problematically isolating oneself. This involves consuming ḥalāl products that build life experiences around cultural capital about being a Muslim. 41 The idea of ḥalālness is deeply emphasized by Wardah in the form of their products that are made from safe ingredients and free from elements prohibited by Islam. This is an important step to promote that Wardah's products are guaranteed in its quality, safety, and lawfulness to be used by Indonesian Muslim women. In addition, Wardah offers an important breakthrough by intentionally choosing their ambassadors with Islamic image, namely public figures who wear headscarves. Despite the success of Wardah, a rather different phenomenon is found in rural areas. Wardah seems to fail in penetrating the rural market in which many women in the areas consider Wardah as either expensive or not easy to find. 42 In our findings, many of the women we observed are involved in extensive and routine religious activities, both individually and communally. Florian Pohl reveals that one of the main reasons Muslims participate in religious activities, whether displayed in private or public spaces, is piety. Piety, especially communal piety, 40 Interview with Nurlaela, 28 July 2020, Jakarta, Indonesia. is one of the phenomena of modern human religiosity which shows a very rapid process in almost all over the world, both in the West and in the East. 43 According to Michael Dickhardt, the rapid modernization of many Asian societies has not diminished the role of religious practices and belief. On the contrary, the modernization process seems to have encouraged the revitalization of various forms of religion and the emergence of new forms of religiosity. 44 These women in our study believe that such activities are performed to seek worldly comfort and eternal afterlife. All of them believe that the religious activities they participate in serve to bring them closer to God. By attending many pengajian, they also feel the need to appear charming because a good and neat appearance also serves as a display of wealth, power, status, and social class. In this regard, it is not surprising that certain brands of cosmetics, beauty cares, and clothings, especially all of which that have ḥalāl labels, have enjoyed their sales success through rampant and attractive marketing. Now, we can see that religious gatherings in urban areas and other socio-religious activities are perfect displays in demonstrating communal piety, religious commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety. Almost all of these women believe that piety and Islamic identity must be demonstrated in everyday life, not only in the private sphere, but also in the public sphere. When appearing in public spaces, using cosmetics and beauty treatments, we find that there are products and forms of commodification, consumerism, ḥalālness, and piety that stand out.

The Understanding and Practices of Beauty and Piety
The women whom we met routinely use cosmetics and there are also some who carry out additional beauty treatments in beauty salons periodically. The reasons they use cosmetics are quite diverse. However, there is one common thread that unites them, namely that they want to look beautiful in their own eyes and according to their respective husbands and the eyes of others. Two women in Jakarta and Serang illustrate this as follows.
‚In one of the goals is for these things‛. 46 Apart from being caused by desires that come from themselves and expectations or even demands from their respective husbands and others, several other women we talked to also indicate that beauty is a form of piety or good deeds which are the teachings in Islam. Since it is related to piety, showing one's own beauty is a must. According to Joy Kooi-Chin Tong and Bryan S. Turner, piety functions in the context of tension and competition between social groups as a method of defining membership in a community. Where Muslims are not the majority, there are problems in daily life about how social groups should interact without compromising their piety. Ultimately, piety produces religious self-excellence. The underlying logic is simple: if looking beautiful is seen as an obligation that binds every Muslim woman, then those who are devout show their virtue and piety. Acts of piety are more than just expressions of outward 45 Interview with Ambar, 25 July 2020, Jakarta, Indonesia. 46 Interview with Eneng, 23 July 2020, Serang, Indonesia. identity; they are the means that are necessary for developing a pious habitus. As a result, the quest for piety has subjected these women to a contradictory set of identities and demands, the negotiations of which often require the search for justified grounds to balance religious and personal aspirations. 47 ‚Beauty is seen as self-care. If we take care of ourselves, [we] will be loved more by Allah. Women want everyone's attention. It does not have to be luxurious. The important thing is that we must be clean and tidy, then we must be beautiful‛. 48 Since perceptions of beauty have been formed in every Muslim woman, it is not surprising that most Muslim women want to look beautiful. However, not all women feel beautiful, and therefore, according to them, beauty must be obtained by working on it, not just merely accepting the condition. The use of cosmetics and beauty treatments is a common way to beautify them. All the women we observed indicate that using cosmetics and beauty care products is a common and natural thing for them, without any indication that it is against Islamic values.
From our findings, we see that being a contemporary Muslim woman is something that is continually being negotiated, defined, and redefined through or as a reaction to the images, narratives, and knowledge of Muslim womanhood that are built into the commercial market. We show that there is a close relationship between cosmetics as a form of beauty and piety. In this regard, we are also of the arguments proposed by James Boerk Hoesterey and Marshall Clark who argue that Islam has transformed into pop, chic, young, and cool among the urban middle-class Muslims. According to them, popular culture has become an important arena in Indonesia where Muslims compile and imitate ideas about Islam and piety. 49 Through this network, the messages of global Islamic revival have been significantly amplified, affecting many socio-political fields and promoting a ‚true‛ collective Islamic identity. Some of these main identities of being ‚true‛ Muslims are wearing proper Islamic clothing, watching Islamic television programmes, gathering at Muslim cafés and beauty salons, wearing headscarves, attending study circles with popular preachers, doing 'Islamic' sports, such as archery and horse riding, or making pilgrimages to Mecca; all of them involve religious observance and a consumptive behaviour of (sacred) commodities, that eventually connect an individual indirectly to a larger social group and community in a general sense. 51  From the above expression, we can see that taking care of beauty requires a high price. Beauty in Islam, especially in the use of cosmetics and beauty care in salons, has now become an important part of which it has made Islam a commodity and made Muslims consumers of beauty products. Kitiarsa shows that commodification helps redefine religion as a market commodity as well as exchange in a spiritual market which is further expanded by the transnational connections of religious organizations and market networks. 53 The market for religious and spiritual renewal products is somewhat diverse. On the one hand, many Muslims are actively choosing brands and products that are symbolically associated with Islam. On the other hand, some of the most commercially successful piety promotion programmes seem to combine religious teachings with elements of secular culture to increase their attractiveness and demonstrate their relevance to modern life. 54 As Rinaldo has put it, new ideas about Islam revolve around piety. While Indonesian Muslims, like other Muslims in many countries, are often more relaxed in their Islamic practice, these ideas emphasize that being a ‚true‛ Muslim means practicing religion through adherence to certain religious norms. Rinaldo argues that since the late 1980s, many Indonesians have practiced Islamic teachings more cautiously as an important process for becoming Muslim. Many new ideas about Muslim piety concern women. There are many calls for women to wear appropriate Muslim clothing and to behave in a modest manner. 55 This has also been the focus of new religious movements or supporters of re-Islamization. 56 In simple terms, pride in Islamic identity is often expressed through conservative acts, such as the statement that Islam is the truest religion, which sometimes triggers frictions and conflicts with adherents of other religions in unproductive discussions and discourses. 57 ‚I think Islam is a religion that can make the adherents happy, in which there are rules of life that have been determined by Allah. I am proud to be a Muslim because Islam is the truest religion in my opinion‛. 58 For the most part, urban middle-class Muslim women we talked to signify the importance of being beauty and piety at the same time. They demonstrate that their piety movements can also produce, what Rinaldo and Ziba Mir-Hosseini call, piety agencies and become a source of their legitimacy 59 with the capacity to encourage these women to be active in the public sphere and to spread and promote social change, especially in relation to the implementation of Islamic values in everyday life. The activities of such communities have offered opportunities for them to discover new skills and knowledge and to create networks, which will enhance their agency as argued by Mahmood and Rinaldo. 60 Thus, they have demonstrated their ability to be active in the public sphere, to expand their power, to use their agency, to contest the domain power structure as agents of social change, and to strengthen their Islamic identity.

Conclusion
The emergence and rise of urban middle-class Muslims in Indonesia cannot be separated from the country's very dynamic socio-political circumstances after the fall of the New Order administration in 1998. The meaning of religious symbols among urban middle-class Muslim women has varied to reflect new patterns of consumption, pleasure, and identity. We have shown that the use of cosmetics and beauty treatments has become flashy public expressions of Muslim identity that have simultaneously influenced the way Muslim women perceive themselves, beauty, and piety. For many Muslim women who are aware of their physical appearance, consumptions of goods and services of ḥalāl beauty products have become a critical way to build an identity as a pious Islamic woman, not only as a Muslim woman.
In addition, we show that the understanding and practices of beauty and piety among middle-class Muslim women in urban areas are becoming more complex. In terms of beauty and piety, for example, these women hold the view that beauty and piety, despite being not always go hand in hand, are both an integral part of their daily lives, and thus are equally important. As we showed above, when most Muslims feel the need to be modern without leaving their religious identity, these women also infer that piety is the main instrument in religious life that a woman needs to possess. However, they also view that piety needs to be accompanied by beauty because it has an important role in shaping a positive image of Muslim women in the eyes of others. This shows that when they carry out their religious activities in private and public spaces, they do not separate beauty and piety.
Finally, we are of the view that for some Muslims, Islamic identity can be shown in various ways; one of which is by promoting ‚true‛ Islam. By examining the use of cosmetics and the visit to beauty treatments by middle-class Muslim women in Jakarta and Serang, we find that these Muslim women pursuits of a ‚true‛ Islamic identity have placed Islam in the social, cultural, political, and economic terrains of their lives. Urban middle-class Muslims continue to strive to pursue, claim, and promote their own understanding of Islam. The forms of Islamic commodification, Muslim consumerism, ḥalāl lifestyle, and communal piety have played an important role in strengthening various forms of Islamic identity in contemporary urban Indonesia.