Introduction

In 2017, Nike introduced the Pro Hijab, its first hijab designed for Muslim female athletes, which has been met with mixed views. While some have lauded the brand for moving towards greater inclusion that accordingly dismantles practical and cultural barriers to empower the agency of Muslim women, the move has also triggered varying degrees of suspicion, claiming it to be a part of the growing trend of the global fashion industry that views Muslim women to be its latest consumer niche. Large retailers have positioned themselves as socially conscious havens for Muslims. However, operating on a profit motive rather than a moral imperative, they attempt to legitimize their aims to tap into the multibillion-dollar potential of the Muslim consumer market (Moore 2018). This conundrum highlights the classic struggle between agency and structure in which there is a need to empower the agency of Muslim women in the face of hegemonic structures such as patriarchy and Islamophobia that target and regulate the expressions of Muslim women. However, the alternative structures afforded to them equally impede emancipatory efforts by selling an imagined feeling of inclusivity that often does more harm than good (Karakavak and Ozboluk 2022). This is because it imagines Muslim women as a homogeneous oppressed mass that requires saving. Moreover, this tokenistic inclusion distracts us from engaging in more profound and demanding conversations about meaningful social reform to create an inclusive society centred on ethical imperatives.

Against this backdrop, this chapter explores two key factors contributing to the commodification of piety: neoliberalism and Islamophobia. These phenomena serve as a broader conceptual background to understand the trends discussed in the latter sections of the chapter. It is essential to note that this chapter does not intend to project a normative discourse evaluating the attitudes of religious actors using a legal barometer. Rather it focuses on an exploratory study of how market actors have capitalized on Muslim piety to serve their respective interests rather than benefiting the Muslim community. Interestingly, this phenomenon is not unique to Muslim majority societies but also operates within spaces where Muslims are the minority, such as in Singapore.