Women wearing niqabs chat at the home of a founder of the Niqab Squad in Bogor, Indonesia. Credit:Jefri Tarigan It doesn't have to be black: "It can be any colour as long as it isn't attractive," Indadari says And the crowning glory? A cap that says: "I'm wearing niqab and I'm not terrorist". The Niqab Challenge I am participating in something called the Niqab Challenge, an activity designed to de-stigmatise the garment and encourage others to wear it.

It is run by the Niqab Squad, a support group that Indadari founded in Indonesia. Indadari Mindrayanti is a founder of the Niqab Squad formed to help remove the stigma associated with the garment in Indonesia. Credit:Jefri Tarigan Niqab Challenges are generally public events. A video on Facebook reveals how emotional they can be for participants. But I am invited to try one in Indadari's cheerful Rumah Polkadot (Polka dot House) in Bogor, just out of Jakarta. Rumah Polkadot feels like it has jumped off the pages of a Dr Seuss book. There are polka dots on the walls, polka dots on the chairs and polka dots on the crockery. Even the television, tissue box and tea towels are spotty. There is also a giant, blow-up whale in the living room. Niqab Squad members check their phones outside a gathering in Bogor, Indonesia. Credit:Jefri Tarigan

"After the woman puts on the niqab, I usually will ask: 'How do you feel after you wear the niqab?'," Indadari explains. "They say: 'Before wearing the niqab, I didn't think I would be able to breathe'. They thought it would be hot and uncomfortable but after trying wearing the niqab they said they felt more calm, they felt they were protected." Since the fall of the autocratic president, Suharto, in 1998, more and more Indonesian women have started wearing the hijab, a headscarf that covers the hair and neck but exposes the face, in line with the increasing Islamisation of society. However the far more concealing niqab, which is similar to a burqa, is widely viewed with suspicion. "I am Muslim but I don't like it, it shows someone is a fanatic. It is too much," says a pious friend, whose wife wears a hijab. An unwanted Arab import

Many Indonesians see the niqab as an unwanted cultural import from countries such as Saudi Arabia, which encourages the practice of a conservative, puritanical form of Islam known as Wahhabism by funding education in Indonesia. In 2015, a study by the Jakarta-based Alvara research centre found 79.4 per cent of urban Indonesian Muslims preferred the standard length hijab, as opposed to the longer style. "There is a difference between the hijab in the Middle East and here," said researcher Lilik Purwandi. As for the niqab, less than two per cent of respondents preferred it. Last month there was an uproar in Indonesia after photos went viral of a classroom of students at a private Islamic school in Tegal, Central Java, that required girls to wear niqab as part of their uniform. The local education ministry office told Fairfax Media the school revised its uniform policy early this month after being warned it was not in accordance with government regulations.

Indadari says Indonesians often have "negative thoughts" about women who wear niqabs, associating them with the wives of terrorists or ninjas. Photographs of Indonesia's first female would-be suicide bomber, Dian Yulia Novi, wearing a niqab in court were plastered all over the media. Some of Indadari's friends stayed away after she started wearing a niqab in late 2014. "They thought people who wore niqab were stiff and introverted and avoided hanging out," she says. "I don't understand the doctrine out there that regards people with niqabs as weird. I always try to be nice and explain that the Prophet's wives wore niqab, that Islam also teaches wearing hijab and niqab." The polka dot queen In a past life, Indadari, the former wife of a celebrity in Indonesia, was a hijab stylist. She wrote (and modelled in) glossy hijab tutorial books that demonstrated how to achieve eye-catching party styles.

In one ensemble, Indadari is draped in head-to-toe green and white polka dots teamed with funky green platform shoes. "My hijabs were so happening I used accessories like feathers," Indadari says. "Actually Islam does not allow accessories on hijabs." Indadari in a former life. Credit:Jefri Taragan She gives us some of the books. Most have been sent back to the publisher because Indadari no longer wants them distributed. It was Indadari's decision to start wearing a niqab, and not, she stresses, that of her husband. "I have done many things and I did not feel happiness because in fact I stepped out of the rules Allah has set," she says.

"In Islam, wearing niqab is sunnah, sunnah means if we implement the regulation, we will get a reward. This is not a form of repression, in fact this is the proof of love from Islamic women to Allah." The bonus, Indadari says, is that the niqab protects women from harassment and the male gaze. "I asked the opinion of some of my male friends. They said when talking to women with niqab they did not have dirty thoughts ... they tend to respect them." Niqab and the career woman Dr Nur Rofiah Bil Uzm, an alima (female Islamic scholar) and postgraduate lecturer at the College of Koran Sciences in Jakarta, says that wearing a niqab is "certainly not Indonesian tradition". "Sometimes when people try to live their life according to Islam, what happens is they tend to become Arab," she says.

"People misunderstand and think 'modern' means 'Western' and 'Islam' means 'Arab'. We can be modern Indonesian women without being Westernised or becoming Arab." Dr Nur says she respects women's right to wear a niqab if their conscience dictates. "Perhaps they feel that by wearing certain clothes they feel closer to God. But what we need to be careful is that we don't become spiritually arrogant, looking down on someone who is different than us." She also warns that "usually niqabs go in one package with women who cannot have a career, woman must stay home, woman must obey her husband entirely". This is one of the niqab stereotypes that Indadari hopes to dispel with the Niqab Squad. She says niqabis can be doctors, lawyers, taekwondo martial art practitioners and henna artists.

Indadari and a female Muslim dermatologist hold talks on skin and beauty. "I hope she will inspire the attendees," Indadari says. "I will tell people that if wearing the niqab they can still be productive." The Niqab Squad started in February this year at a mosque in East Jakarta. "I thought maybe it's good to bring together people who wear niqab and create a community so that people wouldn't feel alone," Indadari says. There are now chapters in other Indonesian cities such as Bekasi, Yogyakarta and Bandung, and even further afield in Taiwan, Malaysia and South Africa. A male interloper The Niqab Squad holds a range of activities including archery, pre-marriage seminars, business workshops, fundraising for the Rohingya on car-free Sundays in Jakarta, the Niqab Challenges and Koran-reading classes.

However, after a "man who had a female name" wanted to join the Koran reading class, the Bogor Niqab Squad imposed a rule that women had to show their faces. "Some men have sex fantasies about women with veils," one niqabi from the Bogor chapter says. Some of the Niqab Squad chapters have active Facebook pages and Instagram accounts to advertise their events, though selfies are discouraged. "We can still do selfies but we keep the pictures for ourselves, we don't post them," Indadari says. "Because the idea of niqab is actually you should not draw people's attention to you." I find the niqab sweltering in the Jakarta humidity, despite Indadari using Arab chiffon, a cool material. However, it does not cling to my face and is less suffocating than I had imagined.

And it has opened my eyes to the diversity of those who wear a veil. Now every time I see a niqabi I can't help but think of the effervescent Indadari and the giggling niqabis in the delightfully zany Rumah Polkadot. With Karuni Rompies Follow Jewel Topsfield on Facebook