(Note: all images are from Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia, August 2010, ‘The Art of Party’; photographer Nicoline Patricia Malina. Remaining credits at Fashionising.com.)

Islamic authorities in Asia warned that the decision of French lawmakers to ban full-face veils — burqas — could spark a terrorist backlash.

The top Islamic body in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim- majority country, said Tuesday’s burqa vote violated French ideals on human rights.

“Middle Eastern Muslim women wear full-face veils as part of their culture and religious belief,” Amidhan, the chair of the Indonesia Ulema Council, said. The country is home to roughly 200 million Muslims.

Amidhan clarified at the same time that few women in Indonesia wear full-face veils. “We disagree with the law but it’s not much of an issue for us here. We’re quite far away and Muslim women in Indonesia don’t wear full-face veils.” via The Jakarta Globe. Muslim leaders in Indonesia reasserted the fact that the burqa was worn largely in desert areas and is part of tribal culture, not Islamic law.

In Malaysia, the opposition said the decision could stoke extremism. It will undermine “the efforts of many organizations to narrow the gap between the Western and Islamic worlds”, PAS deputy president Nasaruddin Mat Isa told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur. “We hope it will not spark further terror activities. The French move has sparked anger around the Islamic world.”

Throughout the Muslim world, the men quoted here said they do not accept arguments that the burqa, a full-body covering with a mesh over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil that leaves an opening for the eyes, suppress women’s rights. “I don’t think that holds water,” said Malaysia’s PAS MP Hatta Ramli.

In India chief Muslim cleric, Syed Ahmed Bukhari of the vast Jama Masjid mosque in New Delhi, “vehemently condemned” the ban and described the law as anti-Islamic. via Daily Dispatch via AFP

“One cannot be forced what to wear and what not to wear,” Bukhari, who is followed by millions of Indian Muslims, said. “Habits of Christian nuns are not much different to the burqa, so it is quite obvious the French government is against Islam and Muslims of that country,” he said.

The French would answer that the difference with a nun’s habit — which many American nuns fear Pope Benedict wants to restore worldwide — is that the face and eyes aren’t covered. Modesty prevails but face to face human interaction is allowed.

Internationally, more critics condemn than support the actions of the French government in banning the burqa.

In our limited knowledge of women’s rights in Indonesia, Malaysia and Muslim districts of India, we’ve reported growing concerns of stricter laws governing women’s dress codes and the imposition of Sharia laws in districts of these countries.

Within this context then, we don’t actually know how to interpret the August 2010 fashion editorial ‘The Art of Party’ in Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia. From a fashion-culture statement, the upscale decadence of the images is out of step in Paris and even America.

It’s true that US Vogue featured a fur extravaganza in August 2010 that was no out of tempo with the times, but the vast majority of Fall 2010 fashion editorial is subdued in terms of the party scene. It is true that anti-religious fervor is strong in fashion, but most is visually directed at Rome and the Vatican, not the Islamic world.

Only Carine Roitfeld’s February 2010 Vogue Paris veiled images by Lamsweerde Matadin come to mind, as a fashion commentary on the burqa debate.

Looking at the grand scale, multi-page ‘The Art of Party’ Indonesia-style, one wonders if the tail is chasing the dog from a fashion standpoint, or the editorial is a directly political statement to Indonesia’s Islamic conservatives.

It’s important to note that these Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia images weren’t created by allegedly decadent New Yorkers, Brazilians or Italians. Carine Roitfeld’s editorial hands were nowhere near this social commentary on Indonesian life.

Perhaps the images do nothing more than underscore the global complexity of social cultures, personal values and religious beliefs. Reviewing the images this morning, I found them visually arresting in the midst of Indonesia’s response to France’s burqa ban and the condemnation of Western culture by many Islamic countries. Anne

Note: Multiple articles for more reading on this subject at end of images.