This paper undertakes a debate of wearing veil for Muslim women among Indonesian Muslim scholars and role of modernist Muslim in propagating it in the early twentieth century. It show that the modernist Muslims propagation on veil had massively started in the early twentieth century trough printed media and encountered fierce responses from others. In addition the debate itself was influenced by similiar trends in Middle Eastern countries especially Egypet which became the reference of Islamic current issues at the time. Because of the uncompromising propagation on veil the debate not only stimulated polemics but also invited physical violence which was proven to be unprocuktive for the campaign. Therefore the spread of veil among Indonesian Muslim during those decades in Java was not significant with only few Muslim women who where affiliated to Modernist organization such as Muhammadiyah and Persis wore veils. The debate itself was not merely a contentious religious debate but also cultural debate which shows the quest of identity as being Indonesian and being Muslim at the same time. The issue of cutting off from Western cultural domination also spiced up the veiling debate.