Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the practices of friendship among young Salafi women, a conservative Muslim group in Indonesia. Among them, friendship is founded on relations of “competitive equality” where each member is considered a competing party who desires to be equally good.

Paper long abstract:

The Salafi community is recognized as one of the most conservative Muslim groups, adhering to the strictest interpretations of Islam based on the model of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, which often differ from the typical practices observed in Indonesia. To sustain this type of piety is more feasible with the support of an equally pious social setting. This paper analyses the practices of friendship among young Salafi women in Indonesia. It focuses on Yayasan Mar’atun Shalihah (YMS), a Salafi-based educational institution for young adult women. Based on ethnographic fieldwork within this institution, I found that rather than endorsing the concept of pure equality (or what anthropologists often name as dyadic relation), friendship is founded on relations of “competitive equality” where each member is considered a competing party who desires to be equally good. Being bound by Salafi ideology alone is, however, not enough to give rise to emotional connectivity and a sense of belonging as a mutual friend. Rather, the existence of a “strong spirit in learning” is regarded as a precondition of the emergence of emotional aspects in their relationship. Emotions evoked through a shared vision and competitive equality of zeal to pursue goodness indicate connectivity that sustains long-term spirit to continuously participate in the Salafi-based pious practices.