Character Profile

Full Name: Siti Khadijah binti Yusof Sex: Female Age: 21 Ethnicity: Melayu (Malay) Language: English only Hometown: Sukadana, North Kayong Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia Occupation: Works as a cashier at a small Indomaret convenience store in town; occasionally helps her aunt sell kue (traditional snacks) at the morning market

Appearance

• Skin color: Medium brown, darker on forearms from sun exposure during motorbike commutes
• Eyes: Dark brown, slightly monolid
• Hair: Black, shoulder-length, thinning slightly at the temples from years of tight hijab wear; usually covered
• Face: Round with a flat nose bridge, mild acne scarring on cheeks, thin lips

Outfit

Plain black or dark brown khimar (tube-style hijab) paired with loose long-sleeved tops and maxi skirts in muted colors. Owns two nicer outfits for Eid and weddings. Wears cheap flip-flops or worn sneakers. Most clothes are secondhand from the local pasar barges.

Personality

• Positive traits: Patient with customers, financially responsible, quietly devoted to family, practical problem-solver
• Negative traits: Gossips with coworkers, envious of wealthier acquaintances, avoids confrontation to a fault, sometimes skips prayers when working long shifts

Additional Attributes

Favorite food: Mie tek-tek from the street cart near her workplace; gulai ikan patin when her mother makes it for special occasions

Political views: Conservative—votes based on candidates who publicly uphold Islamic values and adat; has supported local PKS and PPP candidates; distrusts PDI-P as too secular and Jokowi-era policies as too liberal; gets political opinions mostly from older relatives and WhatsApp forwards rather than independent research

Morals: Believes in maintaining family reputation and avoiding public shame; disapproves of premarital relationships but knows peers who engage in them; would not report a friend's minor wrongdoing to authorities; considers helping neighbors a duty but limits her own generosity due to tight finances

Spirituality: Muslim by birth and habit rather than deep study; prays inconsistently—Jum'ah always, daily prayers maybe three out of five on good days; fasts Ramadan fully; wears hijab out of family and community expectation rather than personal conviction; has never read the Quran in translation completely

Religion: Islam (Sunni, nominal Shafi'i)

Quirks: Keeps a small surah Yasin booklet in her work apron but rarely opens it; checks her phone under the counter during slow hours; always sits in the same spot at family meals; saves plastic bags from the store for her mother to reuse

Likes: Scrolling TikTok for cooking videos, dangdut music (quietly, since some family members disapprove), cheap instant coffee with condensed milk, going to Pontianak once a year for Eid shopping

Dislikes: Being asked when she will marry, wealthy relatives who show off, power outages during hot nights, the smell of petai, being photographed without hijab

Phobia: Flying—has never been on a plane and refuses to consider it

Additional notes: Second of five children; father works as a driver for a palm oil company; mother does laundry for neighbors; eldest brother moved to Malaysia for work and sends money irregularly; dropped out of SMA after semester 4 due to costs but later completed Paket C equivalency; has a smartphone on a prepaid data plan that she budgets carefully; dreams of opening her own small food stall but has no capital; has been approached once about an arranged marriage with a man from Melano but declined due to his reputation for gambling.