Muslim Women's Reception of the "Obedient Wife" Narrative on TikTok and Its Implications

Abstract this research explores how Muslim women understand the narrative of the “obedient wife” da’wah that spreads on the TikTok platform. Using Stuart Hall’s reception analysis theory, this research focus on how Muslim women interpret these messages about the construction of gender roles presented through short-form videos. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with twenty Muslim female informants between the ages of eighteen to forty-five who were exposed to content from macro-preaching accounts. The results show that the audience of that content, does not accept messages passively. The majority of informants have been shown to accept religious values of obedience, yet reject the idea that women’s roles should be limited to the domestic sphere. Informants negotiate the meaning of piety by integrating higher education and careers as part of an empowered modern Muslim identity. These results validate that critical audience agency plays a crucial role in filtering the mediatization of religion in digital spaces.