A Call to Prayer

PHOTOGRAPH FOR TIME BY KEMAL JUFRI/POLARIS

FAITH ON THE RISE: Friday prayers at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Jakarta

The Vespa Girls used to be an institution at the University of Indonesia (UI). Back in the 1970s, these daughters of lite families would take breaks from their studies at Indonesia's best university by cruising on Italian two-wheelers, their miniskirts grazing their upper thighs. Sometimes, certain Vespa Girls wore no underwear. Today's UI, still the state-run breeding ground for the nation's future leaders, is a very different place. Half the female student body striding across the campus near Jakarta wear the jilbab, a Muslim scarf that covers the head and neck. Student politics is dominated by the Campus Propagation Institute, an...

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