http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-22/conservative-culture-'growing-in-indonesia'/7945796
Islamic identity used to push Indonesia into becoming more conservative society, activist says Correspondents Report By Samantha Hawley Updated Sat at 4:10am Photo: Yenny Wahid has committed herself to promoting moderate Islam across the nation. (Supplied: Ari Wu) Map: Indonesia Yenny Wahid, a well-known Islamic activist and daughter of the former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, says Indonesia has become a more conservative society. During an all Muslim beauty pageant in the Indonesian capital earlier this year, the contestants were asked who they thought was to blame for the brutal gang rape of 14-year-old Yuyun. In May, Yuyun had allegedly been raped and murdered by more than a dozen boys and men as she walked home from school in Sumatra. According to Ms Wahid, who was one of the beauty pageant judges, the contestants all blamed the victim. "Because they made a distinction between a woman who is raped when she is covered and when she's not covered," she said. The beauty contestants all wore headscarves and agreed the young girl was not a victim, but had been raped because of what she was wearing. Ms Wahid grew up in Indonesia during the New Order, when there was no democracy, free speech or means for women to express themselves. "It was very much a male-dominated society because of the military influence in our lives," she said. "But the society itself was very secular, you didn't see many women covered up. "You saw women wearing long skirts, but that was the benchmark for modesty." Ms Wahid said she believes Indonesia is a more conservative society today. "Especially after the Islamic revolution, Islamic identity is being used by some groups in society to pressure women to cover up," she said. "But interestingly we are seeing more women having bigger roles in our society, many women hold prominent positions — so there's an irony going on." Photo: Ms Wahid says the country needs to build awareness of gender equality and teach men and boys to treat women as equals. (Reuters: Roni Bintang) Number of Indonesians joining IS 'is relatively low' Ms Wahid is the director of the Wahid Institute. It was established by her father more than a decade ago and has the support of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which has 60 million members. Once a former newspaper journalist in Australia, she has committed herself to promoting moderate Islam across the nation. "At the moment we see the problem of radicalisation happening and of course Indonesia is not immune," Ms Wahid said. A recent survey sponsored by the Wahid Institute found 7.7 per cent of Indonesians were willing to commit "radicalism" in the future. Not an insignificant figure in a population of 250 million people. But Ms Wahid argued in terms of population, the number of Indonesians who have travelled to Syria to support Islamic State was low. "When the former prime minister of the UK David Cameron was visiting Indonesia he said there are about 200 million Muslims in Indonesia and only about 500 joined ISIS in Syria, in the UK there are about two million Muslims and 5,000 joined ISIS," she said. "And so if you look at those numbers, Indonesia is actually doing very well." Australia 'needs to change how it treats its Muslims' Ms Wahid said Australia needed to find a better way to deal with its Muslim population. "Putting every single Muslim in the corner is not going to solve the problems," she said. "So you need a way to engage the moderates, the moderate Muslims in Australia and then work with them to try and isolate the radicals." And how can she convince a nation of young women that rape is never the victims' fault? "You need to build awareness of gender equality, you need to teach children, especially younger ages to stand up for themselves, especially girls," she said. "And also to men and boys to respect women and to treat women as equal human beings."
