Performative Micro-Identity of the Female Dāʻī : Aesthetic Piety and Platformed Authority in Oki Setiana Dewi’s Instagram

Ilaihi, Wahyu
Nurhayati, Aniek

ISLAMICA: Jurnal Studi Keislaman
Vol. 21 No. 1 (2026): September

On Instagram, religious authority is increasingly produced through brief, visually mediated performances rather than sustained theological argument. This article examines how Oki Setiana Dewi constructs and sustains female Islamic authority through a performa­tive micro-identity shaped by aesthetic piety, gendered expectations, and platformed commerce. Drawing on six months of non-reactive netnography and Digital Critical Discourse Analysis (January-June 2026), the study analyses 45 high-engagement Instagram posts and 1,500 audience comments using Saldaña’s two-cycle coding and Fair­clough’s three-dimensional framework. The findings identify three re­curring micro-performances: soft shar‘ī styling within tranquil domes­tic settings, a maternal preaching cadence that recasts sermons as care, and sub-ninety-second moral narratives that translate jurisprudential themes into everyday household wisdom. Together, these practices enable Oki to exercise public religious authority through nurturance rather than doctrinal confrontation. Commercial content further be­comes integrated into this authority, as shar‘ī fashion and skincare are presented as legitimate expressions of modesty and received by fol­lowers as compatible with sincerity. The study advances the concept of performative micro-identity as a portable analytical lens for explain­ing how female religious authority is assembled, negotiated, and sus­tained within contemporary platformed Islam.