The Jakarta Post - The journal of Indonesia today: Full-text article, SUNDAY
Features
Aisyah ponders new gender awareness in Islam
By Devi M. Asmarani
JAKARTA (JP): Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi is a prime example of a modern Muslim
woman succeeding in her worldly ambitions, yet never straying from her
Islamic roots.
She currently is a Golkar Party legislator in the House of Representatives,
but a significant portion of her career was spent within the religious
milieu. For five years ending last month she was the head of the Muslimat
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the woman's body of the country's largest Muslim
organization.
Soft-spoken yet filled with spirit, the mother of five and the grandmother
of seven speaks of how one of the world's great religions gained such a bad
reputation in regard to the treatment of women because of the infiltration
of patriarchal cultures.
Aisyah is certainly well versed in Islam. Born on June 6, 1940, in Jombang,
East Java, the second of six children, she hails from one of the country's
most influential Muslim families. Her grandfather, Hasyim Ashari, founded
NU, and her father, Wahid Hasyim, was minister of religious affairs in 1945.
Aisyah's older brother is President Abdurrahman Wahid.
But Aisyah does not take credit for her success. She insists that it was the
power of her mother that made her what she is.
"My mother is the great one, not me," she says modestly. "My mother
encouraged her children to broaden their horizons. We were given books all
the time. Everything was books, and we became used to reading."
Her mother also fostered democracy among the children from a very early age
by encouraging them to express their opinions.
"Every dinner, we'd have heated debates. And we were also given the freedom
to bring our friends home. It was my mother's philosophy to treat every
guest the best she could."
The memories of their beloved mother serve as the tie that binds in a family
where political aspirations run in different, and sometimes conflicting,
directions. Abdurrahman is the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB)
while another brother, Salahuddin Wahid, is a member of the United
Believers' Awakening Party.
When The Jakarta Post interviewed Aisyah last week, she was tending her
husband, who had just suffered a heart attack, at Harapan Kita Hospital. In
between talking to the doctor and looking after her husband, she shared her
views on the new gender awareness in Islamic teaching in the country. The
following is an excerpt of the interview:
Question: Recently there have been increased efforts in Indonesia to
introduce a new teaching of Islam that is more gender sensitive. Is this a
new thing, and why should there be a reinterpretation of Islamic teachings
on women?
Answer: In countries that are based on Islam, this has been done. In
Indonesia it's a relatively new thing, but it started around the late 1980s
or early 1990s. We observe that Muslim women are marginalized. But it is not
caused by religious teachings, rather by the influence of local cultures.
In what sense do religious teachings encourage a situation where women are
marginalized?
Women are excluded from decision making by the husband, but she has to bear
the implications of the decisions. Now we hear more and more of domestic
violence, which 10 years ago was hardly heard of because it was considered
taboo and shameful for the women.
But there have been changes in values. Marriages in Muslim families are no
longer determined by the parents. These changes have been taking place
mostly because the level of education has improved for the women. The
women's horizons are broader, and they are no longer bound by cultural
taboos. With higher levels of education, they are breaking cultural
barriers.
So is there a loosening of religious values in educated women here?
They still hold on to Islamic values, even if they have adopted a modern
mind-set. Many women in Jakarta still wear headscarves and go to religious
gatherings. It is from partaking in religious activities that they realize
some things have to be reexamined.
The new interpretations of women in Islam seem radical compared to what we
were brought up to think. Do you believe there is a limit to interpreting
religious teachings?
Yes, there is. Koranic verses that are absolute and universal must be
accepted. For example, if a woman is left by her late husband, she must go
through iddah (a waiting period) before she can remarry. This, to me, cannot
be bargained, because the purpose is to see whether the woman is carrying
the baby of her late or former husband. Some people have different
interpretations of what should happen during this time. Some do not allow a
woman to leave her house at all, even to go to the front yard. But other
than this extreme interpretation, a woman still has the chance to have a
normal life with her family. She can still go out to shop, see a doctor or
go to a movie if she needs recreation during the mourning period.
Does this new school of thought face any challenges or objections from the
Islamic community?
Yes. Almost all religions are patriarchal in nature. The teachings of the
religion and the holy scripture were mostly interpreted by men, so many
things are still discriminative against women. One Koranic verse, for
example, cites that a man has a higher position than a woman. This should be
seen in the context of a family. The man cited here is sociological in
nature, meaning he is the one earning the money, and not biological, as has
been interpreted.
So interpretations of religious teachings should be contextual in nature?
Yes. Other Muslim women are also working to reinterpret Islamic teachings,
including Ibu Sinta Nuriyah (President Abdurrahman's wife). Currently she is
reviewing the "yellow book" (the standard guidebook of religious edicts).
This book stipulates that women must fully obey men in their roles as wife
and daughter. The book specifically discusses the wife's obligations to her
husband, but it does not tell her about her rights as a woman. So this is
what is being revised.
What are some of the examples of the teachings that are being revised in
this book?
Sometimes we treat the words kodrat (biological characteristics) and
obligations as the same thing, when they are two different things. Kodrat
are those characteristics particular to women, like menstruation, pregnancy
and breast feeding. Our society and religious experts have depicted
obligation as the woman's kodrat. Another example, one hadith says that if a
wife refuses her husband's request to have sex she will be condemned by 40
angels until the next day. There is no exception here, even if the wife is
sick or very tired, for example. It is very discriminative. The woman is
expected to abide by her obligations, but is not entitled to her rights.
It is ironic that Islam was born as the religion of liberation and yet it
acquired a tainted reputation in the eyes of the world as a religion that
oppresses women. How did this happen?
It is local culture that plays the dominant role in the interpretation of
Islamic teachings. Much of Arabic culture, which is patriarchal, influences
the interpretation.
And many modern Arab countries have a poor image regarding their treatment
of women.
It's all about culture, not the religion. Many people don't know the essence
of the religion, but claim to be authorities.
Is it possible that the Prophet Muhammad, who says the best man is one who
respects his wife and family, and the Prophet who, in one verse, says to
respect one's mother, would encourage men to disrespect women?
Do you think this kind of gender-sensitive awareness of Islamic teachings is
widespread or is this is still an exclusive thing here?
I think this is mostly still exclusive, but we can already see its impact on
the public. In the cities, intellectuals have contributed to and encouraged
this movement. In the end of my leadership of NU Muslimat, I held a forum in
which kyais (Muslim scholars) gathered to discuss societal problems related
to religion. Two months ago at a workshop on violence against women and
polygamy, I proposed to discuss these problems at the Muslimat NU congress
in a bigger forum involving more female kyais, or what we call nyai. This
resulted in recommendations for the NU's executive body to discuss further.
The issues included female circumcision. In Indonesia this isn't a problem
because it only involves a small incision on the infant's genital. But in
Africa, it can be a problem because it can actually damage the reproductive
organ. Another issue was nusyuz, or a wife's disobedience, especially
regarding conjugal rights, and whether a woman can be an Imam (leader of
communal prayer). The results of this congress were recommended to be
decreed as fatwa (a binding ruling in religious matters) by NU's executive
body. At the closing of the congress, we were really touched by the positive
response.
How many of NU's members are women?
If we look at istiqosah (prayer for divine help) and religious gatherings
held by NU, the percentage of women is greater than that of men. That is why
we demand to be given more strategic positions in the organization's
executive body, because so far the positions we have are in plenary
sessions. We want more strategic roles so we have more of a say. As one
example, the NU executives wanted all NU followers to become members of the
National Awakening Party. This was a big issue, and personally I have always
tried to keep NU Muslimat members neutral in politics. But because we had no
positions in the executive body at the time, we weren't included in
discussions of this issue. So it isn't without reason that we demand to be
given more of a role. The fact is that the majority of NU members are women.
http://lapau.rantaunet.web.id
=================================================
WEB-EMAIL GRATIS ... @rantaunet.web.id ---> http://mail.rantaunet.web.id
=================================================
Subscribe - Mendaftar RantauNet Mailing List, kirimkan email
Ke / To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Isi email / Messages: subscribe rantau-net email_anda
Unsubscribe - Berhenti menerima RantauNet Mailing List, kirimkan email
Ke / To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Isi emai / Messages: unsubscribe rantau-net email_anda
=================================================
WebPage RantauNet http://www.rantaunet.web.id dan Mailing List RantauNet
adalah servis dari EEBNET http://eebnet.com, Airland Groups, USA
=================================================
