http://www.insideindonesia.org/feature/women-and-islam-09011396
Women and Islam ShareThis
Reformers, resisters and devotees show the diverse female faces of
Indonesian Islam
Susan Blackburn
Women's agency is central to all aspects of Islamic life in
Indonesia
Eve Warburton/ Aceh Research and Training Insitute
In Indonesia, Islam is on the march. The country has been undergoing an
Islamic revival since the 1980s, and religious activity of all kinds escalated
in response to the freedom created by the fall of the authoritarian New Order
regime in 1998. There has been controversy about what the consequences are for
women. In what ways have women benefited or suffered as a result of more
Indonesians seeking to practise their religion more seriously? The articles in
this issue of Inside Indonesia illustrate some of the different experiences of
women during the revival. They are of great interest when one considers that
Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims in the world, with almost 90
percent of its 240 million people identifying as Muslims, and that the country
is now often held up to the rest of the Islamic world as an example of a
moderate version of Islam.
Women and religiosity
Some of the articles in this issue document how Indonesian Muslim women
are becoming more pious. In the articles by Arif Zamhari, Bianca Smith and
Julian Millie we see women demonstrating a striking level of commitment in
their search for religious knowledge through attending regular prayer meetings
and other religious gatherings. Millie describes the lives of older women in
Bandung who typically attend between four and six religious study groups a
week, travelling all over town in their spiritual pilgrimages. One reason he
suggest for the piety of these women is the concern they feel about social
issues like corruption and rising crime: they believe that acquiring religious
knowledge will help strengthen society against such perils. He contrasts the
search for spiritual knowledge of these women, and the way they spread it in
their families, with the religious pattern of men, who, partly because they
have less time, think it enough to attend the mosque once a week.
The article by Virginia Hooker highlights the popularity of Islamic
magazines for Indonesian women. The content of these magazines reflects the
interests of their urban middle class buyers: they want spiritual as well as
practical advice on how to live as Muslim women with a social conscience. The
magazine on which Hooker focuses acknowledges that its readers are professional
or semi-professional women who seek a modern form of Islam that supports their
careers.
Within Indonesian Islam there are many streams, some of which are less
well-known than others, including those concerned with mysticism. Since little
is known about women's involvement in these practices, we are fortunate to have
here articles by Zamhari and Smith which show that women are active in these
streams. Indeed, Smith's article shows how women can be leaders within the
Indonesian Sufi tradition, despite some obstacles. Such female leaders are
careful not to challenge their male counterparts too openly. Zamhari focuses on
a different form of mystical practice: chanting groups that are open to Muslims
of all ages and sexes. The movement which he describes has specific rituals for
women who are also addressed by female preachers.
Together, these articles provide us with a picture of women's agency that
is often missing in conventional discussions of Indonesian Islam. Islamic
revival and Islamic piety are often depicted as being the domain of men, with
little attention given to what women are doing. Nevertheless, as Millie shows,
women are often more devout than men and the emergence of their religious
leadership is one of the most interesting developments in Indonesia today.
Islamic feminism
People concerned about the effect on women of negative trends in
Indonesian Islam have focussed on a number of developments since the end of the
New Order in 1998. One is the scope provided by decentralisation for local
governments to adopt discriminatory regulations under the guise of combating
public immorality. Another is the proposal and passing of the Anti-Pornography
Law of 2008. This law contained a sweeping definition of pornography which put
many women in danger of prosecution. Many also accuse the central government of
turning a blind eye to anti-woman practices and argue that polygamy is publicly
tolerated in a way that it never was under the New Order, to the detriment of
women. (According to the 1974 Marriage Law polygamy was restricted by various
conditions most of which are now either overtly flouted or evaded by unofficial
marriages - celebrated according to religious customs but not registered
correctly.) Of great concern has been the decision of the central government in
2001 to allow the province of Aceh to adopt syariah law, a departure from
national policy made to placate the separatist movement there.
A number of the articles in this issue raise these concerns and
illustrate the efforts of some Muslim groups and individuals to contest these
moves, usually adopting the argument that they are unsuited to Indonesia and
derive more from Middle Eastern culture rather than being based on the spirit
of Islam. According to moderate Indonesian interpretations, the religion is
perfectly compatible with democracy and gender equality.
Indonesian Islam has long been distinct in various ways. One of the most
striking is the existence of two huge, mass-based Islamic organisations,
Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Islam (NU), whose origins go back to the early
twentieth century. The differences between these organisations, usually seen as
respectively modernist and traditionalist, have narrowed over the years,
although Muhammadiyah's membership still tends to be more urban, more national
and better educated, while NU's heartland remains the Javanese countryside.
Both organisations have women's wings which encompass millions of members and
which since the 1980s have been the site of some of the most interesting
developments in gender relations within Indonesian Islam.
Within these organisations have emerged a number of feminists, both male
and female, who have worked hard to make them more woman-friendly and to reform
misogynous discourse. This is a distinctive feature of Indonesian Islam. Two
articles, by Clare Harvey and Joanne McMillan, provide us with vivid pictures
of two of the impressive women leaders of this multi-faceted and historic
movement. Lies Marcoes-Natsir and Farha Ciciek Asegaf have been pioneers of
Islamic gender-awareness since the 1980s. The articles describe their reasons
for dissatisfaction with existing interpretations of Islam. Both women were
instrumental in creating space for feminist interpretations of Islam in
Indonesia and for linking religion to women's rights. They have pursued these
goals through various non-government organisations that they helped to
establish.
The struggle of these feminists is ongoing, but cumulatively their
efforts make Indonesia unique in the Islamic world
Assisted by a number of other outstanding feminists, these two women have
begun to turn around discriminatory teachings concerning women in NU's
education system. Similar reforms have been pioneered within Muhammadiyah, and
have even been carried into Indonesia's Department of Religion, by the
redoubtable Siti Musdah Mulia who attempted (so far unsuccessfully) to reform
the national Islamic legal code to create greater equality for women. The
struggle of these feminists is ongoing, but cumulatively their efforts make
Indonesia unique in the Islamic world.
Resistance to equality
Yet leaders like Lies Marcoes-Natsir and Farha Ciciek Asegaf face
obstacles in their struggle for equality of Indonesian Islamic women. Apart
from the opposition of hardliners in NU and Muhammadiyah, and of the vocal
minority of small very conservative groups that have become more publicly
visible since the fall of the New Order, there is also deeply rooted resistance
in sections of society. The articles by Nina Nurmila, Eka Srimulyani, and
Claudia Nef illustrate just a few of the diverse sources of this strong
opposition to accepting women as equals.
Nina Nurmila shows how according to popular notions of Islam, reinforced
by the Indonesian Marriage Law, only men are regarded as heads of households,
making life difficult for women who are in fact the main source of support for
their families. Her article gives a number of examples of women as family
heads: an abandoned wife, a widow, and women whose husbands refuse to support
their families. It is remarkably unfair that in Indonesia, where women have
always worked both inside and outside the home, their contribution is ignored
and even denigrated.
Devout women contribute to public face of piety in contemporary
Indonesia
Claudia Nef
Claudia Nef provides us with a snapshot of a group of conservative young
Muslim women in Yogyakarta who campaign against secularism, which they see as
leading to Western immorality. Of particular interest here, given the campaigns
of Islamic organisations like NU in favour of reproductive health, is the
opposition of this conservative Muslim group to sex education for adolescents.
Such groups seek to impose a very restrictive code of behaviour on young women.
Eka Srimulyani's article gives us some insight into the controversy over
religion in Aceh, one of the most devoutly Islamic regions of Indonesia. She
focuses on the efforts of women's organisations to break down beliefs that
Muslim women should not be involved in politics. It has proved a hard task
since few women have been elected to the provincial parliament. One of the
points made by both Srimulyani and other contributors is that international aid
is provided to assist organisations campaigning for the political and social
rights of Islamic women. Not mentioned is the existence of Middle Eastern
funding for more conservative activities such as the publication of booklets in
Indonesian translated from Arabic and advocating restrictions on women in the
name of protecting their morality. Thus outside influences play a role in the
struggle for the soul of Indonesian Islam.
The turmoil within
Readers will find the cumulative effect of these articles somewhat
confusing. That is understandable in view of the contradictory trends within
Indonesian Islam today as far as women are concerned. These trends reflect the
democratic turmoil in Indonesia today, and the regional diversity that has
blossomed since the New Order straightjacket was lifted.
In addition, when we ask whether women benefit or suffer as a result of
the Islamic resurgence, we have to ask which women, and who is making the
assessment. The women acquiring spiritual knowledge as described by Zamhari,
Smith and Millie appear to consider that the benefits gained outweigh the costs
incurred, such as the discomfort of wearing restrictive 'Islamic' clothing. On
the other hand, Acehnese women who are forced by the morality police to adopt
such clothing may well feel that there is no such trade-off. Moreover, working
women may not be able to spend time acquiring religious merit in the way that
older middle class women do. Thus costs and benefits vary with different
classes and ages of women in different regions, and it depends who is drawing
up the account sheet.
A consideration not discussed in these articles is the effects of the
Islamic revival on non-Muslim women (and men). Some, as in Aceh, may feel
pressured to conform to Islamic standards, or even made to feel alien to their
own society. Balinese Hindu women, for instance, reacted very strongly against
the Anti-Pornography Law which they interpreted as an attack on their culture.
It is only the efforts described here by Islamic leaders like Farha Ciciek,
which reach out to the wider community, that are going to make non-Muslims feel
secure in their own identity.
On the positive side, the articles in this issue of Inside Indonesia
confirm a healthy democratic ferment within the Islamic arena in Indonesia.
Never has the issue of women in Islam been so publicly debated, and never have
Indonesian women played such prominent roles in interpreting Islam and seeking
to influence people's religious ideas and practices. I congratulate the authors
of these articles, and the editors of this special edition, Virginia Hooker and
Julian Millie, for bringing such an important array of articles to public
attention.
Susan Blackburn ([email protected]) is Associate Professor at
Monash University and author of Women and the State in Modern Indonesia
(Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Inside Indonesia 103: Jan-Mar 2011
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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