Reading the writings of contemporary Indonesian Muslimwomen writers: representation, identity and religion ofMuslim women in Indonesian fictions

Author:Arimbi, Diah Ariani

Publication Date:2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/15380

License:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/Link to license to see what you are allowed to do with this resource.

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Reading the Writings of ContemporaryIndonesian Muslim Women Writers:

Representation, Identity and Religion of MuslimWomen in Indonesian Fictions

Diah Ariani Arimbi

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy

Women’s and Gender StudiesFaculty of Arts and Social Sciences

University of New South Wales

September 2006

ORIGINALITY STATEMENT

‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of myknowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by anotherperson, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for theaward of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educationalinstitution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Anycontribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked atUNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare thatthe intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except tothe extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception orin style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’

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Date ………20 September 2006…………………………………….............

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Date 20 September 2006…………………………………………...........................

To

My late father, who is my inspiration and whose spirit is living inside of me

And

My mother whose love, strength and prayers make me what I am today

v

Acknowledgements

This thesis could not exist without the help of many people with whom I share my love,

my life and my gratitude.

Most importantly, I am very grateful to Associate Professor Jean Gelman Taylor, my

thesis supervisor. I am indebted to her caring guidance and support for the development

of this thesis. I could not thank enough for her courage and faith in me. I am grateful to

Dr. Rochayah Machali, my thesis co-supervisor, who helps me with her expertise and

words of encouragement. I wish to thank Dr. Jan Elliott, my editor and proofreader for

her tremendous help with my writings. I would like to thank Dr. Keith Foulcher for

giving me opportunities to have teaching experiences.

I am also grateful to my family (Mbak Nining, Mbak Wiwik, Nanang, Nanus, Gita,

Pipuk, Pakde Mur) for their endless support and prayers for my well-being. I wish to

thank Mary Gravitt, my best friend for our “hot” discussion on issues of politics,

economics, philosophy and current affairs. I am very grateful to have a friend like her.

She is really one in a million. I also thank to my fiends: Maimunah, Nur Wulan,

members of Pecothot Jaya (mbak Anti, mbak Maria, mbak Umi), mbak Erna, mbak

Nestri and Zain for their supports, and particularly to Riduan Zain for helping me with

thesis printing, copying and submission.

Many people have contributed to my education through their guidance, support and

prayers throughout my postgraduate school years and the writing of this thesis. There

are so many of them that I cannot possibly mention all their names. From the bottom of

my heart I thank them for being there for me. I could not have done it without them.

vi

Abstract

Indonesian Muslim women’s identity and subjectivity are not created simply from a

single variable rather they are shaped by various discourses that are often competing

and paralleling each other. Discourses such as patriarchal discourses circumscribing the

social engagement and public life of Muslim women portray them in narrow gendered

parameters in which women occupy rather limited public roles. Western colonial

discourse often constructed Muslim women as oppressed and backward. Each such

discourse indeed denies women’s agency and maturity to form their own definition of

identity within the broad Islamic parameters. Rewriting women’s own identities are

articulated in various forms from writing to visualisation, from fiction to non fiction. All

expressions signify women’s ways to react against the silencing and muteness that have

long imposed upon women’s agency.

In Indonesian literary culture today, numerous women writers have represented in their

writings women’s own ways to look at their own selves. Literary representations

become one group among others trying to portray women’s strategies that will give

them maximum control over their lives and bodies. Muslim women writers in

Indonesia have shown through their representations of Muslim women in their writings

that Muslim women in Indonesian settings are capable of undergoing a self-definition

process. However, from their writings too, readers are reminded that although most

women portrayed are strong and assertive it does not necessarily mean that they are free

of oppression.

The thesis is about Muslim women and gender-related issues in Indonesia. It focuses on

the writings of four contemporary Indonesian Muslim women writers: Titis Basino P I,

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, Abidah El Kalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa, primarily looking

at how gender is constructed and in turn constructs the identity, roles and status of

Musim women in Indonesia and how such relations are portrayed, covering issues of

authenticity, representation and power inextricably intertwined in a variety of aesthetic

forms and narrative structures.

vii

Table of Contents

Page Number

Title Page……………………………………………………………………………… i

Dedication Page……………………………………………………………………….. ii

Acknowledgements...…...……………………………………………………………... iii

Abstract………...……………………………………………………………………… iv

Table of Contents.…………………………………………………………………...… v

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...1

Chapter 1

Women and Islam in Muslim Societies: Some General Issues……………….………..20

Chapter 2

Theorising Islamic Feminism…………………………………………………………..61

Chapter 3

From Global to Local: General Perspective of Gender Issues and Islam in

Pre-Independence Indonesia……………………………………………………………87

Chapter 4

From Global to Local: General Perspective of Gender Issues and Islam in

Post-Independence Indonesia…………………………………………………………114

Chapter 5

Muslim Women Writers in Indonesian Literary Tradition: Walking Their Path

for Existence…………………………………………………………………………..149

Chapter 6

Authors, Their Worlds and the Female Traditions………………….………………...182

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Chapter 7

Representation, Identity and Religion: Images of Muslim Women, Their Lives

and Struggles in Fiction (Part I)……………………..………………………………..206

Chapter 8

Representation, Identity and Religion: Images of Muslim Women, Their Lives

and Struggles in Fiction (Part II)……………………….…………………………….257

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….293

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..298

Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………330

1

Introduction

Women, gender and Islam will always be a contested site because women’s locus in

relation to Islam is problematic when their status is manifested through the eyes of the

practiced Islam. Various interpretations of Islam have managed to define, locate and

perhaps entrap women under certain fixed categories. Amina Wadud and her attempts to

break the hegemony of patriarchal fiqh is an example of the problematic female position

in Islam. Her endeavour to be an imam, by leading a Friday prayer in New York,

triggered a strong controversy.1 The possibility of a woman leading prayer of male and

female congregation resulted in outbursts from Muslim leaders and Islamic scholars.

However, where many religious authorities condemned her action several others

supported her. What Wadud had attempted to do clearly brings gender issues into focus

as the idea of female imam for mixed gender congregation remains a controversial

issue.

Amina Wadud is not the only woman struggling to conduct new readings of the Islamic

teachings. The 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian Muslim woman

judge, has shown that Wadud is not working alone. Ebadi, the first Muslim Nobel

Laureate woman from an Islamic state focuses on the congruence of the discourse of

human rights and Islam and its demanded actions. Her mission as defender of human

rights in general and women’s and children rights in particular in Iran, within an Islamic

discourse, has made her an inspiration for other Muslim women. Ebadi believes that her

use of Islam as a strong support in articulating and advancing human rights is justified.

She states:

[the] divine book (the Qur’an) sees the mission of all prophets as that of invitingall human beings to uphold justice. . . The discriminatory plight of women inIslamic societies, whether in the sphere of civil law or in the realm of social,political and cultural justice, has it roots in the male-dominated cultureprevailing in these societies, not in Islam.2

1 ‘Pelita Amina Memanaskan Dunia,’ Gatra, No 21 Tahun XI, 9 April 2005, pp 25 – 28.2 Ebadi’s speech for her acceptance for the Nobel Peace Prize, 10 December 2003, quoted from MargotBadran, ‘Between Secular and Islamic feminism/s Reflections on the Middle East and Beyond’, Journalof Middle East Women’s Studies, Winter 2005, 1, 1, p. 22. Italics mine.

2

For Ebadi, fundamental human rights and Islam are interfaced. She argues that Islam

should promote and safeguard human’s rights for all mankind, irrespective of

differences be it race, gender, faith, nationality or social status. She acknowledges that

Islam has been at times historically misused and complicit in the perpetuation of

discrimination.

In her work as a judge, lawyer, lecturer, writer and activist, Ebadi believes that Islam

can be a close ally in promoting justice and equality. Like Ebadi, many Muslim

feminists are working in similar path. They navigate between religion and gender

politics that variously script the ways Muslim women’s identities are narrated, defined

and regulated. Their rhetoric of gender equality attempts to construct alternatives spaces

where Muslim women can articulate new understandings of their subjectivities through

discourses they themselves have authorised. This is their contemporary challenge in

both theoretical terrain and praxis.

The number of discursive orientations in which women can locate their self-determined

political and ideological goals has risen significantly within a variety of different social

and cultural contexts without assuming a fixed or essentialised a priori understanding of

what it means to be a woman. Muslim women’s movements across the Muslim world

have also become a pivotal part in the global women’s movement. The internet and

mobile phone created networks of transnational feminisms where exchanges and

interflow of information take place. Indonesian Muslim women are also part of these

transnational networks.

Women’s centres promoting women’s autonomy and self-actualisation have been

established in various urban areas throughout the archipelago.3 Like their Muslim sisters

elsewhere Muslim women in Indonesia also attempt to construct, regulate and structure

their own subjectivities in order to remap the ways Muslim women have been

See also Ebadi’s Nobel lecture in Oslo, Norwegia, 10 December 2003, Nobel Prize, Internet,http://www.nobelprize.org, and Ebadi’s speech, http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-lecture-e.html, (Friday, 14 October 2005).3 Several women’s centres have been established in many Indonesian cities such as Rahima in Jakarta,Rifka Annisa in Yogyakarta dan PSW (women’s studies centre) in IAINs (Institute Agama Islam Negeri,State Islamic Institutes) and UINs (Universitas Islam Negeri, State Islamic University), and in private andpublic universities in various cities across Indonesia; Makasar, Medan, Malang, Surabaya etc. Somemodern pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) also set up similar centre such as in Malang and Cirebon.

3

discursively represented, and policed, within social categories. The establishment of

women’s centres in Indonesia should not be automatically taken to mean that women no

longer suffer discrimination. In rural regions particularly, restrictions and limitations are

still applied to women. Many aspects of women’s lives are still heavily circumscribed

by social codes that are often discriminatory. What she will be, how she will behave,

her interaction within her family or outside familial relations, her life occupation, her

education are all determined by the boundaries of cultural/social space defined for her in

her society, and each discriminatory measure degrades the quantum of autonomy she

can exercise and serves to silence and immobilise women. However, not all women are

merely passive victims. Those who struggle always find ways to resist and to challenge

patriarchal practices, laws, and customs. They seek to challenge the identity imposed on

women in the specificity by encouraging women to analyse and reformulate their own

identity, and by so doing to assume greater control of their lives; greater self-autonomy.

Indonesian Muslim women believe that it is only when women start assuming the rights

to define for themselves the parameter of their own identity and stop accepting

unconditionally and without question what is presented to them as the “correct”

religious, social, cultural or political identity that they will be able to effectively

challenge the corpus of patriarchal articulation imposed on them. Their resistance

against discrimination is then continuous and manifested in numerous shapes, creating a

range of responses in the social and political arena that vary from the exclusively

secular to the exclusively theological, with numerous alternatives in between.

Indonesian Muslim women’s identity and subjectivity are not created simply from a

single variable; rather, they are shaped by various discourses that are often competing

and paralleling each other. Discourses such as patriarchal discourses circumscribing the

social engagement and public life of Muslim women portray them in narrow gendered

parameters in which women occupy rather limited public roles. Western colonial

discourse often constructs women as oppressed and backward. Each such discourse

indeed denies women’s agency and maturity to form their own definition of identity

within the broad Islamic parameters. Rewriting women’s own identities are articulated

in various forms from writing to visualisation, from fiction to non fiction. All

expressions signify women’s ways to react against the silencing and muteness that have

long been imposed upon women’s agency.

4

In Indonesian literary culture today, numerous women writers have represented in their

writings women’s own ways to look at their own selves. Literary representations

become one way among others trying to portray women’s strategies that will give them

maximum control over their lives and bodies. Muslim women writers in Indonesia have

shown through their representations of Muslim women in their writings that Muslim

women in Indonesian settings are capable of undergoing a self-definition process.

However, from their writings, too, readers are reminded that although most women

portrayed are strong and assertive it does not necessarily mean that they are free from

oppression.

Research Questions

Among Muslim women writers in Indonesia, the four selected writers Titis Basino P I,

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, Abidah El Khalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa are prolific

authors spanning from the older to younger generation: ranging from 67 years of age to

35. Their works produce rich sources of identity politics of Muslim women in

Indonesia, covering issues of authenticity, representation and power that are

inextricably intertwined in a variety of aesthetic forms and narrative structures. The

choice of the authors for subject analysis was purposely selected as these four writers

are Muslims and their works are widely published yet their names are often forgotten in

the canon of contemporary Indonesian literary culture which is dominated by younger

generation of authors categorised as sastra wangi (“perfumed” literature)4 and the

newly emerging chick lit.5 There are certainly other writers than these selected four, and

4 Sastra wangi is referred to narratives (mostly novels) written by a group of young female writers intheir 20s or 30s largely about women at their age, living in urban settings, and enjoying freedom inexpressing their sex and politics.5 “Chick lit,” narratives always set in urban environments, evolving around stories of youngcosmopolitan working women aged 20s - 30s surrounded with urbanised issues, such as fashion,shopaholism, sex and - of course, a Barbie-an sophistication in the form of writings. The “chick lit” isstyled in humorous fashion and very lite reading, and the book covers are always coloured in pastel withillustration a la Barbie.

5

like them too they are often ignored.6 These writers have published numerous fictions

yet their names are seldom acknowledged, and such is the primary reason for selecting

them as research objects. Each author represents their generation in Indonesian literary

periods. Although such selection fails to include all writers of all generations outside the

mainstream, these four bring multiple representations of Indonesian Muslim women in

fiction outside sastra wangi or chick lit. Not all of these writers’ works are selected; the

choice of works is based on writings which offer sources adequate to discuss issues

affecting Indonesian women. In the discussion, the authors will be referred to by their

first names only. This is partly because Indonesians rarely have a family name and also

because all these four authors prefer to be called by their first names.

The thesis is about Muslim women and gender-related issues in Indonesia. It focuses on

the writings of four contemporary Indonesian Muslim women writers, primarily looking

at how gender is constructed and in turn constructs the identity, roles and status of

Musim women in Indonesia and how such relations are portrayed by selected writers.

The main aims of this research are firstly to explore and map gender-related issues

presented in the narratives of contemporary Muslim women writers in Indonesia;

secondly to investigate how such issues are presented, that is how Muslim women in

Indonesia are portrayed in the narratives; thirdly to investigate a variety of the aesthetic

forms and narrative styles and structures employed in these writings, recognising how

issues of aesthetic are intertwined inseparably with issues of gender constructions,

power, representation, identity and prevailing ideology; fourthly to find out how similar

and/or different gender issues that Muslim women writers in the global environments

and in Indonesia contexts have written, and finally to investigate how the writings of

these Indonesian Muslim women narrative writers have sustained, challenged, worked

and reworked the perceptions of Muslim women, roles and status in the Islamic

societies.

6 There are other writers such as Herlinatiens who published Garis Tepi Seorang Lesbian (2002). Herfiction is about the life of a lesbian Muslim. Written by a Muslim girl wearing jilbab, this fiction hastriggered a strong controversy even until today. Other book Wajah Sebuah Vagina (2004) by NaningPrawoto is also a similar case.

6

Reading Women Reading Writings: Feminist Literary Criticism at Stake

A feminist interrogation of literature is always a contextually grounded undertaking, for

a text cannot be studied in pristine isolation.7 Historical realities have to be considered.

Such realities are crucial in analysing the power of words and the ways in which those

words are presented. Feminist writings are executed in broader political contexts and the

sorts of experiences that women have throughout history are called upon. The

problematic of the political nature of these writings and their writers is indeed of

interest. In a broader sense, the expressed presence of a subject in the narratives, the

subjective “I” of the author in depicting, working or reworking, even challenging the

qualities adhering to the questions of “feminine” or “masculine” is an object of scrutiny.

The authority embodied by the presence of the author in the narrative, her ideology, and

her responses reflect the political stand of the author thus producing or reproducing a

received construction of women. The disengagement of literature and literary

production from a wide range of historical realities will certainly neglect the fact that

literary production emerges from certain time and space.

This thesis is not solely about reader’s response study of literary texts, although as a

part of this study questionnaires were distributed in order to get readers’ responses on

selected authors. This thesis focuses on the textual analysis of selected texts and the

politics surrounding those texts that becomes the material and ideological context of the

production of those texts. An adjunct analysis, scrutinizing how far and how familiar the

selected texts involve and have an effect on the selected readers, will also be presented.

7 Ruth-Ellen Boetcher and Elizabeth Mittman, ‘An Introductory Essay’, The Politics of the Essay:Feminist Perspectives, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1993, p. 17.

7

The Politics of Literature

Literature is political, Judith Fetterley argues in ‘Introduction to The Politics of

Literature.’8 She further claims power is the main issue and the core of power in literary

politics is consciousness:

Consciousness is power. To create a new understanding of our literature is tomake possible a new effect of that literature on us. And to make possible a neweffect is in turn to provide the conditions for changing the culture that theliterature reflects. To expose and question that complex of ideas andmythologies about women and men which exist in our society and are confirmedin our literature is to make the system of power embodied in the literature opennot only to discussion even to change. Such questioning and exposure can, ofcourse, be carried on only by a consciousness radically different from the onethat informs that literature. Such a closed system cannot be opened up fromwithin but only from without. It must be entered into from a point of view whichquestions its values and assumptions and which has its investment in makingavailable to consciousness precisely that which the literature wishes to keephidden. Feminist criticism provides that point and embodies that consciousness.9

Applying a “new consciousness” of feminist readings offers new ways of reading and

interpreting literary writings.

Literature may function as a means to promote political agendas, either against or pro

prevailing ideologies but that does not automatically mean that it contribute to one’s

understanding of political agendas. Politics may exist thematically in the text but it is

also embedded in its language, thus a reader’s participation is necessary for its political

exposure. In this sense, text is political as its readers complicate its meaning as soon as

s/he enters the picture. The political content in the text and its relationships to what an

author has in her/his mind are no longer the only ways by which interpretations are

made. The reader’s entrance to the text creates text-reader relationships that the author

is not aware of. The politics of the text – the politics of literature – makes sense when a

text is read and begins to exist for its readers.

8 Judith Fetterley, ‘Introduction on the Politics of Literature’, The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approachto American Fiction, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1978, p. xiii.9 Judith Fetterley, ‘On the Politics of Literature’, Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory andCriticism, Robyn R. Warhol and Diane Price Herndl (eds), 2nd ed., Rutgers University Press, NewBrunswick, N.J., p. 569.

8

Catherine Belsey and Jane Moore posit that there is no such thing as a neutral approach

to literature. All readings/interpretations are political.10 Feminist literary critique may

question, among other things, the ways a particular text represents women, how it

portrays gender relations, how it labels sexual difference, how it terms power-relations

between different gender roles, and so forth. Even if a particular text says nothing about

gender relations, depicts no women at all, the text can still be critiqued through a

feminist reading. Belsey and Moore further remark on the political role of feminist

readers:

A feminist does not necessarily read in order to praise or to blame, to judge or tocensor. More commonly she sets out to assess how the text invites its readers, asmembers of a specific culture, to understand what it means to be a woman orman, and so encourages them to reaffirm or to challenge existing culturalnorms.11

Besley and Moore have also added that feminist criticism has a pivotal role in

deconstructing timeless meanings that literature carries within the norms of traditional

literary criticism. Literature is no longer a special category that simply depicts reality,

embodying timeless truths and neutral agendas, and thus ceases to be seen unbiased. As

de Beauvoir states, “the ways in which the questions are put, the points of view

assumed, presuppose a relativity of interest; all characteristics imply values, and every

objective description, so called, implies an ethical background.12 Writing is no longer an

individual phenomenon but a social and cultural institution, in which its social contexts

are more than just shadowy backgrounds. Literature becomes a manifestation in which

its various forms are subjective to the ways societies comprehend and identify

themselves and the world they live in or imagine. “Re-visioning” - to borrow Adrienne

Rich’s term – serves as a new way of looking at constructions of women in any art

forms:

Re-vision – the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an oldtext from a new critical direction – is for us more than a chapter in culturalhistory: it is an act of survival. Until we can understand the assumptions inwhich we are drenched we cannot know ourselves. And this drive to self-knowledge, for women, is more than a search for identity: it is part of her refusalto self-destructiveness of male dominated-society. A radical critique of

10 Catherine Belsey and Jane Moore, ‘Introduction: The Story So Far’, The Feminist Reader: Essays inGender and the Politics of Literary Criticism, Catherine Belsey and Jane Moore (eds), MacmillanEducation, Ltd., London, 1989, pp. 1 – 20.11 Belsey and Moore, ‘Introduction’, p. 1.12 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, H.M. Parshley (trans. and ed.), Jonathan Cape, London, 1953, p.26.

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literature, feminist in its impulse, would take the work first of all as a clue tohow we live, how we have been living, how we have been led to imagineourselves, how our language has trapped as well as liberated us; and how we canbegin to see – and therefore live – afresh.13

Perhaps, Rich’ s claim of re-visioning an old text should be extended to all texts, old

and new. Any given text should be re-examined with new critical eyes in order to

awaken a “new consciousness.” In this way, feminist critique serves as a powerful

naming that free women to produce their own readings, appropriating different

meanings at different times - even from the same text - according to changing

assumptions and conditions.

In arguing the necessity of the politics of a literary criticism, Annette Kolodny

succinctly posits:

For what we are asking to be scrutinized are nothing less than shared culturalassumptions so deeply rooted and so long ingrained that, for the most part, ourcritical colleagues have ceased to recognize them as such. In other words, whatis really being bewailed in the claims that we distort texts or threaten thedisappearance of the great Western tradition itself is not so much thedisappearance of either text or tradition but, instead, the eclipse of that particularform of the text, and that particular shape of the canon, which previously reifiedmale readers’ sense of power and significance in the world.14

Although Kolodny aims her argument at the Western tradition, her argument is

extendable to other literary traditions crossing cultures, regions, and borders, pointing

the nature of feminist criticism which is to challenge the authority of established

canons, relocating women’s traditions from the periphery to the centre of the canon,

thus helping readers, especially female readers to challenge the existing paradigms

playing as the subtexts in literary writings of male-dominated societies.

Between Facts and Fiction: The Problematic Images of Women in Fiction

13 Quoted from Fetterley, ‘Introduction’, pp. 568 – 569.14 Annette Kolodny, ‘Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, AndPolitics of a Feminist Literary Criticism’, The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature, andTheory, Elaine Showalter (ed), 1st. ed, Pantheon, New York, 1985, p. 149.

10

Can fiction be seen as a true representation of actual life? The notion that a clear

division exists between fiction and reality is problematic. On the one hand, it is argued

that if there is no real woman in the literature, only representation, then there is no one

to liberate. Yet, there are still women who experience sexual discrimination, who are

not being able to find jobs because they are women, who are denied their rights because

they are women, who are written out of history because they are women. On the other

hand, taking literature as fact will negate the assistance of the imaginative creative

process of the author in the writing. Literary product does not automatically duplicate

the real. For this reason, it is simply a representation of the real.

Further, a singularity of representation cannot be asserted for that ignores the dynamic

of social-historical notions of women crossing the spacio-temporality of their existence.

Deconstructionist theories decentre the subject and reveal the intertwining of female

subjective identity to sex. As identity is an on-growing process, a fixation of identity

reflective to all women of all ages is an absolute impossibility:

Literary works gives images of women that are not absolutely identical, and thedifferences among them must be significant. Historical flux and change shouldnot be prematurely ended in symbolic stasis that women can suffer once and forall an identity fixation on the level of style, releasing action only to ‘the woman’of the semiotic.15

Literary analysis must take the role of the structures of ideology that lie within the

literature. Ideology does not appear as mere ideology, but, rather, as subtle network

representing “the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of

existence.”16 In this respect, literature is ideological in its nature, “[i]n imaginative

works a moving ideology can be fixed and brought to consciousness and its

contradictions can be made visible.”17 Perhaps, it may be added that in literary works,

the structures of ideology are not only thematic but disperse in every element of the

work. The inclusion of analysis of ideology in literary analysis is therefore crucial:

Criticism using the notion of ideology focuses both on what is stressed asintentional and what appears subliminal, discordant and unintentional. With thenotion, we can read against the grain, not aiming to uncover a truth butinvestigating how a transcendental concept of truth was formed at all. Literatureinevitably colludes with ideology, which is in turn inscribed in literary forms,

15 Janet Todd, Feminist Literary History: A Defence, Polity Press, Cambridge and Oxford, 1988, p. 83.16 Louis Althusser, ‘Ideology and State Apparatuses’, quoted in Janet Todd, p. 85.17 Ibid., p. 86.

11

style, conventions, genres and institution of literary production. But it does notsimply affirm, and it can expose and criticize as well as repeat.18

Any categorisation of literary works contributes to the analysis of ideology: the

canonised or un-canonised, high or popular literary classifications. The distinction

between elite and mass literature, for example, escapes from the ideological network

located within. Such classifications and distinctions of feminist literary criticism help us

focus on the ideological structures of literary production, particularly where such

structures often to be absent.

Images of women in male-dominated literary production are made problematic by

feminist critiques. Cornillion’s Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives

(1972) is considered to be one of the foremost writings that scrutinise women images in

literary production. Through literature, Cornillion believes the historicity of women’s

oppression can be traced, and by understanding their subjection, women can raise new

consciousness of how women were, are now and might become, thereby provoking new

directions for women in reading and understanding fiction, which in turn may contribute

to women’s personal growth.19 Feminist literary analysis examines the ways in which

representations of women and their real lives are dissimilar. By reading against the

grain of such representations, one can change perceptions of reality.20 It should be noted

however that the analysis should not centre only on images themselves. Most

importantly the exchange process and the relationship between representations and

reality must be critically examined.

Reading images is not always one-sided direction of the viewer looking at an image.

Who is the viewer, what images she looks, and how images are looked at complicate the

problem. “Looking” itself is a complicated and ambiguous act of reading, having

multiple directions and creating multiple impacts:

The way a woman looks might mean either a description of her appearance, or adescription of her act of looking at others; the two kinds of looking might evenbe modified by each other. As such, images at which one looks can besimultaneously both a call towards or a warning against a particular way of

18 Ibid., p. 86.19 Susan Koppelman Cornillon, Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives, Bowling GreenUniversity Popular Press, Bowling Green, Ohio, 1973, pp. ix – x.20 Ruth Robbins, Literary Feminisms, MacMillan Press, London, 2000, p. 51.

12

looking . . . and an opportunity to look differently, to criticise or refuse that lookin favour of another way of looking.21

In literary analysis fiction is no longer read without critically questioning images

produced within its narrative. As fiction is constructed from the interweavings of

cultural narratives, it thus for feminists is “a cultural strategy for performing identity

claims,” when these feminist “become aware of the huge impact that literary works can

have on public opinion.”22 In fiction, identity formation is amongst the most observable

materials constantly located within its narratives. Through narratives which, by and

large, are drawn from the materials of everyday life, characters living in the narratives

generate their identity formation translating individual meaning through their stories.

For the readers, reading such stories – looking at other stories – creates a bond

connecting the readers and the characters that continuously engages readers in the

process of identity formation:

Women have used the word ‘personal’ because emplotment has been their toolto create individual meaning through other stories – of the women of the past –in order to tie into a historical understanding the ongoing content of women’slives within narratives that offer a wider conception of ‘agents’ as moralsubjects. In this sense, individuals do not simply have memories in the historicalsense, but, by adopting everchanging attitudes toward them, continuouslyreconstructing them, they can develop new interpretations. . . . Identity isconceived differently in narratives not only because past experiences arerewoven through time, but also because each new and broader narrative givesnew meaning to society’s own larger narrative.23

One may respond differently to a given image depending on time and place. The way

one looked earlier, one looks now, indeed, how one may look tomorrow and one’s

perception of looking at looking and re-looking denies an assumption that a given set of

images subsists and carries a fixed meaning. Looking at images, or reading images of

women in fiction is then not a simple act of reading but a rich and complicated ways of

looking, looking at what others look at how women were defined, are defined and may

be defined. Accordingly, feminist literary criticism develops a critical presentation of

such looking by adding the dynamics of the whole process of reading/looking aiming to

invigorate multiple relationships between the female subjective and the social as they

appear in fiction through literary representations.

21 Ibid, p. 57.22 Maria Pia Lara, Moral Textures: Feminist Narratives in the Public Sphere, Polity Press, Cambridge,1998, p. 92.23 Ibid., p. 93.

13

Constructing/Re-constructing Women: Women Reading/Writing Women

It is Elaine Showalter who coins the notion of women’s own literature, famously known

as “a literature of their own” or academically referred to as “gynocritics” which she

herself argues, “begin at the points when we free ourselves from the linear absolutes of

male literary history, stop trying to fit women between the lines of male tradition, and

focus instead on the newly visible world of female culture.”24 Showalter’s agenda is to

create a space for the values of a female own culture and female biology without

necessarily falling and being trapped into a dependency on men, male culture, value and

approval. Woman as reader as well as woman as writer are central to gynocritics.

Woman as reader obliges her to critically read such male-produced texts, consciously

examining the ways in which women are portrayed in these texts. In this way, the reader

awakes to the significance of literary sexual codes,25 thus is able to read the texts from a

feminist perspective.

If woman as reader enables woman to be a critical reader of male-produced texts,

women as writer requires woman to create her own meaning, acting as a producer of her

own, an executor of her own politics. Proposing eloquently an argument to recognize

woman as writer, Showalter posits:

women as the producer of textual meaning, with the history, genres andstructures of literature by women. Its subjects include the psychodynamics offemale creativity; linguistics and the problem of female language; the trajectoryof the individual or collective female literary career; literary history; and, ofcourse, studies of particulars writers and works.26

Furthermore, Showalter insists that feminist criticism must be fundamentally political

and polemical affiliating itself with, on the one hand, various theoretical criticisms and

other modes of new feminist approaches and, on the other hand, aesthetical values

making gynocritics “more self-contained and experimental.”27 The use of critical

24 Quoted in Literary Feminism, Ruth Robbins, p. 75.25 Elaine Showalter, ‘Toward A Feminist Poetics’, The New Feminist Criticism, p. 128.26 Elaine Showalter, ‘Toward A Feminist Poetics’, quoted in Literary Feminism, p. 75.27 Elaine Showalter, ‘Toward A Feminist Poetics’, The New Feminist Criticism, p. 129.

14

analyses and aesthetical values as methodological tool celebrates the rigor of feminist

critique.

Both woman as reader and as writer open up a space for women to have their own

culture within the literary tradition. However, in conjunction with the development of

various approaches of feminist literary critiques, limiting female tradition to only one is

problematic. When Showalter proposed to establish a female tradition she meant to

include women writers of a particular background, as racially white and of educated,

middle- or upper-class background. The limit to one female tradition embodies the

notion of excluding other women who do not belong exclusively to the group. Such

exclusion reiterates the notion of otherness, placing women who are not white, nor

educated, nor from middle- or upper-class as “others.” Feminism, for this reason,

becomes hypocrisy, epitomizing double standards of liberation and oppression at the

same time. It imitates the very same domination it seeks to attack in the first place. To

fight against such bias is to promote plurality and multiplicity of female own traditions

within different literary genres, welcoming women across time, race, sexual orientation,

ethnicity, class, educational background, and other differing categories, as Showalter

herself argues “creative coexistence between traditions which inform and modify each

other”.28 A tradition relies heavily on what it includes and excludes, so a feminist

tradition must not become fixed but allow for mixed values. Because women experience

life differently, female traditions are heterogenous, varied according to women’s own

subjective standings. Feminist themselves must be reminded of such heterogeneity.

Ruth Robbins paraphrases George Eliot on the necessity of remembering women’s

plural tradition:

It would be truer to say that women writers write after their many kinds; thattheir kinds of writing fully equal the kinds of writing produced by the manykinds of men; and that if we are alert to their kinds, we may also alert todifferences that enrich the field of literature even as they also subvert its owntraditional assumptions.29

Forging new female traditions provides possibilities for women as writers and readers

of their own perspectives to continuously construct and reconstruct their own

28 Ruth Robbins, Literary Feminism, p. 96.29 Ibid., p. 100.

15

definitions, awakening to the notion that female traditions are not rigid categories,

distinctly separable in time, space and culture.

Identity Politics

Identity construction cannot radically escape from the sexed body that one is born with.

However, many feminists have claimed that a sexed body is not automatically endowed

with sexual roles applying sexual practices. Simone de Beauvoir’s famous adage says:

‘one is not born as a woman, but one becomes a woman.’ Championing de Beauvoir’s

premise, in explaining female sexual identity construction, Judith Butler argues:

construction is neither a single act nor a causal process initiated by a subject andculminating in a set of fixed effects. Construction not only takes place in time,but itself is a temporal process which operates through the reiteration of norms.Sex is both produced and destabilized in the course of this reiteration.30

By saying that identity construction is not always fixed Butler opens up a vast

opportunity to see that gender and sexual difference is constantly evolving. The sexed

identity is therefore no longer determined by presupposed norms and values to which a

body belongs, more importantly there is no single identity. Identity is always plural in

its nature. Female identity formation conveys two oppositional characteristics of being

produced and destabilised during the course of the on-going process of identity

construction. Sexual identity then undergoes a similar process. In responding to the call

of feminists to attack the determined identity of male traditional norms, women engage

and awake themselves to the notion of self-identity, “by conceiving their identities as

flexible and self-reflexive.”31 The influence of space and time also contribute

significantly to identity process, different moments create different narratives of identity

and different environments build different historical perspectives.

Gender has become one of the most applied notions of identity politics, especially when

it is used to refer to the social and organisational relationships between the sexes. When

30 Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On The Discursive Limits of “Sex”, Routledge, New York &London, 1993, p. 10.31 Maria Pia Lara, Moral Textures: Feminist Narratives in the Public Sphere, Polity Press, Cambridge,1998, p. 171.

16

gender is applied to a critical analysis, it becomes a pivotal tool for historical study

examining the ways in which female and male relations are constructed in their

socialization. Gender is indeed both an empirical fact and a constitutive mechanism

working both on individual and social levels; gender features consequently serve as one

of many manifestations of a subliminal gender system operative throughout the cultural

and social domain a subject belongs to. The duality of gender operations is revealed

through literary and cultural criticisms. Through gendered literary criticism, the process

by which the gendering system dominates both in fiction and actual life can be critically

called into questions and challenged. Feminist literary analysis is a critical tool in

demystifying the restrictive definition that women have long suffered by exposing the

different dimensions based on female own cultures. Feminists can conceptualise and act

to re-signify women’s identity politics through the mediation of literature and thus have

a huge impact on readers.

A Gaze of Her Own: Authority and Subject Position(s)

One powerful tool to centre the authority and subject position is the use of ‘I’ within the

literary tradition. However, the authorial “I” is not unproblematic.32 The problematic “I”

lies in the sense that “I” cannot radically stand outside any discourse of power that it is

associated with. For the “I” then, to be able to maintain its own integrity, it needs to

play along the dynamic fields of critical negotiations, acknowledging its likeness and

differences, its field of force and counter-force, play and (re)play. Within this respect,

the “I” then includes the “I”s of others who have left imprints in the process of subject

positioning. Minh-ha captures the positionality of the “I” and its enormous ability to

create an endless story, a story that “never really begins nor ends,” and that “There is

not catching, no pushing, no directing, no breaking through, no need for linear

progression which gives the comforting illusion that one knows where one goes.”33 The

authorial “I” is the writer who herself has a beginning and an end but her story does not.

32 For details, see Butler, Bodies that Matter, pp. 122 – 123.33 Trinh T. Minh-ha, Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism, Indiana UniversityPress, Bloomington, 1989, p. 1.

17

Every woman is entitled a gaze of her own, of situating her subject position according

to her own vision and revision.

Female own gaze generates new alliances and resistances to defy patriarchal power, as

the gaze “destabilizes the fiction of [male] authorial intent and control.”34 To evade an

account that marginalizes women as writers and readers, women must be included as

contingent agents without relinquishing their dynamics and complexities. Female vision

radically challenges the traditional notion of male gaze, of ‘men look at women and

women look at themselves being looked at,’ which simply objectifies women as the

victims of male gaze. However, Parker and Meese suggest that to gain authorial gaze of

their own, women do not necessarily need to eliminate others’ subject positions.35

Eliminating the positionality of another subject in erecting one’s own, is but an

oppression. To avoid such dilemma, subject position is negotiated through the practices

of borrowing and of resisting the suppression and fixation. This means to create a

female culture and female visioning and re-visioning, which stand equally with male

culture.

From Private to Public

A story multiplies itself through the process of weaving and reweaving by different

story tellers (authors), such stories no longer reside in the circle of personal domain;

rather, they occupy a recognisable locus in the public domain. The thesis that “the

personal is political” is very well suited. The story moves from private to public with no

reservation. Narrative that paradoxically is personal in the first place becomes

inherently impersonal. Given the very nature of language, the embedded themes living

inside the narrative are disseminated and it is for the readers to create its signification.

Seemingly silent and repressed, women as writers and readers come to speak loudly

34 Reina Lewis, Gendering Orientalism: Race Femininity and Representation, Routledge, London andNew York, 1996, p. 20.35 Alice Parker and Elizabeth Meese, ‘Introduction’, Feminist Critical Negotiations, Alice A. parker andElizabeth A. Meese (eds), John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1992, p. xi.

18

using an alternative language of fluid and plural subjectivity.36 In this respect, a woman

builds two forms of identity of herself, and of solidarity with other female members

through the process of self-identification with the characters appearing in the narrative.

As Hannah Arendt states: “narrative becomes the vehicle for the construction of

collective and individual identities.”37

In the public domain literature plays its most important role as a privileged site where

“one becomes aware of problems not previously known or fully understood” by

“gathering information and making public a variety of experiences.” The public domain

may then act as the centre of self-understanding for women to research historically why

they are denied their public roles.38 The varieties of experiences that women stories

offer can raise a new consciousness for women. Literature proves to be a powerful tool

in creating a more woman-friendly environment both in public and private domain

where women have room of their own to pursue individual and collective growth. As

James Bohman argues, the aesthetic realm, which is this case is represented by

literature, is essential when one endeavours to promote a totally new understanding of

the order of things.39

Feminist literary criticism aims to critically look at the ways women are defined and

portrayed in literary writings by both female and male writers, and to question and

scrutinise the representations and misrepresentations in a given literary tradition.

Feminist literary critique aims for a mediating role between the structural system

constructed in the public arena and the representation of that system in the narrative. In

addition, feminist literary critique calls into question received notion of female identity,

helps raise new historical consciousness. By making personal stories into public ones,

feminist criticism destabilises the ways in which the signification process is produced

and the location of meaning is sited. “[B]y contesting the spaces where ‘private/public’

meanings located differences, feminists have shown that these spaces and their

36 Sidonie Smith, A Poetics of Women’s Autobiography: Marginality and the Fictions of Self-Representation, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1987, p. 13. Although Smith discusses theproblematic of autobiography, her discussion on the narrative, in my opinion, is applicable to otherliterary genres.37 Maria Pia Lara, Moral Textures, p. 36.38 Ibid., p. 109.39 Ibid., p. 112.

19

boundaries cannot be taken as given facts but must be seen as arenas for re-

significations.”40 The blurring of distinction between private and public spheres means

that women have managed to make themselves the very subjects of collective action for

constructing and reconstructing their identities.

This thesis is organised into 8 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the various issues globally

raised within the conjectured discourses of women, gender and Islam. Chapter 2

explores the notion of Islamic feminism. Both chapters function as the contemporary

discourse the selected writers are being exposed to. Chapter 3 and 4 discuss the similar

paths of previous chapters only within Indonesian settings. These chapters look at the

historiography and the circulating discourses of women, gender and Indonesian Islam.

Chapter 5 explores historiographically Indonesian literary tradition and the place of

women’s writers within that tradition. Chapter 6 specifically presents the authors –

based on interviews - as writers, their worldviews, merits, and how discourses of

women and Islam in Indonesia affect their stories. Chapter 7 and 8 map and examine

these writer’s literary works from issues discussed in the previous chapters and how

religious identity is formed and perceived by Indonesian readers. Finally, this thesis

never aims to classify women’s works in any identification, it simply wishes to describe

and document women’s works for fear of loosing their works in historical

remembrance.

40 Ibid., p. 171.

20

Chapter 1

Women and Islam in Muslim Societies: Some General Issues

When the PDIP (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, Indonesian Democratic Party

of Struggle) - a political party led by Megawati Soekarnoputri - won the general election

in 1999, it produced a massive reaction in the political, social, and religious spheres.

Most importantly, the PDIP’s triumph in general election also called attention to the

issue of gender. Could Megawati Soekarnoputri become the first woman president in

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country? Headlines of major newspapers

in Indonesia such as The Jakarta Post, Kompas, Republika, Jawa Pos and others were

flooded with the issue of whether a woman could or could not be the president of

Indonesia. Opinion, especially that of Indonesian Muslims, was by and large divided

into two opposing camps: those for or against her appointment. Such opinion occurred

at most levels of society. At the political level, PPP (Partai Persatuan Pembangunan,

the United Development Party) even issued a fatwa (religious statement) that “only a

male Muslim be eligible for the presidency,”1 while other political parties such as the

PKB (Partai Kebangkitan Nasional, National Awakening Party), stated that it would

back Soekarnoputri in the presidential election.2 At the social level, after weeks of

controversy, NU (Nahdlatul Ulama), a leading Islamic organization, through its

chairman, Abdurrahman Wahid, stated that it supported a female presidency.3 Not only

political parties and social Islamic organizations took part in the debate, ulama (Islamic

clerics) were also responsive toward the debate; some agreed with the female

candidature and some rejected it. An article in The Jakarta Post stated:

Many Muslim [ulama] and politicians of rival political parties have insisted thatIslam does not allow a woman to be in a position of leadership in society. Itmust be stressed, though, that this is by no means the stance Muslims inIndonesia are taking. Muslims [ulama] coming from Java, Sumatra, Bali and theeastern Indonesian islands during the past weekend, for example, said that they

1 The Jakarta Post, 16 June 1999. Internet, http://www.thejakartapost.com, (10 April 2002).2 Ibid., 17 July 1999, Internet, http://www.thejakartapost.com, (10 April 2002).3 Ibid., 17 July 1999, Internet, http://www.thejakartapost.com, (10 April 2002). NU is Indonesia’s largestMuslim organisation and it sponsored PKB for the 1999 ans subsequent national elections.

21

would support whoever was democratically elected to become the nation’spresident.4

Within the debate, however, some ulama warned that religious and political

interpretation should not be mingled and “they called on social religious organizations,

including MUI [the Indonesian Council of Ulama], not to become entangled in political

power struggles through issuing statements, edicts or actions made on behalf of Islam

and the authority of [ulama].”5

The debate around whether or not Megawati could be elected as the president even went

beyond national boundaries. An article in New York Times International entitled ‘Can

she run Indonesia? It’s about Islam, or is it?’ also highlighted the divisiveness of the

issue:

“A Woman President: No Way!” shouted a recent newspaper headline, statingthe case succinctly....The rector of [Islamic] boarding school, Noer MuhammadIskandar, took a different (perhaps-less emotional view). “Why not?” he said.“Islamic laws allow a woman to be president. This business is a politicalinterpretation of Islamic law, not a religious interpretation.” . . . Thedisagreement . . . goes all the way to the top of religious hierarchy. Three ofIndonesia’s five leading clerics argue that a woman cannot be president; twodisagree.6

The argument outlined by Iskandar indicates that the realm of religious interpretation

should not coincide with the realm of political interpretation, that religion resides in

private sphere while politics is public and that women’s role should not to limited

within private domain only. Religious interpretation exclusively governs the

relationship between human and God, and political interpretation human-to-human

relations, and the first should not be manipulated in support of political interests.

It was not, ultimately, Megawati who became the fourth Indonesian president. After a

long debate in the MPR (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat, People’s Assembly),

Abdurrahman Wahid, head of the nation’s biggest Islamic organization, NU (Nahdlatul

Ulama), was elected as the president in 1999. In 2001, amid growing dissatisfaction

with Wahid, Megawati was named his replacement. Megawati Soekarnoputri, a Muslim

4 Ibid., 29 June 1999, http://www.thejakartapost.com, (10 April 2002), italics mine.5 Ibid., 28 June 1999, italics mine.6 Seth Mydan, ‘Can She Run Indonesia, It’s about Islam, or Is It?’ The New York Times International, 20June 1999.

22

herself, then became the first woman president of Indonesia, and her vice president

Hamzah Haz of PPP, a party which earlier was opposed to the election of a female

president.

The issue of gender in Muslim societies certainly has a long history of debate. The

following discussion on the debate is exclusively drawn from literary sources written in

English or Indonesian, and English or Indonesian translations of other languages. As

Arabic functions as an important language in the Islamic discourses, many valuable

sources are written in Arabic. However, sources originally written in Arabic, or other

languages, but with no English or Indonesian translation will necessarily be excluded

due to the author’s inability to read Arabic. The sources used are drawn from

theoretical, historical, anthropological, sociological and religious studies on the notion

of “the woman question” and the interpretation of political developments related to

gender issues in Muslim communities. The differences within various Islamic schools

of thought, such as Sunni, Shi’i and other schools, are of less concern since the

emphasis is upon the gender issues raised within the tenets of Islam. That is, the

Islamic background in which the issues take place and that construct the prevailing

gender system in most Muslim communities.

The question of whether a Muslim woman can, or cannot be president has been

addressed by several Islamic scholars. Fatima Mernissi, a Moroccan sociologist, is a

Muslim scholar who has written several books on issues similar to those raised by the

1999 Indonesian election. Mernissi, in her The Forgotten Queens of Islam, argues that

since the rise of Islam and after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, there have been

Muslim women as heads of state7. In her book, Mernissi researches the history of these

Muslim women rulers, and reinterprets the difference between the notion of imam,

caliph, sultan (men) or sultana (women), and malik (king) or malika (queen). Imam and

caliph have associations with the notion of a divine mission, and refer to those who are

filling the place or succeeding the prophets.8 Sultan, sultana, malik or malika are not

“tempered with religion, [and] are available to anybody…they do not imply or signify

7 Fatima Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, Mary Jo Lakeland (trans), Polity Press, Cambridge,1993.8 Ibid., p. 32.

23

any divine mission.”9 However, becoming a caliph itself is not granted based on gender,

as she writes:

No woman who has held power has borne the title of caliph or imam. For thatreason are we to say that there have never been [female] heads of state in Islam?Is the title alone a sufficient criterion of exclusion? If one regards having the titleof caliph as the criterion for governing, one is going to eliminate the majority ofheads of state, because few bore that title. Caliph is an extremely precious titlereserved to a tiny minority, because of its religious and messianic dimension.Even today, just as in the past, many Muslim heads of state would like to bearthis title, but only the exceptional few have the right to it.10

Mernissi argues that even men who are given the title caliph are not themselves

automatically born with the right. A Caliph functions as the greater imam, which

includes “the leading of prayers, legal consultation, adjudication, and municipal

administration, while imam is the one who leads the prayers.”11 She further continues

that “An imam is not necessarily [a] caliph”12 for a caliph leads people in terms of time,

while an imam leads in terms of space. Thus, being an imam is merely one function of

being a caliph. Because a woman’s ability to deal with a “lesser” imamate role is

doubtful, some hastily come to the conclusion that her ability to deal with a “greater”

one is considered out of the question.13 Such unsettling opinions of female imamate

have long been in the centre of Muslims’ debates. An early Muslim scholar, Ibn Rushd,

states:

Opinion is very divided on the ability of woman to be imam for a congregationof men [that is, to lead the prayers]; some even question her ability to lead theprayers of congregation of women. . . . Shafi’i authorizes [her] to lead theprayers of women; Malik forbids it; as for Abu Tawr and Tabari, they allow herto be [an] imam in both cases. Nevertheless, the consensus of the majority [ofthe religious authority] is to forbid woman to be imam for congregation ofmen.14

Caliphate, by contrast, has even greater implications. A caliph is “both head of state and

head of government and fills all the important cabinet posts.”15 He is also the successor

of the prophets, or as Ibn Khaldun writes, “the guardian of divine law, namely al-anbiya

9 Ibid., p. 12.10 Ibid., p. 10.11 Ibid., p. 32.12 Ibid., p. 31.13 Ibid., p. 33.14 Quoted in Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, p. 33. See page 1 in the Introduction forcontroversy over Amina Wadud to be an imam for Friday prayer.15 Mernissi, op. cit., p. 32.

24

[prophets] and those who fill their place, that is, the caliphs.”16 A caliph embodies “no

personal narcissistic concern with power,” thus according to Mernissi, caliphate was “a

dream difficult to realize after the Prophet’s death,” because caliphate was “a mythical

vision of a happy community ideally directed by a caliph who was made wise by divine

law - a law that reduced him to a humble captive of God’s project,”17 Caliphate then lies

at the core of Islamic philosophy and exemplifies the harmonious relationship between

humans and Allah (habluminnallah) and the relationship among humans

(habluminnannas). However, Mernissi shows that a historical shift in definition has

occurred. Caliph is now a hereditary position, similar to that of king, which is passed

down from one generation to another. The caliphate is now comparable to a dynasty.

Since the period of the Rashidun or the Rightly-Guided Caliphs (632 – 661), after the

death of the Prophet Muhammad, the term caliph was transformed into “a new form of

Middle Eastern empire defined and legitimised in Islamic terms.”18

With regard to the reference made by Mernissi on the difference between ideal caliph

and head of state, several Indonesian Muslim scholars have made similar remarks.

Related to the debate on whether a woman could be president, an NU local scholar, Ali

Machsoen Musa, commented that “there were great differences between a president

and Islamic caliph. A caliph in Islam, for instance, bears all of the executive, legislative

and judicative power, while a president holds only the executive power.”19 Accordingly,

the controversy surrounding the presidential candidacy of Megawati Sukarnoputri

should not be merely an issue related to gender.

Indeed, women’s exclusion from the political sphere may be due to the historical root of

the term caliph. However, one needs to make a distinction between the myth and the

reality, between the religious sphere and the political sphere, between the Islam Risala

and political Islam.20 Although a woman has yet to be a caliph, history shows that some

16 Quoted in Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, p. 11.17 Ibid. p. 13.18 Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988, p. 54.19 The Jakarta Post, 13 July 1999, Internet, http://www.thejakartapost.com. (10 April 2002).20 Mernissi in ‘Introduction: Was Benazir Bhutto the First?’ in The Forgotten Queens of Islam, p. 5. Inthis book, Mernissi draws a distinction between religious Islam and political Islam, as she writes, “Inorder to avoid misunderstanding and confusion, let me say that in this book every time I speak of Islamwithout any other qualification, I am referring to political Islam, to Islam as the practice of power, to theacts of people animated by passions and motivated by interests, which is different from Islam Risala, the

25

of them managed to be sultanas and malikas.21 Latterly, women’s involvement in

politics, for example in becoming a prime minister or a president, challenges the

assumed exclusion of women in the political sphere and highlights past instances of

Muslim women in power. Muslim scholars, including Mernissi herself, have asked

whether or not Benazir Butto was the first Muslim woman ruler. The argument suggests

that the answer is no, not the first. Women’s involvement in political Islam should be

put in its socio-historical and cultural contexts. Mernissi quotes Ibn Khaldun to capture

this context:

Allah does not give orders directly to a person unless he knows the person iscapable of carrying them out. . . . Most religious laws apply to women just asthey apply to men. Nevertheless, the message is not directly addressed to them;one resorts to analogy in their case, because they have no power and are underthe control of them.22

Mernissi uses the above quote as a reminder that along with the dissemination of the

divine message, one should not forget the various ways people will interpret its

meaning. Any issue should not be immediately considered a universal matter. It should

be placed within a context, be it historical, social, societal, cultural or political, to avoid

uniformity which may result in the domination of a category over another.

In Islamic societies, women’s involvement in political life is not the only issue for

muslimah (Arabic, literally meaning Muslim women). Among others is the restriction of

women to the domestic sphere: such restriction is currently being lobbied against, with

demands for wider opportunities for Muslim women to participate in the public sphere.

In fact, these are calls for social, legal and educational reform. Social reform covers

gender relations, economic wellbeing, and political demands for equal access to public

spaces and power, while legal reform includes women’s demand for the reinterpretation

of the shari’a (Islamic law). According to Muslim women scholars, shari’a supports

men’s definition of Muslim women’s status and roles. At the present interpretations of

the shari’a are exclusively conducted by men, notwithstanding the issue. Educational

reform demands that women have access to the religious texts and the opportunity to

scrutinize them from the point of view of their own experiences and perspectives. In

divine message, the ideal recorded in the Koran, the holy book. When I speak of the latter, I will identifyit as Islam Risala or spiritual Islam.”21 Ibid., p. 13.22 Quoted in Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, p. 33.

26

order to achieve such reforms many Muslim scholars are now demanding new readings

of the Qur’an.

Reinterpretation of the Qur'an

Muslims perceive the Qur’an as the book from which interpretations of Islam derive. It

is also the main reference point from which Muslims always live their ‘Islamicity’23 (a

notion of Islam). Although it does provide principles and guidelines for Islamic

spirituality, the Qur’an also serves as the main source of how Muslims should live their

social life. Not only does it talk about faith and belief - a realm that grounds the relation

between a Muslim and Allah (habluminnallah), it also talks about social spheres

(habluminnannas) such as society, culture, social order, philosophy, economics,

politics, customary law, view of life, education, and so forth.

The need to reinterpret the Qur’an is perhaps the most important demand that many

Muslim scholars, men or women, have ever articulated. The motive is not to question

the sura (chapter) scripted in the holy book, but the interpretation that provides the

exegesis of the sura. The Qur’an, though considered the main source of guidance as to

how Muslims should behave and act, is not a book of law.24 As the book of revelation,

the Qur’an contains the ideals of Islamicity, thus it is not without reason that Muslims

believe the Qur’an is the righteous scripture as inferred by its alternative title Al

Qur'anul Karim. Qur’an itself literally means reading, not so much “to read” but more

“the reading” (the text).25 In reading a text, one cannot separate what is read from and

the reader who reads. Although the Qur’an itself does not change through time, it does

not necessarily mean that the reader and the process of reading do not change either.

One should not forget that a reader is located within a set of circumstances, be they

historical, social, political, or cultural, which result in a particular reading process and

23 Fazlur Rahman in Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition, The University ofChicago Press, Chicago, 1982, p. 22. Rahman uses Islamicity to refer to the notion of Islam.24 John Esposito, ‘Introduction: Women in Islam and Muslim societies’ in Islam, Gender and SocialChange, John Esposito and Yvonne Haddad (eds), pp. i – xxviii.25 See ‘Pengenalan Dasar Al Qur’an’ (Basic Understanding of the Qur’an) in Al Qur’an TerjemahIndonesia, PT. Sari Agung, Jakarta, 2001, pp. xi – xxii.

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understanding of what has been read. In the reading of the Qur’an, the reader is the

interpreter, and whatever comes out of the reading process is the interpretation. Who the

interpreter is and what his/her position is in a sociohistorical context, becomes a matter

of importance. Wolfgang Iser states that “[r]eading is an activity that is guided by the

text; this must be processed by the reader, who is then, in turn affected by what he has

processed.”26 As suggested by Iser, reading is thus an asymmetrical process where “a

text cannot adapt itself to each reader with whom it comes in contact.”27 It is the reader

who should adapt toward the text, for it is the reader who moves, while the text stays the

same. The new reading that Iser suggests necessarily put into consideration “the poles

of text, [and] reader, together with the interaction that occurs between them.” Iser

identifies that from the interaction between these three parts, “effects and responses”

coming from the reading are not exclusively properties of the text or the reader. Rather,

such interactions result in a change where “the text represents a potential effect that is

realized in the reading process.”28

In the case of reading the Qur’an, reading itself becomes interpretation. Isn’t to read to

understand what one is reading? Susan Sontag writes:

To understand is to interpret. And to interpret is to restate the phenomenon, ineffect to find an equivalent for it. Thus, interpretation is not (as most peopleassume) an absolute value, a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm ofcapabilities. Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view ofhuman consciousness.29

Indeed, what Sontag and Iser suggest in The Act of Reading is against the traditional

method of interpreting, which suggests one must uncover the “hidden” meaning located

somewhere in the text. In traditional interpretation, a reader looks for a single “hidden”

meaning within a text, which might be considered as the only truth. The meaning is

conveyed only in the text. On this understanding, the reader and the act of reading are

ignored. Accordingly, one interpretation achieves greater currency than other

interpretations. And whoever reaches the so-called “correct” interpretation can easily

claim that -they have grasped the “truth”. The consequence of this might be - as Iser

writes, “the truth of the text is a ‘thing’-which is born out by the fact that it exists

26 Wolfgang Iser, The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response, The John Hopkins UniversityPress, Baltimore, 1978, p. 163.27 Ibid., p. 166.28 Ibid., p. ix.29 Ibid., p. 11.

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independently of the text.”30 The traditional interpretation method is therefore

problematic. First, it asserts a universal validity that grants a superior position to a

particular interpretation, including the interpreter(s) who have arrived at a particular

conclusion. Second, since a claim to the truth has already been made, there is an

underlying assumption that there is no use in rereading or reinterpreting the text, since

the truth is sealed once and for all. The text, therefore, loses its vital feature, which is its

communicative ability.31 When a text cannot communicate anymore, one possible result

is that the text is abandoned by readers because it is no longer useful. It stops in the

past, having no opportunity to be related to the present, let alone to continue moving

into the future.

When the text is Al Qur’an such reading/interpreting becomes very problematic. If one

reads Al Qur’an using traditional norms of interpretation, one might think that Al

Qur’an is something of the past, having no relevant correlation with the present and the

future, especially when one needs to justify a circumstance occurring in the present.

What should a Muslim refer to, when they are encountering a legal or socio-political

concern which needs to be justified, when The Word of God is no longer able to act as a

source of reference, having lost its ability to communicate? Moreover, within the

framework of traditional interpretation, such readings could serve as legitimations of the

interpreters who believe they are the only ones to have grasped “the truth” of the holy

book. It is worth noting the significant role the interpreters plays in the norm of

traditional interpretation, as Esposito states:

The Word of God . . . was interpreted and applied in socio-historical contextsby human beings. Using reason and influenced by diverse geographic locationsand customs, early jurists developed a body of laws, which while somewhatuniform in essentials, reflected the difference of juristic reasoning and socialcustoms of a patriarchal society. Islamic law is thus the product of divine law[(shari’a)] as understood (fiqh), interpreted and applied by male religiousscholars in the past and preserved in legal texts and manuals.32

30 Ibid., p. 5.31 Ibid., p. 13.32 John Esposito in ‘Women and Islam in Muslim Societies’ in Islam, Gender and Social Change, p. xii.Italics mine.

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In Islam itself, there is a conception called ijtihad,33 meaning using logical reasoning to

view and judge a problem not directly stated, or sometimes one that is not conferred in

the Qur’an. However, the justification of the problem must be referred to the scripture

(the Qur’an) as the main source. Other sources would be the Sunna (preferable acts and

behaviour suggested for Muslims following those exemplified by the Prophet

Muhammad) and the Hadith (the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad), scholarly

writings, and debates. The word tafsir (Arabic, meaning interpretation) is widely used

by Muslim scholars to interpret Islamic ideals referred to in the Qur’an. Whether one

tafsir can be considered the authentic one, a Muslim could only say Wallahuallam,

meaning ‘only God knows.’ The president of the Indonesian Council of Ulama himself

admits that a tafsir cannot record perfectly the meaning of the original.34 Among the

6236 verses in the Qur’an, only 200 verses bear straightforward commands and

prohibitions.35 To understand the rest of the verses, one must rely on numerous

interpretations. In the Indonesian language alone, there are at least seven tafsir regarded

as sound.

Since the death of the Prophet Muhammad numerous interpretations of the Qur’an have

been made. (First by the Four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, Abu Bakar, Umar bin Khattab,

Usman bin Affan and Ali bin Abu Tholib, and then by the ulama after them. Barbara

Stowasser, in Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation, groups these

numerous interpretations into three categories: the conservatives or traditionalists, the

fundamentalists (a problematic term that Muslims themselves do not apply), and the

modernists. Stowasser writes:

The conservatives or traditionalists view Islam as inherited, balanced system offaith and action based on, and sanctioned by, scripture and its interpretationthough the verifying authority of community consensus. Conservatism takes adefensive stand against modernity, which it perceives in terms of Westernizationand hence, cultural domination.36

33 Barbara Stowasser, Women in the Qur’anic Traditions, and Interpretation , Oxford University Press,Oxford, 1994, p. 196. Stowasser defines ijtihad as independent interpretation of scripture; independent,scripture-based, judgement in a legal or theological question.34 The Speech of K.H. Hasan Basri, the president of the Indonesian Council of Ulama, Al Qur’anTerjemah Indonesia, p. x.35 Ibid., p. xv.36 Ibid., p. 6.

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The “fundamentalists”,37 as opposed to modernists, attempt to apply past instances of

Qur’anic ideals to the reality of the modern world. The fundamentalists implement the

earlier interpretations of Islamicity to present day situations. Stowasser further

continues:

The fundamentalists are scriptularist activists who see themselves as theconscience of the Islamic way of life, soldiers in Islam’s battle against the forcesof darkness without and within, whose ambition parallel, in no small part, thoseof America’s Puritan tradition and Europe’s Radical Reformation.Fundamentalists insist on the literal interpretation of the scripture and translatethe sacred text directly into contemporary thought and action; thereby, theyoften bypass and disregard the work of the centuries of theological-legal experts.Adverse both to diversity in local customs and also the acculturationistencrustations of the past, fundamentalists aim to formulate the true Qur’anicmessage in, and for, the modern world. This involves the rejection of the pastand present customary adaptations, and centers their paradigm on the Qur’anictext by means of ijtihad (individual scripturalist interpretation) in rejection of theconservative ‘ulama’-formulated community consensus. And in doing so, standin political opposition and incur the wrath of the established authority in almostall Muslim nations.38

Identical to the traditionalists, the fundamentalists also reject the notion of modernity as

a property of the “Western” (meaning for fundamentalists, anything that is not Islamic)

structures and practices, which are often viewed as “immoral and corrupt.”39

The last category of interpretation is the modernist one, which Stowasser discusses in

the section of her book entitled “Modern Muslim Interpretations.” Unlike the

traditionalists and the fundamentalists, the modernists do not entirely reject the Western

notion of modernity. They, in fact, come from a tradition that is “familiar with Western

history, politics, culture and literature.”40 Modernist interpreters such as Husayn Haikal

who wrote Hayat Muhammad (The Life of Muhammad), even devotes himself to

“find[ing] ‘the new scientific way,’ ‘the modern method’ in writing an historical-critical

study on the Prophet Muhammad that renders to the young now under the spell of

Western culture, an image of their Prophet both culturally authentic and . . .

scientifically sound.”41 However, the modernists do not essentially ground their

framework in Western modernity without challenging it. They are still aware of the

37 Fundamentalist is a term not commonly used by Muslims.38 Ibid., p. 7.39 Ibid., p. 7.40 Ibid., p. 119.41 Ibid., p. 120.

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practices of Western Orientalists. Stowasser therefore defines modernist interpretation

as an interpretation “presented as historical accounts but [which] also address[es] the

errors and falsification committed by Western Orientalists.”42 It seems that the

modernists work within the Western frame of thought, yet they also point out that the

Western view of Islam might be misleading and “lead to mistaking medieval Islamic

traditions for Orientalist fabrications.”43

Indeed, it is new readings or new interpretations that give credit to the real value of the

Qur’an. New Qur’anic readings, readings situated in historical, political, social, and

cultural realities, provide a communicative ability that a text like the Qur’an must have,

in order to prove its ability to stand the test of time. Recognizing changes in

interpretation does not imply changes in the essence and form of the text. New readings

(and this means plurality of views) provide a means by which Muslim communities can

cope with the contemporary reality of dynamic and diverse Muslim societies. Stowasser

states that some modernist Muslim scholars have taken the idea of reinterpretation to a

bigger arena, which is the “re-interpretation of Islam, which includes new approaches

to the Qur’anic text itself.”44

Social Reforms

There is a generalised world-view, more particularly in the West, that women in Muslim

societies are powerless and marginalized. Esposito argues that:

The study of women in Islam and Muslim societies is complex, reflecting thediverse and varied realities of Muslim women and Muslim societies throughoutthe ages. Alongside ideals embodied in the Qur’an and the traditions (hadiths) ofthe Prophet Muhammad, one must look at the actual condition of Muslimwomen in diverse time periods and sociohistorical contexts. The status ofwomen in Islam was profoundly affected not only by the fact that Islamic beliefinteracted with and was informed by diverse cultures, but also, and of equalimportance, that the primary interpreters of Islamic law and tradition were men(religious scholars or ulama) from those cultures.45

42 Ibid., p. 120.43 Ibid., p. 121.44 Italics, my emphasis, ibid., p. 121.45 Ibid., p. xi – xii.

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Many Muslim women scholars, such as Riffat Hassan, Amina Wadud, Amira Sonbol,

Fatima Mernissi, concur with Esposito’s critique and challenge the broad applicability

of terms such as powerless and marginalized.

Changes have occurred in the last few decades in the Muslim world and women have

appeared more in the public arena and some of them have occupied leading public roles.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, where women were once excluded from access to

education equal educational opportunities for both sexes has taken place.46 Women in

countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey who have enjoyed relatively more

freedom in the public sphere than their sisters in Arab counties push even more strongly

for greater public space. The election of Megawati Soekarnoputri; the Nobel laureate

Shirin Ebadi; Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh and Prime Minister

Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan also serve as examples of Muslim women taking leading

roles in the public domain. Nonetheless, the acknowledgement of their extraordinary

role in the Muslim world indeed does not automatically guarantee similar liberation for

their Muslim sisters elsewhere. In some countries, Egypt, Sudan and Somalia for

instance, FGM (female genital mutilation) is still widely practised and enforced in the

name of Islam.47 And, despite enjoying equal educational opportunities as men (see

above), women in Saudi Arabia still do not have the right to drive a car.

Thus the lives of Muslim women vary from being powerless, segregated or deprived of

basic human and religious rights, to enjoying equal or sometimes more freedom that

their non-Muslim sisters in different societies. These women are situated in a complex

46 See report from Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on education for girls section,Internet, http://www.moe.gov.sa, (15 November 2005).47 In Indonesia, FGM receives a very little attention. See Andrée Feillard and Lies Marcoes, ‘FemaleCircumcision in Indonesia’, Archipel 56, vol. 1, pp. 337 – 367. In this article, Feillard and Marcoesdiscuss about the existence of female circumcision for Indonesian Muslim (baby) girls. Perceived to beinexistent, it does exist and is often done in secret or discreetly. However, until today, this practiceremains unpopular and still lacks of documentation. Its operation varies from region to region, from“cutting off the tiny part of the clitoris” to “piercing with a needle or the edge of a knife to extract a singledrop of blood” (p. 359). The question whether it is an obligation in terms of religion (Islam) or adat(culture) remains unanswered. Also, Indonesian female circumcision might also be viewed as an elitistapproach to the notion of equality as such practice is conducted by few Muslims.It alo should be noted however that female circumcision in Indonesia might differ from the practiceoccurring in some African countries in which 15 % results in infabulation while the vast majority (85%)consists of clitoridectomy or excision. See Female Genital Mutilation, Amnesty International, Internet,http:// http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen/fgm1.htm, (16 March 2006).

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web of economic, political, social and cultural structures of which religion is only one

aspect. The feminist movement not only brought a tremendous change to Western

women, - but to Muslim women as well. The Muslim women’s movement has taken

root in most parts of the Muslim world and the study of Muslim women in the Third

World is no longer the exclusive domain of Western scholars, as many Muslim women

scholars have begun speaking from within their own context. In Egypt, for instance,

Malak Hifni Nassef, Mai Ziyada, Huda Sha’rawi, Doria Safik, Nawal El-Saadawi, and

Alifa Riffat are the pioneers of such movements, defining and articulating the

“territory” and the “discourses of female subjectivity” from a Muslim female

perspective.48

The attempts by women to be articulators of their own identity continues, even within

harsh regimes such as the Taliban (Afghanistan -1996 to 2001). Living in areas ruled by

the Taliban, and from behind the burqa (a head-to-toe veiling with a mesh grid over the

eyes, mandated by the regime),49 women consistently struggled to maintain their

identity. As Cooke writes: “Afghan women, despite their passive portrayal, have long

been active . . . joining other women in the Muslim world who have quietly declared

their jihad, Arabic for spiritual and military struggle and sometimes considered one of

the central tenets of the faith.”50 Their struggle - may be called “gender jihad”51- is a

struggle in which:

[W]omen who have long been dealing with the class-patriarchy conundrumwithin the global system are deconstructing history and religious texts to find

48 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of A Modern Debate, Yale UniversityPress, New Haven, 1992, p. 183. In this book, Ahmed records the historical discourses that shape womenand gender in Middle Eastern societies. Ahmed argues that these discourses “shape and are shaped byspecific moments and specific societies” (p.2), thus it is necessary to look at the root of such discoursessocially, institutionally and verbally.49 Amy Waldman, ‘Behind the Burka: Women Subtly Fought Taliban’, The New York Times, 19November 2001.50 Miriam Cooke, ‘Islamic Feminism before and after September 11th’, Duke Journal of Gender Law andPolicy, Summer 2002, p. 228.51 Hibba Abugideiri, ‘The Renewed Woman of American Islam: Shifting Lenses Toward “GenderJihad”’, The Muslim World, vol. 91, Spring 2001. According to Abugideiri, “Gender jihad seeks greatercomplimentary between the sexes, and is based on the Qur’an. In short, it is a struggle for gender parity inMuslim society in the name of the divine justice; it is a struggle to end a long-standing gender regime thathas paralysed Muslim women, preventing them from being Muslim leaders without having to add thequalifier “female” or “woman.” In fact, ‘gender jihad’ . . . calls into question the very legitimacy ofIslamic leadership as a male-dominated sphere of activity” (pp. 2 – 3). In her article ‘Between Secular andIslamic Feminism’s Reflections on the Middle East and Beyond,’ Margot Badran states that the termgender jihad was first introduced by Omar Rashied of South Africa in his struggles against multipleoppressions facing the country in the peak of the anti-apartheid campaign in the 1980s, Journal of MiddleEast Women’s Studies, Winter 2005, 1, p. 16.

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spaces of empowerment for women. Some are joining Islamist groups and areworking within their logic; others are resolutely rejecting implication of suchmovements. All, however, are learning how to situate themselves at the nexus ofreligion, place and feminist practice. While challenging traditionalinterpretations of authoritative texts that have served to construct norms thatdiscriminate against women, they continue to defend their communities againstdetractors. These women, among them Afghans, are not victims but ratherstrong individuals who are balancing national, transnational and feministagendas in an attempt to construct a just society.52

Throughout history Muslim women have struggled against victimization, but historians

have not emphasized such activity and their struggles are shadowy in the history of

Muslim societies. The work of Assia Djebar, entitled Far From Madina (1991),53 can

be seen as her effort to document the female engagement in Muslim society in Madina

during and after the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Although this book is a mix of

Djebar’s own stories, scenes, visions and recreations, Djebar also uses the works of the

Muslim chroniclers in the first two or three centuries, such as Ibn Hism, Ibn Sa’d and

Tabari,54 to support her argument of early female activism.

Mernissi writes that one of the conditions grounding the Muslim women’s movement is

the blurring of class and sex privileges, resulting from the greater access women have to

university level state-funded education.55 Although Mernissi writes from the Moroccan

experience of the late seventies to early eighties her argument is applicable to the

present day situation in most Muslim countries. Even in a country like Saudi Arabia

where women enjoy less public space, in 2003 – 2004 female students made up more

than a half of all university students. Indonesia has slightly less than half despite the fact

that Indonesian Muslim females enjoy more public space than their sisters in Arab

countries.56 What is taking place in Saudi Arabia is most likely a growing trend in other

52 Ibid., p. 231.53 Assia Djebar, Far From Madina, Dorothy S. Blair (trans), Quartet Books, London, Translationcopyright 1994.54 The author’s foreword in Far From Madina. In the foreword, Djebar argues that although women inthis early Islamic society make a brief appearance their contribution presence in Islamic history deservesacknowledgement. In those times the female presence tended to be overlooked and women were hardlydocumented. Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History, edited by Amira El AzharySonbol also records the female presence in Islamic societies such as in Egypt and Turkey in the Ottomanperiods. Sonbol’s work is more historical than Djebar’s. However, these two books show that from theperiods of early Islam, Muslim women have never ceased to engage in the dynamics of Islamic societies.55 See Fatima Mernissi, ‘Introduction to the Revised Edition’ in Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamicsin Modern Muslim Society, Revised Edition, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1987, pp. xii – xiii.56 See report from Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on higher education section, Internet,http://www.moe.gov.sa, (15 November 15).

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Muslim countries: the eradication of sexual discrimination in terms of access to

university education.

Mernissi comments that the expansion of educational opportunities for both male and

females saw “the emergence of a new class: educated youth of both sexes.” This new

class was and continues to be the result of three interplaying factors. First was the

change of demographic conditions indicated by the “youthification” of the population.

Second, the emergence of the welfare state: according to Mernissi the latter was crucial

since as a political factor it changed the way the ruling class and the ruled class saw

themselves. As Mernissi writes:

A real revolution in the conception of the state had changed in the way ruled andrulers looked at themselves and political actors, at least as regards the welfareobligation of the state. As corrupt and inefficient as it proved to be, the nationalgovernment did nevertheless carry out a mass educational program.57

The final factor according to Mernissi was cultural. This element changed how women

in the late 70s and early 80s perceived themselves in society, for they began to realize

their role in the socio-political order of their societies. These three factors encouraged

women to be politically active in their own society. Nevertheless, such awareness did

not exclusively belong to the educated class, as this change affected non-educated

women as well. This politicisation of women brought women to a new perception of

their own problems, an awareness which is as much relevant now as then, and which is

not exclusive to Morocco where Mernissi bases her studies. Menissi argues; “Muslim

women, illiterate and educated alike, are coming to diagnose and verbalize their

problems previously identified and labelled as being emotional - as being essentially

political.”58

The women’s movement in Muslim societies not only challenges the allocation of

acknowledged political power, it also demands the redefinition of power sharing. As

more and more Muslim women open the gate of the mutable realms of power and

For Indonesia, see Departemen Pendidikan Nasional (Ministry of National Education), Statistics section.The number given is actually for number of university graduates as a table referring to number ofuniversity students by sex is unavailable, respectively percentage of the graduates by sex will closelycorrespond to the percentage of students enrolled in universities, Internet, http://www.depdiknas.go.id (16November 2005).57 Ibid., p. xxiii.58 Ibid., p. xiii.

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religion, they affirm the equal gender relation that Allah (Arabic word for God) indeed

promises in the book of revelation: that the nobility of a human being lies in his or her

faith.59 It is this particular verse that foregrounds the possibility of the Muslim women’s

movement. The equality granted by Allah becomes the basis of equality in gender

relations. It is certainly this concept that Muslim women feminists have been

articulating since the early twentieth century.60 In her autobiography - Dream of

Trespass: Tales of A Harem Girlhood - Mernissi is constantly reminded by her

grandmother that “Allah made us equal.”61 Her reminder is also a constant message to

all women that they are created as men’s equal. Thus, in her attempt to locate the core

of gender inequality, Mernissi comes to the conclusion that “if women’s rights are a

problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the [Qur’an] nor the

Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the

interests of a male elite.”62

The discourse about women’s movement in Muslim societies is indeed one challenging

the male elite of the patriarchal societal system, changing the gender relations within

which this discourse takes place. The discourse of equality articulated by Muslim

feminists is profoundly rooted in the Qur’an itself. Based on this new approach to

Qur’anic interpretations, gender relations in Islam need to be contested and redefined.

Among the social reforms that the Muslim women’s movement demands is an

acknowledgement that the status of Muslim women is diverse, changing and

distinctive.63 Other reforms attack misconceptions about the so-called inalterable gender

59 The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali (trans), New RevisedEdition, Amana Corporation, Brentwood, Maryland, 1989, (p. 1432). Qur’an, sura 49, verse 13 says “Omankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and female, and made unto you Nations andtribes, that ye may know each other. Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is the mostrighteous of you.” Ali explains this verse by stating that before Allah all are one, thus equal, and the onegetting most honour is the most righteous. According to Ali, tribes, races and nations are just labelled sothat people can be known by their differing characteristics. The Indonesian translation may carry a slightdifference though the basic concept is the same. My own translation of the Indonesian version is “amongyou, the most noble person in the sight of Allah is the faithful one.” (p. 847) in Al Qur’an danTerjemahnya, The Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia (trans), PT. Sari Agung, Jakarta,2001.60 Leila Ahmed, ‘First Feminists,’ Women and Gender in Islam, p. 169 – 188.61 Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Tresspass: Tales of A Harem Girlhood, p. 9.62 Fatima Mernissi, ‘Pref ace to the English Edition’ in The Veil and the Male Elite: A FeministInterpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam, p. ix. In this book, Mernissi traces back through historyfinding that gender inequality in Islam relies on a tradition of misogyny.63 Valentine M. Moghadam, Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East, L.Rienner, Boulder, Colorado, 1993, pp. 5 – 8.

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differences that regard women as different beings, resulting in the intensification of

social barriers to female achievement. Women’s access to public space must be opened

wide in order that women’s participation be accepted without prejudice. The

improvement of the social status of women can be achieved by exercising a complete

reorganization of women’s empowerment toward themselves: women’s control over

their own selves, defining themselves in their own context, be it public or domestic.

These are some of the social reforms for which Muslim feminists have been persistently

agitating.

The Politics of the Veil64

The veil is probably the most discussed issue relating to concerns of gender and Islam.

The English translation of hijab (Arabic, literally meaning curtain or “descended”)65 is

inadequate to suggest the complexities and various meanings of hijab. Nonetheless the

term will be used in the following discussion without ignoring the fact that hijab has

more cultural, social and religious roots than its English translation infers, and that there

is no single view of Muslim women writers on such issue.

There are various interpretations of veiling: some scholars give positive value to the

practice of veiling for woman, others are against such practice. Some consider veiling as

merely related to the way Muslim women dress, while Mernissi, for example, takes up

this matter as being more than just a dress code. Mernissi places veiling in its historical

context, returning it to its Qur’anic origin. Verse 53 of sura 33 is the first revelation of

the conception of hijab, as it was revealed after the Prophet’s wedding to Zaynab Bint

Jash. Exploring the significance of its conception within the history of revelation,

64 The veil here means the Islamic veil. In this respect, the Islamic veil and veiling are usedinterchangeably. In the later discussion, the Islamic veil will be addressed as simply the veil. Assuggested by Fadwa El Guindi in Veil Modesty Privacy and Resistance, Berg, Oxford, 1999, the veil canappear in various forms from khimar (a head cover), jilbab (a long loose garment covering from head totoe, and face and feet are shown) to burqa (covering from head to toe including the face). The meaning ofthe veil is also ambiguous. At certain times and places, it may refer to headscarf, a transparent head cover,even a very stylish headdress. Limiting the veil to a single reference obfuscates its various forms,different historical, social and cultural contexts, as well as political articulations. Veiling is the veildonning. The authors cited in the discussion are mainly from Middle Eastern countries.65 Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 85

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Mernissi strongly argues that the descent of the message from Allah to the Prophet

Muhammad is metaphorically represented by the descending “veil.” She also suggests

that the veil symbolizes the separation between men; between the Prophet and Anas Ibn

Malik who was at the entrance of the Prophet’s wedding chamber. The verse says:

O ye who Believe! Enter not the Prophet’s houses - until leave is given you - fora meal, (and then) not (so early as) to wait for its preparation: but when ye areinvited, enter; and when you have taken your meal, disperse, without seekingfamiliar talk. Such (behaviour) annoys the Prophet: he is ashamed to dismissyou, but Allah is not ashamed (to tell you) the truth. And when ye ask (hisladies) for anything you want, ask them before a screen (hijab) that makes forgreater purity for your hearts and for theirs. Nor is it right for you that ye shouldannoy Allah’s messenger, or that ye should marry his widows after him at anytime. Truly such a thing is in Allah’s sight an enormity.66

Based on the historicity of veiling, Mernissi draws the conclusion that the definition of

hijab is three-dimensional: visual, spatial and ethical. Generally, hijab means to “hide

something from sight,” “to separate, to mark a border, to establish a threshold,” and to

“belong to the realm of the forbidden.”67 Moreover, Mernissi explains that the visual

dimension of the hijab is, among other things the curtain that separates the umma

(Arabic, meaning community of believers) and their caliph.68 Although Mernissi omits

to mention that this does not literally mean that the caliph is seen behind the curtain, it

does entail a separation between a caliph and his umma, for a caliph is the head of an

elite class governing the community. A caliph is therefore visually separable from the

umma. The spatial dimension marks the division between two spaces that become

impassable. It metaphorically separates two opposing ideas. In Sufism, hijab means the

veil that “blocks the knowledge of the divine.”69 For the ethical dimension, the veil may

mean “the punishment,” hiding God from man, describing “the inability of certain

individuals to perceive God.”70 In the case of the Quraysh, for example, their worship of

idols likewise separates them from the Muslim worship of Allah, as evinced in the

Qur’an verse 5, sura 41. In Mernissi’s opinion, it is odd that the early negative

connotation of hijab as “the very sign of a person who is damned, excluded from the

privileges and spiritual grace to which the Muslim has access, is claimed in our day as a

66 The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary, New Revised Edition, Abdullah Yusuf Ali,Amana Corporation, Brentwood, Maryland, 1989.67 Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 93.68 Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, p. 35.69 Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 95.70 Ibid., p. 96.

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symbol of Muslim identity, manna for the Muslim women.”71 Mernissi’s interpretation

of hijab, and the various discourses of contemporary studies considering its meaning,

indeed show that hijab is not independent of changing contexts.

Definitions of the conception of hijab vary, depending on the context and circumstances

of the interpreters. Such variation is perhaps rooted in a still current controversy over

whether hijab is Islamic or not. Any attempt to claim that the veil is -or is not Islamic

should be based on a careful scrutiny of the verses in the Qur’an - sura 24: Al Nur: 31,

and sura 33: Al Ahzab: 59 in which the ideal dress for women is mentioned. 72 Such

debates emerge, in particular, from the sentences: “they should draw their khimar over

their bosom,” and “they should cast their jilbab over their persons.” According to

Fadwa El Guindi, at the time of the revelation khimar was a head cover, while jilbab

was a long, loose garment.73 Whether khimar should be interpreted to mean to cover a

woman’s bosom, or as a garment simply taken and used to cover the bosom, is still a

controversial linguistic interpretation. al-Sayyid Marsot posits:

[T]he passages in the Qur’an that deal with clothing simply specify that womenwere to cover their cleavage, and that both men and women were to cover theirpudenda and dress modestly. It is only in the tafsir, the interpretations written bymale scholars, using Bukhari and Muslim’s collections of the Prophet’s sayingsas proof for their allegations that we find a saying attributed to the Prophet inwhich he silently approved the garb of a woman who covered everything exceptfor her face and hands. Yet much as Bukhari and Muslim laboured to siftthrough quotes handed down by various people which were allegedly said by theProphet, it is necessary to remember that these men wrote their works twocenturies after the Prophet’s death, and that human beings are capable of error.Anything of importance is repeated in the Qur’an, so should the clothing ofwomen have been of the least importance the Qur’an would have been spelled itout in no uncertain terms. What we need to spell out, is that clothing is culturespecific, although it does make a statement.74

71 Ibid., p. 97.72 The Holy Qur’an, sura 24: Al Nur: 31, translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, says: “And say to thebelieving women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not displaytheir beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear. Thereof; that they should draw theirveils [khimar] over their bosom and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, theirhusbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers’ or their brothers’ sons.”Another verse, sura 33: Al Ahzab: 59 says, “O Prophet, thy wives and daughters, and the believingwomen, that they should cast their outer garments [jilbab] over their persons (when abroad): that is mostconvenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Of-Forgiving, MostMerciful.”73 Fadwa El Guindi, Veil Modesty Privacy Resistance, Berg, Oxford, 1999, p. 55.74 Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, ‘Entrepreneurial Women’ in Feminism and Islam Legal and LiteraryPerspectives, Mai Yamani (ed), Itacha Press, Reading UK, 1996, pp. 35 – 36.

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Since the passages are read in a particular time and space they cannot radically escape

from the socio-historical contexts of the time they are revealed. By examining the

temporality of the sura, Mernissi, in The Veil and the Male Elite, argues that one reason

hijab was ordained for Medina because it was used to protect Muslim women against

men’s harassments that forced them to practice ta’arrud - committing an act of zina

(adultery). The verse 33: 59 ordaining jilbab was revealed at a time when life in the

community of Medina - a mix of Muslims and non Muslims - was very harsh,

particularly on the streets where women were easily harassed. Jilbab was then used to

differentiate between Muslim women to whom ta’arrud was forbidden, and women

believed to be slaves to whom ta’arrud was permitted.75 The notion of the veil for

Muslim women is inseparable from the concept of ’awra (parts of a woman’s body that

must be hidden). To veil means to hide ‘awra (Arabic, literally meaning “nudity”), it is

also a response to “sexual aggression, to ta’arrud.”76 Therefore, the earlier signification

of hijab that it functioned as a sign of protection and differentiation becomes one among

a myriad considerations when examining the symbolism of the veil. The context in

which the verses containing the veil are-revealed must be taken into account. The veil is

no longer simply a matter of clothing, it has gone beyond a cloth covering a woman’s

body and embodies more than just an ethico-religious significance. The veil occupies a

locus - a position in which trajectories of social, cultural and religious attachments meet.

El Guindi’s Veil77 provides a profound and thorough examination of the veil, as it

covers the trajectories of dress, body and culture and how its different significations

appear. The ongoing debate on the veil emerges from the lack of historical findings on

how women dressed before Islam and during the life of the Prophet Muhammad. What

can be currently understood is that the veil is not exclusive to Islam: it existed long

before Islam emerged. On the notion of the originality of the veil, or hijab, El Guindi

argues:

75 Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and The Male A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam, MaryJo Lakeland (trans), Addison – Wesley Publication Company, Inc, Reading, Massachusetts, 1991, pp. 180– 181. Mernissi also admits that even the meaning of jilbab vary is not clearly defined. According toLisan al-’ Arab dictionary, “it can designate numerous pieces of clothing from a simple chemise to acloak. . . . [it may mean] a very large piece of cloth worn by a woman; . . . a piece of cloth that a womanuses to cover her head and bosom.”76 Ibid., p. 182.77 Fadwa El Guindi, Veil: Modesty, Privacy, Resistance, Oxford, New York, 1999.

41

As far as is presently known, Islam did not invent or introduce the custom ofveiling. Veiling for men and women had existed in the region prior to Islam – inHellenic, Judaic, Byzantine, and Balkan cultures. Whether by adoption,reinvention or independent invention, veiling . . . has evolved a distinct functionand characteristic meaning from that in the northern Mediterranean regions.78

Moreover, El Guindi suggests that in examining the conception of veiling, as revealed

in the passages of the Qur’an, aspects of culture and society must be emphasized

beyond the sole factor of gender. Factors such as “privacy, social and kinship relations,

ranks, and the elements of building a new community [during the life of the Prophet]”79

are additional emphases to the notions of body and sexuality in respect to culture.

Commonly for many in the West the veil is immediately correlated with “seclusion” and

“politically charged with connotations of the inferior ‘other,’ implying and assuming a

subordination and inferiority of Muslim women.”80 Some American feminists still have

problems in seeing the veil other than as oppression. Eleanor Smell, president of The

Feminist Majority Foundation believes that donning a veil because of imposition or

individual choice is submission, which for many Americans is equal to oppression as it

represents shackles of cultural and individual behaviour.81 Others simply look it as a

symbol of conservative Islam.82 Accordingly, within a Western framework, the veil

becomes the most prominent symbol of “both the oppression of women (or, in the

language of the day, Islam’s degradation of women) and the backwardness of Islam.”

From the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the majority of Muslim

countries were colonized by Western powers. The veil in colonial discourse was often

used as “the open target of colonial attack and the spearhead of the assault on Muslim

societies,”83 an assault which insists unveiling is necessary as it is “the essential first

step in the struggle for female liberation.”84 Ironically, Qasim Amin’s monumental book

The Liberation of Women (Tahrir-i al Mar’a),85 considered as the first Muslim writing

78 Ibid., p. 149.79 Ibid., p. 155.80 Ibid., p. 157.81 Mackenzie Carpenter, ‘Muslim Women Say Veil is more about Expression than Oppression’. Post-Gazette, Sunday, 28 October 2001, Internet, http://www.post-gazette.com, (16 November 2005).82 David Hardaker, ‘The Rise of the Anti-Osama’, The Sydney Morning Herald , November 18, 2005.83 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, p. 152.84 Ibid., p. 154.85 Qasim Amin, The Liberation of Women: A Document in the History of Egyptian Feminism, SamihaSidhom Peterson (trans), The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 1992, pp. 35 – 45.

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against patriarchal domination of women, works within an agenda similar to that of the

Western discourse.

Leila Ahmed in Women and Gender in Islam points out that Amin’s arguments mimic

the Western colonial narrative. Ahmed writes, “the fundamental and contentious

premise of Amin’s work was its endorsement of the Western view of Islamic

civilization, peoples, and customs as inferior, whereas the author’s position on women

was profoundly patriarchal and misogynist.”86 Viewed from the Western colonial

narrative, veiling is a symbol of oppression. Within the colonial discourse, since veiling

is a symbol of oppression, unveiling then becomes heavily associated with the women’s

liberation movement against patriarchal domination, and unveiling becomes a means to

improve women’s status. However, because unveiling is proposed by the colonial West,

the act of veiling is then utilized as a symbol of the anti-colonial and anti-Western. In

resisting colonial domination, the return-to-the veil becomes an antithesis that signifies

the anti-colonial resistance to Western domination. Ahmed comments that: “[the

assumption] was incorrect in its broad assumptions that Muslim women needed to

abandon native ways and adopt those of the West to improve their status.”87 Forcing

veiled women to unveil is oppression in itself. Paradoxically, as the colonial discourse

signifies unveiling, it is also the same colonial discourse that gives rise to the new

meaning of the veil, as “a symbol of resistance” or as a part of “discourses of

resistance.”88

An example for such resistance is the use of Islamic veiling by Algerian women as a

symbol of struggle for independence against French colonization. Nevertheless, as a

symbol of anti-colonialism, the veil only applies to women. The politics of the body

appears to link closely to only women’s body (from head to toe): covering or

uncovering. The woman’s body is no longer a matter of private life, but of the public

and becomes a symbol of resistance, be it individual or communal. For men, to oppose

Western colonialism does not necessarily mean altogether rejecting Western modes of

86 Ahmed, op. cit., p. 162.87 Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, p. 166.88 Ibid., p. 164. See also Azza Karam in ‘Veiling, Unveiling and Meanings of the “veil”’ in Thamyris:Mythmaking From Past to Present 3 (2) Autumn 1996, (p. 234). Karam addresses the similar issue asAhmed. Based on her research of narrative discourses of immigrant Muslim women in Europe, sheconcludes that “veiling is part of ongoing power dynamic of competing discourse, especially discoursesof resistance either to state interpretations or to hegemonic ideas.”

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dress. Muslim men opposing colonialism often adopt Western dress without being seen

as an advocate of colonialism. Adopting such Western dress for these men may mean a

move toward modernity, making them more equal to the West, however, because man’s

body is not so much a property of public life compared to woman’s, what men wear is

hardly discussed as a symbol of resistance. The similar case occurred in 1980s

Indonesia when Soeharto’s government banned women office workers wearing jilbab.

Men were allowed to wear turbans and prayer caps. Within the context of resistance, the

veil embodies a broad range of meaning: anti-colonial control to anti-colonial legacy

(anti Western), anti-corruption of Westernisation, woman’s struggle for emancipation.

Giving a single meaning to veiling as merely an oppressive symbol for Muslim women

is inappropriate, particularly where veiling is a matter of personal choice in countries

such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, and Morocco.89 Ahmed suggests:

Because of the history of struggle around it, the veil is now pregnant withmeanings. As an item of clothing, however, the veil itself and whether it is wornare about as relevant to substantive matters of women’s rights as the socialprescription of one or another item of clothing is to Western women’s strugglesover substantive issues.90

The veil goes beyond clothing, becoming an articulation of a substantive matter of

women’s rights. In the case of veiling by college Muslim female students in “secular”

universities where veiling is not forced, such as in Indonesia or Egypt, it may be seen as

an articulation of their strong political and social commitments to their own community

in which Islamic movements are housed. The women are not invisible in their struggle

for emancipation but, El Guindi writes, assert “their Muslim identity, career-oriented,

modern and veiled.”91 The meaning of the veil is not static as it changes through its

contexts and subtexts within which it is the women themselves denoting its meaning.

Veiling is also grounded in different levels of class, social, political and economic

position. Haideh Moghissi, in Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism, identifies various

89 In Indonesian context, for example, majority of Muslim women are not forced to wear veil when inpublic places. However, there are cases when women are obliged to wear it, such as female students ofpesantren (Islamic boarding schools) or in regions where shari’a is applied. In the past, Muslim femaleswere often known to wear kerudung (headscarf), which only covers the hair while the neck remainsopened. The veil in today Indonesia differs from kerudung as the veil (Indonesians call it jilbab) coversexclusively the hair and the neck, only the face, the hands and the feet are to be shown. There are caseswhere jilbab wearers only show their eyes (the hair, the neck and the face and the whole body arecovered). See Chapter 4 for detailed argument about the practice of veil donning in Indonesian context.90 Ahmed, op. cit., p. 166.91 El Guindi, op. cit., p. 168.

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meanings of veiling from several Islamic feminists such as Abu-Odeh, El Guindi, and

Hoodfar documenting what the veil may means for the wearers who have adopted it by

choice.92 When veiling is voluntary Moghissi posits it is an item of clothing, indicating

the exclusive property of the private sphere, even where that privacy extends to include

public arenas. As a matter of personal choice, comments Hoodfar, the veil is clothing

that “may be worn to beautify the wearer,” in the same way Western women choose to

wear make-up.93 For Abu-Odeh and El Guindi, veiling is identified as being related to

woman’s sexual body. Abu-Odeh suggests that veiling for young women serves as a

“remedy” for discomfort that women experience in their daily life, protecting them

against sexual harassment. El Guindi sees veiling as a means for Muslim women to

control their own bodies, to acquire “sexual space and moral privacy.”94 This control

conversely results in the increase of their participation in the public sphere, at the same

time signifying an act of anti-consumerism, symbolising women’s return to modesty.95

However, in Indonesian context, the notion of jilbab as an act of anti-consumerism

might be questioned. There are veiled women symbolise their veiling as anti-

consumerism act whilst there are those who “mix and match” their Islamic styles with

colourful designs and branded clothing products.96 Within the framework that veiling

signals women’s return to modesty, discipline and control, veiling grants women

security and protects them against men’s lust. Using this reason for veiling still

imprisons women, for it implies that the women are victims that should protect

themselves against men. The so-called lustful men, on the other hand, are not socially

obliged to censure their own behaviour in any way. From this perspective, it is indeed

the patriarchal domination that ironically allows veiling to become a means of liberating

women. The veil therefore occupies an important position in articulating women’s

privacy and their choice of modesty as divinely ordained in the Qur’an.

Veiling embodies social and political statements. In the case of Islamist movement,

whose female members adopt the veil, Gole writes, “Islamic veiling is a political issue

in both Muslim and Western European countries,” functioning as “a challenge to

92 Haideh Moghissi, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis, ZedBooks, London, 1999.93 Quoted in Moghissi, p. 41.94 Quoted in Moghissi, p. 4195 Ibid., p. 41.96 See discussion below.

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Western modernity” confronting the opposing realms “between religion and secularism,

the private and public spheres, [and] particularism and universalism, . . . self and

society, Western and Islamist.”97 Gole explains further that politically such veiling

reaffirms women’s active appropriation, symbolizing their commitment to the way of

life defined under Islamic religiosity. Since the majority of these women choose to don

the veil, veiling can also be viewed as a rejection of the determination of already

“established traditions.” In this way veiling is no longer associated with ideas of

traditionalism,98 but rather as a signification of modernity. It is a transition “signalling

entrance into, [and a] determination to move forward in[to], modernity.” Other scholars,

such as Abu-Odeh, believe that veiling is a defiant act against “the social corruption of a

Western-oriented market economy and . . . consumerism.”99 In urban populations,

where Western influences create tensions between modernism and traditionalism,

between “corrupted” Western and “purified” Islamic moral values, veiling is a pivotal

mark for Muslim women indicating their being modern but not Westernised. For these

women, choosing to veil indicates a cultural separateness from the West - representing a

strategy of accommodating the social and political environments of their societies -

where they can function more easily and become increasingly successful within their

communities.100 Moghissi proposes that veiling acts as a tool to empower women. Yet

she also calls attention to the diverse and changing meanings of veiling, and insists that

veiling must be a choice and not an imposition upon women. In the case of Islamic

fundamentalism, Moghissi notes that the practice of veiling embodies different

connotations because it is mandatory, something to which she herself is opposed.

In terms of the imposition of the veil, it is worth noting how veiling is perceived under

an Islamic government mandating veiling for its Muslim women.101 Those resisting

veiling believe that just as an imposition of veiling to unveiled women is oppression, so

is the imposition to unveil to veiled women. Those who accept veiling believe that since

97 Nilufer Gole, The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling , The University of Michigan Press, AnnArbor, 1996, pp. 3 – 4.98 Ahmed, op.cit., p. 225.99 Moghissi, op.cit., p. 41.100 Azzam, op.cit., p. 225.101 In Indonesia, the most visible example is Aceh where the shari’a is applied. In Banda Aceh, theprovince’s capital, there are areas known as Kawasan Wajib Jilbab (jilbab compulsory areas). In theseareas, women are obliged to wear jilbab, supervised by shari’a police officers. Fines are applicable whena Muslim woman found not wearing it. Recently the fines are not yet fully in practice, those found notwearing it are given jilbab to cover their hair and necks.

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veiling is Islamic it is thus an obligation. Often called Islamists, these women (and men)

believe that Islamic government is a necessity since it will return to “the sources of

Islam to regain a purified vision, long since lost in the mire of worldly governments.”102

Examples of such governments, also often called “revivalist,” include Shiite Islamic

Republic of Iran and Sunnite Wahhabi Kingdom Saudi Arabia. These women and men

build their communities based on their strict notion of the return to and the revival of

the imaginary golden past under the rule of the Prophet Muhammad and the caliph Ali

Ibn Abu Thalib for Shi’ism, and the Prophet and the Four-Rightly Guided Caliphs for

the Sunni, in which a just Islamic community was founded. According to Afshar,

revivalism functions as a frame to process “the new, puritanical interpretations that are

to counter centuries of misdeed and hardship and pave the way for the future.”103 Most

Islamist women deem that Islam, if revived in the most purified way, will give them

respect and opportunity to function both in the private sphere as mothers, wives and

homemakers, and in the public sphere by providing them with education and training.

According to the revivalists, Islam alone is capable of endowing them with models of

idealised women such as Khadijah, Ai’syah and Fatima, the Prophet’s wives and

daughter, thus Western examples are not necessary. For Islamist women the veil

becomes an important means of pursuing the path to liberation:

Islamist women are particularly defensive of the veil. The actual imposition ofthe veil and the form it has taken is a contested domain. Nevertheless, manyMuslim women have chosen the veil as the symbol of Islamisation and haveaccepted it as the public face of their revivalist position. For them the veil isliberating, and not an oppressive force. They maintain that the veil enables themto become the observers and not the observed; that it liberates them from thedictates of the fashion industry and the demands of the beauty myth. In thecontext of the patriarchal structures that shape women’s lives, the veil is a meansof bypassing sexual harassment and “gaining respect.”104

The different significations of the veil from the revivalist’s perspective are another layer

of meaning which contributes to the already multiple symbols that the Islamic veil

carries. What meaning the veil holds should be assessed depending on where women

live, their context, and the way they seek to define themselves. In many countries where

veiling is not required for women, the return-to-veiling movement gives an opportunity

102 Haleh Afhsar, ‘Islam and Feminism: An Analysis of Political Strategies’ in Feminism and Islam, p.198.103 Ibid., p. 198.104 Ibid., p. 201.

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to women to define their own identity. In this way, it marks their claim to their own

agency. In societies where veiling is a norm for women unveiling also bears a similar

signification of women’s agency. As a construction of a woman’s image, the veil stands

as a crucial marker through which a woman is identified, recognized and perceived. Not

only does veiling affirm a Muslim female identity, it also requires an observer to

acknowledge the wearer’s religious identity. Yet the potential for veiling to denote more

than religious reference is powerful. Contemporary developments have shown that the

veiling movement is becoming increasingly charged with political symbolism, where

religious practices and non-religious symbols are difficult to separate.

Some in the West see veiling as an oppressive act and there is great divergence among

Muslims too. On one hand, that Western view reflects bias and hegemonic

representation that in the end places Muslims as the “other”. On the other hand, from an

Islamic perspective, allowing only one representation is in itself oppression. Narratives

of meaning, including hegemonic meanings such as veiling as a “mechanism of

seclusion”, are accepted as long as such meanings are voiced by the wearers themselves.

Veiling should therefore be understood as “a function of diverse social, political,

cultural and economic activism,”105 and of the development of an achieved status rather

than an ascribed status for the wearer. Where veiling is voluntarily donned, its meaning

marks the shift of the boundaries between self and other, increasing female agency. As

veiling used to be the symbol of man’s control over woman, the justification and

reappropriation of the contemporary veil movement, and its discursive practices

“emphasize female self control and independence in ways, by and large, challenging the

traditional and the orthodox determined position.”106

The veil is not reducible to a single meaning, but must be placed within the context, in

which it appears. Thus women articulate their own meanings, their self-representation

of the veil, in order to contribute to the multiplicity of meanings. In the Indonesian

context, for example, when the veil (or jilbab in the Indonesian language) is donned by

choice, women have no difficulty in adjusting to different contexts. Many farmers, such

105 Karam, op.cit., p. 235.106 Karin Ask and Marit Tjomsland, ‘Introduction’ in Women and Islamization: ContemporaryDimensions of Discourse on Gender Relations, Berg, Oxford, 1998, p. 13.

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as the members of Persis107 (Persatuan Islam, Islamic unity) in West Java, find no

trouble working in the field wearing jilbab. Nor do the students of secondary or tertiary

education in doing their physical exercises. As a student remarked, “everything depends

on one’s niat (one’s determined will). When a girl has her niat to wear jilbab, she finds

no difficulty in doing anything with her jilbab donned”.108 On the other hand, women

believe that when donning the veil is a matter of force and without niat, it will certainly

restrict her actions. Veils come in varying styles and modes enabling women to meet

religious obligation with fashion. In Indonesia, women donning a variety of jilbab can

be spotted everywhere from the street corners of big cities to villages in rural areas. The

“fashionable jilbab” known as baju Muslim (Muslim fashion) can be bought almost

everywhere, from department stores, often having a special section for baju Muslim, to

traditional markets. Some women, young and old, choose to tailor their jilbab ranging

from the simplest to the most extravagant colourful design. Many match their

headscarves with branded clothing such as Polo, Guest, or Levi’s. Those who view

veiling as an anti-consumerism act will look for the simplest and less-colourful design -

usually dark colours and long, loose garments - whilst others will reason that since only

the face, hands and feet are to be exposed, it is enough to simply match their

headscarves with blouses and pants from a range of colours and prints, or with tight

jeans and long-sleeve lycra tops.

Many women work and are attempting in their own way to negotiate religious

observance, tradition, modernity, globalisation, consumerism and fashion and to mark

an identity for themselves all at the same time. Clearly there is a difference between

veiling as an act of choice, or veiling as a mandatory obligation. To wear or not to wear

the veil is a woman’s choice for such choice is her attempt to show her charge of her

own body and mark her adherence to Islam however she may choose. Both men and

women, the Qur’an says, are asked to lower their gaze and keep their modesty. Men,

too, do not hold to a monolithic view of veiling. In Indonesia, for example, some men

see it as an obligation while others leave it for women to decide. In a like manner

women have differing views on the growing of beards for men or the wearing of Islamic

107 Persis website, Internet, http://www.persis.or.id , (17 November 2005). Persis is commonly perceivedto be the most scripturalist of Indonesian reformists. It was established in 17 September 1923 in Bandung,West Java, by K.H. M. Zamzam and H. Muhammad Yunus with the purpose of having a unity of Islamicthought, view and voice.108 Interview with a secondary school student in 10 July 2005.

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clothing known as baju koko.109 The heart of the discussion on donning the veil is the

question of choice. Women wearing the veil carry the right to be respected for their

choice in the manner by which they mark their religiosity and so do women without

veil. Women themselves have their right to decide whether to veil, unveil, remaining

veiling or remain unveiling.

Legal Reforms

The political and societal organization of Muslim societies has existed since the time of

the Prophet Muhammad. The period after the exile of the Prophet from the city of

Mecca to the city of Medina, known as the “Medina Constitution,” was the period in

Islamic history where the Prophet established legal, ethical and societal codes for

himself and his umma (community). The question of the way an Islamic state should be

run during the life of the Prophet was easily resolved since the Prophet - besides the

Qur’an - was the source of shari'a (Islamic law). However, after the death of the

Prophet, interpretation became complicated for the Four Rightful-Guided Caliphs: Abu

Bakar, Umar Ibn Khattab, Uthman Ibn Affan and Ali Ibn Abu Tholib. The caliphs had

to search for answers and resolve societal problems based on the Qur’an and the Hadith

(traditions of the Prophet), qiyas (analogy) of the early jurists when encountering

problems not directly referred to in the Qur’an or the Hadith, and ijma (consensus of the

Islamic jurists having profound knowledge of the subjects). Thus, basically shari'a in

this sense is the law that is drawn from the Qur’an, the Hadith, qiyas (analogy), and

ijma (consensus).110 The last source of shari'a, which an Islamic state may or may not

apply is furu: a juridical decision based on the interests or needs of the public.111 Furu

functions as a subsidiary source of figh (Islamic jurisprudence), which may or may not

be applied in judicial considerations. Accordingly, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, in his

109 Contemporary Indonesian man’s Islamic clothing is named baju koko as it similar to the Chinesepeasant long sleeves-shirt and pants covering the whole body except for the hair, the face, hands and feet.This clothing consists of long sleeve shirt and trouser or sarong. Its wearer often dons a special cap calledtopi haji (hajj cap, a cap usually worn by Middle-East Arabs).110 Abdullahi Ahmed An Na’im, Toward an Islamic Reform, New York, Syracuse University Press, 1990,p. 19.111 Asma Larif-Beatrix, ‘The Muslim State: Pursuing a Mirage?’ in Shari’a Law and The Modern MuslimState, Norani Othman (ed), Sisters in Islam, Kuala Lumpur, 1994.

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paper entitled ‘Toward an Islamic Reformation: Islamic Law in History and Society

Today,’ believes that due to its own nature, shari'a is complex, for it “encompasses

every aspect of people’s lives - faith, rituals, ethics as well as the so-called strictly legal

subject matter.”112 Thus, the complexity of shari'a contributes to the importance of

shari'a in Muslim societies. However, the relationship between the society and the

shari'a itself is not simple. The extensive change and progress, that many Muslim

societies have undergone since the first Islamic state under the leadership of the Prophet

Muhammad, then Islamic dynasties, followed by the colonization of most Muslim

nations by various Western powers and then their independence, undeniably contested

and challenged the existing shari'a. An-Na’im’s argues it is indeed this capability of the

shari'a to be open to the possibility of change - to be dynamic - that is its core value.

There is a widespread belief that because shari'a is a divine law it is thus static and must

be rigidly followed. An-Na’im and other Islamic legal reformists, however, argue that

although shari'a is based on the Qur’an and the authentic Sunna (traditions) of the

Prophet, it is not a divine law. Their contention rests on the fact that the other two

sources of shari'a: qiyas and ijma are undeniably human, and therefore cannot be

divine. Further, An-Na’im argues that the application of the concept, the methodology,

principles and techniques of the shari’a are also human because they are developed by

the jurists themselves. An-Na’im concludes “shari’a is the product of human reasoning

upon a foundation of divine inspiration.”113

Since shari’a is a human product, its interpretations are necessarily self-evidently

human. The systematic codification of shari’a by four madhab (Islamic schools), which

belong to the Sunnis - Maliki, Hanbali, Hanafi and Shafi’I - had not been conducted

until 150 to 200 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. As shari’a not only

governs spiritual relationships (humans in relation to God—ibadat), it also deals with

human-to-human relationships (muamalat). Shari’a regulating principles of muamalat

are on the other hand, exclusively based on social occasions. Humans become the sole

agent interpreting and applying shari’a regarding the realms of socialization.

Consequently, shari’a relies considerably on man’s intellectual capability in

112 Abdullahi Ahmed An Na’im, ‘Toward an Islamic Reformation: Islamic Law in History and SocietyToday’ in Shari’a Law and The Modern Muslim State, p. 9.113 Ibid., p. 11.

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interpreting social problems using shari’a as the primary reference. It is within this

framework, then, that shari’a is located. Although “a product of the divine will and

knowledge,” shari’a “regulates and is regulated in its application by human will and

understanding, which have only a limited reality.”114 Shari’a is grounded in the notion

of this limited reality, a crucial point where legal reform is concerned. Shari’a is

capable of changing, for it is not static within a specific time and place. As a human

phenomenon, shari’a is contestable and dynamic, serving the necessity of relating

contexts, making it time-bound, conditional, and historical and open for new

interpretations.

Asma Larif-Beatrix argues that shari’a is “the product of that human and historical

process of elaboration—the great impressive and intellectual tradition of Islamic legal

culture, as it was developed by many of the best minds within Islamic civilization over

fourteen centuries. . . . The sunna was not only codified more than two centuries after

the Prophet’s death but . . . its interpretation was at the time also framed within certain,

again historically, conditioned mental or intellectual limits.”115 Larif-Beatrix’s argument

stresses that even the Sunna cannot radically escape from historical construction. John

Bowen’s writes that shari’a- is best understood as:

The interpretive struggle (ijtihad), to approximate the path or way, . . .determined by God, a path not completely knowable by humans. Despitepopular Western ideas to the contrary, shari’a cannot be reduced to a single setof books. Humans can only engage in the fallible efforts to interpret and applyconcrete cases the diverse, sometimes conflicting, often ambiguous signs givenby God. Jurists and other scholars draw on multiple sources of law, includingspecific directives found in the Qur’an and hadith (the reports of the Prophet’sMuhammad’s statements and actions), general principles of equity and justicederived from the scripture, past traditions of interpretations, and the social normsfound in the society.116

Not only does the historicity of the shari’a need to be taken into consideration but the

importance of political culture also needs to be emphasized, for it functions as a legally

important determination constructing the shari’a at the conjunction of “the empirical

114 Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad Abduh and RashidRida, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1966, p. 21.115 Asma Larif-Beatrix, ‘Islamic Reform, Muslim Law and The Shari’a State’ in Shari’a Law and TheModern Muslim State, p. 29.116 John R. Bowen, ‘Qur’an, Justice, Gender: Internal Debates in Indonesian Islamic Jurisprudence,’History of Religion, August 1998, v. 38 n. 1, p. 3. Italics mine. In the hierarchy of sources for Islamiclaws or Islamic jurisprudence, Qur’an is the most important and Sunna comes in the second rank.

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and the normative, the local and the divine, inform[ing] each other in the interpretive

struggle.”117 Situating the shari’a in the locus of conflicting operations of socio-

political, historical and cultural circumstances helps to explain the discourses from

which the shari’a comes into being.

Since the death of the Prophet Muhammad the shari’a has been largely defined by elite

male jurists and legal scholars. Therefore, issues of gender in the shari’a have not been

interpreted from a female perspective, resulting in misconceptions on the roles of

woman and their status in Islamic legal discourse. Female jurists, such as Amira Sonbol,

have started to challenge the notion of the static shari’a by examining its historicity

with fresh eyes, new research methods and new language skills.118 Legal reform that

jurists like Sonbol propose opens the way to giving more room for women to view legal

discourse from within their own paradigm. Sonbol’s findings are quite challenging, for

she argues that in fact modernity, not just tradition, plays a large part in the continued

subjugation of women in modern legal discourse. She contends that:

There is no question that modernization has changed the situation of Muslimwomen dramatically and that the status of women has become one of greateropenness and less seclusion. However, . . . the historical transformations of thelast two centuries, although allowing women a greater public role, actuallybrought about a general deterioration in social maneuverability, especially forwomen. This deterioration was closely tied to the evolution of new statestructures that fit the needs of new hegemonic elite combines, usually formedfrom alliances between foreign business interests and westernising nationalleaders. In the process of nation-state building, the hands of the state extendedtoward family and personal laws, standardizing, codifying, reforming, andmodernizing them. The process had a profound impact on the status of women,creating for them, so to speak, a double jeopardy.119

Therefore, legal reforms aimed at liberating women from subjugation must not only

overcome past traditions but also the current hegemonic political power of

contemporary nation-states. In fact, the hegemonic ruling elite determines woman’s

position more than the traditional ideology. Even within modern conditions, then, legal

regulations can still act as a barrier to equality. Sonbol further argues that:

The shari’a that came into being after the modernization of law and the reformof courts differed from the previous one in that it was designed to favor the new

117 Ibid., p. 3.118 Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, ‘Foreword’ in Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History,Amira El Azhary Sonbol (ed), Syracuse University Press, New York, 996, pp. ix – xx.119 Ibid., p. 7.

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hegemonic order coming to power as part of the nation-state structure. It is amistake to believe that the shari’a code applied by nation-states in the modernperiod is simply a vestige of the past and hence to regard traditional laws as thecause for the present subjugation of women, when in fact the causes ofsubjugation are located in the modern reforms and the handling of personal laws.Therefore, one should avoid seeing modern Muslim states being consciouslyinvolved in socialization to free their populations from the “shackles” oftraditional customs because what they are involved in is the institution of newcustoms labelled as “shari’a” that deny previous freedoms while emphasizingearlier discriminations.120

Sonbol’s proposal for legal reform for Muslim women departs from the understanding

that shari’a is a complete set of God-given law that Muslims inherit from earlier

generations. Such a notion leads to shari’a reform for women only within the domain of

political and economic spaces. Personal and family laws are ignored and left in the

hands of traditional legal interpretations that perpetuate gendered oppression and

woman’s subjugation. Rather, Sonbol argues that shari’a is located within the historical

context of any given age. Similar to Bowen, Sonbol asserts that shari’a is “the body of

acceptable laws of a particular community given legitimacy as the word of God

delivered through a Prophet, but which are in actual fact the interpretations of local

qadis (shari’a court judges) who reflect the urf (traditions) of the communities in which

they serve, using appropriate figh [jurisprudential] interpretations that reflect the

patterns of actual communal relations.”121

The prohibition on women’s participation in public life is said to be the root of gender

inequality in Islamic societies. Stowasser, in ‘Women and Citizenship in the Qur’an’,122

writes that verses dealing with the hijab imposed on the wives of the Prophets (sura 33:

53) and regarding the wanton display of women’s beauty (sura 33:33), become the legal

reference for interpretation limiting women’s space to the domestic domain. She notes

that the emphasis in the two sura is indeed on the principle of modesty, as a substantial

part of the Qur’an ordains modesty for both men and women, but, as a legal reference,

the two verses are used to define not only women’s modesty, but are extended to

include their segregation and seclusion from public life. Women’s modesty as stated in

120 Amira Sonbol, ‘Introduction’ in Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History, p. 11.Nation-state in Indonesia has tried to protect women’s status through social welfare measures andMarriage Act.121 Ibid., p. 10.122 Barbara Stowasser, ‘Women and Citizenship in the Qur’an’ in Women, the Family, and Divorce Lawsin Islamic History.

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the Qur’an is then interpreted as both physical and political invisibility.123 Stowasser

argues that the interpretation limiting women’s space to the domestic domain

contradicts the ideal that the Qur’an sanctions both sexes equally. Qur’an sura 60:12, on

the women’s bay’a (pledge of allegiance), constitutes women’s declaration of faith and

pledge of allegiance to the Prophet.124 As a crucial political statement, this verse alone,

as Stowasser posits, acknowledges women as political actors, “enshrin[ing] the legal

conditions of female membership in the umma [community] in terms of sins/crimes

foresworn that are all applicable to all believers regardless of gender and punishment for

which, if committed, is the same for men and women.”125

Interpretations of the shari’a vary between different countries and in some there is a

blurring of the distinction between the public and private spheres, but it should be

emphasised that class, culture and social structure engender different ideas about social

norms and values. For example, where poor economic conditions necessitate women

taking part in providing family income women have less segregation. In Indonesia the

majority of women are not segregated, yet class elements should not be discounted. On

the one hand, there are women from higher social classes who are currently restricted

from entering public life. On the other hand, it is common to see lower class Muslim

women active in the public domain, such as in the markets, or in the fields. Nonetheless,

for the majority of Indonesian Muslim women the domestic sphere is still seen as their

domain and this acts to maintain the traditional order of gender inequality. Interpretation

of the distinction between public and private spheres for women is influenced by the

different socio-political situations in which they are situated. In this sense existing

reinterpretations provide clashing paradigms that are shaped by the political and

economic needs of the ruling elite. Accordingly, such reinterpretation is problematic. In

a society such as that of Saudi Arabia where women are largely secluded, the Saudi

bring in Indonesian Muslim women as workers. Although in Saudi Arabia Indonesian

women mostly work in domestic service, compared to their female Saudi counterparts

they have greater access to the public domain. Class, economic and political aspects,

and local and national culture are important considerations in any examination of the

distinction between public and private in Muslim societies.

123 Ibid., p. 32.124 Ibid., p. 29.125 Ibid., p. 30.

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Interpretation of the shari’a from a female perspective is necessary in order to promote

gender equality and enhance the role of women in society. There is an urgent need for a

greater understanding on the part of all Muslims that the rights of women need to be

extended and legally protected. Through this women can raise their social awareness

and improve their personal self-perception and self-determination for the overall

national development of their countries. However, whether or not male scholars will

accept interpretations of the shari’a from a female perspective is a challenge female

jurists still face. An Indonesian Muslim feminist, Siti Musdah Mulia exemplifies such

challenge by proposing a counter legal draft of the compilation of articles under Islamic

Law (KHI, Kompilasi Hukum Islam) in 2004. Until today, her proposal remains

controversial.126

Educational Reforms127

Qasim Amin’s 1899 text The Liberation of Women128 (Tahrir al- Mar’a) was among the

first tracts to make a demand for educational reform for women. For Amin, providing

equal education means giving women the ability to exert an immense influence on the

nation’s progress, based on the premise that women’s status in society is “a reflection of

the nation’s moral standards.”129 Thus, using Amin’s logic, liberating women by giving

them equal access to education means the elevation of the nation’s status. According to

Amin, the importance of women’s role in society signifies the level of civilization that a

society has achieved: the more liberated the women are, the more civilized the society

is.

This evidence of history confirms and demonstrates that the status of women isinseparably tied to the status of a nation. When the status of a nation is low,reflecting an uncivilized condition for that nation, the status of women [is] also

126 See Chapter 5 for detail.127 Education here means modern education beyond women’s education on domesticity.128 Qasim Amin, The Liberation of Women A Document in the History of Egyptian Feminism (Tahrir-I alMar’a). Samiha Sidhom Peterson (trans), The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 1992.129 Ibid., p. 3.

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low, and when the status of a nation is elevated, reflecting the progress andcivilization of that nation, the status of women in that country is also elevated.130

On the benefits of educational reform Amin writes:

It is important for a woman to be able to read and write, to be able to examinethe basis of scientific information, to be familiar with the history of variouscountries, and to be able to acquire knowledge of the natural sciences and ofpolitics. This knowledge needs to be completed by a thorough understanding ofcultural and religious beliefs. Eventually her knowledge will enable her to acceptsound ideas and to discard the superstitions and myths that presently destroy theminds of all women. . . . A woman needs to be educated so that she can have anunderstanding and a will of her own.131

Although Amin’s demand for educational reforms signalled an important shift in the

educational discourse on gender, it was not a complete educational liberation for

women. In the end, Amin’s educational reforms still aim to place women within

domestic life, as he posits that “a woman cannot run her household well unless she

attains a certain amount of intellectual and cultural knowledge” gained through

education in the forms of “proper guidance and good example.”132 Amin’s view on

educational reforms was highly influenced by the late nineteenth century colonial

discourses on schooling girls. Lila Abu-Lughod in ‘The Marriage of Islamism and

Feminism in Egypt: Selective Repudiation as a Dynamic of Postcolonial Cultural

Politics,’133 criticizes Amin as an advocate of colonialism who uses “a particular kind of

feminism to undermine his own culture along lines desired by the colonial powers.”134

Abu-Lughod questions the colonial context in which Amin’s writing is situated and

concludes that Amin’s suggestions for women’s rights, education and work is a

proposition to create a modern bourgeois family. Abu-Lughod points out:

[It] is a form of family that some Western feminists, Marxists, and socialtheorists of the second half of the twentieth century have now come to criticiseas a source of women’s subjugation because of the way it divides women fromone another, gives them new tasks, places them under the control of husbands,and opens up the family to capitalist exploitation, state control, and new formsof discipline.135

130 Ibid., p. 6.131 Ibid., p. 12 – 13.132 Ibid., p. 12.133 Lila Abu-Lughod, ‘The Marriage of Islamism and Feminism in Egypt: Selective Repudiation as aDynamic of Postcolonial Cultural Politics’ in Remaking Women Feminism and Modernity in the MiddleEast, Lila Abu-Lughod (ed), Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1998.134 Ibid., p. 256. It should be added here that indigenous women too often wanted polygamy suppressed orregulated.135 Ibid., p. 256.

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Abu Lughod contends that Amin separates women into classes, “signalling his desire to

undermine the solidarities of a relatively separate women’s world, distinguishing an

emergent middle class, and dividing women by placing them into separate bourgeois

nuclear families.”136 In a similar vein to other scholars’ discussions of Amin’s writing,

Abu-Lughod finally concludes that Amin’s project is a domestication of women, relying

heavily on the Western models of the time when the book was written.137 Amin wrote at

a time when the cultural politics of women’s role had yet to be put into a discursive

agenda, despite its limitations his contribution is still of value today. Although recent

studies have documented that Amin’s writing was situated in a context where there were

already women writers raising similar concerns138 his reforms, proposed as early as

1899, still serve as one of the bases for Islamic feminists demanding educational reform.

In the case of Indonesia, at the beginning of the 20th century Kartini (1879 – 1904)

raised similar demands for educational reform in order to improve the moral life of

family and the nation. She also demanded education so women could have careers and

not be forced to marry for economic support. This will be dealt with in a subsequent

chapter.

Educational reform for Muslim women is not without challenge. For example, the

majority of Afghan Muslim women living in areas ruled by the Taliban from 1996 to

2001 were banned from attending formal schooling: girls were expelled from schools

and young women from colleges and the Taliban ordered that “all schooling was

forbidden to girls over the age of eight.”139 Afghani women were not passive and many

of them reacted strongly against the school banning and the denial of already existing

rights to education. They sent their girls to secret schools where local women

volunteered their teaching services. Despite the danger the women never ceased in

numerous ways to struggle against their fate. Since the end of Taliban rule in 2001,

Afghani women are moving from invisibility to visibility, from shadows to substance,

seeking full participation in restructuring and transforming Afghanistan to a

functioning, viable state.

136 Ibid., p. 259.137 Ibid., p. 261.138 Ibid., p. 261.139 ‘About Face: An Inside Look at How Women Fared Under Taliban Oppression and What the FutureHolds for Them Now’, Time, December 3, 2001, v. 158, i24, p. 36.

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Some assume that liberating women through education means modernising them

through Western education. Others maintain that education for women should be

limited to the basic knowledge of running the household, the model as proposed by

Amin. The general underlying purpose of educating women in Muslim societies is

currently based on the notion that the nation’s reproduction depends on the

reorganization of how, and under what circumstances, children will be born and raised.

As producers of new kinds of individuals in the emerging social order, women therefore

need to be trained and trusted to fulfil the task. Education for women, then, still largely

means making them aware of the requirements of their so-called domestic roles, while

their social roles seem to be neglected. As education has always been perceived as “a

major factor in shaping a society and in enriching the cultural heritage,”140 educational

reforms therefore means that educational opportunities for Muslim women are not

limited to just household education, such as how to be a good wife and a good mother.

Educational opportunities are to be extended to encourage women as active participants

in social, economic, and political arenas within their community. Hence, such reforms

can then accommodate the needs of each community, applying models using

“indigenous ideas, concepts, myths, and idioms to explain and support the rights [of

women],”141 as documented by women’s own needs and definitions. Reforms in the

educational system will enable women to contest the male-oriented representations of

the domestic, facilitating greater autonomy and independence from male authority in all

aspects of life. Not only does women’s literacy enhance women’s emancipation and

mobility by giving them more access to non-domestic roles, it also serves as a political

and cultural negotiation since both women’s and men’s role and status are reflective of

underlying social, political and cultural achievements of any given society. Although

historically women from lower social and economic classes have been outside their

homes, as they work in the fields or in the markets, being in the public arena does not

necessarily mean that they enjoy greater educational access than women from other

classes of society. Many of these women cannot enjoy access to education because of

lack of economic support. Thus, struggles for equal access in term of education,

140 Hind A. Khattab and Syeda Greiss el-Daeiff, ‘Female Education in Egypt: Changing Attitudes over aSpan of 100 Years’ in Muslim Women, Freda Hussain (ed), Croom Helm, London, 1984, p. 169.141 Mahnaz Afkhami, ‘Promoting Women’s Rights in the Muslim World’ in Journal of Democracy ,January 1997, v. 8 n. 1, p. 161.

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economic autonomy, status, role, socio-politic, cultural participation, are to be

undertaken, not only for women but also for men.

As a strategy to increase women’s power in all spheres of life, a reformed educational

system departing from the traditional and orthodox model of educating women just to

be good wives and mothers can develop a new critical mass among the female

community. Mahnaz Afkhami, the former Minister of Women’s Affairs in pre-

Revolutionary Iran and the Executive Director of ‘Sisterhood Is Global Institute’,

asserts that such critical mass occupies a significant position in improving the quality of

a civil community, giving women their own space to participate in defining the norms

and laws of the community, politicising, designing, and defining concepts of freedom as

it unfolds. Afkhami further posits that

[m]any Third World Women, including those living in Muslim countries . . .have taken the lead in studying, developing, and implementing strategies toincrease women’s power in all spheres of life. Realizing the importance ofreligion and culture in communicating human rights concepts and mobilizingwomen to political action, they are investigating the possibilities, among others,of 1) interpreting the [Qur’an] and the hadith (the traditions of the ProphetMuhammad); 2) educating the political elite and providing them with newinterpretations of sacred texts that can be used as a basis for legislation and theimplementation of change; and 3) mobilizing grassroots support and establishingdialogue between people at the grassroots level and national and internationaldecision makers.142

Only through educational reforms can the goal “to modify traditional mores and laws to

accommodate the requirements of women’s freedom, equality and human rights”143 be

achieved. Afkhami’s proposition indeed explicates the need for a community to be

dynamic such that it is no longer imprisoned in the nostalgic past. A dynamic civil

society is fundamental in encouraging the establishment of equality and freedom for

both women and men. Educational reforms need not only to cover the new definition of

Islam under women’s own paradigm, but must also encompass the evolution of a civil

society where women’s participation, equal to men’s, is sanctioned in public spheres as

well as private.

142 Ibid., p. 161.143 Ibid., p. 161.

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Social, legal and educational reforms are among those that Muslim women need in

order to achieve the notion of equality as divinely ordained in the Qur’an. Social reform

covers gender relations, demands for equal access to the economic and political spheres

and autonomy. Legal reform includes women’s demand for the reinterpretation of

shari’a (Islamic law). These demands highlight some of the issues Muslim women have

raised since women’s emancipation has articulated an agenda that calls for equality.

Since Muslim women scholars realize that shari’a (as interpreted by men) supports

men’s definition of Muslim women’s status and roles, they demand a female

interpretation of the sharia in order to achieve an accommodation of women’s greater

political and social involvement. Muslim women also demand educational reform that

grants them access to more than just education on domesticity, but also access to the

religious texts, providing them with the opportunity to scrutinize those texts from the

point of view of women’s own experiences and perspectives. New readings of the

Qur’an therefore need to be argued for strenuously for it is the book from which

Muslims foreground the order of Islamic society.

The following chapter will discuss the notion of Islamic feminism(s) within a global

context. This aims to examine the complexities that the term embodies. It also aims to

look at the ways the notion of an Islamic feminism(s) affects the female perspective and

the ways in which women create their own religious meaning. Looking at how global

Islamic feminism(s) is viewed and then how Indonesian Muslim women bring the term

into their own signification will reveal the relationship between the universality and

particularity of the term.

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Chapter 2

Theorising Islamic Feminism

In theorising Islamic feminism, this thesis compares Islamic feminist discourse with

Western secular feminist discourse. Such comparison seems to be quite inaccurate. The

appropriate comparison is with Western religious feminist discourse in which many

common issues, such as the issue of whether women can be priests and rabbis, or hold

leadership positions in church and synagogue may be found. However, there seems to

be a gap in the publication of Islamic feminism about such inter-religious comparison.

What this thesis lacks, then, is reference to the parallel discourse of Christian and

Jewish feminists or feminists of other religions (not only the Western religious feminist

discourse).

A homogenizing definition of Muslim women suggesting that they are backward,

illiterate, segregated and victimized by patriarchal subjugation reflects a stereotyping of

these women, and places them in a reality where questions of race, class, economic

condition, and culture are often ignored. Chandra Talpade Mohanty argues that in

scrutinizing gender issues in any given society, universality of framework should be

avoided, for universalism places any scholarship as “ahistorical power structure.”1 The

practice of veiling is a prime example of such misplaced universalism. As noted in the

preceding chapter veiling is commonly regarded as suppression of women’s rights;

unveiling is thus believed to be women’s assertion of their rights. As bald assertions

neither view takes note of the particular circumstances in which veiling/unveiling takes

place. The conception of purdah (segregation between men and women), for example,

reflects a similar complexity as its significance varies across social, historical and

cultural practices. The perception that all Muslim women are being oppressed by sexual

segregation is, Mohanty argues, “analytically reducti[ve].” She further continues that

any analysis concerning women and gender, in any given context, should be situated

1 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, ‘Under Western Eyes’, Third World Women and The Politics of Feminism,Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (eds), Indiana University Press, Bloomington,1991, p. 54

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within more than the category of gender as a basis. Such analyses need to be grounded

in the relations between “gender, race, class, and sexuality at a particular historical

moment.”2 Gender issues in an Islamic context are, therefore, “not just a purview of

women (but of women and men).”3 Mohanty suggests that the dynamic, fluid,

fundamentally historical and everyday lives of women should be given substantial

consideration in order to avoid the collapse of these women into a few frozen

“indicators.” Not only does the locality of cultural practice have some bearing on gender

issues in Islam, spacio-temporal contexts and the broad canvas of Muslim society also

play an important role in shaping Islamic conceptions of women as individual and

collective social agents.

In seeking to define Islamic feminism the rich vocabulary of both Islam and feminism,

which results in multi-dimensional definitions and images, contradictions and debates,

needs to be taken into account. The reason lies in the juxtaposition of the word Islam

and feminism. Islam works in the trajectory of faith, while feminism is of secular origin.

Islam is a religion whose community of believers (umma) are required to be totally

submissive to the will of God, while feminism derives from a Western secular

perspective. Many assert that Islam and feminism are not compatible, while others

maintain that Islam and feminism are congruent. The debates concerning the

compatibility of Islam and feminism make the term problematic. The academic response

to the notion of Islamic feminism is also sharply divided. Some scholars believe that

because the patriarchy is a matter of dominant consciousness, shaped by state, religion,

class, media, language, culture and other socio-political forces Islamic feminism is not

an oxymoron: other Muslim woman scholars reject the compatibility of Islam and

feminism. Shahrzad Mojab, in ‘Theorizing the Politics of “Islamic Feminism”’,4 argues

they are not compatible, since it is based on a “fundamental fallacy,” “treat[ing] Islam

as the only authentic . . . road to gender equality and justice . . . [by] interrogating its

central texts in search for an answer to the questions of women’s rights.”5 Since Islamic

texts are largely written from the patriarchal perspective, “Islamic feminism and its

2 Mohanty, ‘Introduction: Cartographies of Struggle Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism,’Third World Women and The Politics of Feminism, p. 21.3 Ibid., p. 12.4 Shahrzad Mojab, ‘Theorizing the Politics of ‘Islamic Feminism’, Feminist Review, Winter 2001, no. 69,pp. 124 – 146.5 Ibid., pp. 130 - 131.

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various forms, ranging from fundamentalists to reformists, do not have the potential to

be a serious challenge to patriarchy.”6 Furthermore, for those rejecting Islamic

feminism, the terms are simply an “oxymoron.” Hammed Shahidian writes:

If by feminism is meant easing patriarchal pressures on women, makingpatriarchy less appealing, ‘Islamic feminism’ is certainly a feminist trend. But iffeminism is a movement to abolish patriarchy, to protect human beings frombeing prisoners of fixed identities, to contribute towards a society in whichindividuals can fashion their lives free from economic, political, social, andcultural constraints, then ‘Islamic feminism’ proves considerably inadequate. Idefine feminism in these latter terms, and for that reason, I consider ‘Islamicfeminism’ an oxymoron.7

Contemporary scholars who are in favour of the term “Islamic feminism,” such as Leila

Ahmed, Riffat Hassan and Fatima Mernisi, attempt to reconcile feminism with Islam.

Anouar Majid, in ‘The Politics of Islamic Feminism’, argues that Islam and feminism

are not necessarily two opposing terms, contesting each other. Majid writes:

A careful articulation of an Islamically progressive agenda – democratic, anti-patriarchal, and anti-imperialist – might provide impetus for a new revolutionaryparadigm. This new Islamic consciousness, firmly rooted in usable traditions ofIslam without abandoning the parameters of faith. . . . This conception of Islamalone is capable of legitimising feminism in the Islamic world by posing aformidable challenge for clerical, orthodox Islam, which has stubbornly refusedto extend more freedoms to women and minorities.8

In working within an Islamic framework feminism is being challenged “with the

monumental task of contesting orthodoxies [both] simultaneously and dialectically.”9

Majid proposes a distinction between Islam as a pure religious belief, and political

Islam.10 For Majid the adjective “Islamic” is problematic because it is heavily abused

and corrupted, as well as being theoretically confusing. Majid criticises those who limit

the term “Islamic” to a pure religious belief and insists that the adjective “Islamic”

refers to more than just a religion. In her critique she cites Marshal G.S. Hodgson on the

use of the term “Islamicate”. For Hodgson the term refers to “the social and cultural

complex historically associated with Islam and the Muslims, both among Muslim

themselves and even when found among non-Muslims.”11 What is “Islamicate” for

6 Ibid., p. 131.7 Quoted in Mojab, p. 131.8 Anouar Majid, ‘The Politics of Feminism in Islam’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,1998, vol. 23, no. 2, p. 324.9 Ibid., 324.10 See Mernissi, ‘Introduction: Was Benazir Bhutto the First?’ in The Forgotten Queens of Islam.11 Quoted in Majid, footnote no. 3, p. 324.

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Hodgson, then, is really much closer to Majid’s “Islamic,” exposing their apparent

opposition as simply a lexical difference. Any attempt to theorise Islamic feminism

must, therefore, move beyond Islam as a pure religion, but also beyond feminism as

mere Western secular ideology and conceive Islamic feminism as dynamic with its roots

in the historiography of Muslim societies.

As a part of a larger social movement (in this case the women’s movement), Islamic

feminism nevertheless emerges within Islamic culture and society. Ignoring the socio-

cultural progress that takes place within a given society means treating that society as

frozen in time and place. Limiting Islamic feminism within a single perspective means

“fail[ing] to locate Islamic society within [its] proper historical and geographical

context, and it ignores the particularities of time and place central to the making of

culture.”12 Acknowledging the dynamic and diversity of Islamic feminism is crucial in

examining the discourses of feminism and human rights in the Islamic world and in

exploring the indigenous models of emancipation for the masses in general and women

in particular.

The writings of Muslim feminists about Islamic feminism are multidimensional in

nature. Anne Sofie Roald identifies several categories of Muslim feminists: rejectionist,

loyalist, revisionist, and liberationist scholars.13 Roald’s categorization is based on five

hermeneutic approaches of biblical interpretations of Christian feminists, the categories

which she then applies to Muslim feminists. Using Roald’s model, then, Nawal El

Sadawi’s writings can be classified as rejectionist since they aim to reject the majority

of Islamic sources because they are heavily permeated with patriarchal ideas. Amina

Wadud and Riffat Hassan can be considered as loyalists and revisionists because their

writings are literal readings of Islamic sources, founded on historical and cultural

premises. Although Wadud’s and Hassan’s writings are not based on theological

premises their writings are rarely contested since they are written within a framework

mostly accepted by Muslim scholars: a framework of Islamic theology. Fatima Mernissi

12 M. M. Charrad, ‘Cultural Diversity Within Islam: Veils and Laws in Tunisia’, Women in MuslimSocieties: Diversity Within Unity, Herbert L. Bodman and Nayereh Tohidi (eds), Lynne RiennerPublishers, Inc., Boulder, Colorado, 1998, p. 63.13 Anne Sofie Roald, ‘Feminist Reinterpretation of Islamic Sources: Muslim Feminist Theology in theLight of the Christian Tradition of Feminist Thought’, Women and Islamization, Karin Ask and MaritTjomsland (eds), Berg, Oxford, 1998.

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and Leila Ahmed can be categorized as liberationists whose writings demand a

transformation of social order, aiming to liberate women from all oppressions through

the promotion of an ideal of female struggle. Nevertheless, Roald admits that such

categorization is not fixed. She further concedes that the current works of Ahmed and

Mernissi take a different direction from their earlier writings. Their writings now focus

and work within Islam: not rejecting Islam but refusing common interpretations of

Islamic sources. The categories proposed by Roald indicate that the term Islamic

feminism is a flexible definition as scholars have developed their varying arguments

within an Islamic framework. The result is, Roald comments, that “many feminists, who

previously struggled against female oppression in Western feminist terms have,

therefore, now adopted a more favourable attitude toward Islam.”14 Roald further argues

that since Islam has a fundamental role in Muslim societies, to attempt to reform a

social order without working in an Islamic paradigm will necessarily fail.

Besides Muslim female scholars who currently write and work on Islamic feminism,

other Muslim male, non-Muslim male and female scholars, such as John Esposito,

Barbara Stowasser, and Miriam Cooke also maintain that issues of women and gender

in Islam must be situated within an Islamic paradigm. Just as gender issues are not all

about women, but about men and women, within the paradigm of Islam, gender relation

is not the sole category that Islamic feminism is grounded on. Ahmed and Majid are

among scholars who place Islamic feminism within the contexts of colonialism, post-

colonialism, modernity, post-modernity, nationalism, capitalism, socialism, and other

“isms” occurring within the community. Majid, for example, asserts that Islamic

feminism is located within a complexity of forces in any given society. He writes:

The feminist question in Islam is necessarily implicated in the crosscurrents ofseveral contestatory discourses and ideologies, including women versus thepatriarchy within Islamic communities, the secular West versus Islam, whycertain forms of Islam are politically more acceptable to the West than others,the specificity of the Islamic feminists’ project, and the various ideologicaltendencies within Islamic thought itself.15

Majid’s argument is based on the premise that Islamic societies are, like other societies,

“products of history; they bear the imprint of time and change.”16 For Majid, a re-

14 Ibid., p. 2015 Majid, p. 324.16 Ibid., p. 322.

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conceptualisation of Islam as dynamic and progressive Islam, acknowledging the

diversity and plurality of Islamic discourses is vital to erase the notion of Islamic

cultures as homogenized, and to rethink an indigenous way to achieve women’s

emancipation. Dialogues and liberation movements in the Islamic world can only

properly function when Islamic feminism is rooted in the Islamic framework, critically

redefining and thoroughly reassessing Islamic traditions.

The notion of Islamic feminism is contemporary, introduced and widely used from the

early 1990s amid the growth of Western literature on women and Islam.17 Besides the

Muslim and non-Muslim and Western scholars mentioned earlier, Iranian scholars have

made an important contribution to the conception of an Islamic feminism. With the

founding of the new theocratic state—the Islamic Republic of Iran—Iranian feminists

added to the diversity of the women’s movement. Iranian scholars, such as Nayereh

Tohidi, Haideh Moghissi, and Valentine Moghadam, started new discourses on Islamic

feminism from an Iranian perspective, enriching the existing debates produced by

secular, atheist or religious scholars. These scholars give a new direction to Islamic

feminism; Mojab writes:

Among the most significant developments in late twentieth century was thecoming to power of a new theocratic state, the Islamic Republic of Iran, whichhas impacted the direction of the struggle for women’s rights especially inIslamic countries. It has also left its mark on the secular feminist scholarship ofthe West. This is, in part, because the Islamic Republic is distinguished fromtraditional theocracies such as Saudi Arabia by its formation as a state whichreplaced a western style, secular and tyrannical regime in the wake of a popularrevolution. Deriving legitimacy from a mass-based revolution and a form ofShi’ism advocated by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic state declared theexisting gender relations un-Islamic and western.18

Nonetheless, the compatibility of Islam and feminism is also called into question in

Iran. Valentine Moghadam outlines the divisions amongst feminist scholars.19 Haideh

Moghissi, Hammed Shahidian and Shahrzad Mojab are among the prominent scholars

opposing Islamic feminism. In the political spectrum of the Islamic Republic of Iran

their tradition is rooted in the secular left. For these scholars the term Islamic feminism

is a problem because in a theocratic government like Iran Islam is not a mere state

17 Mojab, op. cit., pp. 124 – 146.18 Ibid., p. 129.19 Valentine Moghadam, ‘Islamic Feminism and Its discontents: Toward a Resolution of the Debate’,Signs, Summer 2002, v. 27 n. 14, pp. 1135 – 1173.

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religion or a matter of personal choice, Islam is the legal and political system. Moghissi

writes, “Islam in political rule is incompatible with the cultural pluralism that is after all

the prerequisite of the right to individual choice.”20 Within this perspective, the

conception of an Islamic feminism is impossible. The fundamental foundation for

reform is absent because, as M. Kia argues, “the very structure of power is male

dominated to an absolute degree, backed by the Constitution, an all male clerical system

ruling the country, and a Shari’a written for an era long past its sell-by date.”21 The

liberal feminist, Mahnaz Afkhami, also opposes the term, asserting that Islam and

feminism are in contradiction. Acknowledging the fundamental basis of the Islamic

theocracy, she and some other Iranian feminists believe that in Iran, “Our difference

with Islamic feminists is that we don’t try to fit feminism in the Qur’an. We say that

women have certain inalienable rights. The epistemology of Islam is contrary to

women’s rights. But you can use what you need to [advance women’s positions]. I call

myself a Muslim and a feminist. I’m not an Islamic feminist—that’s a contradiction in

terms.”22

In contrast to Moghissi and Afkhami, Afanaseh Najmabadi, Nayereh Tohidi, and Ziba

Mir-Housseini are among those advocating Islamic feminism within the Iranian

framework. Najmabadi, for example, often writing in Iranian women’s journals and

magazines, believes that “part of her enthusiasm for Islamic feminism, and especially

for Zanan [a women’s magazine] lays in her belief that they have entered a common

ground with secular feminists in their attempts to improve women’s legal status and

social positions,” because Islamic feminism “has opened a new space for dialogue

between Islamic women activists and reformers and secular feminists, thereby breaking

down the old hostile divide between secular and religious thought.”23 Mir-Housseini’s

celebration of Iranian Islamic feminism is based on the premise that “the women’s

questions” have been asked from an Islamic perspective, resulting in a gender debate

that has, as she argues, “nurtured not only a new school of jurisprudence, which is

slowly trying to respond to social realities, but also a new gender consciousness.”24

Tohidi’s approval of Islamic feminism lies in her argument of women’s ability to

20 Quoted in Moghadam, p. 1141.21 Quoted in Moghadam, p. 1143, italics mine.22 Quoted in Moghadam, p. 1143.23 Mogdaham, p. 1139.24 Quoted in Moghadam, p. 1140.

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renegotiate gender roles by compromising and creating their own synthesis. She argues

that Islamic feminism destabilizes the clerical agenda both outside and inside the

Islamic framework in numerous ways:

[By] “subtlety circumventing the dictated rules (e.q., reappropriating the veil asa means to facilitate social presence rather than seclusion, or minimizing anddiversifying the compulsory hijab and dress code into fashionable styles),engaging in a feministic ijtehad, emphasizing the egalitarian ethics of Islam,reinterpreting the Qur’an, and deconstructing [shari’a] - related rules in awomen-friendly egalitarian fashion (e.q., in terms of birth control, personalstatus law, and family code to the extend of legalizing a demand for ‘wages forhousework’).”25

Thus the protagonists for an Islamic feminism assert it is able to exist in an Islamic

Republic. Moghadam takes a position between the two contesting views. She argues

that the Iranian women’s movement is similar to any social movement, as it functioned

as a major part of other reform movements long before President Khatami took over in

1997. Moghadam asserts that Iranian feminism is not substantially different from any

liberal feminist movement worldwide because it targets women’s advancement and

improvement within its political system.26 Without ignoring the difference engendered

by changing legal and political environments, Moghadam believes that Iranian Islamic

feminism shares similar notions to that of global feminism. She writes: “feminism is a

theoretical perspective and a practice that criticizes social and gender inequalities, aims

at women’s empowerment, and seeks to transform knowledge —and in some

interpretations, to transform socio-economic structures, political power, and

international relations.”27 The adjectival term “Islamic” creates a different category of

feminism indicating not just the different context, but also the unique strategy necessary

for women to pursue equality, transformation and empowerment in creating a just social

order. Moghadam criticizes those rejecting Islamic feminism, since their disavowal

narrows the diverse definitions of feminism. Saying that women cannot reach equal

status in the context of Islam means denying women’s ability to negotiate and exercise

their own agency. Any attempt to disqualify the legitimation of the diversity of

feminism is, according to Moghadam, a fundamental mistake and not compatible with

feminism. Different political ground requires different practice. For the women’s

25 Quoted in Moghadam, p. 1140.26 Moghadam, p. 1146.27 Ibid., p. 1149.

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movement worldwide, Islamic feminism is then a term no more alien than Catholic

feminism, Western feminism, Latin American feminism, Jewish feminism, radical

feminism, cultural feminism, post-modern feminism, and so forth. These diverse

feminisms are many parts of the feminist tradition as a whole, and differing categories

does not necessarily mean the creation of absolute boundaries. They are, as Moghadam

asserts, the multi-faceted nature of global feminism, legitimising the variety of regional

manifestations as part of the evolving politics of feminist philosophy and women’s

social movement.

Margot Badran posits that feminism must be contextualised within the framework of

time, place, class and groupings by ethnicity and creed.28 Bouder agrees, arguing

“feminists do not all think the same way or even about the same kinds of problems.”29

Echoing Badran’s view of the diversity of feminism, Mai Yamani, in Feminism and

Islam, writes that Islamic feminism adds another layer to global feminism by

“introducing a feminism which is “Islamic” in its form and content.”30 Although

Yamani does not clarify her idea of “Islamic,” certainly her notion of Islamic feminism

is similar to that proposed by Majid, Badran and Mogadham: it is feminism seeking

women’s improvement which must have reference to Islamic values and norms. Yamani

argues:

Such feminism is unique in conjuring up delicate and challenging issues forpolitical and religious authorities as well as for scholars in a world of a billionMuslims. Within that new overarching background which deals with Islamiclaws and traditions, the category of “Islamic feminism” may stand its ground bythe sheer diversity it includes: contributors to the debate have been considered“new feminist traditionalists, “pragmatists”, “secular feminists”, “neo-Islamists”, and so forth. For all these thinkers, however, there is a commonconcern with the empowerment of their gender within a rethought Islam.31

The categories and differing characteristics, as Yamani suggests, are diverse.

Nevertheless the common ground that each aspect of Islamic feminism shares is the

agenda seeking women’s empowerment. Within global feminism, adding “Islamic” to

28 Margot Badran, Feminism, Islam and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt, PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1995.29 Quoted in Mai Yamani, ‘Introduction,’ in Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives, MaiYamani (ed), Itacha Press, Reading, UK, 1996, p. 1.30 Ibid., p. 1.31 Ibid., p. 1.

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feminism means receiving religion as a reference into an already multi-dimensional

typology of feminism.

In every part of the world, women react toward their social and political conditions

differently. Some may retreat to the assurances of religious conservatism, others may

choose to struggle for the social order that best serves their need to create a better

society. Various movements, including Islamic feminist movements, respond to certain

conditions and contradictions between the ideal and the reality. Since such a response is

circumscribed by the cultural politics of a society, feminist movements in the Muslim

world, alongside other social forces, are struggles for civil and democratic rights in

achieving equality for all.

Equality Before God and The Law

Muslim feminists, working toward their agenda of opposing any social or political force

sanctioning gender inequality, reject fundamentalists who insist that gender inequality is

divinely ordained.32 The relevance, importance and currency of gender equality in an

Islamic context are in fact based on the primary source of Islamic texts, namely the

Qur’an. This exposes the fundamentalist position as one without foundation. The

Qur’an, sura 49, ayat 13, says:

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, andmade you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the mosthonoured of you in the sight of Allah is (one who is) the most righteous of you.And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).33

This verse alone, according to Jamal Badawi, asserts the foundation of spiritual and

human equality before Allah (God). Badawi posits:

The verse states that all human beings are created min thakarin wa-untha, whichcan be translated literally as “of male and female.” This means in pairs, as theQur’an explicitly mentions elsewhere (e.q. 78:8). Each component of the pair isas necessary and as important as the other and hence is equal to him or her. . . .Variations in gender, languages, ethnic backgrounds and, by implication,

32 Dennis Kandiyoti, ‘Introduction’, Woman, Islam and the State , New York University Press, New York,1990, pp. i – viii.33 Qur’an. sura 49:13 in The Holy Qur’an Text, Translation and Commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali(trans), New Revised Edition, Amana Corporation, Brentwood, Maryland, 1989.

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religious claims, do not provide any basis for superiority or inferiority. . . . Mostsignificant and relevant to the topic at hand is the clear categorical statement thatthe most honoured person in the sight of Allah is the one pious and righteous.This precludes any other basis for superiority, including gender. . . . Nowheredoes the Qur’an state that one gender is superior to the other. Some interpretersof the Qur’an mistakenly translated the Arabic world qiwamah (responsibilityfor the family) with the English word “superiority.” The Qur’an makes it clearthat the sole basis for superiority of any person over another [in Allah’s sight] ispiety and righteousness, not gender, colour or nationality.34

Badawi insists that equality before Allah is also followed by equality before the law for

both genders. He writes that: “Justice is genderless. According to the Qur’an, men and

women receive the same punishment for crimes such as theft (5:38), fornication (24:2),

murder and injury (5:45).”35 Many Muslims and non-Muslims generally believe that

near or total seclusion is a part of Islamic norms. However, Badawi strongly argues that

such seclusion did not even exist during the time of the Prophet. During this time

women were free to participate with men in acts of worship, in the market place, in the

discussion of public issues, in political life and, when needed in the battlefield.36 The

seclusion of women in the contemporary Muslim world is thus a product of particular

socio-cultural interpretations. Badawi comments that it is of great importance to

differentiate between the normative ideal of Islam and particular practices. Culture

based-arguments informing religious interpretations of Islam, and therefore the Qur’an,

should be questioned when assessing the realities of Muslims today. Any attempt to

justify gender inequality in the name of Islam should be contested, since such

justification seeks to manipulate Islamic ideals.

Feminist Theology

Riffat Hassan and Amina Wadud have also approached the question of gender equality

from a rereading of the Qur’an and its exegeses, and provided a fresh interpretation of

human creation which, importantly, sanctions gender equality. Such reading challenges

the hegemonic interpretation of the orthodox belief that the Qur’an divinely ordains

34 Jamal Badawi, Gender Equity in Islam Basic Principles, American Trust Publication, Plainfield,Indiana, 1995, p. 12.35 Ibid., p. 33.36 Ibid., p. 32.

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gender inequality. Both Hassan’s and Wadud’s in-depth work on human creation serves

as an antithesis to the assumption that woman is created and made inferior to man.

Working within a theological framework these scholars scrutinize the Qur’an and come

up with new Qur’anic exegeses that may function as substantial grounds for any

liberation movement, thus making religion a functional frame for liberation.

The inclusion of religion as a basis for any socio-political analysis is regarded as

“feminist theology.” Not only does feminist theology enrich the notion of gender

equality in an already multifaceted feminism, it also opens a greater possibility for

women to reinterpret scriptures from their own experience. Marie Assaad, in Women,

Religion and Sexuality,37 elaborates the aims of feminist theology. Across religions,

notwithstanding the dissimilarities, feminist theologians share a common understanding

that women need:

[T]o be more involved in the study and interpretation of their religious scripturesand tradition, especially when they deal with woman’s role and sexuality. . . . tobe more articulate in defining themselves and their faith experience, rather thanletting others define for them. . . . to discriminate between the central andunchanging givens in religious teachings, and what has been incorporated ineach religion through the powerful impact of culture, in particular the seeminglyuniversal patriarchal values relegating women to inferior positions because oftheir being women. . . . [and] perhaps, . . . to scrutinize with greater care thedeep psychological, social, and maybe economic reasons behind theperpetuation of those negative patriarchal values.38

“The woman question” is therefore put into a religious context. The application of

feminist theology to Islam can no longer be ignored, despite the resistance of

conservative clerics to incorporating the woman question into interpretations of the

Qur’an. Women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in many Muslim societies

have taken important steps in promoting “the woman question”: Malaysia’s Sisters in

Islam, Indonesia’s Rahima, and the internationally recognized WLUML (Women

Living Under Muslim Laws), are among a few examples. A female perspective on

religious practice is critical, for it traces the origins of gender-based discriminatory

37 Women, Religion and Sexuality: Studies on the Impact of Religious Teachings on Women, JeanneBecher (ed), WCC Publications, Geneva, 1990.38 Marie Assaad, ‘Introduction’, in Women, Religion and Sexuality: Studies on the Impact of ReligiousTeachings on Women, p. xi.

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religious practices, “expos[ing] some of the time-honoured taboos about female

sexuality, and contribut[ing] to the on-going discussion of women’s role in religion.”39

In any religious context, asking “the woman question” is of vital importance. According

to Riffat Hassan, whose major works can be placed within the framework of feminist

theology:

The importance of developing what the West calls “feminist theology” in thecontext of the Islamic tradition is paramount today in order to liberate not onlyMuslim women, but also Muslim men, from unjust social structures and systemsof thought that make a peer relationship between men and women impossible. Itis extremely important for Muslim women activists to realize that in thecontemporary Muslim world, laws instituted in the name of Islam cannot beoverturned by means of political action alone, but through the use of betterreligious arguments. . . . [B]y means of feminist theology it is possible to equipand empower women to combat gender-inequality and injustice to which theyhave been subjected for a very long time.40

In the same article, Hassan admits that since the notion of modern human rights

originates in the Western secular context, many Muslim feminists advocating gender

equality often find themselves alienated from other Muslims as they are labelled

“rebels” and “deviants”: their endeavours to implement gender equality fail because it is

considered a Western idea. Muslim feminists have, however, begun to realize that the

root of their failure lies both in their difficulties with Muslim culture and their own

simultaneous inability to identify with the “secular” West. These women are

“struggling to maintain their religious identity and personal autonomy in the face of the

intransigence of Muslim culture, on the one hand, and the imperialism of Western,

secular culture, on the other hand.”41 It must be noted here that within Western social

lives there are also diverse views about the place of religion within secular societies.

Hassan here only describes the generality of two opposing sides, Muslims with their

strong commitment to faith and the West with its secularism. In attempting to reconcile

two such extremes she suggests that it is vital to take the middle position, by extending

significant support and recognition to “progressive Muslims who are far more

representative of “mainstream” modern Islam than either the conservative Muslims on

39 Ibid., p. xii.40 Riffat Hassan, ‘Feminist Theology: The Challenges for Muslim Women’, Critique, Fall 1996, pp. 52 –53.41 Ibid., p. 65.

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the right or the “secular” Muslims on the left.”42 In fact, it is within this “median” that

Islam predominantly resides and it must be emphasized that such a moderate “median”

is itself dynamic, having the ability to be interpreted in a progressive way as a primary

source of liberation for Muslims. Hassan points out:

Islam is not . . . simply one of the factors which impact on the lives of Muslims.It is the matrix in which all factors are grounded. I do not believe that any viablemodel of self-actualization can be constructed in Muslim societies for womenand men which is outside the framework of normative Islam deriving fromQur’anic teachings and exemplified in the life of the Prophet of Islam. Nor I dobelieve that any profoundly meaningful or constructive dialogue can take placebetween “the World of Islam” and “the West” without a proper recognition ofwhat Islam means to millions of Muslim.43

In her groundbreaking article ‘Made from Adam’s Rib?’,44 Hassan traces the origins of

human creation in the Qur’an. She also problematises woman’s creation as the central

concern of feminist theology. Based on her examination of the Yahwist (Genesis)

account of woman’s creation from Adam’s rib, and how it is interpreted in the Judeo-

Christian tradition, Hassan comes to the conclusion that the account and its

interpretation actually has a deep impact on traditional Islamic attitudes and ideas about

women.

Most Muslims believe that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, most significantly

Adam’s crooked rib, as is also believed in the Judeo-Christian tradition.45 However,

after conducting a very careful examination of all sura (chapter) and ayat (verse) on the

issue of human creation from a lexical and grammatical approach, supported by a

number of Qur’anic exegeses on the same subject, Hassan radically argues that rather

“these explanations centre on human reproduction, not creation.”46 On the linguistic

analysis of the word nafs from the sentence khalaqakum min nafs-in wahidatin (He,

42 Ibid., p. 65.43 Ibid., p. 65.44 Riffat Hassan, ‘Made from Adam’s Rib?: An Analysis of the Woman’s Creation Question in theQur’an and the Hadith with Comparisons with the Jewish-Christian Tradition’, Al-Mushir XXVII, 3(Autumn 1985), pp. 124 – 155. See also by the same author, ‘An Islamic Perspective’ in Women, Religionand Sexuality Studies on the Impact of Religious Teaching on Women, Jeanne Becher (ed), WCCPublications, Geneva, 1990; ‘Muslim Women and Post-patriarchal Islam’ in After Patriarchy FeministTransformation of the World Religions, Paula M. Cooey, William R. Eakin and Jay B. McDaniel (eds),Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1991, pp. 39 – 64; ‘Challenging the Stereotypes of Fundamentalism:An Islamic Feminist Perspective’, The Muslim World, vol. 91 no. 1 & 2 (Spring 2001), pp. 55 – 69.45 Riffat Hassan, ‘Made from Adam’s Rib?, p. 127.46 Ibid., p. 140, italics mine.

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Allah created you (plural) from one nafs), Hassan identifies that nafs is a feminine noun

without feminine ending.47 Nevertheless, in at least twelve English translations she has

researched, no translation of nafs as “her” is found. Most translators translate nafs as

“his,” some as “its”, which from Hassan’s point of view is more acceptable but

grammatically incorrect. She explains:

Certainly no Qur’anic exegesis has suggested to date that nafs-in wahidatinmight refer to woman rather than to man. Commentators, both classical andmodern, have assumed that nafs-in wahidatin refers to Adam, designated as“man” by all but few Muslims. . . . [S]ome Qur’anic verses correctly translatedand understood literally, indicate that Allah’s original creation was feminine inform. . . . I do not think, however, that, in full Qur’anic context, an interpretationof nafs-in wahidatin that points to an exclusively feminine creation source iscorrect. In the same way, it would be incorrect to interpret Adam as anexclusively masculine creation. Reference is made primarily to the creation ofall humanity, both woman and man, from a single source. That Allah’s originalcreation was undifferentiated humanity is implicit in a number of Qur’anicpassages.48

According to Hassan the Qur’an clearly focuses on human creation, not woman’s

creation. She argues an interpretation that says woman’s creation is elaborated in the

Holy text is certainly invalid semantically and linguistically.

Hassan further suggests that the common Muslim belief in this version of woman’s

creation may be rooted in the Hadith literature. She writes: “a more acceptable

explanation rests on the influence of the hadith (i.e. reports or sayings) attributed to the

Prophet Muhammad.”49 The issue of woman’s creation is found in two hadith

collections considered to be most authoritative, namely Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih

Muslim. Out of six hadith (three from Bukhari, the rest from Muslim), Hassan notes

“four of them state that woman was created from a crooked rib and two liken her to a

crooked rib.”50 Some of the texts, one hadith in Al-Bukhari’s collection and others from

Muslim’s, say:

Treat women nicely, for a woman is created from a rib, and the curved portionof the rib is its upper portion, so if you would try to straighten it, it will break,but if you leave it as it is, it will remain crooked. So treat women nicely.

47 An Arabic noun usually contains either a masculine or feminine ending [of the word] to determine itsgender.48 Ibid, p. 142 – 143.49 Ibid., p. 143, hadith is the plural form of hadith.50 Ibid., p. 147.

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A woman is like a rib. When you attempt to straighten it, you would break it.And if you leave her alone you would benefit by her, and crookedness willremain in her. 51

In examining the Hadith literature, Hassan asserts that one must carefully look at the

isnad / sanad (the names of the transmitters), and the chain of transmission (muttasil,

where the chain of transmission is uninterrupted, or mu’an’an, if it is possible to be

interrupted). After carefully scrutinizing the Hadith literature using these two methods,

Hassan observes that:

The rib story originated obviously in the Yahwist tradition, yet none of thesehadith mentions Adam. This eliminates the Yahwist androcentrism, but alsodepersonalises the source of woman’s creation. (i.e. “the rib” could,theoretically, be non-human). . . . The misogynist elements of the hadith, absentfrom Genesis, clash with teachings of the Qur’an, which describe all humanbeings as having been created fi ahsan-i taqwin, i.e. most justly proportionedand with the highest capabilities.52

Hassan’s thorough and detailed investigation of “the woman question” in the Qur’an

and Hadith literature reveals an important notion: that as the source of ideal and

normative Islam, the Qur’an describes human creation (woman and man) in a wholly

egalitarian manner. The belief that woman was created from Adam’s rib is not Qur’anic.

Hassan emphasizes that such notions derive from the Hadith literature, which is still

surrounded by controversy given that hadith are thought to have influences from pagan

Arab, Jewish, Christian and Hellenic traditions. Thus the Qur’an cannot be taken as the

source of such hadith. In conclusion Hassan even questions whether these hadith really

reflect the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, as she writes:

It is gratifying to know that these hadith cannot be the words of the Prophet ofIslam, whom history portrays as a staunch upholder of the rights of women.Regardless of how male chauvinist Muslims project their own androcentrismand misogyny upon their Prophet, being the recipient of the Qur’an, which statesthat all human beings were made from a single source, how is it possible that theProphet of Allah could say that woman was created from a crooked rib fromAdam’s rib? 53

Most Muslims do not commonly recognize the concept of Original Sin unlike the

believers of the Christian tradition. On this issue, which is otherwise known as the Fall

of Man, Hassan also gives a detailed and careful explanation based on Qur’anic reading.

51 Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume IV, ‘The Book of the Prophets’, quoted in Hassan, ibid., p. 147.52 Ibid., p. 151, italics mine.53 Ibid., p. 154, italics mine.

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After scrutinizing three passages on the story of the Fall of Man, sura 2: Al Baqarah: 35

– 39, sura 7: Al A’raf: 19 – 25 and sura 20: Ta-Ha: 115 – 124, she arrives at the

conclusion that “it becomes clear that the Qur’an regards the act of disobedience by the

human pair in al-jannah (the Garden) as a collective rather than an individual act for

which exclusive, even primary, responsibility is not assigned to either man or

woman.”54 Within the Qur’anic theology that Hassan is working, the responsibility for

the fall of man from the garden lies on Adam and “zawj” (literally meaning “soul” or

“mate”). This correlates closely to the Muslims’ understanding that the presence of

human beings on earth is not because of the fall of Adam but because human beings are

destined to be vice-regents of God on earth. The idea of human vicegerency will be

examined in greater detail in Chapter 7 when the works of the writer Titis Basino are

discussed.

Another problematic concept related to women rests on the word qawwamun found in a

number of Qur’anic passages. Translators often coopt and manipulate the word for their

own vested interests. Two passages, sura 4: An-Nisa: 34, and sura 2: Al-Baqarah: 288

are commonly used as primary references for man’s presumed authority over woman.

The translation is primarily problematised on the statement (part of sura 4:An-Nisa: 34)

ar-rijall-o qawwaamuun-a ‘ala an-nisa, which in an Indonesian translation means “men

are the leaders of women.”55 In an English translations by Maududi, on the other hand,

the same statement is translated as “[m]en are the managers of women.”56 Interpretation

of the word is the key as Hassan states:

The key word . . . is qawwamun. This word has been translated variously as“protectors and maintainers [of women],” “in charge [of women],” having pre-eminence [above women],” and “sovereigns or masters [over women].”Linguistically, the word qawwamun means “breadwinners” or “those whoprovide a means of support or livelihood.” A point of logic that must be madehere is that the . . . sentence is not a descriptive one stating that all men as amatter of fact are providing for women, since obviously there are at least somemen who do not provide for women. What the sentence is stating, rather, is thatmen ought to have the capability to provide (since ought implies can). In other

54 Riffat Hassan, ‘Muslim Women and Post-patriarchal Islam’, After Patriarchy Feminist Transformationof the World Religions, Paula M. Cooey, William R. Eakin and Jay B. McDaniel (eds), Orbis Books,Maryknoll, New York, 1991, p. 47.55 Al Qur’an Terjemah Indonesia, P.T. Sari Agung, Jakarta, Juli 2001. See also Rochayah Machali’sarticle discussing the word qawwamun translated linguistically, ‘Women and the Concept of Power inIndonesia’ in Love, Sex and Power: Women in Southeast Asia, Susan Blackburn (ed), Monash AsiaInstitute, Clayton, 2001, p. 9.56 Quoted on Hassan, ‘Muslim Women and Post-patriarchal Islam’, p. 54.

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words, this statement, which almost all Muslim societies have taken to be anactual description of all men, is in fact a normative statement pertaining to theIslamic concept of division in an ideal family or community structure.57

Another point to be noted, according to Hassan, is the use of the words ar-rijal (the

men) and an-nisa (the women). These words are addressed to men and women in

Muslim communities, not exclusively to husbands and wives. An interpretation

justifying the role of the wife as a subordinate to that of the husband is invalid.

Moreover, if the verse (4: 34) is carefully analysed, it says “ar-rijall-o qawwaamuun-a

‘ala an-nisa (the men are qawwamun of the women), Allah has preferred some of them

(men) over some of them (women) because they support them from their means.”58 Men

being qawwamun for, or over, women is not a precondition for all situations: it is

conditional; “some in relation to some.” Some men, perhaps, may be qawwamun for

women, some men not. The literal meaning of this statement, which according to

Hassan is the most appropriate interpretation is that “some men are more superior to

some others (men and/or women) and that some women are superior to some others

(men and/or women).”59 This is in accord with a conditional context that some men may

be blessed with more means, making them better providers than other men.

Riffat Hassan’s groundbreaking work was followed by Amina Wadud, with her

publication, Qur’an and Woman Rereading the Sacred Text from A Woman’s

Perspective.60 Wadud’s rereading, employing a hermeneutic approach, or hermeneutics

of tawhid, as she calls it, problematises the Qur’anic particular and universal teachings.

Wadud’s hermeneutics of tawhid intends:

[T]o emphasize how the unity of the Qur’an permeates all its parts. Rather thansimply applying meanings to one verse at a time, with occasional references tovarious verses elsewhere, a framework may be developed that includes asystematic rationale for making correlations and sufficiently exemplifies the fullimpact of Qur’anic coherence.61

In examining each Qur’anic conceptual term based on its language act, syntactical

structures, and textual context for the purpose of defining parameters of meaning,

57 Ibid., p. 55.58 My own translation of Al Qur’an Terjemah Indonesia.59 Ibid., p. 55.60 Amina Wadud, Qur’an and Woman Rereading the Sacred Text from A Woman’s Perspective, OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford, 1999. First published in Malaysia in 1992 by Penerbit Fajar Bhakti Sdn. Bhd,Kuala Lumpur.61 Ibid., p. xii.

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Wadud utilizes a dual process: “keeping words in context and referring to the larger

development of the term.”62 With such methods, she provides a more comprehensive

way of fashioning a pure linguistic analysis, such as the analysis of verbs, gerunds and

participles, with regard to the general élan of the Qur’anic teachings. With such

methodology, Wadud wants to contribute to “a gender inclusive reading to one of those

most fundamental disciplines in Islamic thought: tafsir, or Qur’anic exegesis,”63 Besides

functioning as a challenge to the gender bias of Islamic male constructions, Wadud’s

work also offers a view of the concept of women directly from the Qur’an, contributing

to what she terms “the global pluralist discourse.”64 By reviewing the Qur’an as it is,

together with the principles of objective guidance, social justice and human equality that

it offers, Wadud’s tafsir (interpretation) is significant in contributing to “the post-

colonial, postmodern field of Islamic studies by its focus on gender as a category of

thought - not just a subject for discourse.”65

On the issue of human creation Wadud states that nafs (“self”), as the origin of human

creation, is a feminine form. In addition, Wadud, in agreement with Hassan, asserts that

conceptually nafs is neither feminine nor masculine. As she scrutinizes sura 4: An-

Nisaa: 1: “O Mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a

single nafs, and from it created its zawj, and from that pair spread abroad [over the

earth] a multitude of men and women,”66 Wadud concludes that:

[The verse] establishes the origin of all humankind as a single nafs, which is apart of a contingent-pair system: that nafs and its zawj. In practical terms, thisessential pair is man and woman. In this verse, the use of the words ‘men’ and‘women’ means that the physical manifestations of the essential paired realityare multiplied and ‘spread abroad [over the earth]’.67

This Qur’anic account of human creation is pivotal since it offers a basic conception of

gender equality that all human beings share a single point of origin, which is nafs, and

from it, its zawj (“mate,” “spouse,” “group”) is created.

62 Ibid., p. xiii.63 Ibid., p. xvi.64 Ibid., p. xvii.65 Ibid., p. xi.66 Quoted in Wadud, Quran and Woman, p. 22.67 Ibid., p. 22.

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Wadud’s Qur’anic study is indeed a complete Qur’anic Weltanschauung (world view)

of gender equality. More inclusive than Hassan’s work, Wadud’s work encompasses the

majority of “the woman question” issues; such as the equal creation of man and woman,

women’s position in the everyday world and the hereafter, and women’s rights and rules

as addressed in the Qur’an, such as the concept of faddala (to be preferred, to give

preference) and daraja (level, degree, step), divorce, polygamy, witness, inheritance and

child care. Faddala in fact carries semantic significance in gender politics. The

misinterpretation of the word faddala may encourage a fallacious justification of gender

inequality, since it claims ordination for being revealed in the Qur’an. Regarding

faddala, it is essential to look at sura 4: An-Nisaa: 34, in Wadud’s own translation:

Men are [qawwamuna ‘ala] women, [on the basis] of what Allah has [preferred](faddala) some of them over others, and [on the basis] of what they spend oftheir property (for the support of women). So good women are [qanitat],guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. As for those from whom youfear [nushuz], admonish them, banish them to beds apart, and scourge them.Then, if they obey you, seek not a way against them.68

In discussing this verse, Wadud—once again in agreement with Hassan—comments

that the word qawwamuna does not rest on one translation alone. Wadud lists numerous

translations; “authoritative”, “superior”, “in charge of”, “maintainer”, “protectors” and

so forth. Wadud argues that men being qawwamuna of women is not “an unconditional

indication of the preference of men over women.”69 That men are qawwamuna ‘ala

women is conditional, and so is faddala. Wadud posits:

Faddala cannot be unconditional because verse 4:34 does not read ‘they(masculine plural) are preferred over them (feminine plural)’. It reads ba’d(some) of them over ba’d (others). The use of ba’d relates to what obviously hasbeen observed in the human context. All men do not excel all women in allmanners. Some men excel some women in some manners. Likewise, somewomen excel some men in some manners. So, whatever Allah has preferred, it isstill not absolute.70

Wadud’s rereading of the Qur’an undeniably challenges the common readings of those

who support the patriarchal social order that renders women subjugated to men.

Referring to the examination of verse 4:34, there is no doubt that the Qur’an does reveal

68 Quoted in Wadud, p. 70.69 Ibid., p. 71.70 Ibid., p. 71.

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gender equality. As understanding of “equal” and “equality” may vary, Wadud believes

that the notion “women are equal to men” does not mean that they are the same:

The Qur’an reveals a necessary and complementary distinction between men andwomen. However, . . . [Wadud takes this to mean] that they have the same rightsand obligations on the ethico-religious level, and have equally significantresponsibilities on the social-functional levels.71

In contrast to conservative interpretations, Wadud’s new reading of the Qur’anic

teachings affirm gender equality. Her interpretation shows that the teachings reinforce

women as members of the umma (community of believers) with ability to exercise their

rights and responsibilities, and to fully participate in the life of the community. Wadud’s

work marks the true value of the Qur’an: its adaptability to continual reinterpretation by

each generation, in a fashion reflecting its holistic intent, in accordance with the realities

of the present and the future. In Wadud’s understanding, shared with other moderate,

progressive and liberal Muslims, it is indeed this interpretive possibility of the Qur’an

that enables it to communicate with all Muslims across time, space and historical

realities.

Hassan, Wadud and other Muslim feminists like them, also other Muslim scholars—

both men and women—have been working in the framework of a feminist theology that

authenticates the urgency of female reading of the holy Qur’an. Their work augments

the growing body of feminist scholarship on the fundamental subject of women and

religion. Working from within the perspective of a particular religion can reveal the

gendered construction of not only female identity and subjectivity, but also of male. In

the context of Islam, where shari’a (Islamic jurisprudence) is said to derive from the

Qur’an, Islamic feminist theology can centre its arguments on the core of the problem,

and bring forward legal rationales to the problem of gender politics. This, nevertheless,

might seem to be contradictory with the core of Islam, which is submission. How can a

woman be submissive yet challenging at the same time? The answer is clear.

Submission must be meant and directed only to the will of God. How then does one

know the difference between what is believed to be the will of God and what is not? In

Nurcholish Madjid’s view, the will of God is the transcending norms that involves the

profession of faith, which regulates the relationship between humans and God in terms

71 Ibid., p. 102.

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of ibadah (worshipping), having the quality of being fitri (pure) or hanif (the right path)

and in parallel with the values of humanity.72

In relation to the general élan of the Qur’anic teachings and the Hadith, it is often

asserted by Muslims that the very foundation of the first Muslim community in Madina,

is justice and equality. Through ijtihad Muslims are given room to conduct reform and

renewal of earlier interpretations that are not in line with progressive and dynamic

Muslim societies. Again, through ijtihad, feminist theology attempts to endow women

with room to accommodate their own responses, and create their own discourses,

enabling them to conceptualise their own selves.

Common Ground, Different Contexts

As Margot Badran in Feminist, Islam and Nation writes, “[t]here are multiple identities,

multiple political projects, multiple ways of constructing culture and evoking historical

memories.”73 The same goes for the historical realities of Islamic feminism. The

different meanings of Islamic feminism to different women across ages, regions, classes

and cultures result in the multiple dimensions and contexts of the term. It is crucial not

to define Islamic feminism, or locate the Muslim women’s movement, within a single

framework. There is no single definition to accommodate such a broad term. What is

more essential is to identify how women position and view themselves, construct their

agendas, and reconstruct their own experiences. Such positioning recognizes the

commonality that women from various movements share.

Despite the varieties and complexities attributed to Islamic feminism, such feminism

does not radically divert from the path of any other feminism. The stories of feminism

are stories of intersections between feminisms and nationalisms, between national

feminisms of the ex-colonized Eastern countries and the Western-dominated

international feminisms, between global feminisms and indigenous feminisms. However

72 Nurcholish Madjid, ‘Keharusan Pembaruan Pemikiran Islam dan Masalah Integrasi Umat’ in IslamKemodernan dan Keindonesiaan, Penerbit Mizan, Bandung, 1987, p. 213.73 Badran, Feminist, Islam and Nation, p. 25.

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these diverse feminisms share a commonality. Elizabeth Fernea, in In Search of Islamic

Feminism, posits:

Certainly women’s rights and freedoms are a fundamental goal of the feministmovement, but feminism has developed different elements as the years havepassed: the idea of gender as continually constructed identity; and the idea of thelegitimacy of a female view, a view that sees the world differently from themale, and can point to new directions in human thought, a woman’s view thatseeks to restore women to their place in history.74

With regard to the complexities of feminism what is “of central relevance to

understanding the condition of women” is, as Kandiyoti states:

The ways in which women are represented in political discourse, the degree offormal emancipation they are able to achieve, the modalities of theirparticipation in economic life and the nature of social movements through whichthey are able to articulate their gender interests.75

Similar to other women’s movements across the world, the Muslim women’s movement

in the Muslim world or in the non-Muslim world, from Indonesia to India, from Egypt

to Saudi Arabia is grounded upon the central idea that even those opposing the

compatibility of feminism and Islam (such as Haideh Moghissi) agree on:

Being a ‘feminist’ begins with the refusal to subordinate one’s life to the male-centred dictates of religious and non-religious institutions. Feminism’s core ideais that women and men are biologically different, but this difference should notbe translated into an unequal valuation of women’s experience and men’sexperience; biology should not lead to differences in legal status, the privilegingof one over the other.76

Whether working within ‘secular’ Western notions of feminism or feminist theology,

women are using a variety of strategies based on their existing situations to overcome

discrimination. Muslim women who call themselves feminists, or those who refuse to

be labelled feminist, agree that Islamic feminism “strive[s] to create equality, not for the

woman as individual but for the woman as part of the family, a social institution still

seen as central to the organization and maintenance of any society.77 From her visits to

most parts of the Muslim world, Elizabeth Fernea identifies the common ground

74 Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, In Search of Islamic Feminism One Woman’s Global Journey, Double Day,New York, 1998, p. 421.75 Kandiyoti, Women, Islam and the State, pp. 2 – 3.76 Haideh Moghissi, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism The Limits of Postmodern Analysis, ZedBooks, London, 1999, p. 140.77 Elizabeth Fernea, In Search of Islamic Feminism, p. 416.

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alongside the different contexts of Islamic feminism and what it may mean to women.

Fernea elucidates how diverse Islamic feminism is:

The woman question is a central question everywhere, and women are active, . .. grouping and utilizing a variety of methods to achieve goals of gender parity,dignity, public power, goals that have been challenged by the ruling patriarchaltraditions. Many are rejecting the Western feminist label, while at the same timeemploying some of the ideas, some of the same strategies as Western feminists.For some, religion is given in the feminist/womanist movement, the path toequality; of these women, a minority do indeed call themselves Islamicfeminists. Some Muslim women believe that women should cover their headsand dress modestly, and they find justification for this in the Qur’an; the focus oftheir efforts is not the veil but the evaluation of sacred texts, with an eye toreforming the law, and ‘creating the just society propounded by Islam.’78

Muslim feminists are not only working within the paradigm of their religion and their

own particularity, as feminists they are participating in and creating a wider movement

where secularists and non-Muslims are included. Fernea posits:

Poverty, domestic violence, political participation, female circumcision, literacy,social class, discussion of the veil, appropriation of the written word, legalequality – these are all aspects of this wider movement, in which Islamicfeminists are also involved. The strategies these women are using to addresstheir problems, though often different from . . . the West, merit . . . respect, andoffer . . . a new source of inspiration. They are creating something new andpowerful out of bits and pieces of Western ideas and . . . [their] traditions. Intheir struggle for legal and economic equality they stress the viability of thefamily group, a sense of responsibility to the wider group, the importance ofreligious values, . . . combining elements of both East and West to developseveral feminist ideologies of their own.79

Lila Abu-Lughod, in ‘Feminist Longings and Postcolonial Conditions,’ asserts that

“feminism always occurs in particular contexts, historical and social.”80 Knowledge of

women’s conditions, whether women themselves shape, or are shaped by the complex

fields of forces within their community, are important to any women’s movement. One

needs to know what one has and must confront before undertaking a necessary struggle.

Equating feminism with revolution, Fernea uses the analogy of one of her female

activist friends who said: “a revolution is like cooking; before you begin, you have to

78 Ibid., pp. 421 – 422.79 Ibid., p. 422.80 Lila Abu-Lughod, ‘Feminist Longings and Postcolonial Conditions’, Remaking Women Feminism andModernity in the Middle East, Lila Abu-Lughod (ed), Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey,1998, p. 23.

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look into the cupboard to see what ingredients you have at hand to work with.”81 The

locality and context in which women adopt feminism must be put into consideration,

placing women at the centre of any social, political or cultural movement. However,

working within Islam from the perspective of feminist theology institutes a more

profound and diverse way of gaining insight into the woman question. Islamic feminist

theology can serve as a base for the Islamic women’s movement and an understanding

of from where the “derailment” of women derives. The politics of Islamic feminism

must become indigenous to the region, pervading all domains of the umma, be it

economic, cultural, social or ideological to become the context in which the struggle for

women’s emancipation is located. The very broad parameters of Islamic feminism,

therefore, will remain to be contested and redefined, accommodating the needs of both

women and men to create a just society which is the promulgation of Islam.

Challenges to feminist theology are mostly from conservative, orthodox Muslims who

position themselves as anti-Western and attack feminists by labelling them pro-West.

The accusation by conservatives that many feminists reside in the West is simply not

true. Not all live and occupy positions in academic life or organizations in the Western

world. Many, such as Malaysia’s Zainah Anwar, Iran’s Shirin Ebadi, Morroco’s Fatima

Mernizi and Algeria’s Assia Djebar, still live and work extensively in their own

countries. Whilst it is true that much feminist discourse is produced in the West, yet

much is produced and published inside Islamic communities. Ziba Mir-Housseini, for

example, bases her work in Iran yet travels extensively in Western countries, whilst

Mahnaz Afkhami lives in the US and travels regularly to Iran. Amina Wadud published

her seminal work on feminist interpretation of the Qur’an in Malaysia while she was

teaching there, and Riffat Hassan’s writings can be easily found in Pakistani journals. In

this global world it is incorrect to say that Islamic feminist perspectives can only be

found in Western academies and countries. In Indonesia, most feminist discourses on

Islam are widely available in Indonesian languages, written either by Indonesian

scholars and clerics, or by non-Indonesian with translation. It is true that feminist

discourses circulate widely in Western countries, particularly in English-speaking

countries in order to gain wider audiences, nevertheless such writings are also widely

available inside Muslim societies. Further, the contributors to the debates are not only

81 Fernea, p. 414.

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female scholars. Alongside female scholars such as Amina Wadud, Riffat Hassan,

Fatima Mernisi, Mai Yamani, and others, are male scholars such as Jamal Badawi,

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim, Anour Majid, Farid Esack, Sayyed Hossein Nasr who have

international renown and whose writings have been translated into many different

languages including Indonesian and Arabic.

As this chapter surveyed discourses of Islamic feminism in the global arena, the

following chapters will assess the circulation of the discourses of Islamic feminism and

women’s issues at the local level within an Indonesian context. Accommodating locality

will serve to maximalise the opportunities and uphold the dissemination of Islamic

feminism to wider audiences.

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Chapter 3

From Global to Local: General Perspective of Gender Issues and Islam in

Pre-Independence Indonesia

As various Islamic discourses on gender emerge within the global setting, so are such

discourses emerging within an Indonesian context. This chapter examines the

historiography of women, gender and Islam in colonial Indonesia. Since the focus of

this thesis is on the narratives of selected contemporary Indonesian Muslim women

writers and how they engage with the notion of women’s representation, identity, status

and role, it is important to look at earlier ideas about gender, and the influence such

ideas might have on the writer’s narratives. Literary reproduction is not isolated from

the cultural, political and socio-religious contexts from which it comes. It can capture

the dynamics of the society within which it is constantly shaped and, in turn, shapes the

world-view of the authors, the readers and the community. Engaging in the sociological

dimensions of literary production is crucial because literature and society are two sides

of the same coin, continuously influencing each other. This chapter serves the function

of outlining the sociological dimensions in which the writer’s narratives are placed.

In reviewing the historiography of gender issues and Islam what constitutes Islamic

writing is still controversial. What does “Islamic” mean when the adjective is attached

to writings? Does it need to reflect Islam as a category of religious belief or Islam as the

spirit materialized in the writings? Chamamah Soeratno argues that “Islamic” here must

mean more than placing Islam as a religion in a limited sense.1 Soeratno “broadens” the

adjective “Islamic.” Parallel to Hogdson’s “Islamicate” and Majid’s “Islamic” discussed

in the previous chapter, Soeratno proposes to extend “Islamic” to more than a religious

conception. Basing her argument on Maududi’s view that Islam functions as a moral

guidance in all facets of Muslim life, Soeratno concludes that Islamic values do not

belong to a certain group or community, rather, Islamic values such as equality, justice

1 Soeratno, Siti Chamamah, ‘Tanggapan Atas Pembicaraan Uka Tjandraasmita’, Ruh Islam DalamBudaya Bangsa: Agama dan Problema Masa Kini, Aswab Mahasin and others (eds), Yayasan FestivalIstiqlal, Jakarta, 1996. Soeratno is a Professor of Indonesian Literature in Gajah Mada University,Yogyakarta. She is also an activist in Muhammadiyah, a leading Islamic organisation.

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and humanitarian norms of liberty and democracy are universals for all individuals

taking active participation in all aspects of life.2 Soeratno reminds us that the terms

“Islamic texts” or “Islamic writings” should not be limited to those that encompass only

Islamic elements in a rather limited sense, such as Islamic jurisprudence, or Sufism and

its rituals. Instead, “Islamic” should become an active and dynamic element where its

values reflect its expression in human life. Islamic values are values obliged by divine

imperative for every Muslim to attain in his/her way called “jihad fi sabil Allah”

(striving in the cause of Allah) through mandating justice and equality for all. When

accepting Islamic values as universal, a writer who strives for equality and justice in

her/his writing can be considered as an “Islamic writer” without necessary being a

Muslim.

Another premise for categorizing writings as “Islamic” is proposed by Asma Afsarudin.

Basing her arguments on the notion of what is Islamic she uses Hodgson’s term

“Islamicate.”3 Afsarudin argues that “Muslim,” “Islamic” and “Islamicate” are

nonetheless interchangeable terms describing:

[S]ocieties and nation-states that maintain and/or have consciously adopted atleast the public symbols of adherence or considerable segments to traditionalIslamic beliefs and practices. Such societies or considerable segments withinsuch societies may regard Islam as a civilizational-ideological construct on parwith or complementary to the constructs of Western secular culture and feelthemselves free to borrow haphazardly from both systems. They do not,however, found their greater part of their legal system on an Islamic basis norattribute their formation to the realization of religious objectives (with very fewnotable exceptions).4

Islam, in this sense, becomes more of an “idiom” shared by the majority of the

population and exemplified in collective celebrations, festivals and individual or

communal rituals, and as such are the assumed characteristic of Islamic societies today.5

Although Afsarudin does apply a slightly different distinction to the terms “Muslim,”

“Islamic” and “Islamicate,” her differentiation is only in a matter of time periods. For

2 Ibid., p. 268.3 See my discussion on Hodgson’s and Madjid’s use of “Islamicate” and “Islamic” in the previouschapter.4 Asma Afsarudin, ‘Introduction: The Hermeneutics of Gendered Space and Discourse’, in Hermeneuticsand Honor: Negotiating Female “Public” Space in Islamic/ate Societies, Asma Afsarudin (ed), HarvardUniversity Press, Cambridge, 2000.5 Ibid., p. 4., Afsarudin grounds such characterization on the shared characteristics of Islamic societiesbased on the definitions given by Mardin and Arkoun and claims colonial influences as all pervasivewithout any detailed study of Indonesian societies to support this argument.

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Afsarudin “Muslim/Islamic” signifies periods before Western influence or colonial

invasion, while “Islamicate” covers epochs after such influence. However, she

concludes that contemporary Muslim societies are “Islamicate” in the sense that Islam is

used in “emotive, broadly cultural, and experiential terms, rather than in legal and

theological terms.”6

Accordingly, a clear-cut categorization of what is “Islamic” and “non-Islamic” is not an

easy one. Such blurring of distinction derives from an understanding that “Islamic” is

not a category radically isolated from the spacio-temporality from which it is used to

depict something, be it society, normative association, or even writing. One may

conclude that Islamic writing is then any writing pertaining to any association with any

Islamic/ate values. Such writing does not need to cover merely a sole definition of Islam

by a certain group. Such writing opens a vast category, a vast association, serving as an

open corpus interpretable and approachable from any direction. What is Islamic does

not have to have a direct reference to Islam. A writing with no Islamic religious

reference may well be justified in calling itself Islamic when it conveys the ethical

message of Islam of equality and justice. The first and foremost requirement of Islam is

to believe in Allah, who is “Rabb al-'alamin”, creator and sustainer of all peoples and

universes, who sends revelation for the guidance of humanity to and through the

Prophet Muhammad, preserved in the Qur'an and the sound Hadith. The term “Islamic

narratives” should not be limited to only those claiming to be Islamic. Muslim writers

advocating the advancement of women, gender equality, democracy and modernity

work within Islamic narratives, even though such narratives might be viewed as

marginal by traditional Islamic scholars.

Gender/ed Discourse and Islam in Indonesia: A Short Historiography

In this chapter discussion on the historiography of gender discourses in Indonesia will

be limited to the ones concerning the life of Indonesian Muslims. This does not mean

that ideas about gender relations within other religious contexts in Indonesia—such as

6 Ibid., p. 4.

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Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or others beliefs—are unimportant.7 Simply, it is

because Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world that the intersection

between women, gender, Islam and the Indonesian nation is so significant.

More than a decade ago Lies Marcoes commented on the vital need to have “more

wide-ranging and in-depth studies of Indonesian Muslim women.” At that time,

compared to the abundant resources on the lives of Muslim women from other parts of

the world, such as Africa, Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East,8 there were very few

studies concerning Indonesian Muslim women. There was a particular lack of resources

in the Indonesian language. The changes in Indonesian political life over the last few

years are a significant cause for the abundance of writings on gender and Islam that now

appear. Indonesian Muslim female and male scholars are now articulating their ideas

about gender relations both through public speaking and their literary production.

Nevertheless, despite the variety of views the writings represent two distinct opposing

views.

One view sees biological distinction between men and women as the inherent basis for

the different roles for men and women in their societies. Biology is used to relegate

women to the private sphere and they are said to be more emotional and less intelligent

than men. Conversely, because men are born with stronger physical ability than women

they are considered less emotional and more intelligent than women and thus belong to

the public sphere. Differences in terms of biology are used to ascribe psychological

differences and this is used to demand differences in laws, rights and obligations.9 This

is known as the complementary function: women are created to be the complement of

7 For a more sociological reference, see Arief Budiman, Pembagian Kerja Secara Sexual: SebuahPembahasan Sosiologis tentang Peran Wanita di dalam Masyarakat (Sexual Division of Labour: ASociological Exploration of the Role of Women in Society), Gramedia Press, Jakarta, 1985. In this book,Budiman discusses about biological distinction between men and women, which is also discussed in thischapter.8 Lies M. Marcoes, ‘The Female Preacher as a Mediator in Religion A Case Study in Jakarta and WestJava’ in Women and Mediation in Indonesia, Sita van Bemmelen, Madelon Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis,Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Elly Touwen-Bouwsma (eds), KITLV Press, Leiden, 1992. Late 1999s,there were some writings on women and Islam in Indonesia such as by Andrée Feillard, ‘Indonesia’semerging Muslim feminism: women leaders on equality, inheritance and other gender issues”, in StudiIslamika, vol. 4, no. 1, Jakarta, 1997, pp. 83 – 111, and ‘The Veil and Polygamy: current debates onwomen and Islam in Indonesia”, in Moussons, no. 99, Marseille, 1995, pp. 5 – 27.

9 Dr. Achmad Satori Ismail, ‘Fiqih Perempuan dan Feminisme’ Membincangkan Feminisme: DiskursusGender Perspective Islam, Tim Risalah Gusti (ed), Risalah Gusti, Jakarta, 2000, p. 144.

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men, and vice versa. In this view because men and women are naturally different they

are therefore kodrati 10(Indonesian, meaning unalterable nature one is born with, or

predetermined). Crossing the public and private spheres becomes impossible with

kodrati. Men cannot and should not enter the private or domestic sphere, nor should

women enter the public. This is considered gender equality ordained by Islam, and it

seems this view justifies gender equality by reference to gender inequality. It is a view

commonly held by traditional authorities that use religion to justify women’s

subordination, and provoke hatred against those proffering alternative views on

women’s rights.

Johan Meuleman, in his research on books about Muslim women circulating in

Indonesia, classifies the above view as “apologetic discourse” because it attempts to

define how Islam can provide eternal justice and equality for women’s emancipation,

their social and spiritual roles, right and obligations, in comparison with other

religions.11 In this view, since Islam is capable of endowing its believers with the

principle of equality, feminism and women’s emancipation are seen as evil products of

the West that all Muslim should fight against. Islam, thus, is not in need of gender

equality as the shari’a has placed Muslim men and women in equal position.12

Meuleman concludes that such writings are used to sustain a traditional view and are

mostly written within Middle Eastern settings. He observes that such books are

principally irrelevant to the circumstances of Muslim women in Indonesia.13 What is

important to note here is that Islam cannot be separated from the locality of the life of

Muslims. The subject position of those interpreting and of those practising the

religion—their culture, gender, race, ethnicity and class differences, needs to be taken

into account.

10 Saskia E. Wieringa in ‘The Birth of the New Order State in Indonesia: Sexual Politics and Nationalism’defines kodrati as “a religiously-inspired code of conduct based on women’s intrinsic ‘nature.’ The kodratof Indonesian women prescribed that they should be meek, passive, obedient to the male members of thefamily, sexually shy, self-sacrificing and nurturing. To the end, their main vocation was wifehood andmotherhood.” Journal of Women History, Spring 2003 vol. 15 issue 1, p. 74.11 Johan Meuleman, ‘Analisis Buku-Buku tentang Wanita Islam yang Beredar di Indonesia’ in WanitaIslam Indonesia Dalam Kajian Tekstual dan Kontekstual, Lies. M Marcoes-Natsir and Johan HendrikMeuleman (eds), INIS, Jakarta, 1993, p. 181.12 Ahmad Zahro Al-Hasany, MA, ‘Islam dan Perempuan (Diskursus Islam, RA Kartini dan Feminisme)’,Membincangkan Feminism, p. 257.13 Ibid., p. 183.

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The opposing view criticises the belief that biology determines the complementary

function of men and women as gender bias. These writings commonly represent the

voices of Muslim feminists and other male and female scholars who challenge the

traditional authorities by offering different interpretations and reinterpretations

accommodating the challenges in contemporary society. Zainah Anwar of Sisters in

Islam in Malaysia, writes:

In responding to the international discourse on women’s rights, such Muslims,including women educated by traditional teachers, say that because men andwomen are not the same, there cannot be equality. Instead, they say that in Islammen and women complement each other and therefore what Islam recognizes isequity not equality. What this means is that because men and women aredifferent, they have a separate and distinct role to play.14

Scholars like Anwar argue that natural differences cannot and should not become the

locus for discrimination between men and women. Whilst men and women are endowed

with different physiological functions their roles in society—separation into public and

private spheres—are a matter of culture, and not nature. Interpretations by progressive

Muslim scholars in Indonesia parallel those in other Muslim societies which argue that

gender equality in Islam means similar opportunities given to both sexes in order to

achieve justice and equality. Such feminist interpretations of the Qur’an assert the belief

that ijtihad has and will always be part of Islamic scholarship.15 If the “gates of ijtihad”

were closed in the late 11th or early 12th century certainly they are now truly reopened

with the introduction of new exegesis of the Qur’an.16 The co-existence in Indonesia of

oppositional discourses on gender equality is worth noting, as it marks the diversity of

notions of equality as understood by Indonesian Muslims.

14 Zainah Anwar, ‘What Islam, Whose Islam?: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Women’s rights’ ThePolitics of Multiculturalism: Pluralism and Citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Robert W.Hefner (ed), University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2001, p. 230.15 More detailed who’s who of writings on gender discourse in Indonesian Islam can be obtained fromUlumul Qur’an, Edisi Khusus, no. 5 & 6, vol. V, Tahun 1994, p. 3. It was Wardah Hafidz who firstintroduced Islamic feminism in Indonesia. See Hafidz, W. ‘Feminism sebagai Counter-Culture’. UlumulQur’an, Edisi Khusus, no. 5 & 6, vol. V, Tahun 1994, p. 3.16 The notion of “the closure of the gates of ijtihad” in the thirteenth century remains debatable to thisday. This closure was introduced by Al Ghazali who believed that too many people with inadequateQur’anic knowledge were claiming to be mujtahid (interpreter of the Qur’anic exegeses), leading towrongful interpretations of the Qur’an. He, then, called for a closing of the gates. As a great scholar, hiscall was followed by numerous ulama, however there were still many who disagreed with his calling.Ghazali is commonly followed today by conservative and orthodox ulama. Modernist and progressiveMuslims believe that those gates have never been closed even when Ghazali made his call in the early12th century. The latter includes Imam al-Syaukani in mid 18th century declaring that the gates couldnever be closed, followed by the rector of Al-Azhar University Syekh Al-Maraghy. See KH IbrahimHosen, ‘Taqlid dan Ijtihad Beberapa Pengertian Dasar’, Artikel Yayasan Paramadina, Internet,http://media.isnet.org/islam/Paramadina/Konteks/TaqlidIH2.html, (30 November 2005).

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Although writings on gender discourses in Indonesian Islam are a rather recent

phenomenon—first appearing around the 1980s, writings on “woman issues” date back

more than a hundred years. Kitab (Arabic, meaning book) ‘Uqûd al-Lujjayn17 by Imam

Nawawi (Muhammad Ibn Umar al-Banteny al-Jawy, 1813 – 1898) is regarded as a

“classic” source. As writings are, to a certain degree, reflections of the socio-historical

circumstances of their societies, one may assume that written documentations of

“woman issues” inscribed long before gender equality discourses come into being are

heavily gender biased. This is true of the Kitab ‘Uqûd al-Lujjayn. This kitab is

classified as kitab kuning (Indonesian, meaning yellow book). Kitab kuning are classical

books recording exegeses and explications of Islamic teachings by ulama of pre-modern

schools of thoughts.18 Although “secular” Muslims appear not to use this kitab, for

students of pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and their surrounding communities, the

book is very popular, While it is not the main text book it is read and serves as a

reference for many Muslims in their family life, particularly in terms of husband-wife

relations. The book prescribes what a Muslim wife and husband should and should not

do in their marital relations. According to Nawawi’s interpretation, for example, the

Hadith literature says a wife who refuses to have sexual intercourse with her husband,

will be condemned by the archangel till sunrise.19 A recent critical rereading of

Nawawi’s work has been conducted by the Forum Kajian Kitab Kuning (FK3, Kitab

Kuning Studies Forum) — a forum for kitab kuning studies, which is chaired by the

former Indonesian First Lady, Mrs. Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid. FK3 has

recently published their study. On the question of the condemnation by the archangel,

for example, FK3 says the Hadith needs to be read critically not textually. The teaching

must be intended for both wife and husband, and not solely for the wife. Indeed, the

meaning of al-la’nah (God’s condemnation to a sinner) given by Nawawi is misleading,

as it should be understood in a social context as the loss of good deeds, compassion and

peace in domestic life.20 FK3 believes that this kitab comprises exegeses of normative

Islam that may be in conflict with the spirit of Islam in matters of justice and equality.

17 KH A. Mustafa Bisri, ‘Ini Uqûd al-Lujjayn Baru, Ini Baru ‘Uqûd al-Lujjayn’, in Wajah Baru RelasiSuami-Istri: Telaah Kitab ‘Uqûd al-Lujjayn, Forum Kajian Kitab Kuning (FK3), Lkis Yogyakarta, 2001,p. ix.18 Masdar F. Mas’udi, ‘Perempuan di antara Lembaran Kitab Kuning’, Membincang Feminism: DiskursusGender Perspektif Islam, Tim Risalah Gusti (eds), Risalah Gusti, Surabaya, 2000, p. 167.19 Wajah Baru Relasi Suami Istri, p. 49.20 Ibid., p. 50.

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From the rereading of the Hadith literature that the kitab draws upon FK3 locates

misinterpretations that reflect gender bias, which in turn leads to a promulgation of

gender inequality.21

What FK3 has done is to show the way for similar studies to be undertaken on other

textbooks in the kitab kuning series, particularly those touching on gender and power

relations. Such new readings are behind the movement to disseminate new ideas of

gender in the pesantren world. Husein Muhammad reports that several projects to raise

awareness of gender issues within Islamic paradigm are currently being undertaken. It is

vital not to ignore gender issues, as more than half of pesantren students are female.

NGOs such as Yayasan Kesejahteraan Fatayat (Foundation of Fatayat Welfare) in

Yogyakarta, P3M (Perhimpunan Pengembangan Pesantren dan Masyarakat, Coalition

of Pesantren and Society Development), the Rahima Foundation, and, of course,

Yayasan Puan Amal Hayati (Puan Amal Hayati foundation) are amongst notable

organizations raising concerns about gender issues with pesantren women. These

institutions often hold a number of forums, trainings and workshops for the kyais

(Indonesian, Muslim clerics and, usually, the head of pesantren) and nyais (the wife of a

kyai who can be the head of pesantren for girls), particularly the young ones, in order to

provide them with information concerning fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and women.22

Many nyais and female graduates of the pesantren occupy public roles and are active in

women’s organizations. However, Muhammad reminds us that not all pesantrens raise

such issues in their programmes, many still teach and implement the discriminative and

heavily gender biased kitab kuning without critically assessing and situating those kitabs

within women’s rapidly changing situations.

Similar researches and studies are also being conducted at the academic level as Islamic

scholars, such as Nasarudin Umar, Zaitunah Subhan, Masdar F. Mas’udi and Siti

Ruhaini Dzuhayatin, are rereading and reinterpreting the classical texts, including kitab

kuning and Quranic exegeses. Umar’s published dissertation Argumen Kesetaraan

Gender: Perspective Al Qur’an (Gender Equality Arguments: the Quranic Perspectives,

2001), Subhan’s Tafsir Kebencian: Studi Bias Gender dalam Tafsir Al Qur’an

21 Ibid., p. xiv.22 Husein Muhammad, ‘Pesantren and the Issue of Gender Relation’, Kultur: The Indonesian Journal forMuslim Cultures, vol. 2, no. 2, 2002, pp. 77-79.

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(Interpretations of Abhorrence: Gender Biases in the Interpretations of the Qur’an,

1999), and Mas’udi’s Islam dan Hak Hak Reproduksi Perempuan: Dialog Figh

Pemberdayaan (Islam and the Women’s Reproduction Rights: Dialogue on

Empowerment Jurisprudence, 1997) and Dzuhayatin’s articles on the problems of

gender bias in Islamic teachings can be deemed as central texts articulating gender

equality by proposing new interpretations of Islamic texts such as the Qur’an itself, the

Hadith literature and Qur’anic exegeses. As well, most State Institutes of Islamic

Studies (IAIN, Institut Agama Islam Negeri) now have a PSW (Pusat Studi Wanita,

Centre of Women’s Studies) as important research and teaching programmes. The most

notable examples are the PSW in IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, and the PSW in

IAIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta.23 Some of the pesantren putri (Islamic boarding

school for girls), such as in Seblak Jombang, under the supervision of Lili Zakiyah

Munir, the chair of Cepdes (Centre of Pesantren and Democracy Studies), run courses

on Islamic feminism and gender issues.24

Muslim Women and Islam in Colonial Indonesia

Historical records show that before Islam arrived in Indonesia a few women in a few

communities held important positions of authority as queens, leaders and priests.

Documents reveal that from 1641 to 1699, Aceh, a mainly Muslim region in Sumatra

was ruled by a succession of queens. The last queen abdicated; she was removed from

office after claims that a fatwa had been obtained from Mecca and was replaced by her

husband. Although these female rulers had to be behind hijab (screen) in their public

appearances, and the operations of their directives were through eunuchs, this does not

diminish their important roles as decision makers for their people. During the reign of

Sultanah Tajul Alam Safiatuddin Alauddin in the seventeenth century schools for both

23 Today both IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta and IAIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta have been changedinto UINs (Universitas Islam Negeri, Islamic State University): UIN Syarif Hidayatullah and UIN SunanKalijaga.24 Interview with Lily Zakiyah Munir at her house in Cempaka Putih, South Jakarta, 25 August 2004.

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men and women were built for she believed that Islam sanctioned both men and women

to acquire knowledge and in Eastern Indonesia, a Muslim queen ruled in 1856.25 All

these examples celebrate participation in managing public affairs. However, in the latter

periods, there was an absence in the historical record of strong female leaders compared

to earlier (and lesser known periods). Women’s participation in developing and

preserving private and public culture gradually degraded. They were regarded as a part

of property, demeaning their once high political and social positions. They were placed

under the authority of men and regarded as wives. In general, all of Indonesia’s ethnic

groups defined leadership and public male as male preserve. Baried observes:

The image of Indonesian women . . . [had changed] from figures who held greatresponsibilities in society to those who were treated as respectable, adorable andhonourable things. The consciousness of responsibilities women formerly heldbecame progressively weaker, and in most cases finally vanished. In the village,for example, women assumed heavy tasks without having the right to act ordecide on any issue relating to family and social life. This condition wasexacerbated during the Dutch colonial period, when there was a definitivedecline in women’s position in all walks of life.27

The diminishing of women’s role transpired despite their active role in economic affairs

in what was a largely agricultural society. Their actions in contributing to and

maintaining the sustainability of family economic life were downplayed and ignored. In

the second half of the nineteenth century there was a great expansion in female paid

labour yet women earned only fifty percent of a man’s wage. Women’s contribution to

the family income was both in kind and money yet every decision concerning family

life rested fully with men and women were simply obliged to follow.28

25 Baroroh Baried, ‘Islam and the Modernization of Indonesian Women’, Islam and Society in SoutheastAsia, Taufik Abdullah and Sharon Shiddique (eds), Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1986,p. 141. See also Mernisi in The Forgotten Queens of Islam. There is an evidence of two queens fromMajapahit: Tribuwana (1329 – 1350) and Suhita (1429 – 1447), however these queens are not Muslim.27 Baried, op.cit., p. 142.28 See website of Kementrian Pemberdayaan Perempuan (Ministry of Women’s Empowerment), Internet,http://www.menegpp.go.id/menegpp.php?cat=list&id=gender&page=2, (28 November 2005) for figureson women-headed households. The 1974 Undang-Undang Perkawinan (marriage law) still placeswomen’s participation to family economic regardless the amount of their contribution as secondary totheir husbands’.

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The early 1900s Indonesia saw the emergence of the first women’s movement in

Indonesia, no doubt influenced by similar occurrences in many other parts of the world.

The role of women within Islam began to be questioned. Was it ideal Islam or simply

patriarchal practices of Islam that prevented women from attaining equality in education

and political and economic life? Was it not the Prophet Muhammad who required his

followers, both men and women, to seek knowledge? Was it not one of his wives,

Aisyah, who led the war called the Camel War? These questions were circulated

amongst women, and discourses on women and Islam in Indonesia started. The

modernist Muslims were keen to reform Indonesian Islam by returning the religion to

the “correct” interpretations based on the Qur’an and the Hadith teachings. Alongside

the modernist Muslims in the movement there were also secular groups who voiced

similar demands on some issues. Elsbeth Locher-Scholten comments on the nature of

the women’s movement in the early decades of the twentieth century prior to

independence:

Like nationalism itself, the Indonesian women’s movement had becomeorganized along various ideological lines, roughly divided by womenthemselves in a reformist-Islamic and a secular-nationalist section. While a fewof the Islamic organizations counted its members by thousands from differentclasses, the numerous secular groups did so by hundreds or even tens, mostlywomen from the elite. Both groups were still united, however, in their focus onfemale education and the debate about (reformed) polygamy.29

Because Islam was pivotal in shaping the lives of the actors in the early Indonesian

women’s movement the differences between women on interpretations of Islam’s

teachings and values cannot be overlooked. One issue of contention was the role of

Islam in the political realm. Because the Islamic and secular women’s organizations had

differing opinions, the first national Women’s Congress (thirty organizations present) in

December 1928 agreed to exclude politics from the agenda, focusing merely on social

affairs.30 This meant the congress had limited their framework for women’s

emancipation.

In line with developments in other countries in the early twentieth century, modernity

meant modern education for citizens, and this included female citizens. However, in

29 Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, Women and the Colonial State: Essays on Gender and Modernity in theNetherlands Indies 1900 – 1942, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2000, p.160.30 Ibid.

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colonial Indonesia this did not mean giving educational opportunities for all female

colonial subjects. Modern education, which in this period was commonly regarded as

western education, was exclusively for women of the priyayi class (Javanese

bureaucratic elite) or women from the urban Islamic upper- or middle-classes. Co-

educational vernacular schools were limited to a very tiny percentage of society and

education for the lower classes was still largely left to the traditional schools, for

example in the case of Islamic education, pesantren through the teachings of kitab

kuning. Prior to the twentieth century Muslim girls were educated at home where they

were taught to recite the Qur’an and read Arabic script.31 Pesantren were all-male

institutions until the first pesantren for female students was set up in the second decade

of the twentieth century.32 The decision of the first national congress of women in 1928

to put female education, despite not taking note of class, religious and adat (Indonesian,

meaning local custom) differences, was still a significant step towards creating an

awareness of women’s affairs beyond their domestic role.

On Polygamy33

It was Kartini who first started the discussion on the necessity of modern/western

education for Indonesian women. Born in 1879, she was regarded as “a pioneer of

women’s rights, education and personal freedom.”34 Through her letters of

correspondence with her Dutch friends, written in Dutch and published in 1911 with the

title Door Duisternis Tot Licht (Through Darkness Into Light) by J.A. Abendanon,

whose wife was one of Kartini’s mentors, Kartini’s ideas came into public discourse

amongst the literate elite. The letters subsequently went through several editions and

31 Cora Vreede-de Stuers, The Indonesian Woman: Struggles and Achievements, Mouton & Co., Printers,The Hague, The Netherlands, 1960, p. 63.32 Zamakhsyari Dhofir, Tradisi Pesantren: Studi Tentang Pandangan Hidup Kyai, LP3ES, Jakarta, 1994,p. 54, quoted in Husein Muhammad, ‘Pesantren and the Issue of Gender Relation,’ Kultur The IndonesianJournal for Muslim Cultures, vol. 2, no. 2, 2002, p. 68.33 Polygamy in this thesis is used as a term to indicate the state or practice of having more than one wife,rather than polygyny. According to Merriam-Webster Online, polygamy is a marriage in which a spouseof either sex may have more than one mate at the same time, while polygyny is the state or practice ofhaving more than one wife or female mate at one time, Internet, http://www.m-w.com, (26 March 2006).34 Jean Taylor, ‘Once More Kartini’, Autonomous Histories Particular Truths: Essays in Honor of JohnSmail, Laurie Sears (ed), Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,Madison, 1993, p. 156.

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translations, including one into Indonesian by Armijn Pane. Kartini herself failed to

enjoy the fame her letters brought her because of her early death in childbirth in 1904,

seven years before the publication of her letters. Kartini, to a certain degree, inspired the

succeeding Indonesian women’s movement. Her letters are evidence of her desire to

question the condition of women “in the areas of medical and general welfare” and

reveal her objection to polygamy.35

Many critical readings of Kartini’s letters place her ideas and worldview into much

larger contexts of socio-political and cultural changes within society. Very few have

included her into religious discussions, especially in the framework of Islam.36 Kartini

like most members of her family was a Muslim.37 Not only does she write against

polygamy in Javanese society, she also attacks this problem within Islamic discourse.

Polygamy in Java, where Kartini resided all of her life, existed long before Islam was

introduced to Java, yet it was clear to her that polygamy was sustained, became deeply

rooted and institutionalised by Islam. Her struggle against polygamy and her demand

for female education reflect many of the changes that Muslim women are still

advocating for in contemporary Indonesia. For Kartini, polygamy was men’s

subjugation of women, “an enemy” to be opposed:

35 Ibid., p. 159.36 An article by Ahmad Zahro Al-Hasany, MA ‘Islam dan Perempuan (Diskursus Islam, RA Kartini danFeminisme’. Membincangkan Feminisme: Diskursus Gender Perspective Islam, Tim Risalah Gusti (ed),Risalah Gusti, Jakarta, 2000, pp. 251 – 264 places Kartini in the Islamic discourse and feminism.However, I find his findings quite misleading. Zahro Al-Hasany believes that Kartini’s struggle is to findher way back to her religion, Islam, and that she is not a representation of liberal and secular feminismadopted from Western environment. Saying that Kartini is a Muslim feminist with not liberal Westerninfluence is partially incorrect. Careful reading of Kartini’s letters undeniably shows that Kartini is verymuch influenced by Western feminism and secularism introduced to her by Stella Zeehandelaar and herother Dutch friends. In her letter to Zeehandelaar on November 6, 1899, Kartini illustrated her wish forthe non-existence of religion since different religions contributed to conflicts. However, a letter toAbendanon on August 15, 1902 acknowledged her comprehension and acceptance of the notion ofreligion. All these letters are from On Feminism and Nationalism: Kartini’s Letters to StellaZeehandelaar 1899 – 1903, translated and introduction by Joost Coté, revised edition, Monash AsiaInstitute, Clayton, Australia, 2005, and Letters of A Javanese Princess, translated from the Dutch byAgnes Louis Symmers, edited and with an introduction by Hildred Geertz, preface by Eleanor Roosevelt,The Norton Library, WW Norton & Company, New York, 1964. However, as is widely known the titleLetters of A Javanese Princess is misleading and inappropriate. Kartini was not a princess in the sense ofbeing a daughter of a king. She was the daughter of high-ranking official in colonial government. Herfather was the regent of Jepara. Regent during the Dutch colonial reign was the highest official positiongiven to the natives in order to help colonial administration of native affairs.37 Her letters to Stella Zeehandelaar on November 6, 1899 took account of her confession being aMuslim, the faith she inherited from her ancestors without knowing what it actually was, but on her laterletter to J. H. Abendanon on August 15, 1902 depicted her desire to learn the Qur’an and hercomprehension of what religion meant for her.

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And can you imagine what hellish pain a woman must experience when herhusband comes home with another whom she has to recognize as his lawfulwife, her rival? He can torment her to death, mistreat her as much as he likes foras long as he chooses not to give her her freedom again; she can whistle to thewind for her rights! Everything for the man, and nothing for the woman is ourlaw and general belief.38

However, one must realize that debate over marriage in colonial Indonesia entered into

public discourse through the Indonesian elite, particularly through the priyayi class and

scholars having access to Dutch education and close associations with the colonial

authorities. At the grassroots level, that is the majority of Indonesians, such debate

seemed to be non-existent.

At other social levels—such as the Muslim merchant class—the attitudes to gender

relations were more complex. As Dzuhayatin states with references to Kuntowijoyo and

Alexander’s studies in 1993 and 1998:

[G]ender relations among the juragan merchants (many of whom, it should benoted, came from more pious Muslim background than did court officials [ofpriyayi class] were more flexible, open and egalitarian. This is best seen in thefact that both sexes had access to productive activities. Home-based industriessuch as batik paintings, gold and silver smithing, and others were commonlyconducted in the neighbourhood or household, enabling wives and the wholefamily to participate.39

Nonetheless, despite Dzuhayatin’s statement that access to productive activities may

appear to be egalitarian, this does not automatically mean that women of that class are

independent. The question lies in the idea of whether equal participation in economic

production gives women equal share to status and position. Often, equal economic

participation meant a “double burden” for women, as they had to support the family

economy and maintain their domestic role at the same time.

Indonesian women of the elite class began to see polygamous marriage as an old

traditional form that was not parallel to the ideals of the women’s movement. It was

their belief that the European-Christian ideal of a perpetual monogamous marriage

between a man and woman should be the norm. Their view was supported by the

colonial authorities which sought to change the marriage traditions of indigenous

38 Letter to Zeehandelaar on 6 November 1899, On Feminism and Nationalism: Kartini’s Letters to StellaZeehandelaar 1899 – 1903, p. 35.39 Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin, ‘Gender and Pluralism in Indonesia’, The Politics of Multiculturalism, p. 258.

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Indonesians in child marriage, arranged marriage, polygamy and Islamic divorce laws,

to fit with Western norms.40 Responding to the demands of the Indonesian elite the

Dutch colonial authorities put forward a draft on voluntary monogamous marriage for

Indonesian Muslims, called the Draft Ordinance on Registered Marriage, in 1937. This

draft was supposedly to work parallel to the Marriage Ordinance for Christian

Indonesian legalized earlier in January 1937. However, as Locher-Scholten writes, the

debate did not only touch on the religious disparity between the Christian colonial

administration and its majority subjects, it was more complex:

The struggle around this regulation can be considered to reflect one of the coreaspects of colonialism, the cultural collision between coloniser and colonised,between Dutch Christianity and Islam. But the debate was more than a religio-political confrontation. It addressed the fundamental and the literally existentialissue of marriage and gender relations. . . . Marriage and the position of womenbecame the pivotal focus around which politics and ideals of female/malebehaviour were formulated. In the draft and the ensuing debate, all partiesconcerned (the colonial government, Dutch and Indonesian women’sorganizations, Indonesian nationalism and Muslim parties) voiced their opinionsin this respect. All constructed their ideals of sexual politics, of marriage andmorality. In doing so they also formulated a desired cultural identity withpolitical implications. Moreover, the debate revealed the shifts of alliancesbetween colonial authorities, Indonesian Muslim organizations and theIndonesian female elite.41

The draft was based on European civil law and the Marriage Ordinance for Christian

Indonesian. Its intention was to protect women within those norms because

“[m]onogamy was required, repudiation made impossible, and divorce relegated to the

courts. [Thus] The preconditions for the Western ideal of a stable family were

incorporated into the law.”42 As Locher-Scholten observes, however, the draft left the

majority of Indonesian women who lived in rural areas out of consideration because it

was aimed only at the small number of Indonesian women elite with western education,

urban and nominal Muslims (to borrow Geertz’s term abangan) and Western women

married to Indonesian Muslims. The draft did not succeed. Due to the strength of

resistance from Islamic organisations, including urban-based Islamic women’s

organisations, it was withdrawn from public discourse several months after its

introduction. Had the draft been successful the colonial government would have

40 Locher-Scholten, Women and the Colonial State, p. 188. In the chapter ‘Marriage, Morality andModernity The 1937 Debate on Monogamy’ the author provides an excellent discussion on the debate ofmonogamous marriage from various perspectives such as the Islamic and secular arguments.41 Ibid., p. 188.42 Ibid., p. 196.

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benefited from its increased ability to fortify the colonial state using family life as the

core of institutional means. Nevertheless the very introduction of the draft marriage law

marked an important stage in the Indonesian nationalist struggle. It managed to generate

nationalist sentiments amongst traditional and secular Muslims alike as debate and

discussion ranged over the archipelago “in meetings inside and outside, in mosques,

journals and periodicals.”43

Since the draft was not concerned only with social familial affairs but also the religious

domain, most Muslim organisations, traditionalists and reformists, santri (in Gertz’s

simplified classification of Indonesian Muslims, santri means practising) and abangan,

men and women, political and non-political, were united against the draft. The protest

was strengthened with the involvement of Islamic organizations such as the traditional

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the reformist movement Muhammadiyah, Ahmadiyah

(Indonesian section), and even the nationalists such as Partai Sarekat Islam Indonesia

(PSII), and the Young Islamists Alliance (Jong Islamieten Bond). These united

protesters were defending polygamy in Islamic marriage. The strongest opposition was

articulated by NU representing the voices of traditional Indonesian Muslim. NU argued

that the draft was government interference and the intervention of non-Muslims in

Islamic law. According to NU since marriage laws were descended from God, making

them perfect and sacred, human interference was not possible. It was therefore

impossible to prohibit polygamy because it was sanctioned in the laws. From the

Islamic perspective the practice of polygamy protected Muslims from “moral

decadence” because it was “a protection of women from male sexuality.”44

Other organizations, such as the Indonesian division of Ahmadiyah, focused their

opposition around the strict distinction between religion and state matters. Religion

could not be undervalued by the state. Locher-Scholten writes:

The ordinance stated that for all aspects, not mentioned in the ordinance, adatlaws would prevail (art. I, sub 2); this implied that adat including Islamic lawwere secondary to the ordinance regulations and that the ordinance wouldsupersede over Islamic law. This was not unacceptable to the true believer. Thevoluntary character of the ordinance did not make it more acceptable. What was

43 Adviser of Native Affairs to Director Department of Justice, 29-1-1938, no. 127/ca 3, Col., 2.10.54, file615, quoted from Locher-Scholten, ff. no. 53.44 Ibid., p. 200.

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allowed (murbah) by the [Qur’an], could not be forbidden (haram) by the state.The government would thus encourage Muslims to act against the [Qur’an] andultimately promote apostasy, a deadly sin.45

For the opponents of the draft marriage law the laws pertaining to personal and family

life, to the private sphere of their lives, were “the very essence of Islamic identity”46.

Even so, under the colonial government the realm of Islamic laws was reduced, for

example, when the draft marriage ordinance was introduced, matters over inheritance

were returned to secular courts such as in Java, Madura and Kalimantan. Thus, the

scope of Islamic laws in personal and family more limited. Even more reason according

to the opponents of the draft law for the colonial authorities not to interfere in marriage

laws.

Importantly, across women’s organizations views were divided on the draft law.

Support for the draft law came from secular organizations such as Parindra and

Gerindo, and women’s organization like Istri Sedar, Istri Indonesia, Putri Budi Sejati,

Sarekat Kaum Ibu Sumatera. It was the opinion of these organizations that the draft

would promote gender equality and eliminate the vices of polygamy. On the other hand,

however, Islamic women’s organizations such as Aisyiyah and the PSII’s women’s

division opposed the draft. In their view the ideal model for Indonesian women was

taken from Hadith literature where it is said “that if the first wife consents to her

husband taking another wife/wives, she is awarded heaven in her afterlife.” Many

Muslim feminists today have rejected this interpretation seeing it as a “wrongful”

interpretation of the Prophet’s practice. The primary requirement of the practice of

polygamy that of the husband’s ability to treat all wives equally in all aspects is, they

argue, impossible to achieve. What Locher-Scholten terms ‘The Bangoen Affair’ was

another important example of the divisiveness of debates concerning women and Islam

during the colonial era. Bangoen was the name of a bi-monthly publication of Parindra.

During the debate on the draft, Siti Sundari a woman journalist, wrote an article in

which she argued that the draft was a “perfect solution” to the problem of polygamy

because as “the True Religion of Mankind” “Islam did not prefer one gender over

another.” Sundari went further by saying that if Muhammad had been alive today (at

45 Ibid., p. 201.46 Ibid., p. 202. See also Sonbol’s argument on the personal laws in earlier discussion in Chapter 1, thelegal reforms sub chapter.

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that time) he himself would have suggested marriage law changes. Although

Muhammad was the Holy Prophet, she argued, he was not God himself or religion

itself, therefore when dealing with women he was just simply a man with his own

sexual behaviour. In her article Siti Sundari provided examples of Muhammad’s sexual

conduct.47 Muslim reaction was massive. Neither Soeroto’s (the magazine’s editor) nor

Sundari’s defense of her writing helped her situation. She was accused of blasphemy to

the holy figure of Muhammad and of insulting Muslims, thus closing any possibility of

debate over the issues. In resolving the dispute, Sundari and Soeroto were asked to

make a public apology. At first objecting, Sundari and Soeroto eventually pleaded

guilty and apologized publicly. The debates over the marriage draft and the Bangoen

affair attest to the complexity of the nexus between Islam and women’s lives in colonial

Indonesia.

Although the two issues of child marriage and forced marriage were raised before the

introduction of the draft on monogamy, the responses were minimal. Putri Mardika

(Independent Woman) an association founded in 1912 whose aim was to give financial

aids to intelligent girls to continue their education48 had included these issues in its

weekly publication from 1915 to 1919. In contrast to the debate over polygamy, those

two issues were never given serious consideration but simply left to customary law,

away from the influence of notions of modernity.49 However, as small as the attention

given to those issues, they were not neglected. The problem of child and forced

marriage did not escape the attention of women’s organizations. Many Muslim women

opposed adat (the traditional customs) such as child and forced marriage, polygamy and

easy repudiation for divorce by men, because they believed that such adat were cultural

particulars and not introduced by Islam. Some Islamic organizations, such as

Muhammadiyah (1912), and Sarekat Islam (1912), aimed to reform and free Islam of

adat practices. Although these two organizations were initially founded for economic

purposes, gradually they extended their objectives to include social issues. The period

1912-1915 saw the establishment at the national, regional and local level of many social

47 Ibid., p. 204.48 Cora Vreede-de Stuers, The Indonesian Women Struggles and Achievements, Mouton & Co., Printers,The Hague, The Netherlands, 1960, p. 62.49 Ibid., p. 197.

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organizations, all of them with the objective to improve the social position of women,

particularly within the family.

Mrs. Abdoerrahman, wrote an article in Putri Mardika (Independent Woman) stating

her opposition to child marriage. Mrs. Abdoerrahman not only demanded an end to

child marriage: “We would rejoice with all hearts if it were forbidden for girls under the

age of eighteen to marry. . . . If only our association could help to bring to end, and as

soon as possible, this custom of ours which allows young girls, scarcely out of their

infancy, to be forced to marry a man whom they did not know and even a man whom

they cannot love.”50 She, following Kartini, voiced the need for educating girls. Her

name seems to be hardly heard in the discussion of Indonesian Muslim women’s

movements. From 1915-1918 Putri Mardika published many articles demanding an end

to the traditional customs of polygamy, child marriage and forced marriage.

Unfortunately, since child marriage and forced marriage did not directly affect the lives

of all women, particularly the elite class, debates on the practices were negligible

compared to the debates on polygamy. In terms of race relations, as child and forced

marriages did not involve European women, there was less discussion of the problems.

The fact that class and race played an important role in colonial Indonesia becomes

clear when we see that the problem of extramarital relations (such as pernyaian—

concubinage or the cohabitation between European men with indigenous Indonesian

women) was never meant to be elevated into public discourse, but kept only on the level

of “official matters”. This made the presence of these indigenous women invisible and

absent in the eyes of any legal regulations, although the colonial government regulated

the status of children of inter-racial relations. Still, there were several demands by

Indonesian Muslim organizations and individuals (Nahdlatul Ulama, Rasoena Said, Mr.

T. Moh. Hasan), and by the secular (Pasundan Isteri) for the colonial government to

proscribe concubinage:

From these protests, it is obvious that concubinage was not approved by the elitewho were able to state their complaints. In most cases, nyai came from the lowerclasses. Indonesian women and men who acted as their solicitors, originatedfrom another social layer. It is also clear that, again, a mixture of genderperceptions, moral concerns, religious norms, and nationalist feelings were

50 Abdoerachman, ‘Kinderhuwelijken’ (Child Marriages), Putri Mardika, IV, no. 8 (August 1917), quotedin Vreede-de Stuers, p. 63.

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coalescing. Concubinage in itself was not a reason to ask for governmentregulation. That was not at stake. . . . It was the Indonesian women without anylegal status living with a non-Indonesian man that needed legal protection – ifnot for herself then for her children. The nyai had become a symbol of unequalrace relations and disempowerment.51

It is obvious that concubinage was not the core of the problem, instead it was used as a

struggle against colonial power. In this way “gender could be adopted and used as a

nationalist strategy, expressing the demand of legal equality and moral purity of the new

nation in opposition to the codes and practices of the colonial overlords.”52 Other than

the ban on concubinage in the KNIL (Royal Netherlands East Indian Army) by the

colonial government, in the end, no action legal or social was taken in response to the

protests concerning concubinage.

It should be noted here that the term nyai in inter-racial relation carries a different

meaning to its use in indigenous relations. The first was the label given to an indigenous

woman who was commonly known to be a mistress of a Dutch man. This term

embodies disrespect. In contrast, nyai to an indigenous man is the wife of a kyai, an

Islamic cleric or scholar. Kyai usually head Islamic schools for boys and his wife (nyai)

for girls. Nyai in this meaning embodies status and respect.

What is most important about all the debates is the repositioning of women’s issues in

public discourse during the colonial era. In discussing and debating polygamy, child and

forced marriages, and pernyaian Indonesian women posed their questioning into the

heart of public discourse. The “women issues” that were formerly perceived as domestic

were politicized creating a politics of gender that demanded public recognition.

51 Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, ‘Morals, Harmony and National Identity: ‘Companionate Feminism’ inColonial Indonesia in the 1930s’, Journal of Women’s History, Winter 2003, vol 14, issue 4, pp. 7 – 8.52 Ibid., p. 8.

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On Female Education

As noted previously in this chapter Kartini, through her letters, put the demand for

female education into public discourse.53 Yet her ideals did not only circulate on the

rhetorical level for she established informal school for the daughters of her father’s

staff—her father was the regent of Jepara, and continued to do so after her arranged

marriage to the neighbouring regent.54 An advocate of personal liberty, female

education, and the development of Javanese art and craftsmanship, Kartini’s name has

ever since been directly associated with the Indonesian women’s movement. But her

most notable demand was the urgency of female education. Only through education

could women’s position be raised, she wrote:

Raise the Javanese women, educate her heart and her understanding, and youwill have splendid workers to cooperate with you in your noble work, yourgiant’s work, the work of civilizing and enlightening a whole nation.Teach her a trade, so that she will no longer powerless when her guardianscommand her to contract a marriage which will inevitably plunge her andwhatever children she may have into misery.The only escape from such conditions is for the girl herself to learn to beindependent. . . .It is not the least our intention to try to make European-Javanese of the Javaneseby giving them liberal education; our idea is to develop the fine qualities that arepeculiar to their race; to help them to gain by contract by contract with anothercivilization, not to the detraction of their own, but to its ennoblement.55

In her letters Kartini was addressing the Javanese but her message can certainly be

extended to encompass all Indonesian women. Not only did Kartini aim to endow

women with knowledge (Western education in particular), she also yearned for

women’s empowerment seeing it as the only way possible to react against the bonds of

patriarchal tradition. On 3 August 1964, Kartini was declared a “Heroine of National

Freedom” by Soekarno, Indonesia’s first president, and her birthday on April 21st is

celebrated as a national day. Kartini’s ideals have largely been taken as the embodiment

of the Indonesian women’s movement:

She is remembered in Indonesia as one of the first champions of women’s rights.In Indonesia the emancipation of women is closely allied to the emancipation ofthe entire population, and Ibu Kartini (‘Mother Kartini’) has been canonized not

53 Kartini’s letters were considered “private.” She never meant to publicize her letters but the publicationof her letters by her Western friends made them “public”.54 Taylor, p. 160.55 Letter to Mevrow Van Kol, August 1901, Letters of a Javanese Princess.

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only as defender of ‘her sisters’ but also as a patron saint for all modernIndonesians.56

Kartini is called Ibu Kartini, instead of Raden Ajeng Kartini.57 The term Ibu reflects a

notion of motherhood, the ideal role for Indonesian women. It is also a substitution for

the Javanese titles in the New Order while at the same time implying domestication of

female public roles. In Indonesian history her actions are seen as equivalent to

patriotism, for Indonesians call their land Ibu Pertiwi (motherland). Raden Ajeng—a

title inherited only by aristocratic family—on the other hand implies rank in social order

and if used places her above the rest of her people. Kartini set up schools for indigenous

Javanese to provide education for those who were denied their education due to their

social status and sex. In her letters she often questions and attacks the complex Javanese

order of social classes similar to a caste system. Her ideals went beyond the boundaries

of sex to the larger scheme of individual self.

Although Kartini was an early promoter (in fact considered to be the first) of female

education, within a more Islamic framework the efforts of Rangkayo Rahmah el-

Yunusiah (1900 - 1969), the founder of Diniyah School Putri (Madrasah Diniyah li al-

Banat, established on November 1, 1923), are equally important. The school was an

Islamic school for girls meant to elevate women’s self-worth in Rahmah’s own

homeland, Minangkabau, a region in North Sumatra. Throughout her life, Rahmah

dedicated her life to manage and develop her educational institutions.58 Quintessentially

different from Kartini who came from a Javanese priyayi background, Rahmah grew up

in a strongly Islamic educational environment in Sumatra. She was the daughter of a

prominent ulama, and the younger sister of Zaenuddin Labay who had earlier

introduced a modernized religious instruction in Islamic education at his own school. In

1912, Haji Rasul, the father of Hamka (Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah) who had a

leading role in the Islamic reform movement of Kaum Muda from 1920-1940, founded

Diniyah School (Religious School), a modern Islamic school with the emphasis on self-

56 E.M. Beekman in the chapter Kartini (1879 – 1904): The Paradox of Colonialism’ in TroubledPleasures: Dutch Colonial Literature from the East Indies 1600 – 1950, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996,p. 398.57 There is a song, composed by W.R. Supratman, dedicated to Kartini’s struggle entitled Ibu Kita Kartini(Our Mother Kartini).58 ‘Pengantar Editor’, Ulama Perempuan Indonesia, Jajat Burhanudin (ed), PT Gramedia Pustaka Utamain corporation with PPIM IAIN Jakarta, Jakarta, 2002, p. x.

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activity and self-knowledge.59 Later, Rahmah followed his path by setting up her own

Diniyah School Putri for girls. Accordingly, Rahmah’s activities “fit perfectly into the

Islamic reform movement of the Kaum Muda” that Taufik Abdullah defines as “a group

of energetic and educated women who played an important role in the social and

political movement of the Minangkabau.”60

From her experiences in the co-educational Islamic school of Diniyah School, where all

instructors were male, Rahmah believed that the school did not adequately address

women’s issues. She considered that woman’s problems were as complex as men’s.

Yet, such women never received as much access or attention as men, resulting in

intellectual inequality between men and women. She asserted that women in fact had a

major importance in shaping and safeguarding the education of subsequent generations.

Rahmah posited that women’s role was central to their household, and household was

the pole of society, as society itself was the pole of the nation. Only through creating

good households could a good society and state be achieved. Improving women’s

quality and position could only be done by giving them special education taught by

women; education for women by women and about women. She stated:

Diniyah School Putri always attempted to provide religious enlightenments andprogress for women who had been in difficulty in gaining adequate Islamiceducation because they were reluctant to ask the woman questions to maleinstructors. This caused women to be parted from Islam [as a religion], makingthem ignorant. Diniyah School Putri would endeavour to create and produceeducated mothers [Ibu Pendidik] for Muslim sons and daughters so that theyknow how to devote themselves to God, their nation and homeland through selfworth. This was also intended to make the religion [Islam] become the flesh andblood for our fellow civilians.61

Rahmah did not only work within the field of education for women, she was also

politically active in the nationalist movement for Indonesia’s independence. She

rebuffed the colonial offer to subside Diniyah Putri in order to maintain its

independence.62 Her work was recognized internationally and in 1957 she was the first

59 Cora Vreede-de Stuers, ‘The Life of Rankayo Rahmah El Yunusiyah’, Indonesian Women in Focus:Past and Present Notions, Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Anke Niehof (eds), second printing, KITLVPress, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1992, pp. 52 - 53.60 Ibid., p. 55.61 Rahmah’s speech in 15 years anniversary of Diniyah School Putri. Translation mine. Quoted inJunaidatul Munawaroh, ‘Rahmah el-Yunusiah: Pelopor Pendidikan Perempuan’ in Ulama PerempuanIndonesia, p. 11.62Ibid ., p. 25.

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woman awarded the title Syaikhah, by Al Azhar University in Cairo. This highest title

for Islamic scholars was originally given to men only, and Rahmah’s award made her

equal to Syeikh, male Islamic cleric and scholars. Her name is juxtaposed with Kartini’s,

and she is celebrated as the “Kartini of Islamic Institution” or “Kartini of Islamic

Movement.”63 It should be noted here that despite their similarity in terms of struggling

for girls’ education, Rahmah and Kartini presented themselves in different ways. If

Kartini was tied in a polygamous marriage, Rahmah chose divorce from such a

marriage. In terms of clothing, Kartini wore Javanese traditional dress called kebaya and

sanggul for her hairdo as the ways Javanese aristocrat women normally dressed, whilst

Rahmah as a Minangkabau woman was veiled. Rahmah was from urban middle class

family and her ability to travel and work was related to her class background more than

to her appearance as a veiled woman. Differences in their self-presentation are not

important, for what is important is their strong commitment to women’s right for

education and their struggles for better conditions for women. Rahmah’s struggle for

female education is now mirrored by Islamic women’s movements all over the world.

Dewi Sartika (1884-1947) was another influential figure in the struggle for female

education in colonial Indonesia. Dewi Sartika, like Kartini with her priyayi background,

was from a menak family (West Javanese aristocratic family). Her father was a former

patih (similar to vice-regent) of Bandung. In 1904, she led a school for women

established by the Dutch in Bandung. Whilst Kartini’s school was an informal one,

Dewi Sartika’s was under the colonial government’s authorization. Accordingly, Dewi

Sartika can be seen as the first female principal in Indonesia appointed officially by the

colonial government,64 making her school the first formal school opened for women in

colonial Indonesia. Dewi Sartika’s school, first named Sekolah Istri (female school),

then changed to Sekolah Kautaman Istri (school of decorous girls) in 1905, was open to

the public but was not free from class distinctions as not all classes could attend.

Sekolah Kautaman Istri was secular in its form, because religion (Islam) was not the

framework for the curriculum: it was in contrast to the Diniyah School Putri established

by Rahmah. Nonetheless, Dewi Sartika’s school had a significant role in the discourses

of the women’s movement within an Islamic paradigm. Besides female skills such as

63 Ibid., p. 28 – 29.64 Sukanti Suryochondro, Potret Pergerakan Wanita di Indonesia, CV. Rajawali in corporation withYayasan Ilmu Ilmu Sosial, Jakarta, 1984, p. 81.

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sewing, cooking, embroidering and baby nursing Islam was taught as a separate course.

Sekolah Kautaman Istri was the first government-funded school to include religious

instruction in its curriculum. The course covered only the reading and reciting of the

Qur’an and basic Islamic knowledge such as praying and fasting during Ramadhan.65

Whilst Dewi Sartika’s school still emphasized domestic skills education, training girls

to be decorous wives, her work for female education was progressive. In her struggle to

improve women’s position Dewi Sartika wrote about and discussed women’s lives: she

believed that “education for women was a conditio sine qua non, for the happiness and

welfare of [Indies] society. . . . an [Indies] woman’s education was necessary to ensure

that her children were healthy both physically and mentally.”66

Dewi Sartika was also concerned with other gender issues. From 1911-1914, under the

auspices of Sarekat Islam, she delivered talks on female education and on prostitution,

which she believed resulted from polygamy, for cultural practices of child marriage and

polygamy would most likely end up in divorce, and divorce was an immediate path for

women to join prostitution.67 She also called attention to the lower pay for female

labourers and their need for equal pay and social security such as health insurance and

maternity leave, all of which would keep them from prostitution. For her, female

education was central to improving women’s status and security. Vreede-de Stuers

comments: “Long before the feminist movement was organized, this young woman

revolted against the injustice of less pay for women work equal to that done by men.”68

Thus, more than one hundred years ago, Dewi Sartika envisioned contemporary female

labourers’ demands for social security, equal pay, and maternity leave. Indeed, Dewi

Sartika continued what Kartini had started, but she moved beyond the boundaries of her

own class by incorporating the needs of working class women in her struggles. Dewi

Sartika’s famous axiom Nu bisa hirup (Sundanese, meaning you can live) underlined

her belief in the need for women’s empowerment and independence.

The success of Dewi Sartika’s school’s role in improving women’s position was noted

by colonial authorities. Subsequently, similar schools were set up in several places in

65 Rochiati Wiriaatmadja, Dewi Sartika, Departement Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Direktorat Sejarah danNilai Tradisional, Proyek Investarisasi dan Dokumentasi Sejarah National, Jakarta, 1983/1984, p. 94.66 Baroroh Baried, p. 144.67 Ibid., pp. 111 – 112.68 Quoted from Dewi Sartika, p. 110.

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West Java: in Tasikmalaya (1913), Sumedang (1916), Cianjur (1916), Ciamis (1917),

Cicurug (1918), Kuningan (1922) and Sukabumi (1926).69 In the broader scope of the

women’s movement in Indonesia, these schools helped to generate the appearance of

indigenous women in the public sphere. Although such schools by and large

emphasized women’s skills in domestic affairs, the efforts to make women literate

helped raise women’s status. In contrast to Qasim Amin’s ideal of Muslim female

education in 1899 (see above), the new push for female education moved beyond the

domestic sphere. The founding of the mesjid perempuan (women’s mosque)—later

called Mushola Aisiyah—in Jogjakarta in 1920, and supported by Haji Ahmad Dahlan

and his organization Muhammadiyah, could stand as an example of women’s efforts to

create a greater awareness of women in Islam, and of women’s own awareness of their

religiosity.70 After the founding of Mushola Aisyiah other women’s mosques were built

throughout Java. Situating Kartini and Dewi Sartika in the discourses on women, gender

and Indonesian Islam opens up the possibility of making space for women who are

undeniably Muslim, but considered outside the domain of Islam because they are not

“Islamic” enough.

Indonesian historiography on women in Islamic discourses does not stop at Kartini,

Dewi Sartika and Rahmah el-Yunusiah. There is the presence of other women such as

Rangkayo Rasuna Said (1910-1965) and Nyai Ahmad Dahlan (1872-1946). Ulama

Perempuan Indonesia, edited by Jajat Burhanuddin, is one of the few books in

Indonesian recording the names of these earlier Muslim women activists. What is

important about this publication is that it situates their work in Indonesian

historiography.71 Moreover, not only is the publication itself a rarity, the contents shed

new light on women in Islam. The role of ulama perempuan (female clerics) is little

known although ulama perempuan were long present in the Indonesian Muslim world.

The word ulama is usually thought to mean male, never female, despite the fact that the

word ulama is gender neutral.72 Documenting their work extends the world of ulama

beyond merely clerical considerations. This attempt to locate and document ulama

69 Ibid., p. 81.70 Quoted in Vreede-de Stuers, The Indonesian Woman, p. 66.71 Azzumardi Azra, ‘Biography Sosial Intelektual Ulama Perempuan Indonesia’ in Ulama PerempuanIndonesia. This collection of biographies of female ulama in Indonesia is amongst the fewdocumentations of women and their public roles.72 Ibid., p. xxviii.

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perempuan in Indonesia is vital to the historiography of women and gender in

Indonesian Islam, and hopefully it is the beginning of a genre. Besides the names of

women who are prominent figures in religious affairs, the book includes biographies of

those active in social, cultural and political circumstances as well. The biographies call

attention to their contribution in creating and shaping discourses on gender equality in

terms of providing women with similar access as men in many domains of Indonesian

life. These women ‘translated’ Islam into Indonesian settings. Ulama Perempuan

records the stories of women from the colonial period to present day Indonesia.

Juxtaposing women from different times signals the dynamic in which the women were

and are located, and puts them at the heart of discourses on religious and social change

in Indonesia. Other than Ulama Perempuan the lack of documentation on the work of

women is disappointing. Researches to trace other women who struggled for women’s

rights and to place them in Indonesian historiography still need to be undertaken.

Looking at regional biographies or personal diaries might be one of many ways to

accomplish the task.

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Chapter 4

From Global to Local: General Perspective of Gender Issues and Islam in

Post-Independence Indonesia

Woman Discourses and Islam in Post-independence Indonesia

Women’s participation in public life through their involvement in national

movements reached its peak with Indonesia’s independence in August 17, 1945. The

preparatory committee for independence (which included two female members)

wrote the new constitution, which was indeed in the spirit of equality. The

constitution did not recognize any sexual, ethnic or class distinctions, and endowed

both sexes with equal rights and responsibilities toward the nation.1 However,

parallel to the occurrence in Algeria, where women were treated as equal

counterparts of men to struggle against the French colonial power, once the goal of

independence was achieved the domestic sphere was again seen as the best role for

Indonesian women. This was in opposition to the great demand from women to more

fully participate in public life.

In the struggle for independence—known as the Revolution—women were regarded

as equal partners with men working towards one goal: to serve the nation at all cost.

In 1947 Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia, addressed the importance of

women’s independence in his book titled, Sarinah: Women’s Duties in the National

Struggle of the Republic of Indonesia:

Indonesian women, your duty has come! Now join completely in the effort ofsaving the Republic, and later when the Republic is saved, join completely inthe effort to establish a national state. Do not get left behind in the nationalrevolution from the beginning to the end, do not get left behind later in the

1 The Indonesian constitution called Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 Article 6 mentions “presiden ialahorang Indonesia asli” (president is a native Indonesian citizen). The 1945 Constitution of the Republicof Indonesia, Department of Information, Republic of Indonesia 1989, Internet,http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/indonesia/ConstIndonesia.html, (2 December 2005).The article was amended in 2001 saying that the president must be an Indonesian citizen since birthand he/she must never become a citizen of another country. Until today, there have been 6 presidents,mostly Javanese and 1 Makasarese. For the amendments, see The 1945 Constitution of the Republicof Indonesia, Unofficial Translation, Internet, http://www.indonesia-ottawa.org/page.php?s=1010fourth_amendment_const&type=pdf, (2 December 2005).

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effort to set up a society of equal justice and social prosperity. In the societyof social justice and social prosperity you will later become happy women,independent women.2

In Sarinah, Soekarno envisioned a just and prosperous society where all women were

active and regarded as men’s equal partners working for a greater cause, rather than

just in the realm of domesticity. Under the banner of nationalism, Soekarno

endeavoured to move men and women together for the sake of nation building.

However, it should be noted that Soekarno is a complex figure in relation to his

views on women’s roles and issues. On the one hand, Soekarno called for reforms to

improve women’s positions under the interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh),

such as in matters of women’s education, freedom of movement and the use of tabir

(screen) in separating men from women, and in polygamous practices. On the other

hand, at first opposed to polygamy, Soekarno himself later practised polygamy.3 The

complexity of Soekarno’s views reflects the dynamics within the Indonesian

women’s movement in the subsequent years after independence.

Once national independence was gained, Indonesian women experienced a decline in

their roles: from active participation in public culture to mere domestic role:

For in Indonesia, as elsewhere, once the period of struggle had passed andlife, private and public, became stabilized, a deterioration began to showitself in the position of women. During the Revolution women wereindispensable helpers entrusted with important tasks, including that ofMinister; but once the situation was under control, women were competitorsin the eyes of men, to be feared even, since they were now capable ofmanaging public life as well as their own private affairs.4

Although the quotation above seems to be exaggerating, to a certain degree it is true

that many women whose active involvement in national independence was

diminished. Lyrics of a famous song entitled Melati di Tapal Batas (Jasmine in the

border) by Ismail Marzuki, a patriotic song writer during the period of struggle for

independence, tell the tale of Srikandi (a mythical figure)5 who joins men in the

2 Soekarno, Sarinah: Kewajiban Wanita Dalam Perjuangan Republik Indonesia, Inti Idayu Press –Yayasan Pendidikan Soekarno, Jakarta, 1984, p. 247. Translation and emphasis mine.3 Colin, Brown, ‘Sukarno and the Role of Women in the Nationalist Movement’, Review ofIndonesian and Malayan Affairs, vol. 15:1, 1981, p. 79.4 Cora Vreede-de Stuers, The Indonesian Woman, p. 119.5 Srikandi is a female character in Javanese epic Mahabarata. Srikandi was very skilled in war andfought on the side of the five brothers of Pandawa against the villain-enemy Kurawa. Soekarno alsoused this name for women who joined men in the struggles for independence.

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struggle for independence. Srikandi is summoned to her home, to her mother’s lap, in

order to help her with the work in the rice field. Certainly working in the rice field

cannot automatically mean to not have a say in participation in public life, yet the

idea of calling women home from public participation can be seen as a backlash

against women’s effort for emancipation.

In 1938 the Women’s Congress incorporated a demand for voting rights for women

into its agenda. In the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, women were

given the right to vote and the right to stand as members of parliament and be

presidential candidates; in the 1955 general election 17 women were elected as

members of parliament.6 However, in the area of social affairs the enactment of

Undang-Undang (Act) no. 19 of 1952 was a setback for the women’s movement.

This Act said that for a civil servant practicing polygamy (not exceeding four wives),

all his wives were eligible for widow’s pensions.7 Clearly this Act favoured

polygamy by granting and securing the position of extra wives through a civil

servant’s pension benefits. Many women’s organizations protested against the Act,

and brought their opposition to the parliamentary arena through a heated discussion

on the need for the enactment of new marriage laws. Nani Soewondo wrote an article

in “Dimana Undang-Undang Perkawinan?” (Where Are The Marriage Acts?)

contrasting the situation in Indonesia to Tunisia:

It is with envy that we read in the newspapers that Tunisia, a country whichhas only just obtained sovereignty and whose population, like ours, is chieflyMuslim, has passed a bill which aims at protecting the interests of the familyby prohibiting polygamy, by depriving the husband of his power ofrepudiation, and by forbidding child marriages.8

Nani Soewondo’s demands were not achieved. Even the request by some Islamic

women’s organizations to open a discussion on the marriage laws was rejected and

no new legislation came before parliament.

Women’s uneasy acceptance of the Act and their protests to the parliament serve as a

replica of the debates on monogamy in 1937, that also centred on the abuses of

6 Khofifah Indar Parawansa, Hambatan terhadap Patisipasi Politik Perempuan di Indonesia, Internet,htttp:// www.idea.int/publications/wip/upload/CS-Indonesia.pdf, (2 December 2005).7 Quoted in Cora Vreede-de Stuers, The Indonesian Woman, p. 127.8 Ibid., p. 137.

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polygamy and the easy repudiation of marriage from a man’s side. It was not until

the enactment of Undang-Undang No. 1 Tahun 1974 on Marriage that Nani

Soewondo’s question, “where are the Marriage Acts?” was finally answered. For

Islamic marriages, this ordinance was an amendment of Undang-Undang No. 22

Tahun 1946 and Undang-Undang No. 32 Tahun 1954 on the obligation for

registering Islamic marriage, repudiation and reconciliation under civil registration.

Under this a marriage must go through two monitorings: religious codes and civil

registration. This law promotes the principle of monogamy but still leaves

considerable room for polygamy. A critic of the 1974 Marriage Law observes: [it

fails] “to eradicate discrimination against women in marriage, leaving them subject

to religious codes that, for instance, obligate Muslim women to accept [co-wives]

and make divorce easier for husbands to initiate than wives.”9 Leaving personal and

family laws in the hands of religious and adat (customary laws) courts indeed

involves varying degrees of discrimination against women in terms of inheritance,

children’s custody and other issues.10 It should be noted however that such laws are

not necessarily indigenous to Indonesia, as there are similar interpretations across

most of the Muslim world. Modern nation-state building in the Muslim world tends

to ignore family and personal laws that interpret women’s positions and roles in

society, and leaves them to traditional interpretations of religious codes and

customary laws, thus endorsing gender oppression and enslavement.11

Under the 1974 Marriage Law, husband and wife purportedly enjoy equal rights and

position within the family. However, the functional roles in public and domestic

domains are still heavily segregated. The husband functions as the head of the family

and is described as the sole breadwinner of the family. The reality is that based on

the 1999 census, out of 4.3 million poor households in Indonesia, 0.5 million were

headed by women. When this is coupled with the fact of lower wages for women

because they are not considered to be the primary economic support, the “double

burden” for women who have to support the family and at the same time care for the

9 Susan Blackburn, ‘Women and Citizenship in Indonesia’ in Australian Journal of Political Science ,July 1999, vol. 34, issue 2, p. 191.10 Ibid., p. 191.11 See the previous section on legal reforms. See also Amira Sonbol, ‘Introduction’, Women, theFamily, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History, Amira El Azhary Sonbol (ed), Syracuse UniversityPress, New York, 1996.

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household becomes clear.12 Indeed, despite its ideals of granting equal rights and

position within the family that the 1974 Marriage Law proposed, the fact is domestic

roles are still seen as women’s, and public roles as men’s. This does not mean a

woman cannot develop a career outside her home. What is problematic is when her

involvement and achievement in public life is not considered as important as that of a

man. When a woman must work twice as much as a man to attain a certain position,

and when one sex is privileged over the other, such conditions reflect the unequal

opportunity and injustice given to the sexes.

Not until the enactment of Peraturan Pemerintah (Government Regulation) No.10

1983 (PP10/1983) that prohibited male civil servants exercising polygamy did

women’s protests against the practice have success. Although the legislation was

only for civil servants, women’s organizations perceived it as the state no longer

endorsing polygamy. Also, under the law it was very difficult for civil servants to

acquire a divorce as any change in matrimonial relations, such as divorce and

remarriage, had to go through their supervisor. However, in everyday practice such

regulation failed to achieve its ideals, “although intended to protect wives as well as

to create a more harmonious state, the move went along with other measures that

made civil servants’ wives uncomfortably dependent on their husbands. . . . Women

were in effect moving from a small community of subordination to a larger one.”13

However, PP 10/1983 did not stop the practice of polygamy amongst civil servants.

Although the regulation obligated civil servants to submit their marriage to their

supervisor, in theory making it impossible for them to have polygamous marriages,

in practice, co-wives, or kawin siri, were taken. Kawin Siri or Nikah Bawah Tangan

is a marriage legalized in terms of the shari’a, but not registered and recorded in the

state administration of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. It is, so to speak, legal in

terms of Islamic law, yet no civil law recognizes or legalizes it. Kawin siri is

practiced mostly when the first wife refuses her permission for her husband to take a

12 ‘Bias Jender Dalam UU Perkawinan’ and ‘Undang-Undang Nomor 1 tahun 1974 tentangPerkawinan’, Dharma Wanita Persatuan, Internet, http://www.dwp.or.id, (5 July 2003).13 Blackburn, p. 192. With the enactment of PP 10, for example, divorce is made more difficult as itmust have permission from the husband’s official superiors; a wife is then subjected not only by herhusband’s subordination but also bureaucratic and administrative subordination. When a wife files fordivorce, she will need to have permission from her husband and his supervisors.

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co-wife. Indeed, kawin siri is another form of women’s subjugation because it

makes the position of the co-wives absent in the eyes of civil law. If there should be

problems in the marriage, the wife has no legal position whatsoever. The husband

can easily divorce her without providing her and/or their children any alimony, as

civil laws give no legal recognition to the marriage including the offspring of the

union as well as inheritance for the offspring.

The PP 10 is still a locus of controversial debates. While it was amended in 1990 and

became PP 45/1990, there are continuing calls for the regulation to be revoked. On

the one hand, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, the former Minister for women’s

empowerment and Julia Suryakusuma, are amongst those who are demanding the

repeal of this Act. Suryakusuma, a feminist who has researched the practice of

polygamy amongst civil servants for approximately ten years, believes that the Act is

ineffective because the bureaucratic process for a wife to file a divorce against her

husband’s polygamy takes too long. On the other hand, Mrs. Sinta Nuriah

Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian First Lady, and Mrs. Moeloek, the chair

of Dharma Wanita Persatuan are amongst those who claim the Act is still necessary

because in a number of ways it can legally protect women, although they believe the

Act must be amended and revised.14 Both Mrs. Sinta Nuriah and Mrs Moeloek do not

specify the amendments necessary; however, as an example, legislating under PP/10

that a civil servant will lose his job if found practicing kawin siri might be one way

to amend the Act for better conditions for women.

Discourses of Women and Islam Under New Order State

The transition from Soekarno’s Old Order to Soeharto’s New Order was marked by

considerable political turbulence. In Indonesian memory, the birth of the New Order

is significantly a result of the communist revolt known as G30S/PKI, which resulted

in the transfer of power from Soekarno’s Guided Democracy to Soeharto’s New

14 ‘Pro Dan Kontra PP 10’, Dharma Wanita Persatuan.

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Order authoritarian regime. Many studies have been conducted analysing the role of

the state during the New Order. Saskia Wieringa’s extensive research, however,

focuses on the sexual politics of the era, putting considerable emphasis on the

establishment of sexual politics by Soeharto’s regime in order to suppress women’s

political participation.15 Nevertheless, Wieringa’s studies do not identify any

element of religion, that is, the religious identities of the women of whom she writes.

In Hefner’s Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia,16 the author

acknowledges the religious element. Hefner gives various details on the coup of

September 1965 and the book depicts the role of Muslims in the massacre of

hundreds of thousands of Communists. Unfortunately, Hefner’s does not make any

gender differentiation in his finding. What role Muslim women played in the events

that led to the establishment of the New Order regime is unknown, and until today

there remains a gap in the documentation of Muslim women’s discourses of the

period.

Soeharto was declared president in 1966 and his regime interfered greatly in the

public and private lives of Indonesians, to the extent that a large number of state and

private infrastructures became ideological and oppressive state apparatuses. His

government “relied on authoritarian rule in pursuing political stability, economic

growth and the security of the state.”17 Religion and religious life did not escape

from this extension of state power. As Islam was the religion followed by the

majority of Indonesians, its public culture and civil society were shaped by the

entanglement between religion and the state. Kenneth George comments that the

engagement between the state and the umma (community of believers) brought state

control over the ways in which the umma defined themselves.18 Under the New

15 Saskia Wieringa, Sexual Metaphors in the Change from Sukarno’s Old Order to Suharto’s NewOrder in Indonesia, Working Paper Series No. 233, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague - TheNetherlands, 1996. The Birth of the New Order State in Indonesia: Sexual Politics and Nationalism,Working Paper Series No. 332, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague - The Netherlands, 2001.Sexual Politics in Indonesia, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Institute of Social Studies, TheHague – The Netherlands, 2002. ‘The Birth of the New Order State in Indonesia: Sexual Politics inNationalism’, Journal of Women’s History, Spring 2003 vol. 15, issue 1, pp. 70 – 88.16 Robert W. Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia , Princeton UniversityPress, Princeton and Oxford, 2000. See also ‘Public Islam and the Problem of Democratization’,Sociology of Religion, Winter 2001, vol. 62, issue 4, pp. 491 – 514.17 Kenneth M. George, ‘Designs on Indonesia’s Muslim Communities’, Journal of Asian Studies, 57(3) August 1998, p. 697.18 Ibid., p. 698.

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Order every element in society that was capable of being political was either shut

down or banished because it might grow to be in collision with the state power. Such

was the fear of the growth of political Islam that Liddle, referring to the period

before 1998, observes:

[T]the New Order government’s authoritarianism has deeply affected theformation and expression of Muslim values, beliefs, and attitudes. Islamicpolitics since the late 1960s has been so repressed, distorted and channelledthat it is no longer possible to know which views enjoy broad mass supportand which do not. Indeed, in the absence of open political organization anddebate, most ordinary, non-activist Indonesian Muslims probably do not havewell-defined positions on many issues affecting their lives.19

Kenneth George, moving beyond the political sphere takes the interference of state

power to the discussion of social, cultural and religious life. He writes: “the state has

. . . inserted itself into the public sphere as a religious authority of sorts: it offers

judgments upon and legitimations of the role of religion in civic affairs and the daily

life of citizens.”20 However, as George comments, like most communities the

Indonesian Muslim community is porous, it is, therefore, not a closed community,

immutable unaffected by constructions outside its boundaries: it is reactive toward

changes taking place both inside and outside. Indonesian Muslims are “perhaps

always concerned between co-operation and resistance.”21

Indonesian women, Muslim and non-Muslim, reacted in a similar pattern of co-

operation and resistance against the New Order’s attempts to interfere in the ways

they defined themselves. The establishment of Dharma Wanita—a social

organization for the wives of civil servants and for female civil servants—

exemplified the New Order’s approach. Julia Suryakusuma argues that Dharma

Wanita played a crucial role in legitimising state control in the construction of

womanhood in Indonesia by controlling “the activities of civil servants’ wives and

ultimately those of civil servants, whose careers [were] affected by the performance

of their wives in Dharma Wanita.”22 Although Dharma Wanita did not cover the

19 William R. Liddle in ‘The Islamic Turn in Indonesia: A Political Explanation’, Journal of AsianStudies 55 (3) 1996, p. 631, quoted on Kenneth W. George, ‘Designs on Indonesia’s MuslimCommunities,’ p. 699.20 Ibid., p. 699.21 Ibid., p. 700.22 Julia I. Suryakusuma, ‘The State and Sexuality in New Order Indonesia’, Fantasizing the Femininein Indonesia, Laurie J. Sears (ed), Duke University Press, Durham & London, 1996, p. 99.

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majority of Indonesian women its ideals were disseminated throughout the country

because civil servants were deemed to be representatives of the state, and “should

uphold the principles of the state and set an example for the rest of the society.”23

Through Dharma Wanita the state managed successfully to construct what

Suryakusuma defines as the gender ideology of State Ibuism. State Ibuism, she

argues, meant the domestication of Indonesian women as dependent wives whose

existence was to serve mainly their husbands, their families and the state.24 Not only

did Dharma Wanita become a channel for the dissemination of State Ibuism, other

state-sponsored organizations such as the PKK (Pembinaan Keluarga Sejahtera,

Family Welfare Guidance) largely played a similar role. The PKK worked

exclusively at the village and grassroots levels, making it “the primary channel

between the state and village women through which the official ideology is

filtered.”25 Suryakusuma explains further:

State Ibuism defines women as appendages and companions to theirhusbands, as procreators of the nation, as mothers and educators of children,as housekeepers, and as members of Indonesian society - in that order. Ibumeans mother, but the term has been stretched to cover a range of roles.Respected women with no children are addressed as “Ibu.” While a broadconcept, the state uses ibu in its limited, biological meaning. . . . The StateIbuism concept encompasses economic, political and cultural elements. Itderives from the most oppressive aspects of both bourgeois “housewifization”and Priyayi [white-collar Javanese] Ibuism. As in Priyayi Ibuism, itcommands women to serve their men, children, family, community and state.As in “housewifization,” women are assumed to provide their labor freely,without exception of prestige or power. . . . Given the image of the state asfamily, one might call the predominant gender ideology Bapak Ibuism(father-motherism), with bapak [father/man] as the primary source of powerand ibu [mother/woman] as one medium of that power. . . . State Ibuism ispart and parcel of bureaucratic state’s effort to exercise control overIndonesian society.26

State Ibuism fits both state paternalism and military ideology incorporating the state

as “family” that necessitates sacrifice by its members for the sake of its welfare.

23 Ibid., p. 92.24 Ibid., footnote no. 26. Suryakusuma’s notion of State Ibuism is discussed completely in StateIbuism: The Social Construction of Womanhood in the Indonesia New Order, M.A. thesis, Institute ofSocial Studies, The Hague, 1987.25 Ibid., p. 101.26 Ibid., pp. 101 – 102.

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For Muslims, this also fits perfectly with the orthodox-patriarchal interpretation of

women’s role in Islam that sees biological differences between men and women as

ordained, thus women’s “housewifization” as religiously predestined. As in colonial

discourses, contemporary discourses in Indonesian Islam concerning women are very

much in favour of men. Women are still perceived to be men’s inferior, physically

and psychologically weaker, and thus unable to deal with public affairs. Such

orthodox interpretations are based on the Qur’an Sura 4: An Nisaa’ verse 34.27

Clearly in contemporary Indonesia women’s role is deeply defined not only by state

power implemented in the Marriage Law, but by Islam as well, which plays a crucial

part in the process of women’s domestication. One must add that adat is still

influential, especially in Javanese culture. As the Javanese comprise more than forty

percent of the Indonesian population Javanese culture is largely dominant in

Indonesian cultural lives. The role of women is reflected in three prominent Javanese

adat beliefs. The first lies in the saying “konco wingking” (literally meaning

companion whose place is in the back part of the house); the second in “suargo nunut

neraka katut” (meaning a wife will go wherever her husband goes, to hell or heaven,

making her a mere follower of the husband’s deed); and the third says women’s roles

are “manak, masak, macak” (to breed, to cook, and to adorn herself for her husband)

which correlate closely to women’s places in “kasur, dapur, sumur” (bed, kitchen,

doing household jobs). Such Javanese notion of women’s roles and place indeed

corresponds with Priyayi Ibuism that Suryakusuma so strongly attacks. Indonesian

Muslim women must challenge these fundamental beliefs accommodative to

women’s oppression in their endeavour for women’s empowerment. The Javanese

conception of being pasrah (accepting any situation) as the best way to

accommodate change seemingly cannot hold any longer.

Nevertheless, despite the institutionalisation of patriarchal state power, male

interpretations of Islam and paternalism within adat, there is action within the

Islamic community (from both men and women) for change, most notably since the

1990s. Muslim women had raised their voices before but in the mid-1990s—through

27 See Chapter 2.

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activism—they managed to make their voices impossible to ignore. Since then both

individuals and organizations are forging new paths for environments that are women

friendly and accommodative to women’s own religious interpretations. As Istiadah

writes:

The 1990s is an important period for Muslim women in Indonesia becauseduring recent years new Muslim forums and organizations were founded, newIslamic women’s organizations were founded, new Islamic books which aremore liberating to women were launched and the existing Islamic women’sorganizations rearranged their activities to focus more on women’s rightsissues. . . . For the anniversary of Muslimat NU in 1994, this forumconducted a conference on women and published the papers as a book calledIslam and the advancement of women. This means that Muslimat NU is nolonger merely concerned with women and family matters but is alsoimproving its activities concerning women’s self actualisation and women’srights. In 1994 Pustaka Bandung publishers simultaneously publishedIndonesian translations of three famous Islamic books: Women in Islam, byFatima Mernissi, Women in the Qur’an, by Aminah Wadud Muhsin, andMuslim Woman and Social Pathology, by Mazhar Ul-Haq Khan. . . .Indonesian people, especially women’s activists had an opportunity to havedialogue with Ashgar Ali Engineer, the Indian author of the Rights of Womenin Islam and Riffat Hassan, a Pakistani-American Muslim feminist who isconstructing a new interpretation of the Qur’an from a woman’s perspective.Young women Muslim intellectuals with a progressive outlook started tospread discourses to attack Islam and New Order patriarchal system. Peoplesuch as Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, Wardah Hafidz, Nurul Agustina, CiciFarha Assegaf and Lies Marcoes have played an important role in thiscampaign.28

The 1990s has witnessed the shift from State Ibuism to a feminist discourse. This

parallels with a discourse increasingly conservative in Islamist revivalist circles,

making the works Nusyahbani Katjasungkana, Wardah Hafidz and others mentioned

as counter discourse on female seclusion and polygamy expressed in more Middle

Eastern literature imported into Indonesia.

In 1994 Ulumul Qur’an (UQ), a prestigious Islamic journal, published a special

edition on the “woman’s question” in the Islamic environment, looking at

psychological, sociological, cultural and religious issues.29 UQ documented a

number of articles by Indonesian Muslim female and male scholars, ranging its

28 Istiadah, Muslim Women in Contemporary Indonesia: Investigating Paths to Resist the PatriarchalSystem, Working Paper No. 91, Monash University, Clayton Victoria, Australia, 1995, p.11.29 Ulumul Qur’an Edisi Khusus, No. 5 & 6, Vol. V, Tahun 1994.

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discussion from the notion of feminism, Islamic feminism, the evolution of shari’a,

to anti-feminism. The scholars agree upon the universal ethical message of the

Qur’an, which is the spirit of humanism, social justice and equality, emphasizing that

the existing interpretation of gender relation is male biased.30 Many of the writers

have also agreed that although women in Indonesia have enjoyed more freedom than

their sisters in the Arabic world—exemplified by women’s dominant role in batik

trading in Solo, for instance—their social, cultural and economic participation in

public affairs is still largely ignored.31 However, not all articles are supportive of this

criticism of Islamic societies as mostly male biased: some articles are in opposition

to women’s movements. For example, in Ratna Megawangi’s article, ‘Feminisme:

Menindas Peran Ibu Rumahtangga’ (Feminism Oppresses Housewife’s Role),

Megawangi is very critical of feminism because (in her opinion) it generates nothing

but another oppression: of housewives. Megawangi concludes that since women

cannot liberate themselves from biological formation, gender equality is not

necessary, as it creates more problems for women evidenced by the Cinderella

Complex, in which women require men’s protection.32 Megawangi is critical of

radical feminism’s call for equality between women and men at all cost, yet she

neglects the very keystone of feminism, which is freedom in instigating women’s

own voices.

Myra Diarsi, the chair of Yayasan Kalyanamitra, an organization that has undertaken

much research on women’s problems, and also instigated gender training, opposes

Megawangi’s ideas. Diarsi argues that Megawangi fails to grasp the true meaning of

feminism as an idea and methodology that becomes very useful in looking at

inequality.33 Diarsi asserts that indeed feminism was not anti woman’s role as

housewife but considered it a productive profession that needed to be valued. What

feminism challenged was not the role itself, but the hierarchy, ordination and

30 Didin Syafrudin, ‘Argumen Supremasi Atas Penafsiran Klasik QS al-Nisậ’:34’, UQ, Edisi Khusus,p.6.31 ‘Perempuan Dalam Perbincangan’, UQ, Edisi Khusus, p. 50.32 Ratna Megawangi, ‘Feminisme: Menindas Peran Ibu Rumahtangga’, UQ, Edisi Khusus, p. 37.Megawangi is a lecturer in IPB (Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung Institute of Technology). Herspeciality is food and nutrition policy. Claimed to be a follower of Sufism, her writings are muchinfluenced by the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. See her biography in Membiarkan Berbeda:Sudut Pandang Baru tentang Relasi Gender, Mizan Pustaka, Jakarta, 1999, pp. 7 – 8.33 ‘Feminisme Tidak Anti Peran Ibu Rumahtangga’. An interview with Myra Diarsi. UQ, EdisiKhusus, p. 33.

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exploitation that such a role created that eventually benefited one particular gender.

Feminism was against housewifization, as housewifization limited women to only

domestic roles without giving them significant involvement in public roles. It also

aimed to safeguard women from the so-called “double burden” (peran ganda), which

saw women working both outside and inside the domestic sphere, while husbands

were only obliged to work outside.34

Despite the arguments against her article, Megawangi crystallised her arguments

with her publication, Membiarkan Berbeda: Sudut Pandang Baru tentang Relasi

Gender (Leaving Differences as They Are: A New Perspective On Gender

Relations), in 1999. Claiming that her publication functions as the counter-argument

against feminism, Megawangi proposes a conservative view of gender relations:

harmonious gender relations can be achieved if the nature of biological differences

between man and woman are accorded similar respect. She writes:

Here, it is seen that demand to respect the nature of women so they aretreated specially . . . is parallel with demand to respect the nature of men sothey too are treated with special treatment, following their predeterminednature. Both aspects need simultaneous attention, not only on one side. Themajority of women need protection, commitment, love and compassion(except for those minority: feminists and female singletons). This demand isone of many manifestations of the feminine characteristics whose existenceneeds respect. In order that the channelling of feminine characters can workwell, figures of men with nurturing habits are needed: characters ofresponsibility and protecting. Certainly, manifestation of these masculinecharacters necessitates object or locus where there are women (includingchildren) who can guarantee that they are his and depend on him. A wife whosays: “I am depending on you fully,” is an affirmation that her husband is aleader for her. If such mechanism works well in both the male and femaleside, a harmonious life can be built.35

Clearly, Megawangi’s argument is based on the premise that femininity and

masculinity are natural constructions, while social, economic, cultural, political and

geographical conditions are correspondingly ignored. In suggesting that man is a

natural born leader and a woman his dependent, she places women in an inferior

position. She is right in asserting that the family is a significant institution in social

structures and that its role must be reinforced in order to build more egalitarian

34 Ibid., p. 33.35 Ratna Megawangi, Membiarkan Berbeda: Sudut Pandang Baru tentang Relasi Gender, MizanPustaka, Jakarta, 1999, p. 214. Translation mine.

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relations, yet her argument on the way to achieve such relations is extremely

conservative: she demands that household jobs be regarded with respect and

privileges this role for women. Her proposal of housewifization seems to be contrary

to her own public role as a university lecturer since academic institutions are

commonly perceived as promoting women’s roles outside the domestic arena.

Obviously Megawangi’s arguments touch merely upon the utopian level and totally

overlook other conditions that are of major importance in shaping family life in

Indonesia. In a family where economic conditions are such that there is no need of a

wife’s income Megawangi’s ideas might suit, but they allow little room for choice.

She also fails to see that her ideal family is rarely achieved because more than fifty

percent of Indonesian families need the wife to work outside the home for family

sustainability. Her lack of concerns over other contributing factors proves that her

arguments are not so dissimilar with those of orthodox Muslims, who believe that

biological differences alone can relegate gender equality. A Muslim herself,

Megawangi supports her arguments with references from the Qur’an and Hadith to

privilege “positive patriarchy,” emphasising that gender equality can be attained in

batiniyah level (inner level), and not in lahiriah level (physical level). She concludes

that in both man is levelled higher than woman for man is associated with positive,

while woman with negative, therefore to be good means to be man, and such position

is a holy ordination that must not be challenged in order to arrive at harmonious

gender relations. Megawangi’s argument is also premised heavily on man as perfect

husband and father who is not capable of domestic violence against his wife and

children. Her argument radically neglects the reality in many Indonesian households

where domestic violence, including marital rape, is not uncommon. Her proposal to

give a different perspective in viewing gender relations is not ‘new’ but a repetition

of the textual interpretations by Muslim scholars discussed earlier. For Indonesian

feminists and those espousing equal gender relations, Megawangi’s publication is

another celebration of patriarchal oppression of women.

The Islamic feminist movement in the 1990s was not the only movement in the life

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of Indonesian Islam under the New Order. The end of the regime’s policy of

depoliticising Islam towards the late 1980s was marked by the emergence of Islamic

revival movements, such as the Dakwah (the call for God) movement, which began

on university campuses. Within this movement there exists a wide spectrum of views

between groups such as Hizbut Tahrir, Darul Arqam, and Tarbiyah (education)

movement36, which is centred on university campuses. The Tarbiyah is the best

known to the Indonesian public and has the largest number of members amongst

groups in the Dakwah movement. Some groups in this movement call for Indonesia

to be more Islamic—in the Middle Eastern way—with religious clothing, and

segregation and limitation on women’s role. Others, like the Tarbiyah movement,

take a quite different direction although many groups have a similar agenda: to

establish Islamic government in Indonesia. The Tarbiyah is also known as “campus

Islam,” as its major activists were university students and graduates who started their

education or “indoctrination” training in the Salman mosque at the Institute of

Technology Bandung (ITB), then inspired similar activities elsewhere, particularly

on “secular” university campuses.37 Most members and supporters are largely from

university life—many with strong technical and sciences orientations—who were

educated in secular universities in Indonesia and overseas as part of a national

campaign to modernize the nation. Tarbiyah sees Islam as “the only solution” to

overcome Indonesia's multiple problems: through a return to Islamic moral

principles; the Islamic way of life; and the establishment of an Islamic government

(Islamic Caliphate). Members of this movement, through their student organization

KAMMI (Kesatuan Aksi Mahasiswa Muslim Indonesia, Indonesian Muslim students

front), played a considerable part in the collapse of Soeharto’s regime in 1998 and in

favor of President Habibie. Moreover, KAMMI did not want a total shakeup of the

regime contrary to other students movements.

36 Tarbiyah here is a name of a movement as opposed to the general meaning of tarbiyah (education).37 Martin Van Bruinessen, ‘Genealogies of Islamic radicalism in post-Suharto Indonesia’, South EastAsia Research vol. 10, no. 2, 117-154, Internet,http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/genealogies_islamic_radicalism.htm, (8 December 2005).‘Post-Suharto Muslim engagements with civil society and democracy’, paper presented at the ThirdInternational Conference and Workshop “Indonesia in Transition”, organized by the KNAW andLabsosio, Universitas Indonesia, August 24-28, 2003. Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Internet,http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/Post_Suharto_Islam_and_civil_society.htm, (8 December 2005).

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Many see the Tarbiyah movement as mirroring the Ikhwanul Muslimin38 (Muslim

Brotherhood) of Egypt set up by Hassan Al-Banna in 1928. Many are also afraid that

this movement might steer Islam to radical revisionism and revival, which is

potentially dangerous for moderate Islam in Indonesia. However, in contrast to other

Islamic revivalist organizations, the Tarbiyah movement, like the Brotherhood, is

reformist, and relies heavily on modern interpretations of Islam concerned with

democracy, civil society, human rights and equality of women, although these values

are understood differently from common Western notions.39 The jilbab (veil)

movement in secular university campuses, for example, is taken as a sign of religious

freedom. Though the Tarbiyah believes segregation is necessary in public places,

women are perceived as men’s equal, thus deserving rights of equal opportunities in

public roles, especially in political participation. The group has many women

activists, and although in their meetings males and females are separated with

different meeting entrances, women are not to sit behind men, but they sit equal to

men, in segregated space. In the 2004 election for members of parliament, PKS

(Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, Prosperous Justice Party) whose core founders and

members are of the Tarbiyah group allocated thirty eight percent of positions for

female candidates.40 It was the highest percentage of female candidates for election

of parliament members amongst any political party, passing the demanded quota of

thirty percent for female representatives. However, if Tarbiyah discourses have

strong influence on university campuses, such discourses are not without challenged.

Muslim feminists’ discourses of coming from the same campuses and NGOs are

their counter-discourses.

However, the Tarbiyah movement’s espousal of women’s issues in an Islamic setting

complicates even more the dissemination of such issues to the Indonesian public. The

38 Ikhwanul Muslimin is not only an organization but also commonly regarded as a religious, politicaland social movement, calling for the return to an original Islam. Believing that most Muslims hadbeen corrupted by Western influences, Ikhwanul Muslimin sees the Qu’ran and the Sunnah as lawsmandated by God to be applied to all parts of the life of all Muslims, including the organization of thegovernment and the handling of everyday problems. Muslim Brotherhoods have since beenestablished in Middle Eastern countries.39 Ken Miichi, ‘Islamic Youth Movements in Indonesia’, IIAS Newsletter, No. 32, November 2003.See also Ali Said Damanik’s publication Fenomena Partai Keadilan Transformasi 20 Tahun GerakanTarbiyah di Indonesia, Penerbit Teraju, Jakarta, 2002.40 For comparison, PDI allocated 30% for female legislative candidates while PPP 25%. See ‘DilemaPara Caleg Perempuan’, Pikiran Rakyat, Sabtu 17 Januari 2004, Internet, http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/cetak/0104/17/hikmah/lainnya04.htm, (9 December 2005).

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Tarbiyah conceives that male and female are segregated in nature (biological

construction) yet in that segregation lies irreplaceable equality in any sphere and any

value. Segregation aims for self-discipline, including concealing the slightest

demonstration of one’s sexuality in public. Women and men are segregated in public

but can mix in the private sphere if bound in legal marriage. This conception

suggests that Islamic values, regarding human sexuality, are a closed and silenced

system. Indeed, although members of the Tarbiyah movement claim to reject

feminism, in particular they reject liberation of women’s (and men’s) sexuality, as it

is believed to be of Western origin, in fact they subscribe to concepts of sexual

equality while maintaining sexual segregation. The rise of the Dakwah movement

and its various groups has raised concern in Indonesian society that such groups may

pose a threat to civil Islam. However, to see all groups in the Dakwah movement as

militant, radical or even fundamentalist is wrong, the complexity of Islamic

movements requires careful examination as within these movements groups are

fragmented in terms of their interpretations of Islam and its application.

Contemporary Discourse on Women, Islam and Indonesia

In contemporary Indonesia, gender is pervasive in discourses about women’s roles in

society. Although Megawati Soekarnoputri is popularly known to have no concern

for women’s issues, her appointment as a candidate for Indonesia’s fourth presidency

and then her election as the fifth president in 2001 proved that in Indonesia politics

and women can no longer be isolated. How women struggled and what they were

struggling for is now very much in the public arena. Press-liberation since 1998 was

one of the contributing factors. Another was the changing environment in local and

global contexts that have become more responsive and accommodating to women’s

struggles against any oppression. Not only are Indonesian women becoming aware of

their position, they no longer see themselves as the subalterns who cannot speak but

view themselves as the subalterns who indeed speak.

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The Need for New Qur’anic Interpretations

Nurcholish Majid, Ahmad Wahid, Masdar Mas’udi, Ali Yafie, Quraish Shihab and

Wahid Zaini, KH Hussein Muhammad are amongst the progressive Indonesian

Muslim scholars who believe that conventional interpretations of the Qur’an that

privilege one sex over another are mere literal textual interpretations, lacking the real

intention of the ethical message that the Qur’an brings of equality of all humans.

Progressive scholars such as these disseminate a notion of gender equality that rests

firmly upon their more contextual Qur’anic interpretations; they do not stand alone in

their endorsement of contextual interpretations. International scholars, males and

females alike, such as Ashgar Ali Engineer, Amina Wadud, Fatima Mernisi, Seyyed

Hossein Nasr and others, whose books are easily accessible for Indonesian

audiences, agree with their readings. Mas’udi identifies two kinds of verses in the

Qur’an; fundamental and instrumental. Fundamental verses, verses that are fixed

(qoth’i, literally means explicit, thus “clear-cut”, “decisive”) in the Qur’an are

concerned with the principles of egalitarianism and equality, while instrumental

(dzanni, literally means hypothetical, thus “uncertain”) verses as interpreted

contextually explicate more on technical things, as exemplified by women’s dress

code and inheritance. Mas’udi states that the determination whether a verse is fixed

or instrumental depends on the content or level of meaning, and not linguistic

formulation.41 The most popular quoted verse widely used and misused in relation to

gender relation is Sura al-Nisaa verse 34, which in part says, “arrijalalu

qawwaamuuna ’alan nisaa,” meaning men are qawwaamuuna of women. As was

noted in Chapter 2 debate still surrounds the interpretation of the meaning of

qawwaamuuna (men as leaders, protectors, maintainers, guardians, in charge of and

superior to, etc). Indonesian modernists who attempt to give more contextual

meanings for the word insist that its meaning must be contextualised in time and

space. The 7th century Arab society where the Qur’anic verses were revealed was one

41 Istiadah, pp. 7 – 8. Also see Masdar F. Mas’udi, ‘Reinterpreting Islamic Teachings on Women’,Islam and the Advancement of Women, Lily Zakiyah Munir, Abdul Mun’im D. Z., Nani Soraya (eds),The Forum for Islam and the Advancement of Women, Cv. Tunas Pribumi, Jakarta, 1994, pp. 15 – 31.

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of constant tribal warfare, contemporary Indonesia on the other hand, is highly

urbanised, and nomadic and tribal segmentations are not a feature of Indonesian

communities. Lily Zakiyah Munir believes that although textual readings (which

privilege patriarchal domination) are still widely practiced today, the “true” Qur’anic

spirit is one of gender and sexual equality.42 Mere textual readings of the Qur’an and

Hadith, leaving off the revelation’s social-historical roots makes a reading partial and

static, which in the end loses the deeper side of God’s message. New Qur’anic

interpretations are more liberating for women:

The drive in interpreting Al Qur’an is not to interpret women in maleinterpretations in biological, psychological or sociological meaning, but tomake possibilities for women to act in their own free and conscious choicesjust like men. That women have traditional role or completely new role is notthe problem. What matters is that women are free to choose and have theirown decision.43

Drawing on the work of such seminal scholars as Fazlur Rahman, Amina Wadud and

Ashgar Ali Engineer, Indonesian scholars are deconstructing the old/classical

interpretations that are heavily male biased and argue that verse 34 Sura al- Nisaa

shows no superiority of one sex over the other.44 Istiadah writes:

Abdurrahman Wahid . . . argues that the word gowwamun in this verse has ananthropological meaning. By this he indicates that this verse is not the norm,rather this verse explains the situation at the time of this verse was revealed.Although Masdar F. Mas’udi and Quraish Shihab argue that women’s role aseducator of the children is very important, they encourage women toparticipate in public life. Masdar argues that if a wife works for income, theincome belongs to her and need not be shared . . .Quraish Shihab alsoemphasizes that the wife has a right to maintain her own property without herhusband agreement . . . [while] [c]ommenting on a wife’s obligation to obeyher husband, Ali Yafie argues that the husband’s consent is not absolute . . . awife who refuses to have sex with her husband is not automatically sinful. Ifthere is a ‘true’ reason it is not opposed to the religious norm.45

Istiadah concludes that the implication of such new readings by these leading

Muslim clerical scholars is immense. Not only do these influential scholars

42 Lily Zakiyah Munir, ‘ “He is your garment and you are his . . .”: Religious Precepts, Interpretations,and Powers in Relations in Marital Sexuality among Javanese Muslim Women’, Sojourn: Journal ofSocial Issues in Southeast Asia, Oct 2002, vol.17, issue 2, p. 205.43 Didin Syafrudin, p. 10. Translation mine. Didin Syafrudin is a lecturer at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah,Jakarta (formerly IAIN Jakarta). He has written numerous articles on “woman question” in Islam.44 Ibid ., p. 9. Syarudin’s interpretation of this verse is grounded upon Rahman’s, Wadud’s, and inparticular Engineer’s reading of the verse, saying that “bimậ fadhdhalallậh lahum ‘ala ba‘dh (karenaDia (Allah) telah melebihkan sebagian mereka (laki-laki) atas sebagian (yang lain).”45Istiadah, p. 8.

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acknowledge the intense patriarchal system when they reinterpret the Holy

Scriptures, at the same time they also raise women’s awareness of the gender biases

of older interpretations. Istiadah is optimistic that the new readings will circulate

widely amongst the public and not merely to the educated elite, because these

particular male clerics enjoy a high position and respect from Indonesian Muslims.46

The 1990s became a departure point for more liberating interpretations of the Holy

Scriptures that in the end will create more room for Indonesian women’s own

perspectives.

Some New Readings: Revisiting Feminist Theology

Contemporary Indonesia is flooded with new Qur’anic readings and interpretations.

Two prominent scholars, Zaitunah Subhan and Nasaruddin Umar, are Indonesian

contributors to the new feminist theology paradigm discussed in Chapter 2. Both

Subhan and Umar are lecturers at UINs (Universitas Islam Negeri, Islamic State

University), making their writings highly valuable.

Zaitunah Subhan’s Tafsir Kebencian: Studi Bias Gender Dalam Tafsir Qur’an

(Interpretations of Abhorrence Gender Biases Studies in the Interpretations of

Qur’an)47 is highly regarded as one of the pioneering works on women and Islam

written by an Indonesian Muslim woman. Subhan’s research is based on her readings

of three major Qur’anic tafsir (interpretations) circulating in Indonesia—the works of

Mahmud Yunus, Hamka, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. She compares and

examines inter-textually the three tafsirs: her work is a feminist reading of existing

Qur’anic tafsirs by Indonesian ulama. On the verses related to issues surrounding

women such as inheritance, women’s testimony, leadership and female place in the

public sphere, Subhan argues that the three tafsir are heavily charged with gender

bias; placing men as women’s superior. A more contextual reading, rather than a

literal textual reading, reveals the ethical message of the Qur’an. On the meanings of

46 Ibid., p. 10.47 Dr. Hj. Zaitunah Subhan, Tafsir Kebencian: Studi Bias Gender Dalam Tafsir Qur’an, LkiS,Yogyakarta, 1999.

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the word qawwam for example, against the three Indonesian mufassirs (interpreters)

who have translated the word as pemimpin (leader), Subhan reads it contextually,

asserting that the word may mean “penopang, pengayom, atau penegak, penanggung

jawab dan penjamin” (supporter, protector, or upholder, one who is responsible for,

guarantor): meanings which exists only in relation to the condition of a man being

the breadwinner of his family.48 Subhan concludes, in accord with other Muslim

feminist scholars such as Riffat Hassan, Fatima Mernisi, Ali Asghar Engineer and

the like, that careful readings of the Qur’an show no ordained sexual discrimination.

That a woman is created from Adam’s rib; that a woman lacks intellectual reasoning;

that a woman inherits half of a man’s portion; that a woman’s only place is within

domestic walls; that a man is the leader in his household; and that a woman’s

testimony is worth half of a man’s, are merely products of interpretations that benefit

man’s domination over women. Other than biological differences, any sexual

discrimination is socially constructed and therefore must be challenged and reworked

in order to promote social justice and equality.

Nasaruddin Umar’s work is focused on his own interpretations of the Qur’an. In his

extensive writings and discussions in numerous media, Umar is known for his

premise that the Qur’an’s message is one of gender equality. His publications

include, Argumen Kesetaraan Jender: Perspective Al-Qur’an (Arguments of Gender

Equality: The Qur’an Perspective) and Qur’an Untuk Perempuan (Qur’an for

Women). The latter is seminal for its title suggests that Umar’s interpretations of the

Qur’an aim to protect the rights of women.49 Founding his tafsir on numerous classic

Islamic texts and archives that serve as major references for Muslims, Umar proposes

new readings using more critical methodologies—propagated by Western scholars

such as Charles Sanders Pierce, F.D. Schleiermacher, W. Dilthey and others—

covering semantic, semiotic and hermeneutic approaches, and Islamic reading

methods such as theory of asbab nuzul (reasons of revelations) in Ulum al-Qur’an

(Qur’anic sciences) of classic and modern Muslim scholars. Amongst his findings is

that the non-standardisation of punctuation of Qur’anic rasm (Qur’anic writing) may

contribute to different meanings. Different writing (rasm), and a different reading act

48 Ibid., p. 179.49 Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, ‘Qur’an Untuk Kaum Perempuan’ in Nasaruddin Umar’s Qur’an UntukPerempuan, Jaringan Islam Liberal and Teater Utan Kayu, Jakarta, 2002, p. vii.

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(qira’ah), are influential in comprehending and drawing a legal system from Quranic

sources,50 hence reading the Qur’an critically is of vital importance. The existing fiqh

(Islamic jurisprudence) is derived from earlier Qur’anic interpretations that in

Umar’s opinions are outdated. For instance, family law covering matrimonial law

giving the husband more rights than the wife, inheritance law giving a bigger portion

to the son, and political law restricting a woman’s right to have a political career

need to be challenged with new readings that are more gender neutral. Verses in the

Qur’an associated with gender relations based on his findings are not deterministic:

applicable in all times, all spaces, for all men and all women. Those verses are rather

implicit, allowing human logic to arrange distinctive gender roles for human’s own

benefits, and giving freedom to people themselves to select which roles to which sex

best works in order to attain reciprocal common good.51 Umar concludes that his

efforts are nonetheless an itjihad, an interpretation that calls attention to, and is

defensive of one sex—the female. For Umar, gender tafsir is interpretation to

safeguard women’s rights, paving the way to women’s empowerment.

Muslim Women in the Eyes of Law: Their Rights in Private Spheres

In 1997 Masdar F. Mas’udi, a neo-modernist, has published Islam dan Hak-Hak

Reproduksi Perempuan: Dialog Fiqih Pemberdayaan52 (Islam and Reproduction

Rights: The Fiqh of Empowerment Dialogue). Mas’udi’s publication is highly valued

for its authenticity and originality, as it is an interpretation of women’s rights in

Indonesian Islamic settings. Mas’udi’s argument is that reproduction rights as

women’s rights is hardly touched by Muslim scholars in the Islamic world, partly

because it is a controversial issue for the Indonesian public, but mainly because it

challenges the notion that reproduction issues should be a closed corpus discussed

only within the walls of domesticity. In the introduction to Mas’udi’s publication

Saparinah Sadli, a champion of women’s movements in Indonesia, posits that

50 Umar, p. 37.51 Ibid., p. 100.52 Masdar F. Mas’udi, Islam dan Hak-Hak Reproduksi Perempuan: Dialog Fiqih Pemberdayaan,Penerbit Mizan, Jakarta, 1997.

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Mas’udi’s work demystifies general assumptions that women are emotional beings

with no brain, while men are endowed with full rational capacity. Mas’udi uses as

example a dialogue between two women, one a female student of pesantren, the

other her mentor—ibu nyai, the wife of the kyai who usually chairs the pesantren,

discussing women’s issues of reproduction rights from women’s own perspectives,

and grounds the dialogue in everyday language with reference to verses of the

Qur’an and Hadiths. Mas’udi sets out to prove that women are indeed capable of

productive rational reasoning as well as men. In presenting his perspective, Mas’udi

challenges the taboos of discussing sexuality in public because he supports the notion

of woman’s body woman’s rights. 53 He believes that reproduction rights are

women’s rights for any reproduction issue is concerned with woman’s body, locating

her body in the centrality of any discussion.

One of the issues that Mas’udi touches is a woman’s right to decide the number of

children she bears. This is closely linked to contemporary population problems in

Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world and its

population continues to grow rapidly. Mas’udi identifies this problem and engages

with it, placing it within religious settings that affect the everyday lives of Indonesian

Muslim women. He echoes the argument of one Indonesian Muslim woman pioneer

of women’s rights, Maftuchah Yusuf, who asserts that one possible solution to

population problems is granting women reproduction rights: “the wives [must]

decide for themselves how many children they want and when they want them,”

which in return will contribute to altering “female human resources into productive

manpower.”54 Mas’udi outlines five rights that will enable women to be conscious of

their reproduction rights and become empowered: the right to choose her marital

partner; to enjoy sexual intercourse; to decide pregnancy and the number of children

to have; and to initiate repudiation. The author strongly argues that Islam sanctions

these rights for women, despite the fact that they are denied for women in many

contemporary Muslim countries (including Indonesia) because the process of

53 Saparinah Sadli, ‘Sekapur Sirih’, Islam dan Hak-Hak Reproduksi Perempuan.54 Maftuchad Yusuf, ‘Muslim Outlook on the Family in A Changing Society’ in Perempuan, Agamadan Pembangunan: Wacana Kritik Atas Peran dan Kepemimpinan Wanita, Lembaga Studi danInovasi Pendidikan, Yogyakarta, 2000, p. 108. Yusuf is a lecturer in Universitas Negeri Jakarta(Jakarta State University, formerly IKIP Jakarta), she is also an activist in Asian and WorldConference on Religion for Peace.

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decision-making in all issues still lies in the hands of men. Mas’udi concludes that in

terms of gender relations, to achieve justice and equality Islam should be worked and

reworked.

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana is amongst Indonesian Muslim feminists who put

considerable focus on women’s position in legal system. A lawyer herself,

Katjasungkana follows other feminist legal scholars in challenging the Marriage Law

of 1974, which she believes is based on the concept of patriarchy because the role

distinction between the husband and the wife explicated in the articles of the law

produces inequality between the two.55 The application of shari’a (Islamic law) in

Nanggro Aceh Darussalam (NAD—previously the province of Aceh), legalised

under UU No. 44 Tahun 1999, and proposals for similar implementation in several

local regions in Indonesia are controversial. Critics of shari’a implementation argue

that women’s voices are never taken into account in deciding whether shari’a should

or should not be implemented in a region. The contribution of more than half of the

population seems to be intentionally subdued, and such silencing also take place in

other aspects of the legal system that affect women’s lives. Katjasungkana argues

that the Marriage Law in theory, limiting the practice of polygamy, still does not

safeguard women’s rights since abuses and violations—the practice of kawin bawah

tangan or kawin siri—still occur (as discussed elsewhere earlier in this chapter).

Katjasungkana’s critics are vocal, for in Indonesia family life is still regarded as the

core of the community, sustaining its values, norms and traditions. However

Katjasungkana is correct in demanding amendment of the Marriage Law as a matter

of urgency, because its effect at both family and societal levels is immense,

especially in terms of husband and wife relations. One should call attention to the

issue of marital rape that in the consciousness of Indonesian Muslims seems to be

non-existent. Not until recently did the issue of marital rape appear in public

discourse. Previously, from an understanding that Islam requires the wife’s total

obedience to her husband (based on one verse in the Qur’an, Sura An-Nisa verse 34

which says that in order to ensure her obedience, wife beating is sanctioned in Islam

55 Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, ‘Kedudukan Wanita Dalam Perspective Islam (Makalah Pembandingatas Makalah Bustanul Arifin)’, Wanita Islam Indonesia Dalam Kajian Tekstual dan Kontekstual , p.60.

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if the wife is conducting nusyusy—disloyalty and ill conduct), violence against the

wife was not recognisable in the Islamic household. Although many scholars

interpret the verse to mean wife beating should be conducted lightly and not

intentionally to torture, many have misused the verse. However, contemporary

Muslim scholars such as Riffat Hassan, Ashgar Engineer, Fatima Mernisi have begun

to question the judicial legality of the husband’s right to beat his wife,56 and

Indonesian Muslim feminists such as Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin and Farha Ciciek have

begun to address such problem in Indonesian contexts. This is not an easy task for

the fiqh in Indonesia is largely the product of classic interpretation. Drawing on

statistics recorded by Kalyanamitra—an NGO working on women’s issues, Farha

Ciciek’s studies57 show that rape is mostly carried out by those regarded as

“protectors”, such as a father (in the case of a father raping his daughter), or an

employer (in the case of the employer raping the female servant working for his

family). Statistics on marital rape, where a husband forces his wife to have sexual

intercourse, are unavailable, meaning that marital rape is kept secret within the

domestic sphere, seemingly untouched by any legal system. When a case does

manage to reach state authorities the authorities refuse to participate in resolving the

case, claiming that it is a domestic matter. This is also true for domestic violence,

abuse of wife or any other form of violence that happens in the domestic sphere.

Dzuhayatin argues that marital rape is not defined as such because marriage itself is

defined in a patriarchal mode where the husband has power over his wife.58 If

marriages were built on the concept of equal sexual relations, marital rape would be

viewed as the imposition of force.59 Codification of the Indonesian legal system has

yet to include articles concerning marital rape, but raising the issue in the public

sphere is crucial if new and better gender relations are to be won for women. A verse

in the Qur’an referring to the matrimonial relationship states: “they are your

56 Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin, ‘Marital Rape, Suatu Keniscayaan?’ Islam dan Konstruksi Seksualitas,Edy Santosa (ed), PSW IAIN Yogyakarta, The Ford Foundation and Pustaka Pelajar, Yogyakarta,2002, p. 120.57 Farha Ciciek, ‘Perkosaan terhadap Perempuan di Ruang Domestik dan Publik, in Islam danKonstruksi Seksualitas, p. 114.58 Dzuhayatin, ‘Marital Rape Suatu Keniscayaan?’ pp.123–124.59 Ibid., p. 129.

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garments and you are their garment….”60 This verse alone definitely guarantees

mutual and equal nuptial relations in which both sides are endorsed with equal

responsibilities and rights. Therefore, denying the existence of marital rape by saying

that it is impossible in Muslim households is denying the very notion of equality and

justice in Islamic teachings.

Jilbab: Between the Politics of Identity and the Body Politics

There has never been any discourse that puts Muslim women’s private matters into

the public arena more than the discourse on jilbab.61 In Indonesia, jilbab is another

name for terms such as chador in Iran, purdah in India or Pakistan, milayat in Lybia,

charshaf in Turkey, hijab in some African-Arab countries such as Egypt, Sudan and

Yemen.62 Although the term jilbab is not intended to be a simple translation of those

terms mentioned there is a close association. In Indonesia jilbab is a head cover that

considerably diverts from the type called kerudung commonly donned by Muslim

women of an older generation although some younger female Muslims such as Yeni

Wahid, the daughter of the former president Abdurrahman Wahid, wears it as well.

Indonesia today is no different than many other Islamic countries in the growing

number of female Muslims donning jilbab, especially in urban areas. In the mid-

1980s the wearing of jilbab was not encouraged by the state; words such as jilbab

beracun (poisonous jilbab) were not uncommon and the wearing of jilbab was

criticised as a manifestation of Arabic influence and not an Islamic one. The state

even prohibited the donning of jilbab in public non-religious schools and government

offices and female Muslim students of those schools were denied their schooling

rights if they refused to unveil themselves and also female civil servants in their

60 Al Qur’an Sura 2 Al Baqarah: 187, in which Yusuf Ali elucidates “Men and women are eachother’s garment: i.e. they are for mutual support, mutual comfort, and mutual protection, fitting intoeach other as a garment fits the body. The question of sex is always delicate to handle: here we aretold that even in such matters a clear, open, and honest course is better than fraud or self-deception.”61 Jilbab and veil or veiling in this discussion will be used interchangeably. As various as itsmeanings, it also come in various forms and styles. This discussion will not include the variety of itsforms and styles because the purpose of this discussion is to provide a general perspective of veilingmovement in Indonesia. In this respect, its various forms and styles are discarded.62 Nasaruddin Umar, ‘Fenomenology Jilbab,’ Kompas Cyber Media, Monday, 25 November 2002.

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offices. These students went on strike demanding their right to veil and to assert their

identity as devout Muslims. Jilbab was used to signify that they were Muslims of the

santri class and thus different from the non-santri class. Political and social shifts

have changed the situation. Nowadays, the donning of jilbab is no longer seen as an

adherence to a foreign mode of dress, or as symbolic of resistance to the oppressive

power of the state, nor does it differentiate santri from non-santri, it is seen as

choice. In her study of jilbab donning for Javanese Muslims, Suzanne Brenner

comments:

In Java the growing trend among women toward wearing Islamic clothing(“veiling”) challenges local traditions as well as Western models ofmodernity. Analysis of Javanese women’s narratives of “conversion” toveiling against the background of the contemporary Islamic movementreveals that veiling represents both a new historical consciousness and aprocess of subjective transformation that is tied to larger processes of socialchange in Indonesia. In producing themselves as modern Muslims, veiledwomen simultaneously produce a vision of a society that distances itself fromthe past as it embarks upon a new modernity.63

Brenner’s study, although limiting itself to the narratives of women from the

educated middle-class (college and university students), indicates that veiling is

linked closely with the politics of identity. Being modern, being a “good” Muslim,

being non-Western are amongst the raison d'être of veiling. In the construction of

one’s identity as a devout Muslim jilbab is seen as a form of acceptance of Islamic

discipline and more religious commitment.64 Herein, jilbab symbolises the so-called

“purification” of being a “true” and “good” Muslim through the exercising of self-

discipline and self-obedience. Nonetheless, as in the global context, discussed in the

preceding chapter, there are similar meanings of either imprisonment or liberation in

the Indonesian context. The implementation of shari’a in Nanggro Aceh Darussalam

requires both men and women alike to cover their bodies according to the standards

set by Islam. This means that men must wear at least knee-length shorts or trousers

and buttoned shirts while women are to don jilbab. In Banda Aceh, the provincial

capital, shari’a police often carry out inspections in order to make sure that people

have followed this regulation in public spaces. However, women become the main

targets and men are rarely inspected. The implementation of shari’a is often

63 Suzanne Brenner, ‘Reconstructing Self and Society: Javanese Muslim Women and “the Veil”’,American Ethnologist, November 1996, vol. 23, no. 4, p. 673.64 Ibid., p. 684.

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criticised for it emphasizes symbolic meanings (such as veiling for women) rather

than completely exercising Islamic ideals of social justice and equality. Interestingly,

studies show that the majority of female sexual workers in NAD also veil themselves

in order to cover their identity. In an attempt to gain respect and recognition in public

life these women disguise their identity by masquerading themselves with an item of

clothing that is commonly charged as a symbol of Islamic decency and morality.65

Some occasions also highlight the temporality of jilbab wearing. For example, jilbab

wearing by Indonesian celebrities (actresses, movie stars, singers), especially in

television programmes during Ramadhan (the fasting month). Such a trend is

adopted more as a means of marketing strategy, than as religious commitment, for

when Ramadhan is over these women simply unveil. Further, there are women who

wear jilbab only when they go to work; others only on special or formal occasions

such as weddings, religious celebrations and rites of passage celebrations. Jilbab

donning on these occasions simply relates to the occasion. Certainly on formal

occasions wearing jilbab can hold a statement of religious identity, but at the same

time it is also a fashion statement.

Jilbab as an item of clothing indeed covers both private and public spheres in

Indonesia, and there are diverse discourses on the significance of donning jilbab.

Some scholars comment that the Qur’an and Hadith have no settlement on the

obligation of jilbab wearing for women: seeing jilbab imposition as an

institutionalised local practice rather than normative teaching. For these scholars

women themselves should decide whether to veil or not.66 Others, such as Islamists,

say that veiling is an obligation, those without it will be condemned to be kafir (non-

believer, non-Muslim). For them, jilbab is the political manifestation of their

resistance to secular government, and of their commitment to the establishment of an

Islamic state in Indonesia. In charging jilbab with political meaning they thus pull it

from the female private domain into the public arena.

65 Lily Munir (2002) quoted in Sri Rahayu Arman, ‘Jilbab: Antara Kesucian dan Resistansi,’ JaringanIslam Liberal, Internet, http://www.islamlib.com, (21 March 2003).66 In Indonesia, discourses on the veil are formulated in two divergent arguments; those who oblige itand those against it. Writings on both views are easily accessible (and abundant), either in Indonesiantranslation of Arabic sources, or in writings by Indonesian Muslim scholars. It is impossible tomention each work here.

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Umar observes that jilbab may serve symbolically as a signification of fashion,

privacy and resistance.67 However, as a clothing element attached to a woman’s

body, jilbab should be included in the politics of woman’s body woman’s rights. The

politicisation of veiling is an upshot of the plurality it bears; it may suggest an

ideological conception of a certain group, it may play as a social phenomenon, it may

be used as a sexual segregation, it may denote a patriarchal symbol, it may also

represent a special restriction, it may engender self-empowerment, and so forth.

Jilbab is then a pluralistic phenomenon, having layers of meanings and contexts,

depending on the perspectives of the wearers. Simple reduction of symbols into one

meaning may erode the complexities it builds and is built upon.

Muslim Women in Public Sphere: Active Participation and Education

Analogous to women in other Muslim countries, Indonesian muslimah (Muslim

women) have long demanded a claim to public life. Although, as previously noted,

Indonesian Muslim women traditionally enjoyed more freedom compared to their

sisters in the Arab world, this does not automatically mean that they are granted

equal access and authority in public realms. Still, changes are taking place. This is

shown with the recent edict (Undang-Undang Pemilu 2004, General Election Act

2004) that compels political parties in institutions of people’s representatives to have

at least thirty percent of women amongst the representatives. Although women make

up more than half of Indonesia’s population, before the enactment of the quota their

representation was much less then thirty percent (from 1999 – 2004 44 women were

members of parliament – 8.8% of total members).68 The major reason for the lack of

female political participation lies in the patriarchal hegemony in Indonesian cultural

life that privileges men over women in political leadership, but poverty and the

higher illiteracy rates of women are also critical factors.69 The imposition of quotas

67 Umar, ‘Fenomenologi Jilbab,’ p. 1.68 Kofifah Indar Parawansa, ‘Hambatan Terhadap Partisipasi Politik Perempuan di Indonessia’, p. 5.69 Percentage of persons aged 15 and over who can read and write (adult literacy rate) for male in year2000 is 92 and female 82, UNESCO (United Nations Children’s Fund), Internet,

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did not pass without a struggle, but nevertheless women are now recognised as

political actors and their position is secured legally. The goal of women’s

organizations is to reach a quota of fifty percent.

Defenders of women’s rights from the older generation of ulama, such as Ali Yafie,

Quraish Shihab, Abdurrahman Wahid, Zakiyah Daradjat, Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi

and Maftuchah Yusuf, and certainly other Muslim feminists of the younger

generations, such as Masdar F. Mas’udi, Zainatun Subhan, Siti Nurhayati Dzuhayatin

and Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, agree that women’s rights are to include women’s

place in public spheres, and also agree that the exclusion of Indonesian women from

the public arena was a product of socially and culturally constructed interpretations

of the Qur’an and Hadith. Women are encouraged to become political actors by

becoming town mayors and members of city councils, as well as leaders in the

economic field. Alongside its enactment of quotas for political participation the state

has introduced other measures to encourage women in public life: for example, Law

No. 7/1984 on the Women’s Convention, and the Manpower Law No. 25/1997,

amended to eliminate discrimination in work promotion and training, payment and

social security.70 Nevertheless, disparity between the reality and the ideal is still

wide, and the election of a female president did not stop the controversy over

women’s roles. Moreover, there are differences between the views of the older and

younger generations of scholars. Many of the older generation of ulama, whilst

agreeing that women can involve themselves in public participation, insist they must

not abandon their nurturing role of motherhood, or their domestic role based on their

biological disposition as female:

There are many things women can do, managing household, becoming awife, a mother, an educator, taking care of children. Those are responsibilitiesand rights of women. Then, working or socialising, be it in economic sphere .. . or carrying a gun in a war. All we do should not deny our kodrat[predetermined sex] as women because it is as a woman that Allah grants adifferent physical condition. . . . However busy a woman is, she must sparesometime for her family.71

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/indonesia_statistics.html, (5 December 2005).70 Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat Ambassador of the Republic Indonesia, ‘Prologue’, Women inIndonesia: Gender, Equity and Development, Kathryn Robinson and Sharon Bessell (eds), ISEAS,Singapore, 2002, pp. xiii – xxv.71 Zakiyah Daradjat, ‘Peran Ganda dan Kepemimpinan Perempuan’, Memposisikan Kodrat:Perempuan dan Perubahan Dalam Perspective Islam, Lily Zakiyah Munir (ed), Penerbit Mizan,Bandung, 1999. Translation mine.

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On the other hand, those of the younger generation who are feminists by definition

believe that gender is a matter of social construction; women’s domesticity thus must

not hamper women’s involvement in public participation. It is for women themselves

to decide which sphere they want to inhabit; whatever the choice, it is a reflection of

women’s liberation in social, political and economic life. Dzuhayatin writes:

Being married or single, willing to have or not to have children, choosing acareer or being housewives are all issues that should be resolved on the basisof women’s own choices. No one has the right to interfere in these decisions.Not even the husband or the state has the right to assert control over awoman’s body or mind.72

What Dzuhayatin and other feminists of her generation offer is crucial, as it

exemplifies a paradigm shift in the notion of women and their public positions. The

growth of global discourses on women and development has had a strong influence

on women’s movements in Indonesia, to the extent that the younger generation no

longer sees domesticity as an obligation for women. For them, the notion of

motherhood becomes less important in shaping women’s status; and a woman’s

decision to get married or to stay single is not determined by women’s kodrat.

However, in a country like Indonesia where motherhood is highly revered—

grounded in the Hadith saying that paradise lies at the feet of the mother and that

those who are not married are not Muhammad’s umma—celibacy, particularly

female celibacy is not encouraged. Although there has been an increase in the

marriage age for females, those choosing celibacy are usually frowned upon, partly

because they are single, thus commonly perceived to be feminists, and partly because

the ideal role of womanhood in Indonesia is becoming a wife and, more importantly,

becoming a mother.

In the author’s interview with Haleh Afshar, a prominent feminist, a lecturer in

politics and women’s studies at the University of York, United Kingdom and an

expert on women in Islam,73 she commented that within contemporary interpretations

72 Dzuhayatin, ‘Gender and Pluralism in Indonesia’, p. 205.73 Afshar has written books: Islam and the Post Revolutionary State in Iran (1994), under thepseudonym Homa Omid, and Islam and Feminisms (1998). A member of the Development Studiessubject group and has edited 11 books; including Women, Globalization and Fragmentation in theDeveloping World (1999), edited with Stephanie Barrientos and Development, Women, and War

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of Islam single woman had no place because Islam regards motherhood as the

highest and noblest role awarded to women.74 Within such a framework, a woman’s

choice of celibacy will certainly be rejected. However contextual readings of the

words of the Prophet are not to be dismissed in interpreting his words within the

framework of recent situations. In the Prophet’s time marriage was one means of

protection: a man was responsible for protecting his female family members while a

woman could gain protection through marriage. In the light of today’s situation in

Indonesia, new readings of the Prophet’s sayings need to be contextualised so that

the élan of his words will not transgress the spirit of justice and equality he promoted

in the name of Islam.

Single Indonesian women today play a crucial part in contributing to the nation’s

economic and social life. In 2003, more than half of all females aged fifteen and

above engaged in the production of goods and services: in the same category the

female activity rate is 56.3 percent compared to men.75 Although the data supplied by

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) does not specify the number of

single females, given the large number of female labour force participants, certainly

many would be single. Single women then cannot be excluded from national

discourses on gender and Islam simply because they are not married. In spite of the

divergent opinions about women’s issues and women’s own choices to marry or

remain single, the urgency to keep up with the modernisation process has united the

voices of the women of earlier and younger generations. They agree that women’s

backwardness must be eliminated and women themselves must see self-improvement

as an obligation.76 Only in that way can the many cultural and traditional practices

and discriminatory laws that still hinder the on-going process of women’s

empowerment be overcome.

(2004) edited with Deborah Eade, she is also a founding member of the Muslims Women’s Network.In 2005 she was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities.74 An Interview with Haleh Afshar, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom, 10 September 2005.75 UNDP, Internet, http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/countries.cfm?c=IDN, (8 December 2005).76 Zakiyah Daradjat, ‘Peran Ganda dan Kepemimpinan Perempuan’, pp. 115 – 125, Aisyah HamidBaidlowi, ‘Peran dan Tanggung Jawab dalam Pemberdayaan Kaum Perempuan’, pp. 125 – 132 inMemposisikan Kodrat, Yusuf in Peran Agama dan Pembangunan, and many other similar articles ofyounger scholars.

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Mahnaz Afkhami identifies twelve points which can serve as a Platform for Action in

improving women’s human rights: poverty, education, health, violence against

women, effects of armed conflict, economic structures and politics, inequality of men

and women in decision making, gender equality, women’s human rights, media,

environment and the girl child.77 In her well-crafted “Platform for Action” she argues

that one major way to make women come to a realisation that their rights are being

denied is through education. Afkhami is correct. Education is an essential way

through which women can gather experience and knowledge and implement gender

equality. Education is a powerful means for social transformation. The state policy of

implementing wajib belajar (an obligation for all Indonesian children—male and

female—to join elementary education at least from year 1 to year 6) is critical in the

drive for education as a means to social transformation. However, for a number of

reasons including poverty, geographical isolation and the persistence of child labour,

a sizeable number of Indonesian youth are still denied their right to education. In her

platform to promote women’s right to education Afkhami does not nominate a

specific type of education model but proposes:

An educational model that forms the basis for the manual aspires to bemultidimensional and to develop a framework that can easily be used toconvey universal concepts in association with indigenous ideas, traditions,myths and texts rendered in local idiom.78

If Afkhami’s proposals are to be followed, models of educational reforms will need

to take account of both local and regional issues. The implementation of regional

autonomy (otonomi daerah) in Indonesia may well best suit Afkhami’s proposals. As

regional autonomy “[is] meant to revitalise adat or local custom” and “[is] intended

to support democratisation in accord with the spirit of reformasi: that is, not a return

to old hierarchical structures, and gender-biases,”79 regional autonomy will render

various models in local contexts. As various as the models may result one may

expect a uniformity of such varieties, that is, with an underlying premise that

education rights do not contradict the spirit of Islam of equality and justice. Regional

autonomy, for instance, has seen the implementation of shari’a in several regions;

77 Mahnaz Afhkhami, ‘Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women’s Human Rights Education inMuslim Societies’, Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation: Implementing the BeijingPlatform, Mahnaz Afkhami and Erica Friedl (eds), Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, 1997, p. 109.78 Ibid, p. 109.79 Robinson and Bessel, ‘Introduction’, Women in Indonesia, p. 7.

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thus several interpretations, and where shari’a is implemented ulama and members

of regional parliament are powerful in the interpretations.

Islamic Feminism in Local Perspectives

Parallel to previous discussion on Islamic feminism, Indonesians’ acceptance of this

term is also varied. The shifting paradigm from Woman in Development to Gender

and Development, helps to adapt the conception of Islamic feminism into Indonesian

contexts. Indonesian Muslim feminists, including Wardah Hafidz, Lies Marcoes,

Nurul Agustina, Farha Ciciek, Siti Ruhaini Dzuhatin, Saparinah Sadli and many

other advocates of women’s rights, are using feminist perspectives to locate women’s

issues as an integral part of national social issues. They are endeavouring to

deconstruct the various normative religious notions of gender relations that are

commonly used by the patriarchy to sustain their hegemony.80 These feminists no

longer emphasise their stipulation of women’s opportunity in public participation,

but they require equal gender relations in all aspects of lives. Unfortunately their

work is not without challenge. The rejection of feminism, especially within the

Islamic paradigm, strongly reflects societal perceptions that feminism is of Western

origin, a construction designed by the “enemy” of Islam to attack Islamic values.81

Parallel with the global context, it is a perception of feminism typical of conservative

and orthodox doctrines, while in accord with the global context Muslims of liberal or

moderate doctrines tend to welcome the feminist movement. According to Wardah

Hafidz, a leading Indonesian Muslim feminist, feminism can be classified as a

counter-culture to set values in the society that are already deeply imbued with the

authority of patriarchy.82 Feminism confronts the legitimacy of this patriarchy. In the

end, feminism and its derivative—Islamic feminism—struggle in order to build a

better society for both men and women where individual freedom is recognized and

guaranteed under a non-discriminatory legal system. It is believed that Islam was

80 Budhi Munawar-Rachman, ‘Penafsiran Islam Liberal atas Isu-Isu Gender dan Feminisme’ in IslamPluralis: Wacana Kesetaraan Kaum Beriman, Penerbit Paramadina, Jakarta, 2001, p. 391.81 Wardah Hafidz, ‘Feminism sebagai Counter-Culture’, UQ, Edisi Khusus, p. 3.82 Ibid., p. 3.

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founded to eradicate any discrimination, creating an ideal community in which the

underpinning ideology is justice and equality. Such was the community envisioned

by the Prophet Muhammad, and Islamic feminism can be viewed as a rebirth of this

vision.

The following chapter will discuss the historiography of female writers in Indonesian

literary life. The chapter functions as a bridge between the notion of Islamic

feminism and women’s issues in the global and local contexts and the ways

Indonesian women writers take such issues into their writings.

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Chapter 5

Muslim Women Writers in Indonesian Literary Tradition: Walking Their Path for

Existence

The chapter explores the intersection of gender issues and Islam in Indonesian literature,

and discusses how such issues are perceived, analysed and criticised. It is not intended as

a detailed historiography of the works of all women writers, as selection and preference

are necessary in order to limit the discussion to within reasonable bounds. Rather, the

emphasis is on the general ways that women’s writing was, and is, perceived by its

Indonesian audience. As part of the complex discourse on gender and Islam, Indonesian

Muslim women writers are inseparable from the narratives they have created: narratives

that focus on female characters and their responses to their surrounding adversities.

Following the more general discussion of the writings of women, and about women, in

the Indonesian literary tradition, the four Muslim women authors—Titis Basino, Ratna

Indraswati Ibrahim, Abidah El Khalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa, whose writings are

selected for a more in-depth analysis in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7, are then located within

that same tradition.

Note: As Indonesians commonly do not carry their family name, where it is the one most

frequently used, reference is to the first name.

Women and Writings in Indonesian Literature: A Brief Overview

Literature in Colonial Rule

It goes without saying that national language contributes considerably to the existence of

national literature. As far as the emergence of Indonesian national literature is concerned,

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A. Teeuw, a respected critic of Indonesian literature, suggests that sastra Indonesia

modern (modern Indonesian literature) began in the 1920s with the adoption of Bahasa

Indonesia (Indonesian language) as the official and national language of Indonesia in

1928.1 Teeuw’s periodising of the history of Indonesian literary tradition beginning with

the establishment of Balai Pustaka (a literary bureau founded by the Dutch colonial

government in 1917); followed by Angkatan Pujangga Baru (Generation 1920s),

Angkatan 45 (Generation 1945) and lastly Angkatan 66 (Generation 1966, as suggested

by H. B Jassin) is well received by the majority of Indonesian literary critics. Such

periodising is by no means rigid, and furthermore does not cover all individual writers. It

is simply a means of categorising a certain period of literary development and to

acknowledge a certain author or groups of authors who are largely associated with a

given period.2

Despite Teeuw’s widely accepted periodising of modern Indonesian literature and its

beginnings, Maier suggests a different view to include more than bahasa Indonesia texts

as a starting point. The Malay language was known to be heteroglossia—it included all

possible varieties, such as Dutch-Malay and Malay-Dutch.3 Used in different varieties

within a single linguistic code, Malay literature also needs to incorporate writings of the

Chinese in the Indies. In Tempo Doeloe Antologi Sastra Pra-Indonesia (1982)

Pramoedya Ananta Toer similarly argues that all varieties have to be considered.

However, Pramoedya classifies Dutch-Malay, Malay-Dutch and Chinese writings from

the 1800s to the 1900s as pre-Indonesian literature, because the Malay used is Malay

pasar (bazaar Malay) or “low” Malay and not the “high” Malay that the colonial

government later ordered to be taught in schools.4 If Maier’s and Pramoedya Ananta

1The ideal of having Indonesian unity, in nation, language and presumably culture was proclaimed at the

all Indonesia Youth Congress, in Jakarta, 28 October 1928. The Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Oath) of 1928 iscelebrated as an important historical event in Indonesia. 1 A. Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature VolumeI & II, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1979. H.B. Jassin, Angkatan ’66 Prosa dan Puisi, Gunung Agung,Djakarta, 1968.2 Alberta Joy Freidus, Sumatran Contributions to the Development of Indonesian Literature, 1920 – 1942,The University Press of Hawai’i, Hawai’i, 1977, p. 20.3

H.M.J. Maier, ‘From Heteroglossia to Polyglossia: The Creation of Malay and Dutch in the Idies,’Indonesia, No. 56 (October), 1993, Cornell Southesat Asian Program, pp. 37 – 65.4 Pramoedya Ananta Toer, ‘Sepatah Kata Perkenalan,’ Tempo Doeloe Antologi Sastra Pra-Indonesia,Lentera Dipantara, Jakarta, 2003, 1982, pp. 8 – 26. “High” Malay refers to the Malay used in the books

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Toer’s arguments on the relevance of language varieties are taken into account, then

certainly Indonesian literature, with Malay writings as pioneer, would commence long

before Teeuw’s proposal of the 1920s.

Teeuw’s classification, focusing only on narratives using “high” Malay or Malay taught

at schools, discriminates against and marginalizes those publications using bazaar Malay.

Pramodya’s selection of such narratives in Tempoe Doeloe -- F. Wiggers’s Dari Boedak

Sampe Djadi Radja (1898), G. Francis’ Tjerita Njai Dasima (1896), H. Kommer’s Nji

Paina (1900) and Kong Hong Nio (1900), F. Pangemanann’s Tjerita Si Tjonat (1900) and

Tjerita Rossina (1903)—all commonly associated with Dutch-Malay or Malay-Dutch,

and Tio Ie Soei’s Pieter Elberveld—associated with Chinese-Malay, still fail to be

incorporated into mainstream Indonesian literary tradition. Writers of Dutch-Malay and

Chinese-Malay background are not the only ones excluded: Bumipoetra writers

(indigenous writers) also suffer similar discrimination. Writers such as R.M. Tirto Adhi

Soerjo with Doenia Pertjintaan 101 Tjerita yang soenggoe terjadi di Tanah Periangan

(1906) and Tjerita Njai Ratna (and his many other works including fiction, non-fiction

and journalistic reports) are left out of the canon of Indonesian literature. Teeuw’s

privileging of Balai Pustaka writers and the use of “high” Malay reflects the influence of

colonial attitudes to the cultural life of Indonesia. For example, during the colonial

period publications which were supportive of the nationalist movement and against

colonial policies were labelled as bacaan liar, literally meaning “wild” books; such

books were mostly written in bazaar Malay. Indeed, the use of language functioned as a

means to channel anti-colonial sentiment; opposing “low” Malay (the colonized subject)

to “high” Malay (the colonizers). Without the inclusion of both high and low Malay,

Teeuw’s claim for the beginning of modern Indonesian literature does not stand on solid

ground.

Zuber Usman, for example, arguing against Teeuw, comments that the writings of

Abdullah bin Abdulkadir Al-Munsji (1796 – 1854), which were published by Balai

later taught at the colonial schools. “Bazaar” Malay was used by ordinary people in everydaycommunication and also in writings.

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Pustaka in 1920, had earlier been written in Malay, the root language of Bahasa

Indonesia.5 Besides Abdullah there were others such as Radja Ali Hadji and his sister,

Siti Saleha. However, Usman is loath to include the latter two in modern Indonesia

(sastra modern) literature due to their different writing contents. That is, if Abdullah’s

writing suggests a break from a traditional standard, the other two are placed within that

standard. Here, “modern” is taken to mean that the content of such writing is a critical

analysis of the world surrounding its author, and not simply a description of it.

Abdullah’s writings were a break from “traditional” writings because he inserted his own

perspective, his individual sentiment into his writing. This was in contrast to the quality

of kesusastraan lama (old literature, meaning “traditional” literature), which simply

described the adat laws (customary laws) and the society. Although Abdullah’s work is

still classical in style with the use of maka, syahdan, alkisah (meaning once upon a time),

Usman argues that Abdullah’s modernity lies in his endeavour not to apply Malay

“traditional” manners, like magical stories or stories created around royal characters or

historical figures, hikayat (long prose narratives), syair (long poetic narratives) or poetic

quatrains known as pantun, or religious works or Malay translations of foreign

manuscripts. Following Hooykaas, Usman then places Abdullah as a pioneer in modern

Malay/Indonesian literature.6

It should be noted that Teeuw, Maier, Pramoedya and Usman, make printed writings and

not oral composition the focus of their classifications. The absence of oral composition

in their categorisation is certainly problematic as the oral tradition was interconnected

with writing in Malay literature. In a highly oral-based society such as early Malay,

measuring literary tradition in terms of only the print-culture tradition could lead to a

misunderstanding of the shift from oral to written composition.7 Amin Sweeney argues

that it is necessary to study both oral and written tradition in Malay literature to avoid any

attempt of “othering” Malay oral culture. He posits:

5 Zuber Usman, Kesusasteraan Baru – Indonesia dari Abdullah bin Abdulkadir Al – Munsji sampai kepadaChairil Anwar, Penerbit Gunung Agung, Djakarta, 1957, pp. 11 – 19.6 Ibid., p. 18.7Amin Sweeney, A Full Hearing: Orality and Literacy in the Malay World, University of California Press,Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1997.

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Clearly, an understanding of the workings of oral composition, both stylised andnonstylized, and written composition, be it in the form of manuscript or print, canresult only from a study of the interaction between those two forms in the contextof Malay discourse as a whole. A comparison of material imposed in thesevarious forms reveals certain distinctive features attributable to the nature ofmedia employed.8

Arguably Sweeney’s proposal is crucial in scrutinizing the historiography of Malay

literature, particularly Indonesian literature, which today is still highly based on the

imposition of print-culture (sastra tulis) and still largely ignores oral literature (sastra

lisan). Following Ong’s insight of orality as also literacy,9 Sweeney observes that oral

literacy and print literacy are continuously interconnected. The fact that there has been no

radical break in the shift from oral to print, he argues, has resulted in modes of

expressions similar to those of oral composition such as paratactic, formulaic, copious

and repetitive.10 Should oral composition be included in the Malay literary tradition? To

do so would certainly change the timing of its development and history. However, the

following discussion on the history of Indonesian literature is unfortunately still largely

based on the documentation of printed writings, as the core of this thesis is to provide

analysis of Indonesian Muslim women’s writings. However in Chapter 6, oral data:

interviews undertaken by the author, will be used to build a bridge between the works of

the selected women writers and the perceptions of their readers about their works. At the

same time, the interviews will be used to examine the circulating discourses about

Islamic feminism and women’s issues in Indonesia.

Very few women’s names appear in the corpus of kesusatraan lama. Siti Saleha

published Syair Abdul Muluk, but little else is known about this poet. Her Syair,

following the modes of “traditional” writing, unmistakably places her in contrast to

Abdullah’s deviance from “traditionalism” in Malay literature. Another woman, Siti

Rohana, is known to have written articles in the newspaper Sunting Melaju (Malay Edit)

8 Ibid., p. 305.9

Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: the Technologizing of the Word, Methuen, London, New York,1982.10 Sweeney, op. cit., p. 307.

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in the early twentieth century.11 Kartini is well placed within the corpus of kesusatraan

lama. Although she is generally placed in the corpus of Dutch colonial literature,12 her

writings move beyond the language in which they are written. Kartini’s letters ceaselessly

question the burden that adat laws place on one’s cultural and social setting, in particular

one’s social class. Her style is melodramatic, but her letters express her rebellion against

the socio-cultural conditions of Javanese women, and take the form of resistance to

women’s positioning in society. As far as thematic content is concerned Kartini’s letters

are her individual testimony, but they make a circular link between self and nation and

for this reason she can be celebrated as a forerunner of modern Indonesian literature. A

subsequent generation of writers—Pujangga Baru (New Writer)—were recognized for

this seminal theme. Kartini is perhaps one of the most thought provoking writers dealing

with gender issues in this early period of Indonesian literature. New research and

investigation of historical archives is necessary to locate the names of other women

writers to go alongside Kartini and Siti Saleha, so they too can have their place in the

record.

The rise of modern Indonesian literature cannot be separated from the cultural and

political upheavals taking place in colonial Indonesia. The intertwining of political and

literary awakening was quite obvious with the founding of Balai Pustaka, when

publications of writings in the Indonesian language paralleled the emergence of social

and political parties such as Budi Utomo (Prime Endeavour) in 1908, Indische Partij

(Indies Party) in 1911 and Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union) in 1912. The members of these

parties were mostly students and intellectuals with a Western-oriented education, but also

with nationalist ideals. These parties marked the ideals of Indonesian youth to break from

the old traditions, in order to bring Indonesia to a new and better state: a state that was

largely associated with the notion of modernity. Although at first such parties were

basically social and not political, some of them later developed themselves into political

parties important in the nationalist pre-independence movement.

11Usman, op. cit p. 83.

12 E.M. Beekman, Troubled Pleasures Dutch Colonial Literature from the East Indies 1600 – 1950,Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996, pp. 392 – 412. The chapter ‘Kartini (1879 – 1904): The Paradox ofColonialism’ discusses Kartini’s letters and marks them as Javanese ideals, symbols of modern Indonesia.

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It is noted however that Sumpah Pemuda did not automatically contribute to the rapid

flourishing of Bahasa Indonesia. Teeuw comments that there were political and social

obstacles to its adoption. For example, the word Indonesia was not freely used at it might

correlate with the nationalist movement; for those with no access to education and no root

in Malay or Sumatran culture, learning the new language would prove difficult; the

literacy rate was very low and this meant a small readership and finally, book distribution

was poor and the publication of prose and poetry connected to the development of

nationalist ideas was also very minor.13 Nevertheless, the adoption of Bahasa Indonesia,

however slow the process, acted as a vehicle for national and social unity and laid the

groundwork for the development of modern Indonesian literature.

The 1920s Literary Productions: Breaking from the Past

In 1908 the colonial government established Commissie voor de Inlandsche School en

Volkslectuur (Commission for Indigenous School and Folk Readings); this bureau

became Balai Pustaka in 1917. The former was designed to advise the Department of

Education on the kinds of literary materials suitable for the reading public, and the latter

was in correlation with colonial policy effected by the Ethical Policy: to educate and

develop natives to clerical and related positions to assist the work of the colonial

administration. When it became Balai Pustaka its role was extended:

Firstly it was intended to set a competition between a private publisher against theother or to prevent books published by general public, particularly from theChinese that published cheap romance books. Secondly - which may be theprimary - it aimed to instil colonialism in the soul of Indonesians. True, therewere also old manuscripts and writings by Indonesians published by BalaiPustaka nonetheless there were many books amongst its publication portrayingthe prowess of the Dutch and the kindness of its government.14

13 Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature I , p. 24.14 Usman, p. 25. See also Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature I, p. 14.

156

Usman does not provide book titles, but Sitti Noerbaja atau Kasih ta’ Sampai (1922) can

be taken as an example of his insight on the role of Balai Pustaka.15 In this book the

character, Datuk Maringgih, was presented as a villain as he resisted the colonial

government imposition of tax on all colonial subjects. Despite its benefit to colonial

sustainability, the institution played a significant role in the development of modern

Indonesian literary tradition, as the use of Malay for books published by Balai Pustaka

stimulated the development of Bahasa Indonesia. Notwithstanding Balai Pustaka’s

censoring role of restricting political ideas or views contrary to the government policies,

several political novels published by private publishers did appear during this time.

Hikayat Kadirun (Story of Kadirun, 1920) by Semaun, Student Hidjo and Rasa Merdika

(the Feeling of Freedom) also known as Hikayat Sudjanno (The Story of Sudjanno, 1924)

by Mas Marco Kartodikromo, were published despite their strong criticism to the Dutch.

In all of these novels a colonised individual had to choose between serving the colonial

power and the nationalist movement. In all, the individual chose the nationalist

movement.

The 1920s brought tremendous change in Indonesian cultural and social life. People,

especially youth, were fascinated with the new ideas on Indonesian identity. Among

those ideals was to break from the past, from the traditional engagement with cultural and

social settings. Merari Siregar’s Azab dan Sengsara (Torment and Misery, 1921), and

Marah Rusli’s Sitti Nurbaja are considered the icons of modern Indonesian novels of the

1920s. In Teeuw’s periodising the1920s writings and books largely published by Balai

Pustaka are labelled Angkatan Balai Pustaka (Balai Pustaka Generation). Both Siregar’s

and Rusli’s stories involve young people’s revolt against adat: in both stories revolt

against forced marriage. Aminuddin and Mariamin in Azab dan Sengsara, Samsul Bahri

and Siti Nurbaja in Sitti Nurbaja are young couples ordered to end their relationship

because their families had already arranged marriages for them. Each of them was

compelled to marry the one their parents had chosen. In the stories, violating adat meant

chaos and the collapse of their lives. Men and women were confined in their adat, and

15 ‘Kisah Kekejaman Ibu Tiri Yang Populer,’ Kompas Cyber Media, Internet,http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0503/19/pustaka/1628488.htm, (20 December 2005).

157

not allowed to defy the roles that adat and Islamic laws had prescribed for them.

Although the writers of these stories were men, their portrayal of the social constraints on

women in 1920s Indonesia was vivid. Woodcroft-Lee’s observation on the female

characterization of the early Malay (Indonesian) novels suggests:

The women of the early Malay [Indonesian] novels . . . are either too good to betrue, or else very bad indeed. Some . . . minor characters . . . are successful as‘flat’ characters who provide the density of social relationships necessary toconvey the impression of characters acting within a community, and they alsooccasionally add comic relief. It is the portrayal of major female characters thatthe reader feels the lack of a convincing “inner” life.16

The lack of “inner life” as suggested by Woodcroft-Lee, embodies an implicit message

that since women are determined status inferior to men, they are comparable to “puppets”

whose life, action and voices are very much controlled by a world outside than their own.

Furthermore, female characters are seen to be unable to “feel”, to see the world from their

own perspective, let alone executing their own ideas. Both Mariamin and Sitti Nurbaja

are victimized by their own societies, by their own adat. Their forced marriages proved

degrading for them; in the end Sitti Nurbaja chose death as a way out of her situation,

whilst Mariamin, after asking for divorce, went back to her village, but she was ashamed

because she was a divorcee.

Salah Asuhan (The Wrong Upbringing, 1928) by Abdul Muis, is probably the next most

celebrated novel of the 1920s. The story of Hanafi, a Minang, Corrie, his French mistress,

and Rapiah, (Hanafi’s Minang wife), is entangled with complex social and cultural forces

of both the Minangkabau and Dutch worlds. Hanafi is Western oriented because of his

Dutch education, and he leaves Rapiah and marries Corrie. Hanafi’s decision to violate

his adat results in tragic circumstances: Corrie dies of cholera and he cannot win back

Rapiah because she has moved to another city with her family. Despairing, Hanafi

commits suicide. The story of Hanafi’s life reflects the ambivalence in the lives of

Indonesian youth in the 1920s. “Traditional” adat laws still had a strong hold on youth,

while new “modern” values associated with the West were yet to be fully accepted.

16 P. Woodcroft-Lee, The Woman Behind the Mask, A.N.U., Master of Arts in Asian Studies Thesis, 1975,pp. 119 – 120, quoted in Isla Winarto, Women Writers in Post-War Indonesia: An Analysis of the Works ofFive Prominent Women Writers, University of Sydney, M.A. Qualifying Thesis, 1976, p. 28.

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Hanafi’s Western orientation is seen to be the cause of his despair and, ultimately, his

death. The story can be read as an admonishment to young Indonesians from the older

generation that Western culture, represented by Corrie, is indeed incomparable to Eastern

culture, embodied in Rapiah. East is not to meet West. Hanafi is not to move away from

his adat and mingle with the Dutch, since his effort to become a “Dutchman” is rejected

by the Dutch society he so cherishes. As a member of first generation of Indonesian

nationalists, Abdul Muis presents his nationalism in the tragic story of Hanafi and Corrie,

depicting “straightforwardly … the problem of racial and social discrimination.”17 In so

doing, he highlights the conflicts between kaum tua, those of the older generation

believing in adat, and kaum muda, those of a younger generation ready to break away

from the confinement of adat.

In line with the previously mentioned novels by Siregar and Rusli, the depiction of

female characters in Muis’ story is similar. Rapiah is submissive, unlike Corrie who

disobeys the laws of her society. Rapiah does not show any objection to Hanafi’s betrayal

of their marriage. Hanafi’s neglect of her and their son does not produce resentment as

she patiently awaits Hanafi to return to her. Only when Hanafi dies does Rapiah learn that

Hanafi’s failure to cope with his situation is due to his inability to negotiate between the

East and the West. Because Rapiah does not want her son, Syafei, to live the same life as

his father, she is obliged to nurture him in a “correct” way so Hanafi’s tragic life is not

repeated. The story ends when Syafei, after his return from study in Holland, promises to

cultivate his grandmother’s ricefields.18 Syafei’s choice of returning back to the East

clearly shows the author’s strong message of the difficult negotiation between tradition

and modernity. Syafei’s study in the land of the colonial may well be perceived as the

ability of the younger generation to adopt the life of the West, and thus modernity,

however his return to his grandmother’s ricefields symbolizes that one cannot radically

escape from one’s roots. In postcolonial discourse, Hanafi is an excellent example of

Homi Bhabha‘s notion of “mimicry”, which signifies the inability of a colonial subject to

17 Teeuw, op.cit., p. 63.18 Abdoel Moeis, Salah Asuhan, Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, 2002, first published 1928.

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resemble his master, for he is “not quite/not white”. He is almost the same but not quite

white. Therefore, it is necessary for him to fail.19

Balai Pustaka’s publication of Salah Asuhan can be considered as its support against

racial mixture between the colonial as subject, and the colonized as object. While Muis’

story is an admonishment about leaving adat, it also underlines racial category policy of

the colonial era: the Dutch (white) as the superior class, foreign orientals, including the

Chinese and the Arabs, as the second class, and the indigenous (Bumiputra) as the lowest

class. Though such categories were not necessarily rigid, they generally applied.

Bumiputra like Hanafi were not to be accepted into the colonial class because of race.

Although there were inter-racial relationships in colonial Indonesia, such relationships

were generally not well accepted, and Hanafi’s tragic end in the story might be read as a

warning about mixed marriages. On the other end, Muis’ story can also be read as

indigenous resistance of the West; particularly in the character of Syafei. Although

having experience living in the Netherlands, Syafei’s Minagkabau heritage wins through.

This emphazies the construction of self that becomes viable when it chooses the side of

the indigenous after coming to the crossroads of East and West. Syafei has embraced

colonial education, yet his true self lies in his ethnic/racial identity. Within such readings

Salah Asuhan provides many twist and turn, thus enriching the complexity of its

meanings.

The canon of Indonesian literature from the 1920s reflects the strong contribution of

Malay writers of Minangkabau and other Sumatran background. Studies have shown that

early Indonesian literature “is largely a product of the many Sumatran-born writers who

have contributed their talent and leadership to every phase of its development.”20 It is

therefore not surprising that such writers have played a conspicuous role in the building

of Indonesia into a modern nation through the play of literary writings and imaginations.

The characters of Hanafi, Rapiah, Samsul Bahri, Sitti Nurbaja, Mariamin and Aminuddin

are laden with Sumatran adat background, and the most striking similarity of all is forced

19Homi K. Bhabha, ‘Of Mimicry and man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse,’ The Location of

Culture, Routledge, New York, 1994, pp. 85 – 92.20 Freidus, op.cit, p. ix.

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marriage of young people that results in tragic death. More importantly, Siregar’s, Rusli‘s

and Muis’ depiction of their romance stories are imbued with the conflicts of the age:

between kaum muda (modernist youth) and kaum tua (adat and Islamic traditionalists –

most Sumatrans of Minangkabau background were Muslims implementing the Muslim

law in the area).

Rusli and Muis were university graduates: Rusli was a veterinarian and Muis a medical

doctor; their Western education background played a great part in questioning of adat:

With newly developed social consciousness, these men and women viewed theirworld in a new light, and much of what they had formerly accepted as a matter oftradition and obligation they now found senseless and oppressive. Moved to write,they were not mere observers, because the themes that are so typical of the so-called problem novels of this period were at the same time immediate to theauthors’ personal experiences, if not actually a statement of them.21

Rusli, the author of Sitti Nurbaja was indeed retelling his own story; he was married in

Java to a girl of his own choice, but had to submit to his parental will and adat by

cancelling his first marriage and marrying the girl his parents had chosen. Muis’

disillusionment with government service is also highlighted in Salah Asuhan. Perhaps, it

was his experience that inspired him to write of racial discrimination in his novel. Muis

left government service to become a journalist and his political career reached its peak

when he led Sarekat Islam.

It is true that the canon of early Indonesian literature is highly dominated by male writers,

poets or dramatists. Women writers appear to be neglected. However erudite Kartini’s

letters may be, they are identified within the genre of letter writing and, as noted earlier,

because of her use of the Dutch language, placed within Dutch colonial writings. Other

women writers that could be located in the early literary tradition in Indonesia include

Nurani, Sa’adah Alim, Hamidah (under the pseudonym Fatimah Delais) and Sariamin

(under the pseudonyms Selasih and Seleguri). These writers, in fact, do not solely belong

to the period of Balai Pustaka, as they still continued to publish their works in subsequent

years. For instance, Hamidah’s story Kehilangan Mustika (Losing a Jewell, 1948),

21 Ibid., p. 22.

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discussed more fully below falls into this category. Both Noerani and Sa’adah Alim

translated Western children stories such as Pinokio (1931), and Angin Timur dan Angin

Barat (East Wind and West Wind, 194?), by Pearl S. Buck. Sa’adah Alim even published

her own novel, Pembalasannya (Her Revenge, 194?), and a collection of short stories

Taman Penghibur Hati (The Amusing Garden, 194?).22

Balai Pustaka published Sariamin’s works, Kalau Tak Untung (Unfortunate), and

Pengaruh Keadaan (Impact of Circumstances), in 1933 and 1937 respectively. Kalau Tak

Untung and Rusli’s Sitti Nurbaja appear to share a similarity: the difficulty for a young

couple to build a conjugal relationship. However, in contrast to Sitti Nurbaja, adat is no

longer pertinent as a theme in Kalau Tak Untung. In spite of the gap of social status

between Masrul and Rasmani, the protagonists of the story—Rasmani comes from a poor

family, Masrul a well-to-do one—they promise to marry. However, Masrul’s failure to

find a good job and ensure his future, results in his decision to break off their

relationship. His decision is also influenced by a rumour that Rasmani has accepted an

offer of marriage from another man. Rasmani has waited faithfully for Masrul, but when

she hears of his rejection she is shocked, and eventually dies. The tragic death of

Rasmani solves the impossibility for the two characters to cross their social class lines.

Winarto reads Masrul’s character rather differently:

The problems arise as a result of Masrul’s inability to decide in mature fashionwhat his ideals in life are and how to go about attaining set goals. As a result ofhis mistakes, others like Rasmani, are caused such misery. A deeper idea beingprojected is that of fortune which rules one’s life in varying degrees. Some peoplewho do not possess fortune in life are destined to unhappiness either through theirown action or, in this case, inaction, or merely through the fact that they are notdestined to be matched – “bukan jodoh”.”23

A strong idea of determinism seems to underline the life of Sariamin’s characters. Her

other book, Pengaruh Keadaan, is very similar to Kalau Tak Untung. The story deals

with the hard life of a Minangkabau girl, Jusnani, because of the ill treatment of her

22 Usman, op.cit, p. 83.23 Winarto, op.cit., p.35.

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stepmother and stepsister. With the help of a schoolteacher, Sja’ruddin, Jusnani manages

to escape her stepfamily and find happiness in her marriage to Sja’ruddin.

The notion of one’s difficulty to break away from circumstances underlies both Kalau

Tak Untung and Pengaruh Keadaan. Rasmani’s faithful devotion is a response to her

inability to revolt against her determined position. The submissive character of Rasmani

is a portrait of an individual’s prescribed roles in her society. Rasmani is a schoolteacher,

yet, despite her education, she cannot overcome the status barrier between rich and poor.

Sariamin does not give a strong character to Rasmani. Her devotion to Masrul is common

for a girl in her society, for such devotion is a mark of one’s acceptance to faith. Jusnani

also suffers from the same characterisation. She is not strong enough to overcome the ill

treatment from her family, thus requiring the help of Sja’ruddin to gain her happiness.

Despite the criticism that Sariamin’s characters lack depth—resulting in static and stoical

portrayals - Sariamin presents well the reality of most women in 1930s Indonesia. Her

description of the life of women such as Rusmani and Jusnani, submissive though they

are, rings true. Through her characters Sariamin challenges the condition of women at the

time — the ascribed social status forced upon women—questions class and gender roles,

and adds to our knowledge of the period. Sariamin was not only a novelist; she made her

writing debut with a work entitled Betapa Pentingnya Anak Perempuan Bersekolah (How

Important it is for a Girl to have an Education, year unknown), in a Sumatran newspaper.

In order to hide from colonial anger and local opposition, due to her outspokenness in

writing about societal conditions, she used a number of pseudonyms for her articles.24

Her political career as the Chair of the Bukit Tinggi Jong Islamieten Bond Dames

Afdeling (Women’s Division of the Young Muslims’ Union of Bukit Tinggi) establishes

her as a significant figure in Indonesian literature, a participant not only in literary

production, but also in the women’s movement.

Another seminal work by a female author is Hamidah’s Kehilangan Mustika (Losing a

Jewell, 1948), funded by De Brug Publisher, Amsterdam. Hamidah’s publication is

24 Winarto, op.cit., p. 33.

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probably the first novel written by a woman on the matter of polygamy. Written using the

first person narrative, Kehilangan Mustika signifies a dramatic shift in women’s writing.

The “aku” (I) as the narrator uses multi-layered significations to the point that many

critics consider this story an autobiographical account of the author’s younger days. As

fictitious testimony, the I in the story remarkably unsettles the border between fiction and

reality. The story involves the life of a young woman who agrees that her husband takes a

second wife because their marriage is childless. However, unable to tolerate her husband

having a co-wife, she proposes divorce and returns to her hometown. Written in a

confessional manner, readers can access the real suffering and misery of the narrator, in

particular in regard to having a co-wife, as she is entangled in the web of tradition and her

desire to be independent. Hamidah, like Sariamin, gives a vivid account of the

circumstances in which women are placed when a co-wife is taken, and also when a

marriage is childless. When a marriage fails to produce a child, it is assumed that the wife

is to blame, not the husband, and a woman’s value is grounded solely in her reproductive

ability. Hamidah’s effort in Kehilangan Mustika to reveal the inner story, the confessions

of a woman’s life, is commendable because, so early in the twentieth century, she dared

to challenge the prescribed role for women as acceptor of her fate.

The Literary Productions of the Nationalist Movement

The 1920s focus on the struggles of young people, be it against adat or colonial rule–as

in bacaan liar—gradually shifted with the coming of the new decade. The subsequent

generation of writers, commonly called known as Pujangga Baru (New Writer), marked

the period between the 1930s and 1945 when the Second World War ended. Writings of

this period focused more on the efforts for independence than on adat. With the rise of

nationalism sentiment in the colonised world, the nationalist movement in Indonesia,

headed by Soekarno (later to become the first President), was united around the single

issue of Indonesian independence. Literary life at that time was also strongly influenced

by nationalist sentiment.

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One of the prominent male writers of this period whose works revolved around female

characters was Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana. His Layar Terkembang (With Sails Unfurled,

1937) captured wide attention with his depiction of his main female protagonist, Tuti.

Tuti is very political and represents Takdir’s ideal “new” Indonesian woman who is

willing to sacrifice all for the sake of the nation. In the story, the primary female

characters—sisters Tuti and Maria—contrast the traditional and modern ideals about

Indonesian women. Tuti is unmarried and independent, an intellectual whose activism is

devoted to Putri Sedar (Conscious Girl), a woman’s organization developed to modernise

and educate women in order to shape more independent women, Maria is more ladylike,

a cheerful girl with a liking for flowers and domestic duties. Maria is engaged to Jusuf, a

medical student. When she falls seriously ill, Maria’s last wish is for Tuti and Jusuf to

marry. Takdir’s idealisation of modern Indonesian women in the character of Tuti is

shown strongly with the death of Maria; a modern woman like Tuti would certainly be a

more compatible partner for Jusuf who is from the kaum terpelajar (educated class). Tuti

wants to be equal with men, for she believes a woman must be “a hundred percent free

individual in anything.”25 The characters of Tuti and Jusuf represent Takdir’s ideal

nationalist couple dedicated to improving the nation’s conditions. Using fiction as

political agenda was not uncommon for writers associated with the Pujangga Baru era, as

many were caught up in the excitement of this important historical period. Teeuw writes:

In retrospect it is indeed difficult to deny that this Pudjangga Baru literature,however interesting it may be from a historical point of view, in the long run hasonly a restricted value, strongly linked as it is to the particular situation of itswriters. . . [T]hese people gave what they had to give, they believed in andworked for the ideal of a new Indonesian literature, and at least by their work theystirred up Indonesian consciousness in this ideal.26

Belenggu (Shackles, 1940) by Armijn Pane stylistically rates as a breakthrough in the

modern pre-war Indonesian novel. Teeuw argues this novel moved beyond the common

theme of Indonesian stories, as it “neither offered the spectacle of good people fighting

against bad, nor the conflict generations against the background of traditional society, nor

25St. Takdir Alisjahbana, Lajar Terkembang, Tjetakan Keenam, Dinas Penerbitan Balai Pustaka, Djakarta,

1956, p. 52.26 Teeuw, op.cit, p. 46.

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proper behaviour and morality as clear and indisputable axioms. . . . the book does not

make clear who is wrong and who is right , who is good and who is bad.”27 Pane’s novel

relates the love triangle between Sukartono (Tono), a medical doctor, his wife Tini, a

well-educated independent wife, and his mistress, Rohajah. Tono and Tini’s marriage

fails because Tono believes a wife’s role is in the domestic sphere. However, Tini, a

feminist by nature, struggles for equality between the sexes. Rohajah is a former

prostitute whose submissive femininity charms Tono. Discerning her husband’s

infidelity, Tini leaves Tono, opting for her own way, and Rohajah, realising that her

sordid past might destroy Tono’s life also leaves. In the end Tono remains alone.

In the way the two female characters are presented in the story, Belenggu has a strong

resemblance to Layar Terkembang. Female characters are simply divided into binary

opposition: Tini and Tuti within the public sphere, active in women’s organizations and

working towards gender equality, and Maria and Rohajah, living in the domestic world.

Rohajah is even more submissive than Maria, because it is her role to provide pleasure

for men. Unlike Takdir who privileges the survival of Tuti over Maria, Armijn has both

Tini and Rohajah survive and walk their own way. Probably only a very small number of

Indonesians enjoyed themselves as members of the educated intellectual class like Tono

and Tini, but the story captures the conflict between old and new values. In letting both

Tini and Rohajah choose their own way, Armijn also stresses his message that women’s

roles were still in conflict.

A later work by Achdiat K. Mihardja, Atheis (1949), also shows a strong resemblance to

the two previous works by Takdir and Armijn in that it contrasts two female characters,

in this case Kartini and Rukmini. In Atheis, Kartini is depicted as modern, progressive,

educated and able to create her own “paradise.” She is married to Hasan who is

experiencing a moral dilemma; should he become an atheist or a religious devotee. At

first Hasan courts Roekmini, his ideal woman: pious in her religion and modern and

educated at the same time. However, Rukmini’s parents disapprove of their relationship

and marry her to another man. Hasan is brokenhearted and moves to the city of Bandung

27 Ibid., p. 81.

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where he meets Kartini, whom he marries. Hasan marries Kartini despite the gap in their

social backgrounds—Kartini is a “city” girl, Hasan is a “village” boy. The characters of

Kartini and Rukmini are idealised with their high education and modernity, yet they are a

contrast in terms of their religiosity; Rukmini is very pious, Kartini is not. Moreover,

despite her modernity Kartini suffers abuse from Hasan because of her friendship with

another man, Anwar, and ultimately also suffers abuse at the hands of Anwar who

attempts to rape her. Running away from Hasan, she feels weak, trapped, abused and

“unable to control her own destiny.”28 The moral of Atheis is that Kartini’s education

does not stop her from being abused by men, but also that the social and cultural norms of

the time gave her no power to fight against such violence. Achdiat’s portrayal of his

character Kartini, is indeed worthy of notice.

Literature in the Postcolonial Era

The 1945 Independence Period

During the Second World War the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) brought tremendous

change concerning the use of Bahasa Indonesia. During the period of Dutch rule Dutch

was the primary language, but when the Japanese occupation began Dutch was banned.

Instead of employing Balai Pustaka as an overseer of book publication, the Japanese

founded a cultural centre—Keimin Bunda Shidosho, which functioned as a severe

Japanese censorship bureau.29 In effect, the Japanese occupation played a great part in the

development of Indonesian literature, particularly drama and the application of

symbolism in writings, because of the desire to avoid the very strict censorship rules. At

the same time, the termination of the literary magazine Pujangga Baru, caused many

28 Achdiat K. Mihardja, Atheis, R. J. Maguire (trans), University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia,Queensland, 1972, p. 156.29 Boen Oemarjati, ‘Development of Indonesian Literature,’ in Dynamics of Indonesian History, HaryatiSoedadio and Carine A. du Marchie Sarvaas (eds), North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1978,p. 316.

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young writers to look to other world literatures: [they felt] “themselves to be part of

humanity as a whole, and their situation was experienced first and foremost as truly

universal, and only in the second phase, if at all, as Indonesians.”30 In 1950, Surat

Kepercayaan Gelanggang (Gelanggang Testimonial of Beliefs, a testimony written by a

number of writers) was established as an expression of these young writers’ belief in

themselves as the true heirs of humanity

Writers during the independence period are commonly labelled Angkatan 1945, or

Angkatan Revolusi (Generation of Revolution) as they wrote during the struggles for

Indonesia’s independence. The poet Chairil Anwar (1922-1949) is considered to be the

most renowned of this period. His poems are possibly the most loved and remembered of

all the works of his generation. The power of his works lies in his presentation in terms of

language and style. In Chairil’s works, Bahasa Indonesia is used with full intensity, both

in meanings and style. In prose writings, Pramoedya Ananta Toer is recognized as one of

the most prominent writers of that period, and also for his continuing works. Keluarga

Gerilya (Guerrilla Family, 1950) and Perburuan (The Pursuit, 1950) are amongst his best

of the era, and they captured the attention of both critics and readers. Boen Oemarjati, an

early female literary critic, comments that “[H]is work has a very strong autobiographical

strain; his books are his experiences moulded into literature,” which, in turn, exposes “the

socio-political and socio-psychological developments in Indonesia.”31 Indeed, most of

Pramoedya’s works are either autobiographical or biographical. An example of the latter

is Tetralogy Pulau Buru (The Buru Quartet, 1985), a series of four novels outlining the

life story of Raden Mas Tirto Adhi Soeryo whom Pramoedya believes to be the most

important pioneer in the early Indonesian nationalist movement. Pramoedya doesn’t only

depict men’s involvement in the nationalist movement he also captures female character

in his works of female representations, for example, Perawan Remaja dalam

Cengkeraman Militer (Virgins in Military Prisons, 2001), Larasati (Ara) (2000), Gadis

Pantai (The Girl from the Coast, 1987) and Panggil Aku Kartini Saja (Just Call me

Kartini, 1997). His female characters are mostly portrayed as strong, very determined and

30 Ibid., p. 318.31 Ibid., p. 323.

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certainly not submissive. It was Pramoedya’s mother who inspired him to portray strong

women because for him she embodied the spirit of the revolution.32 Gadis Pantai is his

attempt to reconstruct the life of his grandmother who because of her circumstances had

to fight to have her own life.33

There were other women writers published during this period but none of the works were

regarded as pioneering. Some of them, like Walujati, Ida Nasution and Siti Nuraini are

hardly mentioned today because of their early disappearance from the literary scene.

Walujati did not publish after the end of Japanese occupation; Ida Nasution died at a

young age and Siti Nurani’s work is undocumented.34 The work of others points to the

difficulty of placing writers within time periods. For instance, Suwarsih Djojopoespito’s

first publication, Buiten het Gareel (Out of Harshness) appeared in 1940 in the Dutch

language, however, after the War she wrote exclusively in Bahasa Indonesia. Buiten het

Gareel was first written in Sundanese and it was not until it was published in Dutch that

it became widely known. Buiten het Gareel is a story of a girl involved in the nationalist

movement, and Teeuw comments that it is similar to Takdir’s Layar Terkembang and

Armijn’s Belenggu in dealing with “the struggle of modern Indonesian women to find

their responsible place in modern society, especially within the bond of marriage.”35

Teeuw believes that Soewarsih’s work is the best pre-war novel by an Indonesian writer

because of its strong female characterization. Suwarsih’s other works include Tujuh

Cerita Pendek (Seven Short Stories, 1950), Empat Serangkai (A Quartet, 1954), and

Siluman Karangkobar (The Demons of Karangkobar, 1964). The first and the last stories

deal with a whimsical sort of world, but the second and third stories have a similar theme:

a wife, disillusioned in her marriage because of her husband’s unfaithfulness and malice,

comes later to a more content life. Teeuw observes that Suwarsih’s later works are very

feminine in nature.36

32 Michigan Today, Summer 1999, Internet,http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/99/Sum99/mt9j99.html, (23 December 2005). See his autobiographyNyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu, Lentera, Jakarta, 1995,33 Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Gadis Pantai, Hasta Mirta, Jakarta, 1987, the book jacket.34

Teeuw, op.cit., p. 212.35 Ibid., p. 64.36 Ibid., p. 212.

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Other women authors include Arti Purbani who wrote Widijawati (1949); S. Rukiah

Kertapati, Kedjatuhan dan Hati (The Downfall and the Heart, 1950) and Tandus (Barren,

1952), a collection of poems and short stories; Zunaidah Subro, Patah Tumbuh Hilang

Berganti (One Thing Disappears Replaced by Another, 1950); Nursiah Dahlan, Arni

(1953); and Ny. Johanisoen Iljas, Anggia Murni (1956). Unlike pre-war novels of the

nationalist movement that often located women in the public sphere through their

involvement in nationalist women’s organizations, most of the themes of these stories

situate women within their private concerns: that is, love relationships, marriage, and

family life. Most also have happy endings. It is worth noting that these authors write in

the same manner as modern romance fiction authors: a girl in search of the love of a

lifetime eventually finds it and lives happily ever after within her marriage. Rukiah’s

Kedjatuhan dan Hati appears to be an exception for her character joins the Laskar Rakjat

(People’s Army), but in the end she also chooses the domestic life, marrying a man

chosen by her family. Nursiah Dahlan’s Arni moves a little beyond a simple romance

tale, though it still largely deals with a women’s married life. Arni does depict the shift in

a woman’s life from content to discontent when her husband took a second wife, but it is

still a story resolved happily when the husband divorces the second wife, goes back to

Arni who forgives him, and they live happily ever after. Polygamy is an issue that women

authors often select for their themes, and from a gender perspective undeniably the

character of Arni reflects the author’s view that it is better to live alone than to share her

husband, but clearly marriage is still the best option for women.

In 1950 LEKRA (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat—People’s Cultural Institution) was

established as a cultural body of the PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia—Indonesian

Communist Party). LEKRA had a different agenda than Gelanggang Testimonial

proclaimed earlier. If Gelanggang Testimonial’s aim was to seek humanism, LEKRA’s

was based exclusively on social realism, privileging social Marxism agendas as the very

core of literary writings, and Pramoedya was one of its supporters. Opposition to

LEKRA’s social realism came when a literary magazine called Sastra (Literature)

published Manifes Kebudayaan (Cultural Manifesto) signed by H.B. Jassin, the most

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prominent literary critic in Indonesia, Trisno Sumardjo, Wiratmo Sukito and many others

who privileged universal humanism. Sastra was banned. This was a period in Indonesian

political life under President Soekano known as Guided Democracy, which was

underpinned by the ideology of Nasakom (Nasionalis, agama, komunis— nationalism,

religion, communism). Consequently all opposition to it was banned. This was a period

of great tension between the supporters of universal humanism and those of social

realism, but the PKI, and cultural bodies such as LEKRA associated with the PKI, were

banned after the attempted coup of 1965

Social and Political Protests in the 1960s

Writers in this period of the New Order were named Angkatan 66. This was a term

coined by H.B. Jassin to mark this period of upheaval in Indonesia’s political and cultural

life.37 Ajip Rosidi, on the other hand, had earlier labelled it Angkatan Terbaru (the

Newest Generation) because it had different features compared to generations of previous

decades such as Angkatan Pujangga Baru and Angkatan 45, which, in his opinion, had

too much external (Western) influence. Ajip argues that Angkatan Terbaru “[met] new

values in local cultures previously ignored by writers of Pujangga Baru and Angkatan

45.”38 For Jassin, Ajips’ justification is wrong, as the term newest is hardly definable; the

newest today is no longer new tomorrow. Instead, Jassin insists on the term Angkatan 66,

a generation emerging due to its close attachment to the socio-political situation of the

nation.

Politically, generation 66 was born out of political unrest in society. Its birth is apolitical event. In addition to the political dimension, in literary area it has a valuedimension, its literary merit. It is anti-tyrant, upholding justice and truth. And artis always anti-tyrannous, aspiring virtue. Justice and truth are transferred in artworks, literary works. . . . Generation 66 brings about an awareness of those whohave been subjected to despotism and abuse of truth and justice, moral andreligious awareness, and such is not the nation’s awareness in racial terms as such

37 H.B. Jassin, Angkatan 66: Prosa dan Puisi, Gunung Agung, Jakarta, 1968.38 Ibid., p. 1.

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was caused by the sinfulness and despotism of Indonesian leaders themselvesafter the independence. The characteristics of the 66 literary works are socialprotest and then political protest. Social protest is at first related to colonialheritage but as things become worse no one takes the blame except the politics ofIndonesian government itself that is not capable of running its government,economics and finance.39

Parallel to the generation of 1920s with the proclamation of Sumpah Pemuda, the growth

of Indonesian literature has always been started by young people, has always been

political, and also considerably accommodative to the changes in Indonesia’s social and

political life.

The events of 1965 left a deep scar on the lives of many Indonesians. Through his short

story Bawuk, in Sri Sumarah dan Bawuk (1975), Umar Kayam, a writer, lecturer and

scholar depicts how an ordinary family’s life is forever changed by the coup of 1965. In

most of his works, Kayam represents his female characters as strong and tough in

overcoming any hardship women have to endure. The female character of Bawuk is no

exception. Hassan, her husband, is on the run because he is a member of the banned

communist party. As a member of the priyayi Bawuk is well protected within her family

walls, but instead of hiding behind her sibling’s powerful position in the army she risks

her life in order to find her husband. The story ends with Hassan dead and Bawuk

missing, but for Javanese women of priyayi descent what Bawuk chose is extraordinary.

She refuses to be shaped by her circumstances. She chooses her own way and completely

understands her chances and the consequences of her choice.40 The two worlds of priyayi

and abangan (proletarian) are opposed in this narrative. Faced with the dilemma of

choosing between them Bawuk chooses the abangan world; it is her rejection of the

constructed world offered to her by her parents, family and society. She personifies the

very core of the feminist discursive that displaces the master narrative of women as

socially constructed. In leaving her two children behind for the search, Bawuk challenges

women’s identity as sole caretaker of the house and the children; in leaving the shelter of

39 Ibid., p. xv and p. 1840 Umar Kayam, Sri Sumarah dan Bawuk, Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 1975, pp. 119 – 124.

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protection she holds her destiny in her own hand, and in doing so constructs her own

identity.

Many prominent writers of Angkatan 66 are still productive today. For example, the poets

Taufik Ismail and Sapardi Djoko Damono, the prose writers Budi Dharma, Gunawan

Muhammad and Danarto, the dramatist Rendra, and others too numerous to mention.

Importantly, although the writing of the period was largely imbued with social and

political protest, there were individuals with their own narrative features: the absurd

realism of Danarto and Budi Dharma; Putu Wijaya’s estranged characters; and Motinggo

Boesye’s sexual stories and, of course, women authors with their own distinctive

narratives.

Of the female poets and authors, Toety Heraty, NH. Dini, Titie Said, and Titis Basino

(discussed later in more detailed fashion), are the most mentioned in the canon of

Angkatan 66. Toety Heraty is conceivably the foremost female poet in Indonesian poetry

writings. Classified as part of Angkatan 66, Toety has been prolific ever since. Her long

lyrical prose-poem, Calon Arang: Kisah Perempuan Korban Patriarki (Calon Arang:

The Tale of a Woman Victim of Patriarchy), was published in 1999. Toety’s poetry is

commonly recognised to be very individualistic in style, not following any rhythmical

conventions and with a free use of language. Many critics and readers consider her poems

to be feminine yet feminist in providing a challenge to the subordination of Indonesian

women:

[T]he application of the term “typically feminine” of her poetry would requirefurther qualification. She is keenly aware of the unfavourable position of women– subordinate, discriminated against and dependent – in a society where men areused to having things their way. But at the same time she realizes that it is oftenwomen themselves who are to blame for this subordinate role, and fully deserve itbecause of their foolishness and empty-headedness.41

Calon Arang is the name of a widow witch who takes revenge because no one proposes

to her daughter, Ratna Manggali. Toety’s work is seen as a vivid representation of

“baseless, unjust prejudices against widows and divorcees, and the suffocating

41 Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature II , p. 120.

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restrictions placed on women by the patriarchal system.”42 The story of Calon Arang has

always been read as a destructive portrayal of a woman whose name is immediately

associated with wicked rage and terror. The causes of Calon Arang’s rage have somehow

escaped from the story. What one knows about Calon Arang is the terror that she

disseminates in the neighbourhood. But it can be read as a tragic story of a mother whose

love for her daughter enables her to sacrifice her own life. Calon Arang’s death occurs

because of patriarchal deception and conspiracy.

The critically acclaimed author NH Dini uses the first person narrative to depict her

female characters moving between two worlds: East and West. It seems that her

narratives call on her own experiences as a former French diplomat’s wife. The vitality of

her works lies in her employment of the first person narration, enabling readers to

experience, feel and sense the world in which the characters live. Her female characters

are young and modern women, who are “modest and submissive, in spite of a strong

sense of dignity, withdrawn and reserved, and possess a subtle sensitivity, which makes

them as responsive to kindness and gentleness as they appear to be shocked and repulsed

by rudeness and hardness.”43 Many female readers, especially those of Javanese descent,

can closely identify with Dini’s notions of femaleness, seeing them as convincing

portraits of their own lives. As with other female authors Dini frequently explores the

matrimonial relationship. In her stories Pada Sebuah Kapal (On a Ship, 1973) and La

Barka (1975), for example, she questions the price a woman has to pay when she marries

a foreigner.

Titie Said is another prominent female author. Her publication includes Perjuangan dan

Hati Perempuan (The Strugggle and Woman’s Heart, 1962), short stories, essays in

several women’s magazines such as Wanita (Woman) and Kartini, and her most

renowned novel Jangan Ambil Nyawaku (Don’t Take my Soul, 1977). The latter, a

42Barbara Hatley, ‘Literature, Mythology and Regime Change: Some Observations on Recent Indonesian

Women’s Writings’ in Women in Indonesia Gender Equity and Development, Kathryn Robinson andSharon Bessel (eds), Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2002, p. 136.43 Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature II , p. 178.

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classic story of a woman struggling to overcome illness and adversity and win through,

has been made into a film.

Women Writers and Popular Fictions of the 1970s –1980s

As has been noted it is difficult to place authors within a rigid timeframe. However, the

feature of each generation, though relatively subtle, is apparent, particularly the fictional

narratives written by women writers often labelled by Teeuw as “lady-authors.” The

1970s-1980s saw the appearance of many new authors, however, the following

discussion will be limited to female authors whose works were closely associated with

the general issues of the time.

From the 1970s on there was a significant growth of women’s magazines, such as

Kartini, Femina, Dewi, Sarinah, and Gadis, all of which gave considerable space to

women’s fiction. As well, newspapers such as Kompas also made room for short stories,

and novels in serial form, which led to a boom in the so-called Sastra Koran (newspaper

literature). Sastra Koran, in existence since the colonial era, referred to the publication of

various genres of literary works in newspapers, usually in weekend editions or in literary

supplements. In the 1970s and 1980s national political stability and economic

development fostered the growth of a reading public and film industry. People who had

lived in unstable social conditions since the beginning of the century now enjoyed a bit of

luxury, such as reading colourful and glossy magazines, which had been extremely scarce

in previous years. Toety Herawati observes:

It was in the ‘70s that novel-writing flourished, paralleled with the boom inwomen’s magazines mentioned earlier. Many of these novels were published inbook form after their publication in the magazines as serials. Preceded by MargaT., old and new names made their appearance: La Rose, Yati Maryati Wiharja,Marianne Katoppo, Iskaiah Sumarto, Sri Bekti Subakin, Totilawati Tjitrawisata,Titiek W.S., Sulistyowati Edison, Titi Said Sadikun and, last but not least, Nh.

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Dini. Their style of expression differed entirely from that of their predecessors.They wrote in a light, popular style, easily comprehensible and enjoyable.44

The transfer from book to film focuses more attention on these women authors. Popular

writing, which is previously seen to be marginal, begins to develop into a new body of

Indonesian literature. However, critics often denigrate them as writers of popular fiction

rather than literary fiction. The stories of domesticity and private affairs are alleged to be

inferior to men’s public narratives. Jacob Sumarjo, as quoted by Toety Heraty, for

example, identifies their works as popular novels in opposition to literary novels because

their narratives are “more the achievement of a craftsman and not a product of

creativity.” Sumarjo, however, argues that “the women’s “pop” novels are more delicate

and as such “not endangering morality,” unlike those with “pornographic” tendencies . . .

which are the characteristics of popular novels written by male colleagues.”45 According

to Sumarjo the narratives in popular fiction suffer from a lack of the originality and

uniqueness that literary narratives must embody. However, Sumarjo appears to be

sympathetic to this genre. Despite all his criticism he believes that the mature use of

language packed in complex plot is full of surprise, suspense, humour and colloquial

discourse, making these narratives “meaningful” and “functional.”

Largely telling about love life experiences and man-woman love relationship, these

writings, by and large, ignore social and political issues that women have to face in

maintaining their existence.46 As romance is placed in the top rank of thematic

significance, such popular writings relinquish the dynamic and complexities of women’s

position in society. Female vision employed in the narratives is a limited romantic one.

Critics have noted that as such these women authors are writing female characters as a

projection of how men look at women. This is obvious in the romantic pop novels, in

which the portrayal of women never goes beyond a girl in search of an everlasting love;

she may be urban and educated, yet she is content to be male dominated. The Javanese

44 Toeti Heraty, ‘Women’s Issues in a Patriarchal Society: Novels by Indonesian Women’ in EmergentVoices Southeast Asian Women Novelists, Thelma B. Kintanar, Ungku Maimunah Mohd. Tahir, Koh TaiAnn, Toeti Heraty, University of the Philippines Press, Diliman, Quezon City, 1994, p. 122.45 Ibid., p. 124.46 Ibid., p. 125.

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adage that says a girl should not have as high an education as a man, for in the end her

place is in the kitchen, is perfectly suited to the stories of Indonesian romance fiction.

There are indeed many authors that can be seen as sastra pop (popular literature) writers.

To name a few: Ike Soepomo, Maria A. Sarjono, La Rose, Mira W., and probably the

champion of all, Marga T, as she is known to be one the forerunners of this genre. Marga

T’s Karmila I and II (1975) received a great deal of attention and was made into a film.

Karmila, like most popular fictions, is set in an urban setting, styled in easy reading

fashion, revolves around the love relationship between a girl and a young man, and closes

with a happy ending. Again, typical of Indonesia’s popular narratives, the protagonists

enjoy a quite respectable social position: they have tertiary education and come from

wealthy families or at least middle-class. What should be noted in the story is the rape of

Karmila by Feisal, who later marries Karmila because she becomes pregnant. Karmila

does not seem to have the reader’s sympathy even though she is the victim of rape. The

reason for the lack of sympathy is because directly after the birth of her child Kamila

refuses to fulfil her motherhood role. Tineke Hellwig critically reads this scene:

[T]he story is focalized so as to create more reader sympathy for Feisal, whoshows his regret and is humble, than for Karmila, who is indifferent and evenheartless toward her son. When Karmila finally realizes that she hasresponsibilities as Fani’s mother, this insight is presented as the best she couldhave. Even though rape brought them together, Karmila remains faithful to Feisalas the first man in her life and the father of her child.47

The fact that Karmila is raped but the reader’s sympathy goes to Feisal is a conflicting

terrain in the light of feminist reading. The portrayal of Feisal as the villain simply

disappears. He even reappears as a hero who, at the end of the story, saves Karmila from

her denial of motherhood. Despite Karmila’s success as a female doctor, her femaleness

is not complete unless she fulfils her motherhood role—her kodrat. Until then, she will

forever lack the reader’s sympathy. Here also, sexual division of labour is perceived as

mainstream gender ideology, its violation means disrupting order. As Krisna Sen

observes for Indonesian cinema, disorder is often viewed as criticism of a working

woman facing a crisis. To overcome disorder, a woman must come to the realisation that

47 Tineke Hellwig, In the Shadow of Change: Images of Women in Indonesian Literature, Monograph no.35, Centers for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 1994, p. 185.

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her occupation in the public sphere (Karmila’s profession as a medical doctor) neglects

her “natural” positioning in the private sphere (motherhood). Restoration of order can

only happen if she repositions herself to private occupation (motherhood).48 This is the

theme of Karmila; she finally accepts her motherhood role, therefore embracing her ideal

femininity and lives happily ever after.

This does not mean that in this period Indonesian literature was fully preoccupied with

romantic novels. Though small in number there were other more literary writers, many of

whom are still productive today. Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim is one example and she will

be discussed later in a more detailed manner. As with Sastra Koran, the emergence of

popular novels helped to increase the numbers of the Indonesian reading public. When

this type of novel first appeared in the 1920s it was known as roman picisan (“dime

novels”). Roman picisan were romance stories, usually in paperback edition, and the

name derives from the price of the story in the colonial period; one picis (one pence in

Dutch colonial currency) for one book. In the 1970s the name roman picisan was hardly

ever used because very few people knew what picis meant, thus the genre was renamed.

Even today, the popularity of this genre is indeed largely linked with the cheapness of the

price. In urban areas there are shops where these novels and comic books can be rented or

bought for a cheap price. When novels such as Karmila, and Kabut Sutera Ungu (Silky

Violet Mist, 1979) by Ike Soepomo, were made into movies, they were box office hits.

Women’s writings, regardless of the genre, may function well as women’s effort to

authorise their female gaze on their own body and experience. Within the domain of the

politics of feminist reading, women’s stories, by women, will determine how texts are

perceived in looking at what it means critically to be a woman or man. The many kinds of

women writings, be it sastra pop (popular literature) or sastra serius (sastra berbobot ,

serious literature) deserve attention because their writings are providing documentation of

women’s concerns, and this reveals the intertwined relationship between the author,

society and the reader. Toety Herati’s long poem Calon Arang and Ike Soepomo’s Kabut

Sutera Ungu are perfect examples of such intertwining. Toety’s work is known to be part

48 Krishna Sen, Indonesian Cinema: Framing the New Order, Zed Books, London, 1994, pp. 131 – 156.

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of sastra berbobot, while Ike’s is sastra pop. Nevertheless, they both express a similar

notion of what it means to be a janda (widow). A janda has always been subjected to

prejudices and ill treatment in society. As an older widow, Calon Arang is victimised by

her portrayal as a wicked witch, and as a younger one, Miranti in Kabut Sutra Ungu is

continually seen as a seducer. Hellwig posits how a janda is perceived in Kabut Sutra

Ungu:

A (young) janda is considered to be a woman who has nothing to lose – neitherher husband nor her virginity – and who tries to lure married men astray. Jandas[widows] are distrusted by their own sex, not by men, who to are prone to haveextramarital affairs. Miranti’s experience is that no matter what a janda does, sheis viewed with suspicion.49

The recording of the widow’s positioning by Toeti Herati and Ike Soepomo, despite the

differences, shows that women’s writing of any kind is respectful of identity politics.

These writings signify implications of both individual and social levels in which an

identity is perceived. A widow is stereotyped by double marginalisation, by her own sex

and by men. The picture of a janda may well function as a channel for both authors to

show a “denigrated identity” that has been taken for granted by social norms, and to show

also that such identification is loaded with patriarchal oppression. Janda is a signification

of oppression for a duda (widower) is never subjected to similar denigration. A widow,

who is assumed to be independent of men, is seen as a threat, thus, necessarily, she will

have to be caged by a derogatory identity such as wicked witch or seducer. The

perception of janda in the world’s largest Muslim society is certainly problematic. It is

frequently stated in the Qur’an, that janda, orphans and the poor are those primarily

deserving shelter and a guarantee of protection from all societal members. Regarding

janda in a deprecating way is against the spirit of the Islam. In Indonesian life there is a

weight of cultural meaning attached to the name janda, which heavily reveals patriarchal

domination over the Islamic spirit of equality and justice.

49 Hellwig, op cit, p. 182.

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The Pendulum of the Millennium: Liberation of the Generation 2000

With the fall of Soeharto’s New Order regime in 1998 new channels of liberalism

emerged. Women’s political, social and cultural activism flourished. The present

generation of writers, Angkatan 2000 (Generation 2000), positions many young female

writers at the heart of mainstream literature: they are classified as writers of sastra wangi

(“perfumed” literature). The name comes because the members of this group, such as

Ayu Utami, Djenar Mahesa Ayu, Fira Basuki, Dewi Lestari, Nova Rianti Yusuf, and

others, are female, young, beautiful, attractive, very urban-centred and cosmopolitan. The

very name sastra wangi distinguishes their narratives from their antecedents. If the Balai

Pustaka generation is marked with the conflict between the individual and adat, the

Pujangga Baru with the nationalist movement, the 1945 with humanism, 1966 with

social and political protest, and the 1970s-1980s with popular fiction, generation 2000 is

identified with liberalism in every aspect of their writings. The writings are often harsh

with no pretence to morality, and full of everyday slang and social references.

Ayu Utami, the most popular of the canon50, is known for bringing the discourse of sex

into her writings. Her novels Saman (1998) and Larung (2000) “display wildness and

openness, which gives a very spacious room for freedom.”51 Issues previously taboo are

relocated from the private to the public world. This new trend in Indonesian literature

was entrenched with the publication of Dewi Lestari’s Supernova, and Djenar Mahesa

Ayu’s Jangan Bermain Main dengan Kelaminmu (Don’t Play with Your Genital, 2001).

Drawing on a cosmopolitan world they know very well, these writers place their stories

and novels in “urban settings, peopled with hip intellectuals whose speech is sprinkled

with English phrases, no different than the young executives gathering for a drink at a

café after work.”52 The language used is fresh, alive, and loaded with colloquial speech

narration; covering all topics from sex, drugs, homosexuality and politics. The audacity

50 The word canon here is used to mean “mainstream” meaning books widely read, very popular and oftenbecome “the talk of the town.” Canon itself is problematic as it is indefinability: canon by whom, whosedefinition, whose categorization, whose politics etc are far from concensus.51

Korrie Layun Rampan, Angkatan 2000 Dalam Sastra Indonesia, PT. Grasindo, Jakarta, 2000, p. iv.52 Lie Hua, ‘Sastrawangi’: RI’s ‘chick lit’ or literature lite? The Jakarta Post, 27 October 2004, Internet,http://www.thejakartapost.com, (17 April 2005).

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of these young writers is highly valued, as they construct new images of young modern

Indonesian women who are unconventionally reactive in responding to the problems of

modern life. Hatley posits:

The range of themes addressed by women fiction writers in recent years hasgreatly expanded; their freer representation of sexuality includes among otherthings considerable reference to lesbianism. And several texts by women authorsappearing during the last few years challenge the archetypal images . . . of faithfulwife, alluring but threatening temptress and monstrous widow-witch. The newinterpretations boldly refute accepted, age-old meanings. What is suggested isboth a perception of ongoing social force of gender assumptions embodied inthese ancient symbols, and a commitment to opening up new visions of ‘female’and ‘male’ by dismantling them. Other writers, meanwhile, create new myths forthis new time, from the flow of daily life or from futuristic images.53

In the hands of these writers, images of women deviate considerably from previous

images of submissive women victimised by patriarchal domination. Nevertheless, as

groundbreaking as the images in sastra wangi are, because their characters are members

of the burgeoning urban middle- and upper-classes with higher education and global

experiences (many of the settings are placed overseas in New York, London and

Singapore), they seemingly refer to only a small number of Indonesian women. Other

stories need to be translated to the concerns of the majority of Indonesian women—

suburban and rural—who are, by and large, still victimised by patriarchal domination.

Contemporary Indonesian writing has also seen the emergence of the so-called “chick lit”

(chick literature), a genre in popular writing different, although often assumed to be

similar, to the more serious sastra wangi. Sastra wangi writings have philosophically

deep narratives, but still lack moral pretension. “Chick-lit” writings on the other hand,

have hilarious narratives dealing with women facing modern problems in their work and

social life. “Chick lit” narratives are always set in urban environments, and have stories

of young cosmopolitan working women aged in their twenties or thirties concerned with

issues such as fashion, shopping, sex, and the search for “prince charming.” Unlike the

highly romanticised fiction of the 1970s/80s, “chick lit” is humorous and very lite

reading; the book covers are always in pastel colours with illustration a la Barbie. “Chick

53 Hatley, op.cit., p. 131.

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lit” is not of Indonesian origin. It first appeared in Britain with the publication Helen

Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary in 1999. This was followed by Melissa Bank’s The Girls’

Guide to Hunting and Fishing in 2000 and a series of “chick lit” writings, Being Single

and Happy. The Indonesian translation of these books only appeared in 2003, but was

immediately followed by local Indonesian “chick lit”, frequently cited as Lajang Kota

(Urban Single). Writings of Lajang Kota are such as Fira Basuki’s Ms. B’s series:

Panggil Aku B (Call me B, 2004) and Will You Marry Me? (2004) and Alberthine

Endah’s Jodoh Monika (Monika’s Soulmate, 2004).

“Chick lit’s” popularity is viewed cynically by a number of literary critics and feminist

activists. Gadis Arivia, an outstanding feminist, and the founder of Jurnal Perempuan

(Women’s Journal) believes that “chick lit” is utopian for Indonesian settings. Indonesian

women are still much troubled with gender issues such as domestic violence, child labour

and problems with a gender-biased legal system, but “chick lit” largely ignores

ideological and social realities discriminative to women. Accordingly some feminists say

that “chick lit” is a betrayal of the feminist movement.54 Despite the feminist criticism of

“chick lit”, numerous female readers are infatuated with such stories and the genre’s

popularity is increasing. Unlike romantic narratives where female depiction is always

“perfect”—beautiful, dutiful, faithful and willing to finally accept patriarchal domination,

“chick lit” stories are tales of middle-class female white collar workers who struggle to

maintain their job and career. They are “not perfect”—not that beautiful, not that smart,

but they are obsessed with physical perfection. The “not perfect” produces strong

identification with readers, creating a fictional reality closer to the reader’s reality.

However, as realistic as it may seem “chick lit” represents only a very few women living

in cosmopolitan regions.

The discussion of women writers in the Indonesian literary canon will be continued in the

following chapter focusing on the selected four Muslim women authors—Titis Basino,

Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim, Abidah El Khalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa.

54 ‘Kisah Keseharian Perempuan dari Langit’, Kompas Cyber Media, 17 April 2004, Internet,http://www.kompas.com, (20 April 2005).

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Chapter 6

Authors, Their Worlds and the Female Traditions

The variety of themes that contemporary Indonesian female authors deal with is

extended by those who are not classified as members of either sastra wangi or “chick

lit.” Abidah El Khalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa, and their older counterparts Titis

Basino and Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim are among this group of women writers. If most

sastra wangi’s characters are urban-centred, the characters of the four authors vary from

traditional older women to young modern figures. The four can be classified as Muslim

writers whose narratives vividly account for religious identification and whose works

are known to be part of Islamic writings. Helvy Tiana Rosa argues that Islamic writing

aims to enlighten its readers on the discourse of truth and love: love to God and all

humans. Admitting that her definition is too wide, she then adds that the morals of such

writings must be justifiable within the parameters of Islamic faith. Open sexual talk, for

example, is indisputably non-Islamic because the discourse of sex in Islamic

environments should reside in the private arena and never brought to the public arena.

Furthermore, Islamic writings are universal in truth, justice and humanity.1 This is

where the four writers depart from the writers of sastra wangi or the even more popular

“chick lit.” Their writings can be deemed as a canon counter-discourse because they

depict many more Muslim women identities; young, old, urban and rural struggling to

maintain and challenge their prescribed roles. Their stories are balanced, but at the same

time a threat, as they reveal how their female characters negotiate their daily lives in a

male dominated society where women’s roles are firmly affixed to that of men.

Helvy’s short stories centre on young Muslim females and their struggles to preserve

their religious identity, making her a prominent figure in the tradition of Indonesian

Islamic writing. Abidah’s works show a similar trend but she emphasizes pesantren

scenes in her narratives. In comparison to Helvy and Abidah, Ratna and Titis write in a

1 Helvy Tiana Rosa, ‘Lagi, Soal Sastra Islam’, Segenggam Gumam: Esai Esai tentang Sastra danKepenulisan, Syaamil, Bandung, 2003, pp. 1 – 11.

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more general manner. Nonetheless, their religiousness, though subtly presented,

becomes more obvious when a critical reading is employed. Both authors’ narratives

commonly take place in suburban or rural settings with stories of women facing

problems in their day-to-day lives. In addition, if Ratna often illustrates women who are

essentially patronised by men, Titis always ends her novels with a short poem to

illustrate that humaneness lies in the hand of God: only God can control a person’s life.

Titis’ works end with the narrator’s submission to destiny, typical of the Javanese

philosophical conception of nrimo (one’s life is predetermined by one’s own destiny).

Moreover, in these writers’ works, the Arabic words imported into their Indonesia, such

as the use of Allah instead of Tuhan (both meaning God) are quite common.

Besides the four selected writers,there are certainly other writers, Kartini, Saadah Alim

(1897 – 1968), Titi Said (b. 1935) are to name a few. Although issues appeared in their

writings are not so dissimilar than these selected four: Kartini, mentioned earlier, raises

several issues such as her demands to improve women’s roles and status through

education, while Saadah Alim and Titie Said (b. 1935) write mostly fictions about

women as mothers and wives,2 none of these writers is classified as writers conveying

religious identity, except for Marriane Katoppo with her religious world of Christianity.

Women writers in Indonesia are regarded as women writers, and readings of their works

seldom (for not to say never) touches religious identity.

Unless otherwise stated the following explanation is primarily taken from interviews

with each individual writer; published interviews and newspaper clippings which add

some clarification are noted.

Titis Basino P. I.

Titis Basino P. I. (P. I. stands for her husband’s name Purnomo Ismadi) is the oldest of

the four. This eighth of nine children of the Javanese Basino Atmodiwiryo family was

2 Korrie Layun Rampan, ‘Wanita Cerpenis Indonesia’, in K.L. Rampan (ed). Dunia Perempuan AntologiCerita Pendek Wanita Cerpenis Indonesia. Bentang Budaya, Jakarta, 2002, pp. ix – xxvi.

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born in Magelang, Central Java, January 7, 1939. She then spent her childhood in

Madiun, and moved to Purwokerto with her family where she finished high school. Her

writing career started during her secondary education as a writer of majalah dinding

(high school magazine posted on the school wall). Her tertiary education was at the

Fakultas Sastra (Faculty of Letters) Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, where she

graduated Sarjana Muda (equivalent to B.A) in Indonesian literature in 1962. She then

had a short career (1962-1963) as a flight attendant with the national airline, Garuda

Indonesia.3 Titis spent her earliest childhood under Japanese rule and grew up in

postcolonial Indonesia where she enjoyed the opportunity of having tertiary education.

Experiencing the ways Indonesia shifted from a colonial to postcolonial society

certainly enriches her knowledge of societal changes, and how a society perceives and

deals with such changes. Her work as a flight attendant also provides her with

opportunities to experience public life and make contact with people of different

backgrounds. Although her later choice of housewife was a different route from her

modern job as flight attendant, seemingly Titis has always positioned herself in the

public sphere, exemplified by her career choices of flight attendant, writer, and as the

Chair of a literary documentation organization.

She is currently living in Jakarta, her adopted city since 1958. Although she comes from

a large family Titis only has four children. The Javanese saying “banyak anak banyak

rejeki” (having more children means having more “windfalls” or “incomes”), does not

seem to be largely followed in post 1960s Indonesia because Titis’ generation was

usually influenced by the government’s comprehensive family planning program. To a

certain degree, it can be said that through her writings Titis campaigns for the family

planning program. In her works, family size usually consists of parents with two or

three children: a nuclear family description. In identifying her fictionalised families as

nuclear she takes a new direction; the “modern” family is nuclear, as opposed to the

“traditional” extended family. In terms of family size the 1970s generation has even less

children: from more than two children per family to just two children at the most per

family. In Titis’ case, having fewer children compared to her parents gives her more

3 This career links her with another prominent author, NH. Dini, who also once worked as a flightattendant.

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time to pursue her chosen career as she finds more time to write.4 Furthermore, because

her children have their own families, she finds that her presence at home is no longer

compulsory, thus she devotes most of her time to public roles.5

In the 1960s Titis wrote short stories for the literary magazines Horison and Sastra, but

her professional writing career began with her first novel publication, Pelabuhan Hati

(Harbour of Heart, 1978). For the span of 10 years, from 1986 to 1996, due to personal

reasons and family request, Titis devoted herself to her domestic role and produced very

little work. She started writing again in 1997 following the death of her husband in

1996, and up to the present day she has produced at least 20 novels and numerous short

stories. Among others are: Di Bumi Aku Bersua Di Langit Aku Bertemu (In Earth I Meet

in the Sky I Encounter, 1983); Bukan Rumahku (Not My Home, 1986); Welas Asih

Merengkuh Tajali (Compassion Embraces Love, 1997); Mensucikan Perselingkuhan

(Purifying an Affair, 1998); Aku Supiyah Istri Hardian (I am Supiyah Hardian’s Wife,

1998); Tersenyumpun Tidak Untukku Lagi (Your Smile is not for Me, 1998); Tangan

Tangan Kehidupan (The Hands of Life, 1998); Terjalnya Gunung Batu (Steep Rocky

Mountain, 1998); Garis Lurus Garis Lengkung (Straight Line Curved Line, 2000); Aku

Kendalikan Air, Api, Angin dan Tanah (I Control Water, Fire, Wind and Earth, 1998);

Mawar Hitam Milik Laras (Laras’ Black Rose, 1999); Sukma dan K. Wekas (Sukma

and K. Wekas, 2000); Hari Yang Terbaik (The Best Day, 2000); Jala (The Fishing Net,

2002); and Tabu Pernikahan (The Marriage Taboo, 2003). In 1998, her novel Dari

Lembah ke Coolibah (From Valley to Coolibah, 1997) won a literary award from Pusat

Bahasa (The National Language Centre), and it also won The South-East Asian Writers

Award. In 1999, the Malaysian government awarded her the Mastra Prize, a competitive

literary award.6 Still pursuing her writing career, she is also the Chair of the Executive

Board of Pusat Dokumentasi Sastra H.B. Jassin (H.B. Jassin Centre of Literary

Documentation) in Jakarta.

4 Reduction on family size shows rapid demographic change that must influence women’s time spendingfor the family.5 It should be noted that imposed family planning might also jeopardise women’s agency if they have nosay about their reproduction rights.6 ‘Education about Asia’, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 2001, p. 1, http://www.aasianst.org/EAA/her.htm

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Titis’ narratives always depict women’s world, women’s problems and how they deal

with them, creating exclusively a female perspective. Typical of her stories are the

deceptive relationships in which women are victimised, yet from this victimisation they

rise to self-empowerment. Titis believes that her portrayal of female characters is her

way of “painting what, who and how women truly are.”7 She adds further that she aims

to narrate women’s position as both “positive” and “negative” object. “Positive” means

that a woman is an equal partner of a man, without her support no man can ever achieve

success, while “negative” means that men often take advantage of women. Although

most of her works deal with deception and infidelity, Titis strongly disagrees with

bringing the discourse of sex into fiction. In her view the sexual relationship should

never be spoken of publicly. She choses dialogue as her best way to illustrate romantic

and intimate relationships. An example of this attitude is found in her novel, Rumah K.

Seribu (The One Thousandth House, 1998). Acclaimed by literary critics, this novel

celebrates platonic love. A leading critic, Eka Budianta, observes that the novel

substantiates that “love without sex is a luxury in its own.”8 Titis believes that writing

about sex will only jeopardise her position as a writer of serious literature and she

refuses to incorporate sex into her narratives. In her opinion sex is only for popular

literature and is often written in a vulgar manner almost bordering on pornography. She

argues that serious literature aims to enlighten its readers by suggesting new dimensions

of approaching a problem; in this way a writer may function as a psychological

interpreter of human problems.9

Titis’ commitment to communicate female perspectives and concerns has entered a

deeper stage as she always utilises first point narrative, using “aku” (“I”) as the narrator.

Her consistency to always use the first person narrator deserves attention. Male writers

too employ the same technique, yet when portraying women’s issues or presenting

women’s voices, women’s own words and perceptions of their own situations will bring

greater authenticity. The use of “I” as the narrator is crucial for women authors as they

can justify the female perspective from both the author and narrator. Within the

perspective of feminist reading she has also privileged female body experience through

7 ‘Titis Basino P.I.,’ Profil Perempuan Pengarang Peneliti Penerbit di Indonesia, Korrie Layun Rampan,Titiek WS, Matheus Elanda Rosi Ds (eds), Kelompok Cinta Baca, Jakarta, 2000, p. 411.8 Ibid., p. 410.9 Titis, Profil Pengarang, p. 411.

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the use of the female perspective. The “I” pointed out in the narrative signals an

opening, a room in the narrative where readers are free to enter, and where they can

easily associate themselves with the narrator. Titis gives women a voice, a voice that

some women are unable to use. In particular, she gives a voice to women who are

deceived by their husbands’ infidelity. She says in one interview:

Since they cannot scream so I let those people know how women feel whilebeing deceived through infidelity. There are many men having extra maritalaffairs but their wives just cannot get angry or cannot say no. I write so thatthose people can read.10

As Titis revealed further in the interview, her stories are not just pure imagination,

many of them are real, based on real stories of real people. She tries to help these

women by suggesting her way of reading their problems and bringing them to life in her

literary production. Titis’ method of putting real stories to fiction reflects and

exemplifies representations of the real. Her power lies in the fact that she does not only

represent women of a linear singularity, but different women following the historical

changes that these women experience. Accordingly, Titis’ protagonists move from the

mature age widow in Dari Lembah ke Coolibah, to the young dutiful wife in Jala. Her

flexibility in moving from one woman to the other structures an end to a fixation of

identity meant to reflect all women all the time. Titis’ characters are largely from a

lower-social class who struggle to maintain equilibrium when their families undergo

chaos caused by the husband’s betrayal. Reading Titis’ various women thus aims not

merely to uncover her “truth”, but also to investigate how such concepts of truth are

formed, particularly in the ideological representation of the women characters: how they

are manufactured and re-manufactured by the author using real stories of women she

knows.

Although Titis celebrates the multiplicity of a woman’s role in the society: “A woman

must be able to be anything; a mother, a friend, a lover,” she also states “a woman

brings numerous images with her: her social, cultural and political status, which

regrettably are often forsaken.” Nevertheless, like most women of her generation, she

believes women are not to escape from the conception of kodrat, thus the sexual

division of labour. For her, woman’s proper place is at home, and it is a woman’s duty

10 An interview with Titis Basino in the foyer of Pusat Dokumentasi Sastra H.B. Jassin, Jakarta, 1 June2004.

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to take care of family matters because of her natural role of motherhood and

domesticity. Although encouraging women to occupy public roles through education

and labour, she insists that women’s primary roles are as wife, mother, homemaker, and

as worker adding to the family income, but never as the family breadwinner, which

should be primarily in the hand of the husband.11 The most distinctive feature in her

narratives is the issue of polygamy and betrayal through extramarital affairs. In coping

with such catastrophe her female characters manage to stand upright and in the end it is

the female figure who restores the disorder to order; her women are strong, independent

and very self-empowered. Titis is a feminist in the sense that she is aware of constraints

placed upon women due to their gender, how women sustain their existence in times of

chaos, and how women yearn to remove these constraints and build a more equitable

gender system.

Although many male authors deal with issues of female empowerment, often these male

texts privilege emotional responses and fail to explore the psychological reactions of

women to issues such as polygamy and man’s infidelity. Titis’ representation of reality

fiction—her use of “I” as the narrator in all her books— shows how women can be in

control of their own experiences. She advances that the strength of her characters comes

from their deep faith in God. All her characters are Muslim and they are always looking

to maintain their religious commitment, reflective of her own belief that it is only God

we must be submissive to, since God is the owner of all things.12 Religious identity is

embodied in Titis’ female characters and her works add to the many ways of reading

Muslim women and their representations in literary fictions.

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, or Mbak Ratna as she is frequently called, is one of the most

productive short story authors in the Indonesian literary world. Born in Malang, East

Java, April 24, 1949, she has produced more than 300 short stories and a novel in the

11 Interview with Titis Basino, 1 June 2004.12 Interview with Titis Basino, 1 June 2004.

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thirty years of her writing career. Unlike Titis who experienced the Japanese – Titis was

only 3 when the colonial era ended era, Ratna is the product of independent Indonesia.

However, like Titis she comes from a large family; she is the fifth daughter out of

children of the Saleh Ibrahim family and is unmarried.

Ratna lives in Malang where she undertook all of her education from elementary to

tertiary level. She was enrolled in the Fakultas Ilmu Administrasi (Faculty of

Administration Science) at Universitas Brawijaya (Brawijaya University) Malang, but

withdrew when she lost interest. Ratna is often invited to numerous seminars and

conferences including the International Seminar of Disabled People in Sydney,

Australia; the International Women’s Congress in Washington, USA in 1993 and in

Beijing, China in 1995; and Leadership Training MIUSA (Mobility International USA)

in Eugene, Oregon, USA in 1997. Ratna is also an activist in social organizations: she

chaired Yayasan Bakti Nurani Malang (an NGO for disabled people) from 1977-2000;

was the founder of Masyarakat Entropic Malang (Entropic Society Malang, an NGO

concerned with environmental issues); and is a researcher for Yayasan Kebudayaan

Panjoeng (Panjoeng Cultural Foundation, a foundation to develop the local cultures of

Malang). She also founded Kajian Ilmiah Forum Pelangi (Forum Pelangi Scientific

Studies) and a journal called Naraswari, which concentrates on issues of women and

gender equality. She was awarded Wanita Berprestasi (Highly Distinguished Woman)

by the Indonesian government in 1993. She has won several awards for her work from

women’s magazines and newspapers such as Femina and Kompas, and is also a prize

winning poet.

Since she started writing in 1975, numerous of her short stories have been published in

collections, including Namanya Masa (His Name is Massa, 2001); Noda Pipi Seorang

Perempuan (A Spot in a Woman’s Cheek, 2003); Aminah Di Satu Hari (Aminah in One

Day, 2002); Lakon di Kota Kecil (Drama in a Small Town, 2002); and Bukan Pinang

Dibelah Dua (Unidentical Twin, 2003). Her novel is entitled Lemah Tanjung (Lemah

Tanjung, 2003). Ratna is probably part of the sastra koran tradition, as her works were

scattered in various newspapers such as Kompas, Jawa Pos before being issued in

collections of short stories. Her productivity and activity are remarkable for she has a

physical disability and needs to dictate all her works to her secretary. In her early

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childhood, Ratna suffered from poliomyelitis, which left her with little use of her hands

and legs, and to help her move around she uses a wheelchair. Despite her physical

disability she is indeed one of the most prolific authors in Indonesia.

Ratna’s writing focus is on women whom she knows well. She believes that her

narratives help shape the women’s movement because they also function as counter

discourse of the masculinity that is rooted in the Indonesian public discourse. She

writes:

I think this country is characterised as masculine because of its fondness to thesymbols of violence. As an illustration, the biases of patriarchal ideology in thiscountry produce a huge impact penetrating inside this country’s system,meaning that this country represents itself as male. And what kind of women israised by such masculine tradition? As a result, as always they [women] becomesilent mass and marginal members. Whether we are aware or not, men in thiscountry still believe that women’s roles are within domestic social. In all storiesthe super hero is always male.13

Ratna believes that literature is a powerful means to protest against such marginalisation

and victimisation, because resistance writings are a powerful media against injustice

and oppression. Through writings, Ratna concludes, she can break the mass silence of

women, and enunciate the injustices forced upon them.14 In order to bring women’s

voice into public hearing, she then attempts to smash women’s marginalisation by

repositioning them from the periphery to the centre. She exemplifies this in her newest

novel Lemah Tanjung, a novel based on true story. All female characters in the novel

are resisting domination forced on them. For example, Ibu Indri, one protagonist in the

novel, never stops her struggles to protect the only green area in her city against

attempts to transfer it into a shopping mall. Ratna’s retelling of Bu Indri’s story marks

her struggle to place one local woman’s history into the public memory. This is exactly

how Ratna positions her role as an author: believing that with her writings she can

record the history of the women’s struggles and bring it to the public’s attention:

I am interested not because I am a historian but because I am trying to be one.The hero is Ibu Indrasih, she is now terribly ill that she can no longer walk, stillwith her three children and our group, she keeps on fighting to this day. Talking

13 Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim, Sastra Dan Gerakan Perempuan, paper presented on a seminar held byJawa Pos, 19 April 2003 in Graha Pena Surabaya, p. 1.14 Ratna, Ibid ., p. 2.

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about history, I am trying to record this local history. . . . So it is a true story. . . .But because I am not an expert in history, I attempt to concoct it into fiction.15

In her effort to document local history Ratna brings locality right into the centre of

public mind, retelling local hero stories that are commonly marginalised simply because

of their anonymity. In writing these stories, Ratna ruptures the notion of history as

grand narrative by presenting and documenting alternative stories of ordinary people

with extraordinary struggles.

A literary work is the soul of its author, Ratna strongly believes. However it is a product

of literary imagination, the factuality in this so-called imaginative world is still

reflective of the real: the represented real of its author and her surrounding world,

creating the world in it a reality of its own. Through her stories Ratna presents us the

revival of social realities in fiction. Her fiction is not a product of literary imagination

per se rather her fiction shows a reality and awakens our dreams in a story. In an

interview, Ratna reveals that her narratives are based on factual researches, which are

then blended with her imagination, and certainly her reading of such experience.16

Furthermore, the politics of her works lies in her goal to treat her fiction as a witness of

injustice. She states:

I can see and feel the masculinity of the social “texts” which totally harasswomen socially. And I think it is all caused by patriarchal hegemony that hasgrown long enough in this country. As a result, I am challenged to write shortstories as witness to those injustices.17

Ratna’s short stories are shaped to tell the tales of injustices and repression in

Indonesian lives, more particularly in the lives of women. Ratna says fiction is a

reflection of culture. The more women write from their own perspectives, especially in

fiction, the more they are aware of their domestic and public roles, and this awareness

will empower them to defend their rights out of men’s exploitation.18

15 An Interview with Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, 20 July 2004 at her home in Jl. Diponegoro No. 3,Malang, East Java. Translation mine.16 Interview with Ratna, 20 July 2004.17 Eko Bambang Subiantoro, ‘Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim; Menulis Cerpen Mengabarkan Kenyataan’,Jurnal Perempuan No. 23, 2002, pp. 103 – 114.18 Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, Sastra dan Gerakan Perempuan, p. 2.

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The foremost depiction of female characters in Ratna’s narratives is of marginalised and

victimised Muslim women who largely dwell in rural areas, especially in Malang and its

surrounding areas. According to her these women are forgotten or assumed to be

unimportant, but they are typical of around seventy percent of Indonesian women.19 It is

therefore, she states, her privilege to bring them to life in her stories, narrating their pain

and misery. Her narratives indeed project a variety of images of Indonesian Muslim

women. Her refusal to portray urban and cosmopolitan women who are autonomous

individuals, as in sastra wangi writings, breathes soul to the women who are not urban

and who are still by and large victims of patriarchal domination. She reminds us that

feminism still has a long way to go to finally reach its ideal of justice and equality for

all women. In Ratna’s opinion, tradition is the notion of women’s domestication, whilst

modernity situates them in public social arenas: tradition relates to women’s

dependence, modernity independence. Ratna believes that Indonesian women want to

be just like Cinderella; rescued by a prince charming from their problems who will

defeat the wickedness of those around them, then marry them.

If we talk about women in Indonesia, one of her feet is in the traditional sphere,the other in the modern, she herself is ambiguous [ambivalent]. . . . But in myopinion, women in Indonesian society still largely hold male ideology. They stillbelieve in the Cinderella complex.20

Paralleling the situation of Indonesian women with the Cinderella story is crucial as this

strongly suggests that the ideal of Indonesian women is approximately similar to that

held by women in the Western world. The Cinderella story is not of Indonesian origin

yet many Indonesian women identify themselves with her situation and want to have a

happy ending just like Cinderella. Ratna uses such stereotypes in her narratives, and in

doing so, aims to raise the awareness of her readers of how women are constructed in

society, and of the ways women are able to empower themselves against such

discrimination.

Claiming her writings to be counter discourse to sastra wangi which frequently use

open sexual discourse, Ratna insists that there should be no such talk in women’s

writings, for it is the language of man that sees sex as open and vulgar. Women’s

language is more lyrical and refined, closer to affection yet unemotional. Her opposition

19 Interview with Ratna, 20 July 2004.20 Interview with Ratna, 20 July 2004.

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to sastra wangi is made clear when she says that it is erroneous to juxtapose sexual

liberation and feminism. Sexual liberation (the most salient feature of sastra wangi) is a

narrowly defined feminism. The danger of exposing sex and sexual activity openly lies

in the presumption that it is what being feminine is about. For Ratna, femininity is God

given, thus open exploration will reduce its beauty. She observes that vulgar sexual

discourse is undeniably written in bahasa laki-laki (male language), as opposed to

bahasa perempuan (female language).21 This is the trap that she wants to avoid in her

writings. Writing in female language and privileging female experiences is her essential

proposal.

Ratna refuses to be labelled a feminist, but in her writings she puts “the woman

question” into her attempt to critically read and attack the sexual division of labour

because she believes the division is reflective of patriarchy and gender bias, not of the

natural order. For Ratna, Islam personifies justice and equality as revealed in the

Hadith literature, but in most of the Muslim world, women are historically limited to

domesticity and denied their public rights. Like other Muslim female authors, Ratna

believes that it is not Islam that is oppressive to women, it is the culture, and Islam

alone is protective of freedom and the rights of women. Documenting social history in

her narratives challenges culturally biased notions of women’s role.

Abidah El Khalieqy

If the previous two authors belong to older generations (Angkatan 66 for Titis and

Angkatan 80an for Ratna), Abidah El Khalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa are of Angkatan

2000, as their narratives began to appear in mid 1990s.22 Both wearing jilbab, their

claim to their religious identity is not only apparent in their narratives but also in the

authors’ persona.

21 Interview with Ratna, 20 July 2004. Bahasa perempuan here is not meant to be congruent withécriture feminine (women’s writing) of French theorists such as Héléne Cixous, Luce Irigaray or others.According to Ratna, female language here means the language used by women to express women’sexperiences.22 Korrie Layun Rampan, Angkatan 2000 dalam Sastra Indonesia, PT Gramedia Widiasarana Indonesia,Jakarta, 2000.

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Abidah El Khalieqy is not only known as a prose writer but also as a poet. Indeed, she

started her writing profession first in poetry then moved onto prose writing. Abidah was

born in March 1, 1965 in Menturo, Jombang and comes from a big santri family of

seven children.23 Growing up in Jombang, the capital of pesantren, she was exposed

regularly to the Islamic discourses. Soon after she finished Islamic elementary school,

she continued her study in a pesantren putri (pesantren for girls) of Persis (Persatuan

Islam) in Bangil, East Java, for six years. Within this period she began to publish short

stories and children’s stories in newspapers and magazines under the pseudonyms Ida

Arek Ronopati, Idasmara Prameswari or Ida Bani Kadir. Pursuing her secondary

education in Jakarta and Klaten, Central Java, she then moved to Yogyakarta for her

tertiary education. She graduated from IAIN (State Institute of Islamic Studies) Sunan

Kalijaga. In Yogyakarta she was an active member of Komunitas Teater Eska (Eska

Theatrical Community) and Lingkaran Penyair Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Poets Circle).

She was invited to the APWLD forum in Kuala Lumpur (Asia Pacific Forum on

Women, Law and Development) in relation to her thesis on the commodity of women’s

physical values in the perspective of Islamic law (a study on the advertising area).

Abidah not only involves herself in writing but also in the feminist movement: she is a

supporter of both global and local feminist movements and belongs to Kelompok

Diskusi Perempuan International (International Women Discussion Group).

Abidah is currently living in Megowo, Yogyakarta, with her three children and husband,

Hamdy Salat, who is also a poetry and prose writer. Like most women of her generation

Abidah has a small family in comparison to older generations.24 Abidah’s writing

achievement is notable. Her countless short stories, poems and essays have been

published in several magazines such as Horizon, Republika, Gadis, Amanah, Ulumul

Qur’an and many others. Her poems were included in ASEANO: An Anthology of

Southeast Asia Poems, in 1995. In the same year she was invited to represent Indonesia

23 If santri is gender-neutral, santriwan is male and santriwati is female.24 The total fertility rate of those born post-1970s declined from 5.6 children per family in 1967-70 to2.85 children in 1994. An Indonesian family with parents aged 30s – 40s today commonly has not morethan three children, and seemingly the younger generations will continue to do so for decades to come.‘Indonesia Family Planning, Family Welfare and Women's Activities’, Family Health International,Internet, http://www.fhi.org/en/RH/Pubs/wsp/fctshts/Indonesia1.htm, (28 December 2005).

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at the ASEAN Writer’s Conference/Work Shop on Poetry in Manila, Philippines. In

1997 she participated in Bengkel Kerja Penulisan Kreatif Majelis Sastra Asia Tenggara

(MASTERA) in Jakarta, a writing workshop for ASEAN literary writers. The following

year she was invited to read her poems at the secretariat of ASEAN, and received a

literary award from the regional government of Yogyakarta. She was also invited to

numerous poetry readings in several cities in Indonesia. Her publication, in addition to

some poetry anthologies, incorporates prose works like Ibuku Lautan Berkobar (My

Mother the Burning Sea, 1997); Menari di Atas Gunting (Dancing Above the Scissors,

2001); Perempuan Berkalung Sorban (Woman with the Sorban Necklace, 2001); Atas

Singasana (Above the Crown, 2003); and the latest Geni Jora (Jora’s Fire, 2004,) which

won the second prize for 2003 novel writing conducted by Dewan Kesenian Jakarta

(The Jakarta Arts Council). Her poems about women and abortion were translated into

English by an Australian poet Geoff Fox and published in cyber-album in 1998.

A recognised Indonesian literary critic, Budi Darma, has compared Abidah’s work to

Taslima Nasreen’s, the Bangladesh woman author whose works are mostly regarded as

blasphemy to Islam. But far from Nasreen’s radicalism, Abidah’s presentation of

Islamic gender ideology is subtle, yet voicing strong challenges to Islamic patriarchal

interpretations.25 Most of her works are weighted with women’s issues located within

Islamic perspectives, and she continuously criticises formal and informal institutions

entrapping women in the shackles of their gender. The strongest theme in her narratives

is her call for social change and female empowerment to occur within the sanction of

Islamic doctrines. In Perempuan Berkalung Sorban, published under the auspices of

YKF (Yayasan Kesejahteraan Fatayat, Fatayat Welfare Foundation) and the Ford

Foundation, Abidah powerfully takes issues of women’s right to education and

reproduction into account. She says that her interest in feminism is based on her

experience of what she sees and senses:

If we see injustices how can we be silenced? . . . What is happening in ourworld? So, how can we be alert of all those? Perhaps, if I speak about thoseproblems in my writings at least I have participated with my friends or thosehaving concerns with problems of injustices and discrimination.26

25 Back cover of Geni Jora by Abidah El Khalieqy, Matahari, Yogyakarta, 2004.26 Interview with Abidah El Kalieqy, 7 July 2004 at her home in Maguwo, Yogyakarta.

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Her narratives are laden with “the woman question”, and she constantly creates and

recreates her female characters as those who react and offer counter responses to

patriarchal oppression.

Abidah’s engagement with Islamic feminism started when she was an active member of

Yayasan Kesejahteraan Fatayat (YKF), an NGO seeking to empower women. She

posits:

I try to keep myself informed about the advance of feminism either from theWestern world or from the Islamic world such as the Middle East. . . . I amcurrently active in YKF, an NGO aiming for women’s empowerment. This NGOis not affiliated with NU, although most members are also members of NU. Withthis NGO, we are redefining Qur’anic exegeses, researching on how to createguidelines of fiqh perempuan [Islamic jurisprudence from women’sperspectives] in pesantren similar to those done by Sinta Nuriyah with herForum Kajian Kitab Kuning.27

Abidah believes that the best way to disseminate the notion of feminism, be it Islamic or

any other is through literary writings, since narratives are reflections of everyday lives

that the readers can easily identity with and make meaning out of. Her narratives are her

tools in reacting against injustices and discrimination against women, which in the end

she hopes can inspire readers to create better conditions. The best way to vocalise her

feminist views is through writings because she can use her own language, the woman

language:

The more I develop my knowledge and interest on feminism, the more I likediscussing about it as it is now actual and I think I have to start writing about it. Iknow some writers who have no concern about it. . . . Then, I wrote with myown language, which means that I have full authority on bahasa perempuan(female language), utilising that female language which is not masculine.Masculine language colonises almost all spheres both knowledge and literature. .. . Actually, what I feel [about the masculine hegemony of the language] is notcoming only from actual discourses that are in circulation but also because myfriends around me feel the same way. Thus, I must begin entering that sphere[feminism].28

Similar to Ratna, Abidah argues that bahasa perempuan (female language) is not only

crucial, but also accurate in presenting women’s own experiences and views. It creates a

strong identification that suggests a resistance to the essentialising agenda of identity

27 Interview with Abidah, 7 July 1995.28 Interview with Abidah, 7 July 2004. Abidah’s definition of female language is similar to Ratna’s.

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politics created by the dominant male culture.29 Of course, the problematic of female

language is complicated when women project language assumed to be women’s but is,

instead, a projection of hegemonic male language. In this case, women write of men’s

perception rather than their own genuine perception. Nevertheless, through careful

reading and scrutiny the problematic of female language can be identified and

reassembled in order to provide entry into self and language. Abidah refers to Nawal

Sa’dawi’s books, specifically The Hidden Face of Eve, which corresponds to the views

she wants to articulate in her writings. The core of her narratives lies in the spirit of

equality, though it may appear in different shapes through different literary

characterisation or different poetical expression.

Abidah’s prose works are usually set in a pesantren background. The pesantren world is

the world she knows well, and the language of pesantren is her mother tongue. She even

calls herself “santri minded.” Her intention is to bring to life a pesantren world that has

been largely ignored and marginalised by a number of writers. Only a very few writers,

such as Huda Huzairini and A.A. Navis, take account of the pesantren world. The

pesantren world is normally regarded as exclusive world, estranged, closed, very

conventional and traditional. It is assumed to be a closed world because only those of

santri background and family live there. Unless one wants to have an education in

Islamic teachings, ordinary Indonesians do not usually live within a pesantren area. It

can be said that the role of Abidah’s writings is to bridge the pesantren and ordinary

Indonesian world, linking the imaginings of the general Indonesian public to the factual

life in the pesantren world. She is thus situated among these very few writers who

explore the dynamics of pesantren life against the grain of the received view of the

outside world. Her narratives are her readings of the personal experiences of those

living there, though they are not necessarily hers. Abidah sets her latest work, Geni

Jora, in Middle Eastern regions like Morocco, Damascus, Palestine, Lebanon and parts

of Israel for similar reason. Because most contemporary Indonesian fiction is set in the

Western world, Abidah chooses the Middle East world as it was a centre of civilisation

and the birth place of three great religions, making it very worthy of attention.

29 Interview with Abidah, 7 July 2004.

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Her challenge to orthodox interpretations of women’s role and position in Islamic

society brings criticism from various ulama. Her novel, Perempuan Berkalung Sorban,

is an example. The first edition of this novel—about 3000 copies were distributed free

to NGOs, pesantrens, religious and social organizations, and kyais—was controversial

when first launched in 2001. Many in the invited audiences, which included kyais,

showed their disagreement with her story which touched on women’s right to education,

and the not to be spoken of issue of women’s reproduction rights within Islamic tenets.

Most significantly her criticism of kitab kuning was condemned. Kitab kunings in

Abidah’s perspective are conditional and should not be rated more importantly than the

Qur’an. The fact that many of those living in pesantren make more primary use of these

books than the Holy Book is her reason for criticising them. She notes further that what

she criticises is the culture in which the world of the pesantren people reside; a culture

which is in principle oppressive to women because it limits them solely to the domestic

domain, and denies their rights to education and reproduction choice. For Abidah this is

against the core of Islamic teachings. What Abidah articulates in her narratives is

crucial. She promotes balancing the sociological with the theological, a perspective that

will provide the flexibility for Islamic doctrines to face various challenges presented by

social changes, while reflecting the transcendental essence of Islamic spirit.

Helvy Tiana Rosa

A short story and essay writer Helvy’s world is unknown to most Indonesian women.

Her days are filled with activities other than as a housewife. Born in Medan, North

Sumatra in April 2, 1970, Helvy moved to Jakarta in her teens, where she finished her

secondary and tertiary education. She received her B.A. from Universitas Indonesia in

Arabic literature. Recently she was awarded her Master Degree in Indonesian literature

from the same university. In her undergraduate years she founded a contemporary

Muslim theatre (1991), and she directs her own plays. These include: Aminah dan

Palestina (Aminah and Palestine, 1991); Negeri Para Pesulap (The Magicians’

Country, 1993); Maut di Kamp Loka (Death at Loka Camp, 1993); Fathiya dari

Sebrenica (Fathiya from Srebrenica, 1994); Pertemuan Perempuan (Women’s Meeting,

1997, co-written with M. Syahida); and Luka Bumi (Earth’s Wound, 1998, co-written

with Rahmadianti). Between 1991-2001 she was Executive Director of Annida, an

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Islamic teenage magazine. In 1998 she participated in Bengkel Cerpen Maestra (Majelis

Sastra Asia Tenggara, Southeast Asian Writing Workshop in Jakarta), and the

following year she was invited to join Bengkel Penulisan Cerita Anak (Children’s

Stories Writing Workshop) conducted by Pusat Perbukuan Depdikbud (Centre of

Books of the Ministry of Education and Culture). In 1999 also, as a delegate of Horison

literary magazine she went to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, to attend Pertemuan Sastra

Nusantara X (Nusantara Literary Meeting X). She has travelled extensively to cities in

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Thailand where she discusses

her works. Along with nine other women she was awarded Best Muslims by Amanah, a

Muslim women’s magazine. In 2002 she was invited to read her works at Al Azhar

University, Cairo, Egypt. In 2003 she was invited to read and discuss her works at the

Singapore Writer’s Festival, shortly followed by travel to the USA to present her works

at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan. She is now a member of

the Executive Board and Literary Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council, and also a

member of the scholar’s board of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS, Prosperous Justice

Party, a growing Islamic political party in Indonesian politics). She is also the Chair of

Forum Lingkar Pena (FLP, Pen Circle Forum), a literary organization founded in 1997

with a current membership of more than 5000 spread around 120 cities in Indonesia and

overseas. This organization aims to support, guide and train its members to be writers.

To date FLP through its own publishing house, Lingkar Pena Publishing House, has

published at least 300 books written by its members.

Currently, Helvy lives in Jakarta, with her twelve-year-old son Faiz and her husband,

Tomy Satryatomo, a television journalist. In her home she has established a public

library called Rumah Cahaya (literally means “light house”, it is also an acronym for a

house for baca dan hasilkan karya, reading and producing works). As with Titis and

Abidah, compared to her parents, Helvy has a much smaller family. All three authors, to

a certain degree, are products of the family planning program, which affects women's

empowerment (women’s economic and social autonomy) within and outside the family,

and this works in the case of Helvy, Abidah and Titis. Having more time for

themselves, they create worlds both inside and outside their home, freely moving

between the private and public spheres.

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Helvy started writing at the age of ten and since then she has produced more than 200

short stories and numerous essays. Besides anthologies with other authors, her

publications include: Segenggam Gumam (A Hand of Words, 2003); Lelaki Kabut dan

Boneka/ Dolls and The Man of Mist (2002); Wanita yang Mengalahkan Setan (The

Woman who Defeats Satan, 2002); Titian Pelangi (Path of Rainbow, 2000); Hari-Hari

Cinta Tiara (Tiara’s Days of Love, 2000); Akira (Akira, 2000); Pangeranku (My

Prince, 2000); Manusia-Manusia Langit, (The Sky Humans, 2000); Sebab Sastra yang

Merenggutku dari Pasrah (Because Literature Snatches Me from Submission, 1999);

Ketika Mas Gagah Pergi (When Mas Gagah Leaves, 1997); McAlliester (a novel

translated into English and published in London by Moslem Press, 1996); Pelangi

Nurani (Rainbow of Conscience, 2002); Nyanyian Perjalanan (Songs of Journey,

1999); Hingga Batu Bicara (Until the Rocks Speak, 1999); and Lentera (The Lantern,

1999). Her works have been translated into many languages including English, Arabic,

Japanese and German, and some have been transferred into comic book form. Her short

story Jaring-Jaring Merah (The Red Nets), along with nine other short stories was

included in the best stories for the ten-year period 1990-2000 by Horison literary

magazine.

Many writers feel a sense of social responsibility in advising their readers on

problematic social issues. Within this perspective, books become a vehicle for the social

concerns of the writers. Helvy undeniably voices her concerns about social issues in her

stories. Although her work is limited to short stories (Helvy reasons she does not breath

long enough to produce a novel) they reflect two important thematic lines: her love of

God, and the struggles of the oppressed. She sets her narratives within the domain of

Islamic literature because she believes it is indeed accommodative to such themes:

Literature is not something dreadful, difficult and the like. For me, Islamicliterature is defined as unlimited literature in which all writings areaccommodated to the belief in God. It’s very simple. But such definition shouldnot narrowly limit us in our writings. Islamic literature is indeed liberating: it ishow we can call for goodness implicitly and explicitly within the framework ofaesthetics. . . . Islam is universal and rahmat bagi sekalian alam (rahmatil lil`alamin, a blessing for the whole universe) and the concept I am following isthat writing should enlighten its readers or minadz dzulilmat ila annuur (out ofdarkness to enlightenment).30

30 Helvy Tiana Rosa, ‘Napas Saya Tidak Panjang, Koran Tempo, Oktober 2003, p.16.

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Helvy’s mission is to “enlighten” her readers and she hopes that after reading her works

they will understand her messages. She wants her writing to function as a source of

knowledge, or at least to inform and clarify something that was previously unknown or

“obscure.” Her writings must convey purpose without abandoning aesthetic aspects. She

strongly believes that ideal interpretations of Islam are meant to be enlightening because

the coming of Islam is believed to have ended the age of jahiliyya (ignorance,

commonly associated with darkness). Islam and aesthetics are thus two entwined

themes embodied in her narratives. Aesthetics is the medium through which “truth” is

presented. Her narratives are not limited to only serving Islamic ideals, but also

universal ideals, because Islamic values carry universality in their practices.

The significance of Islam reverberates in Helvy’ stories, because she believes that

Islamic ideals build justice and equality, so do her narratives. Nevertheless, saying that

she wants to bring a social chance is too idealistic. Her missionary ideal is that through

her writings, at least one individual is enlightened, meaning that after reading her works

a reader will endeavour to have a better condition, or at least desire a better state. The

maxim of her writings is implied in her website—www.helvytianarosa.com,31 where she

writes that she wants to reach a better state in every breath she takes, in every

communication she makes, in every work she produces, for writing is the channel

communicating her ideas.32

Sebab Sastra yang Merenggutku dari Pasrah (Because Literature Snatches Me Away

from Submission) is the title of her collection of short stories that explicitly articulates

the author’s real purpose for her writings. She states:

Because literature snatches me away from being submissive. When informationabout the Islamic world is distorted in various media, when global conspiracystrikes, when Muslims and I suddenly are in the state of “helplessness,” I don’twant to surrender. I struggle through literature [my writings].33

31 This website is currently inaccessible.32 Although Helvy was once a member of PKS (a political party) board of advisory, she refused to becalled as a political activist. In an interview, she revealed that she would prefer to be known as a writerwho has strong concerns about women's inferior position in Islamic societies. She never mentions herselfas a political activist. Her involvement with PKS was becauseshe was doing a favour for friends: it was only temporary, and unintended. She said that she would ratherstay away from any political involvement.33 ‘Pengantar’ in Sebab Sastra yang Merenggutku dari Pasrah, Helvy Tiana Rosa, Gunung Djati, Jakarta,1999, p. 4.

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Helvy claims that her narratives are her way to act in response against any injustice and

discrimination experienced by oppressed men and women; she examples this with the

struggles of the Palestinian people against Israel’s occupation. She argues that the

media, especially the Western media, often depicts the Palestinian freedom fighters

Hammas as terrorists while Israel, the colonial, is never given such a label.34 As a result

she explores many war stories in conflict areas where Muslims are repressed victims, as

in Palestine, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, and

some regions in Indonesia such as Aceh and Poso. Helvy’s short stories are fictional,

but her pen is a powerful means to react against these injustices. In writing her war

stories she always undertakes research in order to provide vivid illustrations and

accurate local colour.35 She creates what is often termed “resistance literature.” Her

portrayal of those resisting any discrimination, oppression or domination is her way of

communicating the injustices that these Muslim communities have suffered. Through

her writings she creates a counter discourse against distorted information. In so doing,

she seeks different endings than that of the distorted portrayals, as her endings are

“already implicit, contained within the narrative analysis and construction of the

conditions and the problematic of the historical situation itself.”36 Helvy offers different

insights and analysis of the circumstances of repression and domination by erecting

symbolic foundations of her own. Her foundation is irrefutably her single most

important consideration: the construction of Islam as a liberating agent, which is

powerfully embraced by her and her fictional characters.

The representation of the Islamic world that Helvy illustrates in her stories is never

meant to be monolithic. In an interview she states that a Muslim woman is not solely

represented by one wearing jilbab, for a veiled woman is one of the plural faces of

Islam, especially in Indonesia.37 She believes it is capitalist law that always

homogenises all representations. Although all her book covers are illustrated with veiled

women, she argues that it is the desires of the publishers to always render muslimah as

women with veils in order to commodify representations for the benefit of profit taking.

34 Interview with Helvy Tiana Rosa, 4 June 2004, at Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta. Translation mine.35 ‘Helvy Tiana Rosa’ in Profil Perempuan Pengarang Peneliti Penerbit di Indonesia, p. 156 – 157.36 Barbara Harlow, Resistance Literature, Methuen, New York and London, 1987, p. 79.37 Interview with Helvy, 4 June 2004.

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Similar reasoning is applied as she comments on some bookstores’ placement of her

books under the category of NORI (Novel Remaja Islami, Islamic Teenage Novels). She

says that the readership of her stories is not intended to be only teenagers, although

most of her stories objectify teenage characters and lives. Her works, she insists, are not

“teen lit” (sastra remaja), a genre similar to “chick lit” but targeted teenage readers and

they do not target a specific audience.38 The term Muslim is not exclusive to adults, this

term is neutral regardless of one’s age, class, culture or other category except in

indicating one’s religion. Narratives of the politics of religious identity mostly depict

the lives of adult Muslims, hardly ever are they about Muslim teenagers. But Helvy

argues that teenagers too experience a complicated and dynamic religious identification

process, perhaps more vibrant because teenagers are in the process of becoming adults.

In portraying the life of teenage Muslims in her writings, Helvy certainly enriches the

variety of contemporary Indonesian literature.

Indeed, Helvy draws Muslims from various standpoints. However, her most depicted

character is a female character facing problems in sustaining her religious identity,

particularly in war conflict areas. Her war stories are narratives of women of the

resistance, and she relocates them from the context of their real historic struggles to

fiction. In so doing, she exhibits aspects of their lives linked to the affairs of the world

that are influential to their struggles. Reasoning why women are her tools, she says:

I want me to be in my works that is why my protagonists are usually females.Moreover it is time to depict females proportionally in literary writings. It meansthat if literary writings about war have female figures, history too will recordmany women as heroes. Actually I am not a feminist, I just want women to bevalued and have important roles. Also, there is awareness in my writings that myprotagonists are empowered women. Intentionally I do want women to be myprotagonists.39

Despite her attempt to display empowered female figures in her narratives, she refuses

to be called a feminist. Her presence in her works signifies her role as an actor in

promoting Islamic ideals. Women’s empowerment in her fiction even goes to a higher

level as it transgresses the male domain. The story of female jihad is a vivid example of

this. The notion of jihad in Helvy’s writing holds various meanings—from an actual

participation in war, to a more-subtle emotional struggle such as maintaining one’s

38 Interview with Helvy, 4 June 2004.39 Interview with Helvy, 4 June 2004.

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religious identity. She believes any struggle against any injustice, subjugation and

domination is the very notion of jihad itself. Within such a perspective her role as an

author telling the narratives of struggle is her own jihad.

The portrayal of women’s jihad is an impulse toward a new reading of jihad. Jihad is

commonly regarded as men’s action in public sphere. In Helvy’s narratives women,

including young girls, nevertheless undertake this so-called men’s action. In doing so,

these women and girls destabilise and challenge the prevailing tradition. Helvy presents

her heroines as active individuals whose responses undermine the received ideal of

“true woman” as weak, meek and emotionally ruled. But more directly, she unmasks the

ideology that women belong in domestic roles, by presenting women fully participating

in social and public affairs. This also shows her belief in the strong bonds of the Muslim

community (ukhuwah islamiyah, Muslim unity). For that reason she creates a world

supportive to Muslim women’s struggles, a world of strong Muslim relationships that

demystify the conventions of sentimental fiction with which women’s stories are often

identified. Helvy’s war stories blatantly expose the casualties, terror and violence of

war. Her works are a celebration of self-empowerment, and the assertion of an

alternative moral vision that challenges the simplistic notions of morality associated

with true womanhood, such as female passivity and physical weakness. For these

reasons, through her narratives, Helvy might be calling for a new definition of female

morality grounded in the heroines’ experiences in maintaining their religious

conviction. Such a notion of morality would not be founded solely upon woman’s

physical and biological makeup, but on more complicated contextual grounds. Thus

Helvy uses her narratives to free women from the confinement of the private sphere,

and to rewrite the history of ideas about women’s morality.

The four selected writers show their own characteristics. However, they seem to share

similarities. With the exception of Ratna who remains unmarried, they all differentiate

themselves from their parents’ family size by having fewer children. They also write

from an exclusively female perspective, often using a first person narrator. Most

importantly, in their attempts to raise women’s issues in their writings in relation to the

idea of women, gender and Indonesian settings, they believe that Islam is grounded in

justice and equality. The message of Islam disseminated by the Prophet Muhammad is

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in itself ideal, yet its practices across regions and cultures may move to totally different

directions than those intended by the Prophet. Islam, these writers argue, is not

oppressive, not to women, not to anybody. It is its practices, often mixed with local

cultures, customs and social structures, housed under the name of orthodox

interpretations, which are oppressive and discriminative to women, privileging one sex

over the other. These four writers walk in the same path in spreading the message of

justice and equality of Islam, although it is manifested in different ways: Titis through

the framework of Sufism, Ratna through her blatant attacks on masculine oppression of

women, especially lower-class women, Abidah through her challenges to orthodox

interpretations, especially those living in the pesantren world, and Helvy through her

women’s jihad against oppression and injustices. These writers create possible

responses of how can women react to oppressive circumstances. Such reactions may be

well read as their attempts to construct and develop women’s own agencies from many

available and possible ways. Their different methods are worthy of merit, as such

difference underlines women’s diverse circumstances. Women are not at all monolithic,

women are not of single identification; they are fractured and fragmented and divided

along various lines of class, social structure, culture, political and economic setting,

producing various subject-positions and self-constructions. In their varieties of

narratives these writers contribute new Islamic-based interpretations of gender-relations

and the politics of gender. Furthermore, the more the use of Arabic words related to the

teachings of Islam in daily vernacular, for example, might represent a sign that

Indonesian cultural life is changing and being reoriented. More Indonesian Muslims

today frequently assert Arabic words in their daily conversations. Words such as insya

Allah (God will), alhamdullillah (“All praise is due to Allah” to show gratitude to God),

and assalamu ‘alaikum (“may peace be with you” for greetings amongst Muslims),

wallahu’alam (“God knows best” when asked for an opinion) are more commonly used

than ten years ago. However, in which direction such an orientation might go we will

have to wait and see.

The discussion in the next chapters attempt to dissect the works of the four writers

mentioned above. Due to word limitations not all of their works are analysed but the

discussion will cover issues that constantly appear in the narratives.

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Chapter 7

Representation, Identity and Religion: Images of Muslim Women, Their Lives and

Struggles in Fiction

(Part I)

Women writers now occupy a prominent position in the modern Indonesian literary canon.

With the growing popularity of both serious and popular literary works, a younger

generation of authors such as Ayu Utami, Dewi Lestari, Fira Basuki and Jenar Mahesa Ayu

now enjoy a much larger readership. Women authors write narratives engaged with issues

of women’s identity whether it be social, cultural or religious (as exemplified by Titis,

Ratna, Abidah and Helvy, discussed in the preceding chapter), yet the issue of religious

convictions seldom surfaces within the domain of literary criticism. Most literary criticism

analysis on the canon of Indonesian literature overlooks aspects of religious convictions for

examples, Membaca dan Membaca Lagi Reintepretasi Fiksi Indonesia 1980 – 1985

(Reading and Reading Again Reintepretation of Indonesian Fictions 1980 – 1985, 2004) by

Pamela Allen, emphasises the works of 3 prominent writers: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Y.B.

Mangunwijaya and Putu Wijaya read from the perspectives of social realism, neo-

regionalism, anti-intellectualism, postmodernism or postcolonialism. In the Shadow of

Change Images of Women in Indonesian Literature (1994) by Tinneke Hellwig, focuses on

images of women and gender-related issues and not on religious identity. Kritik Sastra

Feminis Teori dan Aplikasinya (Feminist Literary Critics and its Application, 2002) by

Sugihastuti Suharto, is an exclusive reading of the portrayal of women in some Indonesian

fictions through the construction of the gender hierarchy socially and culturally. Sastra

Indonesia dalam Enam Pertanyaan: Esai-esai Sastra dan Budaya (2004) by Ignas Kleden

also overlooks the politics of religious identification.

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Notwithstanding the numerous works, which have been produced by Indonesian Muslim

authors, Islamic convictions apparently receive little standing in the study of modern

Indonesian literature. The politics of religious identity are hardly ever explored and

examined, though such politics frequently appear in numerous writings. The limitation is

not exclusive to Islam. This, perhaps, results from the restrictions applied during the

Soeharto regime, when discussions about differences in SARA (suku, agama, ras, antar-

golongan, ethnic, religious, race, group and class) were banned. From the mid-1960s to the

mid-1980s Soeharto viewed Islam, in particular, as a set of political principles around

which its followers might mobilize and organize then jeopardise his authoritative control.

Writings on religion came under strict limitation and surveillance. The prohibition proved

to be effective; discussion was silenced and religious identities became invisible in public

discourse. The required religious education at all levels of public schooling under the New

Order has made a wide impact, making Indonesians monolithic then they were before.

Despite the restrictions some Indonesians managed to raise issues of religious identity in

the public arena. In 1970, Nurcholis Madjid (1939 – 2005), one of Indonesia’s most notable

Muslim intellectuals, proclaimed in his now famous speech Islam Yes Partai Islam No

(Islam Yes, Islamic Political Party No), that the spirit of democracy should be based on the

spirit of nationalism and not faith (religion), thus Muslims should not vote for merely

Islamic political parties, they were free to vote for non Islamic political parties as well.2

This was a controversial speech. On the one hand, there was support for Madjid from those

who thought his speech was a vehicle to create room for Muslim intellectuals, but, on the

other, he was seen to be accepting the state ideology, Pancasila, (five basic principles) as

Islamic. Thus, some opponents accused him of being a supporter of Soeharto. In the1980s

while undertaking his doctorate degree in the United States Madjid was again controversial,

arguing that Islamic teachings were not in support of an Islamic state par excellence. The

polemics of his argument was triggered by an article by Amin Rais in Panji Masyarakat

magazine entitled, Tidak Ada Negara Islam (There is No Islamic State), which was based

on Madjid’s correspondence with Muhammad Roem, a prominent politician and

2 ‘Cendekiawan Muslim Milik Bangsa’, Ensiklopedi Tokoh Indonesia, Internet,http://www.tokohindonesia.com/ensiklopedi/n/nurcholis-madjid/index.shtml, (4 January 2006).

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statesman.3 When he returned from the United States in 1984, Madjid proposed his seminal

concept of masyarakat madani (civilised society based on tolerance, pluralism and

democracy). This gained him more supporters and placed him amongst bapak bangsa (the

nation’s fathers).4 Today, Madjid’s ideas are still controversial. Moderate and liberal,

educated Muslims support and spread his ideas, specifically through his Paramadina

Foundation; the more scriptural and revivalist, such as members of DDII (Dewan Dakwah

Islamiyah Indonesia—IndonesianIslamic Preaching Council) still consider him to be an

apostate of Islam.5

If Madjid’s case is an example of Soeharto’s restriction of SARA, the literary domain

suffered similar repression. Issues of religious identity are indeed problematic. Many

writers run the risk of being labelled an apostate (as was Madjid), or being called

blasphemous. Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), the works of Nawal El

Saadawi (b. 1931) and Taslima Nasreen (b. 1962) are amongst the examples. In the history

of Indonesian literature the publication in Sastra (literature) magazine in 1968 of Langit

Makin Mendung (the sky becomes cloudy), a short story by Kipanjikusmin (a pseudonym),

is an example of the challenges which face authors when they write about religion. The

story involves Muhammad the Prophet who was at that time dwelling in Heaven, along

with other “retired” prophets. Knowing that too few Muslims came to Heaven, Muhammad

and the other prophets petitioned God to be sent to the world to conduct a small research.

Muhammad’s request was granted, and he and the archangel Jibril (Gabriel) impersonated

eagles and landed in Jakarta. The story continues with a description of the gruesome,

chaotic and restless conditions in Jakarta prior to the 1965 communist coup. The conditions

upset the Prophet, especially after he found out that the majority of Indonesians were

3Tidak Ada Negara Islam: Surat-surat Politik Nurcholish Madjid - Mohamad Roem, Agus Edi Santoso (ed)

with introduction by Ahmad Syafii Maarif dan Adi Sasono, Djambatan, Jakarta, 1997.4 Nurcholis Madjid, Dialog Keterbukaan: Artikulasi Nilai Islam dalam Wacana Sosial Politik Kontemporer ,introduction by Fachry Ali, 1st Printing, Jakarta, Paramadina, 1998. Also, Andi Faizal Bakti, ‘NurcholisMadjid and the Paramadina Foundation’, IIAS Newsletter, No 34, July 2004, p. 22.5

R. William Liddle, ‘Media Dakwah Scripturalism: One form of Islamic Political Thought and Action inNew Order Indonesia’, Toward A New Paradigm Recent Developments of Indonesian Islamic Thought , MarkR. Woodward (ed), Arizona State University Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Tempe, Arizona, 1996, pp.323 – 356. In this article Liddle still uses DD for Dewan Dakwah while now it is commonly known as DDII(Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia).

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Muslims. The controversy around the story lies in the personifications and appearances of

God and the Prophet Muhammad. According to the Kejaksaan Tinggi Sumatera Utara

(Attorney General of North Sumatera) this was heresy and destructive of Islamic moral

values.6 The magazine was banned, and H.B. Jassin the Chief Editor was sentenced to a

year’s imprisonment, even though he argued that the story was never intended to personify

God and his messenger, it only aimed to picture an idea of God and the prophet, and to

show how the prophet would react in seeing our vices, and this certainly was not an insult

to Islam. Jassin appealed to the High Court, but a final decision had not been reached at the

time of his death in 2000. Until today the identity of Kipandjikusmin remains a mystery,

although he did write an apology for his story in 1968:

Actually I never meant at all to insult Islam. My real goal is very personal as I aimto communicate with God, the Prophet Muhammad, paradise and so forth alongsidelaughing at the stupidity of Soekarno’s regime. But indeed I have failed; using ashort story to deliver my criticism was wrong. Consequently, Muslims responded toit as an offence to Islam.7

The sensitivity of religious issues, along with government restriction, stopped many authors

bringing them into public discourse through their writings. However, the fall of the

Soeharto regime in 1998 has opened an opportunity to bring the politics of religious

identity into Indonesian public discourse. At the present time considerable freedom is

enjoyed for the discussion of religious identity, however, such freedom is not limitless.

The recent banning by the Minister of Religious Affairs of discussions about the reformed

counter legal draft compilations of Islamic Law/Family Code (discussed later in more

detail) is a good example. The draft was deemed to be controversial and capable of causing

social instability. Further, the recent issuing of fatwas (religious statements) stating, among

other things, that religious pluralism and liberal Islam are haram (forbidden), is yet another

example. The fatwas themselves are controversial; many are against them, while some,

particularly the scriptural and revivalists are strongly supportive. However, never in

6 Pleidoi Sastra Kontroversi Cerpen Langit Makin Mendung Kipandjikusmin, Muhidin M. Dahlan and MujibHermani (eds), Melibas, Jakarta, 2004. This book includes the short story Langit Makin Mendung and otherstories by Kipandjikusmin, all newspapers articles about the controversies of this story.7

Kipandjikusmin’s explanation was published in Harian KAMI 26 October 1968, and Jassin’s was in KAMI,24 October 1968. These quotes are taken from an article by Tjahjo Nuswantoro ‘Langin Makin Mendung:Mempersonifikasikan Tuhan’, Adil (Solo), Tahun 37 No. 14, 19 November 1968, in Pleidoi Sastra, pp. 220 -221.

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Indonesia have fatwas been subjected to such strong public debate: something

unimaginable during Soeharto’s rule. The wide circulation of the debates over the fatwas in

the public arena does show that the Indonesian public today has more room to channel their

opinion compared to past years, although this “room” is still restricted, evidenced by the

attacks from Islamic groups such as FPI (Front Pembela Islam, Islamic Defender Front) to

the headquarters of JIL (Jaringan Islam Liberal, Liberal Islam Network) in mid 2005.

In Teeuw’s opinion, Hamka (1908 – 1981) is the champion of Muslim writing because his

works, in principle, embody the representation of Islam through literature. In the history of

early Indonesian literature there are other Muslim writers, for example, Nur St. Iskandar,

Tulis St. Sati, Abdul Muis, Bahrum Rangkuti, but they receive less stature because,

according to Teeuw, unlike Hamka their narratives “[cannot] be called typically Moslem

(literature).”8 However, Teeuw does not further typify what is “typically Moslem

literature,” so his inclusion of only Hamka and not the others seems to be very narrow. In-

depth scrutiny of early Indonesian narratives shows that often authors portrayed the

struggles that people had in keeping to their Islamic values; that is, the struggle to maintain

their religious identity within changing social conditions.9

Atheis (Atheist, 1949) by Achdiat K. Mihardja (discussed in Chapter Five) is not only a

story of gender relations within Islamic tenets, but can also be read as the struggle of

maintaining, or reconstructing, one’s Islamic identity. Achdiat’s story is based on Hasan’s

(fictional) manuscript of his autobiographical testimony in which he relates his theological

fluctuation from being a believer of Islam to an atheist, and finally to a believer. Hasan is

unable to maintain his conviction; he drifts back and forth between his faith and his friends’

Marxist/Leninist materialism. In the end he suffers a tragic death at the hands of the

Japanese military. Nevertheless, before he dies Hasan returns to his faith by saying “God is

great”.10 When Achdiat’s novel was published in 1949 it was amongst the first in the genre

8 A Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature, pp. 138 – 139.9

See my discussion on Islamic writings in previous chapters.10 Atheist, Achdiat K. Mihardja, R. J. Maguire (trans), University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia,Queensland, 1972, p. 179.

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of “testimonial writing.” It was also the first writing dealing with in-depth psychological

conflicts and inner theological struggles. The novel brilliantly captures the new nation

caught in the conflicts of changing worlds: between the feudalism of Javanese society and

the modern proletarian community of young people; between religious conservatism with

its weight on spiritual devotion and the emerging materialism; and between superstition

associated with the village world and the rationality of urban life. Hasan does not live only

in Achdiat’s imaginary world, or in the past, he personifies the way many Indonesian

Muslims today rationalise their religious identity and cope with the dynamics of Indonesian

society.

A younger generation of authors, such as Mochtar Lubis (1922 – 2004), Ali Akbar Navis

(1924 – 2003) and Kuntowidjojo (1943 – 2005), have portrayed the dynamics of religious

identity in their narratives. Navis’s short story, Robohnya Surau Kami (The Decline and

Fall of our Local Mosque), for example, involves Muslims’ attempt to rationalize their

religion. The dual responsibilities of being a good Muslim are presented well through the

conflicting characters of Kakek (grandfather), whose life is devoted to serving God, and

Ajo Sidi, whose life is devoted to worldly duties. Navis’s narrative well captures the reality

of the historical moment of the text. Navis satirically criticises the common misconception

of Islamic belief that it should be concerned solely with the spiritual realm and not the

worldly one. For Navis, Islam works both ways; it is the language providing the

harmonious relation between humans and their Creator, and amongst humans themselves.11

The anecdote in the story where the personified God speaks to Haji Saleh (a character

similar to kakek), clearly illustrates the author’s points. When Haji Saleh asked God

whether it was wrong for him to worship his Creator, God himself answered:

No. You did wrong in spending too much time on the cultivation of your soul. Youprayed because you were afraid of going to Hell, but you forgot your fellowMuslims and your family. You were put in the world to live as part of a community,but you were too selfish.12

11See my previous discussion on the core of Islamic theology in chapter 1.

12 A. A. Navis, ‘The Decline and Fall of Our Local Mosque’, p. 125, in From Surabaya to ArmageddonIndonesian Short Stories, Harry Aveling (ed and trans), Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd, Singapore,Kuala Lumpur, Hongkong, 1976.

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Kakek’s commits suicide as soon as he learns the story of Haji Saleh and God’s message;

this represents the conflicts Indonesian Muslims communities were experiencing when the

story was written in 1957. Even so, as old as the story is the conflicts Navis depicts still

capture the present day reality of Indonesian Muslims who need to negotiate and balance

the spiritual and material worlds.

Religious issues do not only attract prose authors to capture them in imaginative worlds.

Poets like Taufik Ismail (b. 1935), Emha Ainun Najid (b. 1953), Mustafa Bisri (b. 1944),

Abdul Hadi MW (b. 1946), Sutardji Calzoum Bachri (b. 1941) and others, have also

enriched the dynamics of the politics of religious identities in Indonesian contexts. These

poets are renowned for focusing their literary merits on exploring issues in Islamic tenets,

ranging from theological convictions to social criticism. Mustafa Bisri, often called Gus

Mus, for example, is a kyai, calligrapher, painter and a prose-writer, believes that Muslims

will naturally produce works that are reflections of Islamic values.13 According to Gus Mus

literary labelling such as Islamic or Sufistic has no meaning if the works and their

producers are not Islamic in nature; the creator of the art is most important.14 Arahmaini, a

modern art artist, maintains that the role of Islam is extremely vital in building attitudes,

values and even culture itself, and art can function as a medium to channel subjects which

cannot be spoken about in other mediums. She believes that Islam is a liberating theology

providing room for Muslims to perceive it critically.15

In looking at Islamic art in Indonesia, Kenneth George shares the view of Gus Mus and

Arahmaini. George argues that Islam and state are essential in shaping Indonesian cultural

life. And this is seen with government-sponsored projects such as the Al-Qur’an Mushaf

Istiqlal from 1991 to 1995, and state-sponsored festivals such as Festival Istiqlal I in 1991

13An interview with Mustafa Bisri in Wajah Wajah Muslim Indonesia (Faces of Indonesia’s Muslims), a

documentary film produced by Mediaalliance and Metro TV PT. Media Televisi Indonesia, 2004. This filmcontains interviews with Indonesian Muslim scholars on various subjects such as gender issues, education, therole of Islam in Indonesian politics and economics and so forth. Interview with Mustafa Bisri is in Episode 3:Nafas Islam pada Seni dan Budaya di Indonesia (The Spirit of Islam in Art and Culture in Indonesia).14

Ibid.15 An interview with Arahmaini is in Episode 3: Nafas Islam pada Seni dan Budaya di Indonesia (The Spiritof Islam in Art and Culture in Indonesia), in Wajah Wajah Muslim Indonesia (Faces of Indonesia’s Muslims).

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and II in 199516. However, with President, Soeharto opening and closing the festivals the

state legitimised its role as the sole authoritative figure in shaping public culture. George

was writing before the fall of Soeharto when the state still had repressive control over

public culture, though, even then, artists and the umma in general still attempted to find

room for constructing their own religious identity. As noted earlier, there is now greater

freedom in public discourses and Islam is not the only discourse on the politics of identity,

discursive notions of nation and nationalism (as suggested by George) also function as

essential contributing factors. The interests and agendas of various social, political and

cultural actors within the society play a significant role in shaping the life of public culture.

Indeed, within such perspective, Islam is not simply a religious ritual; the spirit of Islamic

values can be reflected in all aspects of life, art and cultural expressions.

Contemporary Indonesia is now abundant with literary and art works, be it poetry, prose

production, art, or popular production, which deal with the subjectivity and politics of

religious identity, in particular of Islamic identities. In major bookstores such as Toko Buku

Gramedia (Gramedia bookstore), there are sections specifically for the display of NORI.17

Separate sections for Islamic books are not uncommon in most bookstores.

Most of them, Hooker observes, are panduan literature, guide writings mostly “directed to

women, [which] set out the ideal duty and conduct expected from and required of proper

devout Muslim women.”18 Such books, most of them printed in paperback form, are

translations of Arabic sources or original stories by Indonesian authors. The growth of

Islamic writings has also impinged on children’s literature. Aku Anak Soleh magazine (I am

a Devout Child, published by Mizan Anak) provides both instructions on how to be a

devout Muslim child and stories (mostly in comic book form) of a proper Muslim way of

16Kenneth M. George, ‘Designs on Indonesia’s Muslim Communities’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.

57, No. 3 (August 1998), p. 697. George defines mushaf as: “a written incarnation of the official closedcorpus of the Qur’an and commonly is graced with artful calligraphic styled and deeply texturedilluminations. It must be written in Arabic, authenticated and inspected for errors by Qur’anic scripturalauthorities” (p. 694).17

Islamic teen novels. See Chapter Six.18 M.B. Hooker, Indonesian Islam Social Change through Contemporary Fatãwã, Asian Studies Associationof Australia in association with Allen & Unwin and University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2003, p. 125.

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life. The stories are usually taken from everyday experiences, but popularised stories from

the Qur’an are also available. Islamic popular magazines such as Ummi and Amanah (for

adult females) and Annida (for teenage females), and tabloid newspapers such as Nurani for

female readers are easily accessible. Islamic popular songs, better known as nasyid have

scores of audiences as well. Nasyid ranges from modern popular bands such as Smada and

Hadad Alwi, to traditional gamelan groups, like Kyai Kanjeng.

Thus the life of present day Indonesian Islam is no longer defined solely through the

spiritual life; it has penetrated to areas previously defined as “secular.” During the fasting

month of Ramadhan, Indonesian television channels are crammed with Islamic

programmes: from sermons and quiz shows to soap operas known as sinetron Ramadhan.19

Such sinetron are not that different to other sinetron, but the female actresses wear jilbab

and the stories occur in Ramadhan. Nonetheless, despite the vast availability of Islamic

productions in guidebooks, magazines, fiction and popular works, works on the politics of

Islamic identity within Indonesian settings are still limited. Discussion on the resurgence of

Islamic elements in all art production forms is largely conducted on academic campuses

and within NGO organizations. This also applies to issues concerning women and Islam

and their conditioning within Indonesian contexts as portrayed in fiction writing. The

following discussion of the works of four major Muslim Indonesian female writers aims to

fill in some of the blanks. The narratives of Titis Basino, Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, Abidah

El Khalieqy and Helvy Tiana Rosa are posited to be rich sources for revealing the

construction of Indonesian Muslim women’s identities.

Readership and Reader’s Responses

Readership in Indonesian is always problematic. In comparison with its huge population

readership is considerably small. Based on the 2000 Population Census conducted by

19 Sinetron is Indonesian term for soap opera on television. It is an acronym for cinema electronic.

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Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS-Statistics Indonesia), the literacy rate of the population over 10

years of age was 89.92% of total population, but the reading public was quite low, 17.47%

of the literate rate. The reading public was those who read newspapers and/or magazines.20

The small numbers of the reading public is, perhaps, partly due to the lack of access to

printed material and, as suggested by Amin Sweeney, because the literary tradition of the

Malay world tends to be orally oriented rather than writing/reading oriented.21 Accordingly,

more people aged over 10 years of age watched television (87.47%) and listened to radio

(43.72%).

Reader-responses signifies how texts are constructed and, further, how the same texts

impact on their readers. In looking at how context and/or environment determine reader-

response. It is essential to carefully select the location of questionnaire distribution. This is

to follow Roland Barthes’s seminal proposal that plural meanings of a text lie also on its

reader’s positions conditioned in various circumstances.22 For that reason, 400

questionnaires were distributed to students of Fakultas Sastra (Faculty of Letters) of

UNAIR (Universitas Airlangga, Airlangga University) Surabaya, and Fakultas Adab

(Faculty of Humanities, comparable to Fakultas Sastra in public universities) of IAIN

(Institut Agama Islam Negeri, State Institute of Islamic Studies) Sunan Ampel Surabaya.23

The aim of the different distribution locations was to locate the significance of

20‘Education, and Accessibility to Mass-Media’, BPS Statistics Indonesia, Internet, http://www.bps.go.id, (2

February 2005 and 30 May 2005).21 Amin Sweeney, A Full Hearing Orality and Literacy in the Malay World, University of California Press,Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1987.22 Roland Barthes, ‘From Work to Text,’ in Image Music Text, Stephen Heath (trans), Fontana Press,London, 1977.23 Still supervised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, recently at least 3 IAINs: IAIN Syarif HidayatullahJakarta, IAIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, and STAIN Malang (Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri, StateIslamic Higher Education) have become public universities and renamed as UINs (Universitas Islam Negeri,State Islamic University). These UINs have similar faculties to other public universities under the Ministry ofNational Education. However, IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya as are most of the IAINs and STAINs acrossIndonesia still in the process of change. Some UINs and IAINs have also non-Islamic affiliated faculties suchas faculties of science, education, psychology, commerce and so forth. The core faculties of UINs and IAINsare Tarbiyah (Education), Syari’ah (Islamic Law), Adab (Humanities), Usulluddin (Religious Studies) andDakwah (Proselytisation or Social Works). However, with the application of campus autonomy, subjectsoffered within each faculty have expanded to include “secular” sciences such as mathematics, or educationalmanagement in the faculty of Tarbiyah or added new faculties such as faculty of science, psychology and soforth. Within the Fakultas Adab, for example, often non-Islamic subjects such as English and translation aretaught as well.

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environmental difference. This was to answer the question: would students from similar

faculties but different tertiary environments contribute a different degree of recognition of

female authors writing on women’s issues within an Islamic paradigm? UNAIR is regarded

as a secular State University under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education,

whereas IAIN is under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. All IAIN

students are Muslims while UNAIR students are predominantly Muslims. For the survey

however the questionnaire was distributed only to Muslim students.

The survey was conducted from April to May 2004. The method used to select the

respondents was random sampling. Respondents were personally approached and asked to

allocate 30 minutes of their time to fill in the questionnaire. In calculating the response and

the type of analysis performed, frequency tables were applied using the SPSS program.

Out of 400 questionnaires distributed, 387 were collected (210 from UNAIR, 177 from

IAIN). Of the 387 respondents 280 are female (72.4%) and 107 male (27.6%) whose age,

on average, was under 20 years: 62% under and 38% above. Respondents from both

UNAIR and IAIN were predominantly female: 72% of UNAIR respondents and 73% of

IAIN. Here, it is shown that although the numbers of female respondents from both UNAIR

and IAIN are different, they are significantly similar in percentage compared to the male

respondents. Sex is indeed an important variable as the questions posed for the respondents

centred on the issues of women’s problems in Islamic perspectives, to include the issues

that the four authors deal with in their respective narratives, and the influence upon the

respondents after reading their stories. Since the survey did not include male authors and

their works, it is difficult to pinpoint reader’s familiarity with the work of male writers, but

female readers had a higher degree of familiarity with female authors than the male readers.

In other words, sex category is an important bond between the readers and the authors,

although this does not necessarily mean that male readers will prefer the works of male

authors. Nevertheless, the finding shows that the sex and gender of the readers, and what

they read, is intertwined, indicating the process of identification that takes place between

the readers and their readings. Women as readers of what other women have written on the

issues of women’s lives and women’s struggles will develop a women’s culture, an

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awareness of their experiences and of the experiences of other women, which will help

them shape and reshape their own identity.

Forty two point five per cent of total respondents, comprising 42% of UNAIR and 43% of

IAIN, were familiar with and had read at least one of the four authors examined. These

respondents were overwhelmingly female, as male readers were only one third of the total

number (14% out of 42.5%). Given the small overall number of Indonesian readers, the fact

that the respondents’ familiarity with the reading materials was nearly half of the sample is

presumably because the survey was conducted amongst students of the Faculty of Letters

whose engagement with the reading habit is considerably higher than students of other

subjects. What is interesting though is the similar number of actual readers from both

UNAIR and IAIN. This shows that the educational major of IAIN respondents (Islamic

Studies) did not make for a stronger engagement with Islamic issues presented by the four

writers: IAIN students were not necessarily more familiar with, nor did they have a greater

knowledge of, issues related to women and Islam than did UNAIR students. This, perhaps,

indicates that issues of women and Islam in Indonesian contexts are not concerns exclusive

to students of Islamic studies. The Islamic section (Sie Kerohanian Islam) of UNAIR’s

student body regularly holds discussions, academic and non-academic, on subjects ranging

from Islamic shari’ah to feminism in Islam. IAIN also has a student association.24

Of the four writers, Helvy Tiana Rosa was best known (24.8%), followed by Ratna

Indraswari Ibrahim (7.5%), Abidah El-Khalieqy (5.4%), and Titis Basino P.I (4.1%). The

youngest of the four, Helvy, commonly narrates the lives of young Muslims girls in their

teens or early twenties in her short stories. The age gap between Helvy’s characters and

their readers does not lie widely, and some readers no doubt grew up with Helvy’s stories,

as she was previously the chief writer/editor of a famous Islamic teenage magazine Annida.

Ratna, Abidah and Titis, on the other hand, portray women, but not teenagers, of various

ages. In particular, Titis hardly ever writes narratives using teenagers or young adults; she

24 Based on the field survey and informal interviews with members of IAIN and UNAIR Muslim studentsassociations in 20th April and 4th May 2004.

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mostly depicts the lives of adult Muslim females and their marriage lives. However, very

few of the university students were married.

Interestingly enough, while 42% of the respondents believed that the writings of the four

authors worked within Islamic contexts, only 25.6% thought they focused on women

issues. However, 24.8% believed that they promoted women’s rights through their writings.

Problematical images of fiction may also present problems when reading the texts. How

true is fiction and how fictitious is truth may circulate in readers’ minds as they decide

whether the fiction they have read embodies a large degree of truth in its accurate

representation. It is difficult to divorce one from the other. Nonetheless, the survey clearly

shows that fiction is a privileged site of representation that can overcome the dichotomy of

fiction/fact: 24.8% of respondents found that the texts conveyed agendas of promoting

women’s rights, and 25.6% also insisted that women’s issues were portrayed in those

fictional texts, a signifying marker connecting the women’s actual world and fiction.

Responses to Individual Writer

The following discussion will examine the responses to each individual author’s work: to

find what issues each author mostly represented and what influence their work had upon the

respondents.

Sixty per cent of the readers responded that some works of the four writers did reflect the

contemporary situation. In more detailed numbers: 74% of Helvy’s readers, 57% of

Abidah’s readers, 54% of Ratna’s readers and 50% of Titis readers perceived that the

narratives of their authors were engaged with issues of contemporary Indonesian Muslim

women. One question posed to the respondents was: what issues were mostly pictured by

the four writers in general? Abidah’s actual readers (70 respondents) replied that her

writings largely worked on issues of violence against women. The percentages were:

domestics violence (15%); discrimination against women (12.41%); polygamy (10.34%);

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women and their religious, societal and cultural piety (9.6%); other issues such as women’s

rights and responsibilities, their lack of education and intellectual capacity were each less

than 9%. Helvy’s actual readers (99 respondents) believed that Helvy’s narratives involved

issues such as women’s rights as women’s reproduction rights (12.44%), women and their

religious, societal and cultural piety (11.05%), violence against women (11.52%), women’s

responsibilities in social, political, economic and cultural spheres (10.59%), and women

and war in conflict areas (9.67%); other issues such as women’s sexuality, women’s roles

and gendered based labour division each achieved less than 9%. Ratna’s actual readers (60

respondents) answered that her works mostly involved issues concerning polygamy

(14.17%), domestic violence (11.02%), discrimination against women (11.02%), and

women’s rights (10.23); other issues such as kodrat, women and their lack of education and

intellectual capacity, as well as other issues were less than 9% each. Titis’ readers (51

respondents) responded that issues presented in her writings were women and their

responsibilities (12.37%), women’s kodrat (11.34%), violence against women (9.2%),

women’s responsibilities (8.2%) and other issues concerning women’s education and

intellectual capacity, polygamy, sexuality and so forth less than 8% each. These

percentages significantly show that the top issues that these women authors are dealing in

their works are violence against women, women’s rights and responsibilities, polygamy,

discrimination against women and women in war in conflict areas. It is interesting that the

responses on issues such as women’s sexuality and sexual division of labour, for example,

are relatively small compared to other issues. This, presumably, is because discourses

concerning sexuality are hardly taken into the public arena, and the division of labour

between men and women is seen as naturally constructed.

Another interesting ratio is whether the four writers challenge or reinforce the already

established identities of Muslim women in Indonesia. Forty two point nine per cent of all

readers found that the works of the writers were a challenge toward perceptions of Muslim

women identities overall, and more particularly in Indonesian contexts. The percentages

were as follows: 52.8% of Helvy’s readers, 45.2% of Abidah’s, 39.4% of Ratna’s and

30.3% of Titis’. This was despite the fact that, in some cases, the narratives might move

beyond the borders of Indonesia, such as in Helvy’s and Abidah’s stories where the settings

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take place in other places of the world. In responding to the question of the affect of the

texts after reading, 23.87% of the actual readers found that they felt some influence on their

understanding of gender issues after reading the works of the authors: 29.62% of Helvy’s

readers, 24.46% of Abidah’s, 21.05% of Ratna and 17.94% of Titis’. The numbers,

although relatively small, do show that the narratives are informative about gender issues.

However, more in-depth surveys need to be done to measure the degree of effectiveness of

such influence. Whether, for example, narrative could actually play a role in promoting an

ideology presented in the text, either implicitly or obviously. To a certain degree, Abidah,

Helvy, Ratna and Titis have succeeded in creating text-reader-author relationships, which

channel the authors’ agendas through their writings.

As responses to the works of Titis, Ratna, Abidah and Helvy have been examined, it is now

necessary to look at the ways the discourses of these writers are presented, in order to find

out how they have contributed, through their characters, to identity politics.

Women and Their Marriage Lives in the works of Titis Basino P.I

Titis is a very prolific author. During the span of her writing career, she has published at

least 15 novels with a first edition publication of 1000,25 yet, despite her productivity, she is

less well known than the other writers. Perhaps the major issues in her narratives are the

ones less favoured by the respondents, as she mostly depicts women and their marriage

problems, and the majority of the respondents are young. Nevertheless, marriage is one of

many areas where women in Indonesia are believed to have unequal status and Titis’

narratives reveal the roles women play in their marriage lives and what conflicts such roles

produce. Most of Titis’ novels are sequels of two or more on a particular theme. The

25 Interview with Titis Basino P.I., on 10 February 2005.

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stories selected are analysed through a feminist reading of the identity politics of the main

characters who are the voices channelling women’s aspirations and desires.

Spiritual Love

Dari Lembah ke Coolibah (From the Valley to Coolibah, 1997), Welas Asih Merengkuh

Tajali (Love and Compassion Reaches Self-Disclosure, 1997) and Mensucikan

Perselingkuhan (To Purify Affairs, 1998) have a single theme: recounting the life of a

middle age widow named Noor. The story unravels Noor’s struggles in order to make sense

and meaning of her middle-age. After the death of her husband, Noor travels to Mecca (haj)

where she meets a young uztad (Islamic teacher) named Ahmad and they develop a

relationship, even though Ahmad is married with two children. Their relationship is purely

emotional. Unexpectedly, while working in Mecca as a counselor for those performing haj,

Ahmad goes missing and is presumed dead. Noor returns from the haj and starts a hotel

business with the money and land inherited from her husband; the hotel is very successful.

Believing Ahmad to be dead his wife decides to remarry. Ahmad, after having had plastic

surgery, appears a year later as Hamid. Ahmad tells Noor that his disappearance and plastic

surgery are for security reason and he is determined not to tell his family about it for their

own protection. Ahmad simply tells Noor that he is wanted by a group of criminals for

destroying their operation. Knowing this, and not wanting to ruin his wife’s new family,

Hamid proposes to Noor and they are married. New face, new identity and new name are

his choices to save him and his family. Despite later meeting his father and brother Ahmad

remains Hamid, and only on his death (seven years after his marriage to Noor) does Noor

reveal his identity to family, including Hamid’s ex-wife.

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Taufiq Ismail writes that this story is an interesting observation of the roles of faith in

upper-class society.26 Indeed, not only does it talk about faith, but also the surrounding

issue of how a Muslim woman establishes her identity in new settings: as a successful

business woman, as a wife and as a member of the social elite. Noor’s story is reminiscent

of the conjugal relationship between Khadijah and Muhammad. Similar to Khadijah, Noor

is 14 years Ahmad’s senior; when they marry she is 60, Ahmad 46. The striking similarities

between Khadijah and Noor also refer to their respectable position in society, their wealth

and their business skills. For Noor, Hamid is not only a husband he is also her spiritual

guide for her faith. Noor itself means light while Ahmad is commonly the shorter name for

Muhammad. Metaphorically, Ahmad for Noor is her means to her spiritual search for

divine love. As allegorical light, Noor reflects her desires to reach God, and in God alone

that she will surrender her faith and life. Accordingly, love that develops between Noor and

Ahmad is not about lust, rather it is the spiritual love or mahabba that Allah is the sole

owner: “this jar of love left here belonged only to God.”27

The story of Noor and Hamid exemplifies the complexity of feminism and masculine

domination. Despite being very self-empowered and having social and economic

achievement, and as a feminist who puts forward women’s emancipation and equality,

Noor cannot radically escape from her feminine status; that she is still a woman, a wife,

whose primary domain is the domestic. In Hamid’s eyes, she is destined to be with man as

his company, and to be his servant. However, Noor does not easily accept this position. She

rejects his opinion and says: “Togetherness or oppression. It is no longer the time when

women have to follow all men’s wills. Yet, from the time she wakes up to going to bed,

26Titis Basino P.I., Menyucikan Perselingkuhan, Grasindo, Jakarta, 1998, on the back cover.

27 Ibid, p. 187.36 Titis, Menyucikan Perselingkuhan, p. 105. Italics mine.

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man is still on top, dasar nasib (what a destiny).”36 This is an example of problematical

gender relations for Indonesian Muslims. Noor knows her feminine nature, thereby her

gender roles and status, and is willing to commit for it, but at the same time she is very

critical about it. For Noor, the companionship between man and woman runs the risk of

turning into oppression, especially when the discourse of destiny (kodrat) takes control.

Noor has indeed strong awareness of the ideological conception of kodrat, which

determines the fate of Indonesian women, yet her struggles against are clear when she

comments on women’s position:

Although having a wife, if he finds a different woman, a man will love to be withthat woman. Although she was his ideal, he would still find another. Who asked thewife to keep being elegant? Who asked the wife to be submissive in sexualintercourse? Who? All were the husband’s demands. But, when he found abeautiful, smart or stupid and chic woman, he would go and get her.37

Noor is critical of the politics of women’s positioning and her endeavours in her life fight

against such positioning. She manages her own affairs, refusing Ahmad’s money to pay for

her needs. As a successful businesswoman she has no difficulty in keeping her own

accounts. Nevertheless, what she does is quite challenging for she refuses to devote her life

solely to Hamid, dividing equally her time to business, domestic duties, accompanying her

husband when travelling overseas and humanitarian activities. She supersedes Hamid in a

number of ways including in her physical appearance and achievements. If Hamid has to

fight strongly against old age, Noor seems not to age, staying beautiful, as if age cannot

touch her. Therefore, Hamid’s death is predictable, leaving Noor to find her own way to

locate her position in the higher spiritual search.

Welas Asih Merengkuh Tajali (1997), the title of the second book in the series, seems to

justify Noor’s spiritual journey, emphasizing women’s equal role in spiritual arenas. Tajali

is derived from Arabic tajalli meaning self-disclosure. This term, according to Murata, is

commonly employed by cosmologists to explicate the relationship between the universe

and God.38 Within this Gnostic experience, woman is the perfect way of coming to God

37Titis Basino, Dari Lembah ke Coolibah, Grasindo, Jakarta, 1997, p. 95.

38 Murata, S. The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought. State Universityof New York Press, Albany, 1992, pp. 92 – 93.

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through love: love that is directed only to God. Titis summarises Noor’s experience by

saying that in learning God’s holiness one needs to be small, to be materially non-existent,

to be nothing, just light, and when one becomes the one who knows, one will be strong and

resilient, and in approaching God, one will lose all material existence. Accordingly, Noor

needs to disclose herself in order to fulfil her desire of Gnostic attainment, admitting her

longing to be with Him, sacrificing all her worldly life so that His lights and love can

penetrate into and forever inhabit in her soul.42 Noor says: “welas asih telah merengkuh

tajali” (love and compassion have reached self-disclosure);43 Noor realises that spiritual

love is only in existence through love and compassion, and that her self-disclosure to love

(God’s love) enables her to witness God’s self-disclosure (tajalli). “He who knows himself

knows his Lord,”44 or rather for Noor, she who knows herself knows her Lord. In the end,

Noor becomes she who knows and experiences God’s love in the highest and most spiritual

way.

Marriage: Perfect Sexual and Soul Union

Marriage in Titis’ views sums up the whole purpose of the creation of man and woman.

The sexual act between man and woman taking place within the bonds of legal marriage is

perceived not as human being’s satisfaction of sexual desires, rather it is seen as an act

which “the human being is overwhelmed by the power of pleasure, thereby gaining a

foretaste of the bliss of the paradisaical relationship with God.”45 Murata believes that the

core of sexual conduct lies in the philosophical ideal which Ibn al-‘Arabi calls “the greatest

self-disclose.” Marriage is then fundamental as it not only channels the very nature of

human syahwat (Indonesian, meaning sexual desires, from Arabic shahwa, meaning

42 Titis Basino, Dari Lembah Ke Coolibah, Grasindo, Jakarta, p. 149, and Welas Asih, p. 141.43

Welas Asih, p. 139.44 Murata, p. 227.45

Ibid., p. 187.48 Titis Basino, Di Bumi Aku Bersua Di Langit Aku Bertemu, Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 1983, p. 161.

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appetite), but it also symbolises a perfect act of religious submission. Marriage is then not

merely a locus of obedient corporeal bodies—the realities of masculinity and femininity—it

is taken to a higher degree of the union of souls; the union of nafs (the source of creation).

The significance of soul over the body is reflected in most of Titis’ works. The death of

Hamid does not stop Noor’s longing for their next meeting in the after life for their souls

will reunite in the after life. This corresponds to the conception of jodoh (soul mate); a

belief that the majority of Indonesians still hold. It is similar to the idea of “Marriage made

in heaven,” a destiny over which human beings have no control.

Jodoh is not necessarily meant for relationship between man and woman, it has also

extended to imply something which is meant to be the only one. In Di Bumi Aku Bersua di

Langit Aku Bertemu this concept strongly emerges. The story tells the lives of two sisters,

Yulia and Tiara, who have contrasting dispositions and physical appearances. Yulia devotes

her life to her husband and children; Tiara chooses to be a successful career woman. Yulia

simply accepts her arranged marriage, Tiara independently finds a husband of her own

choice. Yulia is very attractive, Tiara less so. Yulia happily devotes her life to her family

(her husband, two children and her mother), whereas Tiara lives alone (her husband is

dead) and is devoted to her work. A few years younger than Yulia, Tiara is ill but has not

revealed her illness to her family; she dies before she reaches thirty. Yulia recalls the

moment when death approached her sister:

Tiara knew she surely would die and never asked to get better only said thegreatness of God. God is great. Yes, those words she said, not that I asked forhealing. She was really at ease and ready. How strong was this sister of mine, untilher last minute she still taught me to be brave, content and courageous. I would notforget that moment when her face was shining as if she was seeing a beautiful thingthere, in the sky. Was it paradise? I just heard her words that on earth we met inparadise we would encounter.48

Death for Tiara is not something to avoid and she has been preparing herself for when death

comes. Tiara welcomes death wholeheartedly for it enables her to be reunited with her

husband, for their two souls to be reunited. In terms of husband and wife relations, the

Javanese conception of garwa also embodies the understanding of the eternal relationship

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of soul mates. In this belief a husband is a garwa for his wife and a wife for a husband.

Garwa means sigaring nyawa, half of the soul. When one dies, and as long as the other

does not marry again, their souls will reunite in the hereafter, similar to the conception of

jodoh. As submission to God’s will becomes the core of Islamic doctrines, Tiara’s

submissive act to her life and death and her jodoh is sufficiently justified. Such submission

reaches its peak when Tiara shows her ability to be a perfect servant of God’s will, without

challenge.

Titis’ portrayal of Muslim’s obligation of servanthood which is central to Islam reflects

what most Indonesians believe: the ever present reality of God in everyday life. According

to Khaled Abou El Fadl, “religious convictions . . . affect the way reality is defined and

comprehended . . . [it is] among the most powerful forces affecting human determinations,

choices and possible courses of behaviour . . . an essential frame for all normative

judgement.”49 Hence, in El Fadl’s conception God is a significant force in constructing the

perceptions of reality and defining the choices that a Muslim must make when confronted

with the possibilities of identifying her/his religious stand, balancing her or his submission

to God and responsibilities as God’s vicegerent on earth. Thus, any kind of subjugation to

any human authority is necessarily displaced and refuted. This is not unproblematic,

however, as it raises the question of Islamic authenticity. On the one hand, claims of

Islamic authenticity can be made by particular groups in particular times, and this has been

proven with several cases ranging from Islamic fundamentalism to liberalism. On the other

hand, Islam is never monolithic. Islam has shown many faces across space and time, and

there is room for negotiation and reconciliation by acknowledging the dynamics of human

interpretations and their fallibility. When the notion of servanthood is contextualised Islam

opens room for a substantial constituency favouring justice and equality, and certainly

disclaims any oppression as un-Islamic. In looking at issues concerning women, the two

basic concepts in Islam, ‘adl (just) and ma’ruf (virtue,) need to be seen from the perspective

of the social actors—in this case women—who can authenticate their own agency.

49 Khaled Abou El Fadal, Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, Princeton University Press, Princeton andOxford, 2004, p. 110.

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Titis’ characters find a strategy to construct their own identities within their religiosity; they

also find ways to empowerment while living in a patriarchal dominated world. The

discourse of identity, which Titis presents in her four novels, politicises a discursive mode

of the text; it moves from different types of women but rests on one single line that places

female subjectivity within a feminist reading of religious attainment.

Polygamy and Infidelity

The problematic perception of polygamy within the domain of female subjectivity and

identity is also one of the unique characteristics of Titis’ writings. Of the four authors only

Titis shows a consistency in depicting polygamy and women’s reactions to it. In

Indonesia’s Islam cultural politics, polygamy issues are perhaps the most difficult to deal

with. The institutionalisation of polygamy within the fiqh is not strongly challenged,

although this does not necessarily mean that women condone it. During the November

2004 Muktamar NU (NU Congress) in Boyolali, Central Java, women activists launched a

strong protest to the organizing committee because the meals for the participants were

supplied by the Wong Solo restaurant whose owner was an active propagandist of

polygamy; he himself had four wives, the number sanctioned in Islamic jurisprudence.

Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid argued that the aim of the protest was to defend the

true Islamic shari’a and bring justice for all kinds, particularly those who were under

oppression such as women, minority groups and the poor.50 She stated that polygamy was

violence against women’s rights and as such was legally opposed by the United Nations. In

reaction to the Polygamy Award51 of July 2003, Muslim activists put anti-polygamy

objections into their agendas; the activists strongly protested the ceremony, proclaiming

50Kompas Cyber Media, 29 November 2004, Internet,

http://www.kompas.com/gayahidup/news/0411/29/035011.htm. (29 November 2004)51 Polygamy Award is an award given to the best practitioner of polygamy (to men only).

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that it was an attempt to undermine the women’s movement and it is necessarily un-Islamic

its nature said Maria Ulfah Anshor.52

The Department of Religious Affairs introduced a new marriage act, known as Counter

Legal Draft Kompilasi Hukum Islam (KHI – Compilations of Islamic Law/Family Code),

outlining a zero tolerance policy to any violence against women. The intention of the draft

was to rectify the currently applied KHI—in particular it targeted polygamy and advocated

women inheriting the same portion as men. Siti Musdah Mulia, the chairperson of the team

set up by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to write the draft, stated that the KHI was not

based on basic Islamic principles such as principles of equality (al musawah), fraternity (al-

ikha) and justice (al-adl).53 The prohibition of polygamy, the permission for a woman

above 21 years of age to conduct a marriage without the consent of a wali (the bride’s

father, brother or a male family member from the father’s side), and permission for

interfaith marriage were amongst the changes introduced in the draft. The reaction to the

proposed changes was enormous as they were immediately taken as a breach of the

interpretation of the existing fiqh; this was particularly so in the case of polygamy.

Moderate and progressive Muslim scholars argued that the draft could be “part of a

revolution in shari’a”, whereas mainstream and right-wing scholars argued that the draft

was heresy. In reaction to the controversy the Minister of Religious Affairs, on 14 February

2005, issued a ban on discussion of the draft revision of the Islamic Family Code. A

coalition of twenty-seven women’s NGOs protested, arguing that the ban was contradictory

to Islamic principles, which tolerate differences in opinions.54

Even amongst activists of women’s movements and feminists themselves there are varying

views about the prohibition of polygamy. Siti Ruhayani Dzuhatin, the Chair of Women’s

Studies in the State Institute of Islamic Studies, argues against the prohibition because she

52 The Wall Street Journal, 24 November 2003, Internet,http://www.polygamyinfo.com/intnalmedia%20plyg%20216wallstreet.htm. (25 February 2005)53

‘Siti Musdah Mulia: Poligami Haram karena Eksesnya’ Tempo, 11 – 17 Oktober 2004, p. 120.54 The Jakarta Post online, 28 October 2004, Internet,http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20041028.CO3&irec=2, (28 October 2004)

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believes polygamy should only be limited, not prohibited.55 Julia Suryakusuma, a well-

known feminist, proposed a resolution to the problem in her article, ‘Poligami ala feminist.’

She believes that being “a part time wife” will give her more freedom to exercise her own

needs while sharing the household responsibilities with the other wife(s). Moreover, she

advocates that new wives should be relatively older than the first wife because older

women tend to be more self-wise and experienced in dealing with psychological problems

such as jealousy and competition among wives, in this way, the tensions amongst wives can

be reduced to a minimum.56 Although it is presumed to be satirical, the article does offer a

new way of looking at polygamy practices by creating new meanings out of such “dubious”

practices.

It is not clear in Titis’ narratives whether she agrees with or opposes polygamy. In her short

story entitled Dia (Her), Titis depicts the emotional responses of a woman dealing with a

polygamous marriage. The story reveals the psychological responses of the first wife whose

husband takes a second wife; the suffering she has to endure:

Each time he left I felt a terrible loneliness. It was almost as though I had a woundthat left no scar. I tried not to let my health deteriorate however. There was noquestion about what would become of the children. They would be taken to theirfather’s other wife. It was for this reason that I was careful to disguise my emotionsand maintain the harmony in our home—a home without a husband. Whether or notthe children understood this sacrifice I’ll never know; they were too young toexpress such thoughts. I simply went about life swallowing my pride with rice.57

This voice probably represents the most natural response of a first wife, examining and

essentialising the notion of sacrifice, which is not uncommon for Indonesian wives having

no legal recourse against a husband’s polygamy. On the one hand, her sacrifice can be read

as woman’s position under man’s domination—nasib, which Titis frequently writes about

in most of her works. On the other, if it is read against the grain, it indeed shows a woman’s

strength to endure pain and suffer. Nevertheless, as strong as she might be, her response to

55 ‘Dari Poligami sampai Kawin Beda Agama,’ Tempo, 11 – 17 Oktober 2004, p. 121.56 ‘Poligami a la ‘Feminis’, Julia Suryakusuma, Internet,http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamliberal/message/7753, (2 March 2005)57 Titis Basino, ‘Her’, In the Surau Seven Islamic Short Stories From Indonesia , eds. Soejono Dardjowidjojoand Florence Lamoureux, Southeast Asia Paper No. 21, Southeast Asian Studies, Centre for Asian and PacificStudies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1983, p.38.

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polygamy illustrates the positioning of a woman victimised by the practice of polygamy,

particularly when religious determinism takes control:

A husband has the right to practice polygamy, and this was a test of my tolerancefor it. I devoutly believed that as a woman I was destined to accept and protect. Ihad believed that, and also considered the fate of my children, I would merely haveasked for a divorce and left him.58

In this narrative it seems that it becomes the woman’s responsibility; that it is her natural

raison d’être to sacrifice at all cost for her family and her children, but never for herself.

This correlates to the conception of kodrat, which requires women, especially mothers, to

be submissive and sacrifice for the good of all family members. In other words, “harga

perempuan” (woman’s value), is always measured from her familial identity.

The final resolution of Titis’ Dia is quite challenging. The reconciliation established

between the first and the second wife indeed illustrates an acclamation of the female ability

to stage a dialogue between two women who desire to navigate their familial politics within

the settings of polygamy. The two wives meet at a women’s convention, and this meeting

completely changes the first wife’s repudiation of her competitor and she accepts her

wholeheartedly. Rivalry has turned into sisterhood:

[N]ow I was being vindicated by the very one who had been the cause of mymisery. I appreciated her where I have once feared her. . . . now I was impressedwith the graceful manner in which she protected her rival’s feelings. . . She also hada right to a husband, even though fate decreed that he also be mine.59

Again, fate, or nasib, is the primary locus for women and they are expected to act within it,

implying that religious submission and servanthood are the core modes of religious

commitment. The heroine’s final acceptance of polygamy may be seen as a backlash

against feminism; however, the problematic issue of polygamy, exemplified through Titis’

characters, deserves further examination. Titis’ representation of the heroines who

authenticate their female agencies through polygamy and sisterhood render these women

subjects at the centre of speech, of female voice. Their negotiation with nasib, kodrat and

domestication, enables them to secure a place in broader social activism as they leap from

58 Ibid., p. 40.59 Ibid., p. 41

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domestic life to a more public life. Both the first (older) and the second (younger) wife are

activists of women’s organizations, and having a co-wife means more time to work in their

organisational activism: as the first wife says, “I felt like a new woman.”60 In this narrative,

there seems to be a conception of hierarchy: the first wife receives more than the second. In

reality, however, when polygamy is practiced without the consent of the first wife,

commonly the second wife is more privileged. Whether the first, the second, the third or the

fourth wife is more privileged, such a hierarchy certainly defies the concept of justice and

equality, because polygamous marriage is supposedly to apply equality and justice to all

wives and all children.

The achievement of Titis’ heroines—self-empowerment through polygamy, should not be

immediately perceived as what all women in polygamous marriages achieve. Dia reflects

particularity of specific women under specific circumstances. That the practice of

polygamy can lead to violence against women is supported by research. The Jurnal

Perempuan (JP, Women’s Journal) no 31 (2003) had a special edition on polygamy—

Menimbang Poligami (Measuring Polygamy)—based on studies and researches conducted

by women activists and women NGOs. In this special edition polygamy is criticised,

confronted and also defended from a variety of female perspectives, including because of

its historiography and roots in different religions such as Hinduism and Christianity.

Nevertheless, the strongest emphasis was on polygamy as violence against women: be it as

state policy in legitimising polygamy, as state violence against women, or polygamy as

domestic violence. The studies also showed that women of all social and economic classes

experience violence because of polygamy.

Titis’ works, Pelabuhan Hati (Harbour of Heart, 1978), Aku Supiyah Istri Hardian (I am

Supiyah, Hardian’s Wife, 1998) and its sequel Tersenyumpun Tidak Untukku Lagi (Your

Smile is not for Me, 1998), depict the victimisation of women because of polygamy.

Pelabuhan Hati, which first appeared in short story form entitled Meja Gambar, is a classic

narrative of a wife’s fidelity against her husband’s infidelity and polygamy. The early

60 Ibid., p. 40.

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nuptial years of the characters Rani and Ramelan were without significant problems.

However this changed when they achieved better economic and social attainments.

Ramelan, an architect, promised Rani a new and better house and out of curiosity Rani,

without Ramelan’s permission, went to see the house for herself; she found Ramelan there

with a young girl. Later Ramelan admitted to Rani that the girl was his younger wife. In

other words, Ramelan had taken a second wife without Rani’s consent. Rani asked

Ramelan for a divorce and the story continues with Rani’s struggle as a single mother with

small children to survive and to cope with the pain and her denigrated status as a janda

muda (young divorcee).

Similar to Rani, Supiyah in Aku Supiyah Istri Hardhian and Tersenyumpun Tidak Untukku

Lagi experiences the victimisation of polygamy. Behind Supiyah’s back, Hardhian,

Supiyah’s husband, takes two other wives: the twins Fitri and Fatma his former students.

Supiyah, however, copes with Hardhian’s infidelity in a different way to Rani. If Rani is a

representation of a housewife lacking economic resources, Supiyah has a stronger

bargaining position. Like her husband, she is also a university lecturer and financially able

to support herself and her family; the absence of Hardhian’s economic support did not

significantly affect her financially but Supiyah feels humiliated and betrayed because she is

a respected member of the intellectual community. Moreover, it was still Supiyah who

needs to sacrifice for her children’s sake and find ways to cope with her emotional turmoil

stemming from such circumstances:

Yet, everyday I ignored Hardhi’s behaviour, which neglected our household andme. The children did not feel that something was wrong as all of their needs werewell fulfilled, so they kept continuing their schooling perfectly. With the courage ofthe waves of the Indian Ocean, I felt alive again. And from my prayers to the One, Iforgot my sadness. Teaching at the faculty was my happiness and revived my pride;maybe my students too felt the changes in me.61

Supiyah’s ability to survive after her husband’s betrayal was not without difficulty.

Hardhian’s marries a second and third wife and Supiyah divorces him. However, her

divorce leaves a psychological mark as she still loves Hardhian, even though she marries

Sofyan, a wealthy widower. Her marriage to Sofyan is her way of revenging Hardhian’s

61 Titis Basino P.I., Aku Supiyah Istri Hardhian, Grasindo, Jakarta, 1998, p. 66.

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betrayal, proving that she too is a compatible opponent for Hardhian in the battle, but also

that she is in need of a man to secure her position as a married woman, not a janda.62 In her

imagination, Supiyah dares to construct a world comparable to a man’s where she can

practice polyandry by marrying both Hardhian and Sofyan. Nevertheless, it is just an

imaginary construction, the practice of polyandry in Islam, as in other religions, is

completely prohibited and is condemned as immoral.

Rani in Pelabuhan Hati is another characterisation of a victimised woman because of

infidelity and polygamy. In marrying his second wife, Laksmi, Ramelan completely ignores

the emotional and economic needs of Rani and their children. Not only does Rani lament

the favouritism shown by Ramelan to Laksmi, the younger and more attractive wife, the

children too perceive the mistreatment suffered by their mother and are also despondent:

I sent my children to school by paddy cab. I no longer familiarised my children byusing the car and so no longer reminded them of their father. Gradually I erased thememory of having a father from my children’s minds. At first, the children stillwaited for their father’s coming home from his office, but I told them that the onewho was waited would never arrive again because he was busy with his project outof town. Milk and meat gradually disappeared from the dining table. Since I neverspoiled my children, they did not really feel that they had lost nutritious foodimportant for their growth.63

Economic change also becomes an expression of desertion. Ramelan’s polygamy did not

only cause his family financial and psychological problems, it also caused Rani to have the

denigrated social status of janda. When Rani decides to turn her house into a boarding

house for male students in order to have more income she is perceived as a wicked seducer

who preys on young men. The accusation of her being janda gatal (seductive widow,

literally meaning “itchy widow”) also comes from Ramelan, who offers her money if she

will end her boarding house. Ramelan says that Rani has become the talk of the town

without realising that Rani is indeed the victim of his act. Rani refuses Ramelan’s money

thus claiming her independence: Rani’s suffering has made her stronger and she is no

longer afraid.64 The rest of the story depicts Rani’s empowerment and the ways she sustains

62Titis Basino P.I., Tersenyum pun Tidak Untukku Lagi, Jakarta, 1998, p. 143.

63 Titis Basino P.I., Pelabuhan Hati, Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 1978, p. 18.64 Ibid., p. 49.

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herself and her family as a single woman. Sadly, her agency can only be achieved after she

is psychologically and financially abused through her husband’s abandonment.

The stories of Supiyah and Rani show that polygamous marriages are open to abuse. They

also clearly picture the inability of husbands to disseminate justice, the very condition of

polygamy: “If you fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry

women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal

justly (with them), then only one.”65 A literal reading of the verse provides that justice

must characterise the practices of polygamy, yet in reality these two conditions are hardly

achievable. Indeed, the two stories leave the clear impression of injustice and inequality.

Also, polygamy, as the verse suggests, can only be justified under particular circumstances,

particularly in relation to a man’s inability to deal justly with the orphans. Being an orphan

in seventh century patriarchal Arabia was parallel to being left without protection and at

risk of abuse. Polygamy is permitted only when a man fears he cannot justly treat the

orphans, then as he fears of his inability to treat his wives justly, monogamy is obligatory.

It can be argued that if the condition foregrounding polygamy fails to exist, monogamy is

superior. Furthermore, Calislar, quoted by Benard, asserts that the role of polygamy in early

Islam was designed as a “welfare project”, protecting widows whose husbands were killed

at wars and to be their breadwinners as well.66 Taken into a broader framework, those early

polygamy practices, Calislar adds, aimed to create alliances for political or charitable

causes, rather than simply personal ones.

In scrutinising polygamy today many Muslim feminists, including activists of women

NGOs in Indonesia, propose that it should be restricted because it contributes to injustice

and domestic violence against women. In the special edition of Jurnal Perempuan (see

above) LBH Apik, an NGO for legal advocacy and justice for women, which dealt with

women victims of polygamy: physical, sexual and economic abuse, and abandonment of

65Sura An-Nisaa verse 3, The Holy Qur’an English translation of the meaning and Commentaries, King

Fahd Holy Qur’an Printing Complex, Al-Madinah A- Munawarah, Saudi Arabia, 1410H, p. 206.66 Cheryl Benard, Civil Democratic Islam Partners, Resources, and Strategies, RAND, National SecurityResearch Division, Santa Monica, CA, 2003, p. 16.

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themselves and their children called for the practice to be banned completely.67 Although

the KHI emphasises the concept of justice in legitimising polygamous marriage; a husband

must treat all wives and children equally and the first wife’s consent must be obtained

before any subsequent marriages, the same codes still secure the possibility for a husband

to practice polygamy without the consent.68 In other words, the religious court can issue the

consent if the first wife refuses to do so. Here, the state clearly supports polygamy even

though the state says it promotes monogamy.

In Indonesia, culture, religion and state interference have deeply institutionalised

polygamy; simply banning it is thus both paradoxical and complicated. Women’s responses

to polygamy are also far from a consensus. Some argue that, because polygamy results

more in madharat (vices) than maslahat (virtues), it should, therefore, be entirely

prohibited. Others reason that it should be limited, and yet others argue for a compromise:

applying an idealised condition that it must provide justice amongst the wives. The latter

also argue that polygamy fosters a domestic environment of shared responsibilities, thus

easing the household and economic workload for women. Yet another concern about the

practice concerns the status of children. Most of Titis’ narratives concerning polygamy

considerably neglect the presence of children, and the impact that the absence of a father

has on them. The absence of in-depth portrayals of children in most of Titis’ stories can be

reasoned as the author privileging women’s responses to polygamy. Perhaps the absence of

children in Titis’ narratives shows that when polygamy is practiced, children are never

taken into account. Polygamy is a “grownup thing” and children are considered to have no

part in it. Indeed, such an attitude ignores the way the practice affects all family members,

including children. The neglect of the fate of the abandoned children seems at odds with the

importance of woman as mother in both the New Order era, and in Islamic values.

67 ‘Poligami sebagai Bentuk Kekerasan yang Paling Nyata atas Harkat dan Martabat Perempuan sebagaiManusia di dalam Hukum, Sosial Budaya dan Agama’, Cuplikan Siaran Pers LBH-APIK tanggal 24 Juli2003, Jurnal Perempuan, No. 31, 2003, p. 119.68 Vony Reyneta, ‘Kebijakan Poligami: Kekerasan Negara Terhadap Perempuan’, Jurnal Perempuan, No 31,2003, p. 12.

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Titis never blatantly criticises polygamy but she does present multi-pictures of polygamous

practices, the affect upon women’s lives and the ever-present despair that pervades

households. Titis reveals her multi-allegiances—for and against polygamy—through

narratives where her characters have room for self-disclosure. Covering information on

various female responses of polygamy Titis paints women’s voices of objection, anger or

compromise as they deal with Islamic tenets of spousal responsibilities. In capturing

women’s responses to polygamy Titis never develops extreme one-dimensional characters

of good and evil, instead she works on multifaceted representations of these women. In her

narratives Titis reveals polygamy as dynamic and therefore in need of careful scrutiny and

contextualisation. It seems that in her narratives Titis implicitly impresses the notion of

female subjugation, yet her narratives commonly end with female self-fulfilment and

satisfaction at their ability to make choices for themselves. She creates heroines who take

action to obstruct gender bias, declining to play forever the role of victim, even in matters

where room for choice is limited; Titis’ characters show the ways women exercise their

agency.

Gender Hierarchy in the Narratives of Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim

The characters in Ratna’s short stories are multi-dimensional women who deal with and

negotiate their politics of positioning in a male-dominated world. Ratna has published eight

collections of short stories, each with an initial print run of 1000; the biggest sales were for

Bukan Pinang Dibelah Dua and Lemah Tanjung (no figure mentioned). As well there are

around 300 other short stories scattered in various newspapers.69 Her stories commonly rest

on the personification of rural women, whom she believes to be the closest representations

of the majority of women in Indonesia, and as such her stories are based on and inspired by

rural women’s true stories: her texts impart the real conditions of rural women. In her

narratives Ratna asks a number of core questions about domestic violence: why are women

69 Interview with Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, 12 February 2005.

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silent in the face of domestic abuse; is this silence cultural or natural; is the victimisation of

women largely due to the existence of a gender hierarchy where men are ranked above

women; if so, in what way(s) can women confront such positioning; and why is the number

of female victims higher than the number of male victims?70 As she asks these questions in

her narratives Ratna criticises the social, cultural and religious constellations, which sustain

the patriarchal system and subjugate women. The debate between tradition and modernity

also enriches Ratna’s narratives; she constantly portrays various women in today’s

Indonesia whose roles are very much coloured by their engagement with conflicting visions

of tradition and modernity. As such, her narratives reveal the contentiousness of the debates

within feminist writings and readings on authenticity, identity, struggle and community.

The following discussion will look at some of Ratna’s short stories, but it will also examine

her novelette, Bukan Pinang Dibelah Dua, and her most recent novel, Lemah Tanjung,

within the context of feminist readings.

Valuing the Price of Woman: Female Subjectivity, Identity and The Body

Some, if not most, of Ratna’s narratives centre on the discourse of women’s bodies and this

is the reason for incorporating her works within the perspective of Muslim female politics

of identity. Opinion is still divided as to how, or indeed whether, such an issue should be

talked about. How a woman’s body is perceived, by whom, and for what agenda, is still

very much subject to interpretation. One the one hand, it is largely assumed that within

Islamic values women must be covered, and their body discourses must be de-politicised.

On the other hand, it is argued that to follow the “woman’s body woman’s rights” concept,

means women can have their own voice about their own bodies. Ratna’s work deserves

attention for showing the variety of discourses. In her stories her female characters are not

clearly identified in terms of what they are wearing, although some of the characters are

70The 1997 census by BPS Indonesia stated that 53.46% per 100.000 population in rural areas, and 46.52%

of urban areas were household victims –as women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, it isassumed that the number presented undeniably refers to females. BPS Statistics Indonesia, Internet,http://www.bps.go.id/sector/socwel/table6.shtml, (2 February 2005).

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clearly not jilbab wearers. Thus, Ratna’s narratives do not emphasise the way characters

dress; of more importance is how their body politics are read and signified within the

societal constellation. As discussed previously the choice of wearing jilbab or not should be

left to women to decide, because Muslim women are composed of various classes, cultures,

and their interpretations and practices of the ways they make meanings out of their religious

commitments consequently vary. Ratna’s stories, which involve discourses of the body

within the politics of Muslim women’s identity, are significant for the variety of ways of

seeing women; in particular the way a husband views a wife, as he is largely believed to be

the sole proprietor of his wife’s body.

In her introduction to the collection of her short stories entitled Noda Pipi Seorang

Perempuan (A Spot in a Woman’s Cheek) Ratna states that most of her writings are

interconnected within a single grand theme: the disempowerment of those marginalised,

such as children, women and the elderly, by a superior power; be it the superiority of the

state, the patriarchy, or even the feudalism legitimised by the New Order regime speaking

only in the name of authority and dominance.71 Her short story Noda Pipi Seorang

Perempuan (A Spot in a Woman’s Cheek), in the collection of the same name,72

exemplifies her argument clearly. This story narrates the fear of a wife who believes she is

no longer attractive because she has a spot on her cheek. She tells herself that once she was

beautiful, but not now:

She now felt a heavy burden placed on her. There was no one complimenting herbeauty any more. Then, even as a child, she had something to be proud of. Onceagain she looked at herself in the mirror. She started to complain, “You see, howugly this spot on my cheek.”73

The character believes that her previous respect was because of her beauty, and she wants

cosmetic surgery to correct her blemish. When her husband declines her request for surgery

she is furious, and finds another man who desires her and who confirms that she is still

beautiful. When this other man asks her to be his mistress she suddenly realises that she

71 Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, ‘Secangkir Kopi’, Noda Pipi Seorang Perempuan, Tiga Serangkai, Solo, 2003,p. viii.72 Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, ‘Noda Pipi Seorang Perempuan’, Noda Pipi Seorang Perempuan, pp. 9 - 13.73 Ibid., p. 9.

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does not want to betray her marriage, and decides to tell her husband that her intention was

merely to prove to herself that she is still beautiful, even with a spot on her cheek. She

finally decides to accept the spot as a mark on her body.

Noda Pipi Seorang Perempuan is tactical, in that it brings the notion of woman’s body

right to the centre of the representation of women in Indonesian literary and cultural

expressions. In Ratna’s argument, woman’s beauty, which is indeed much appreciated by

women themselves, evidenced with the numerous women’s magazines mostly dictating tips

to be physically attractive and beautiful, is problematic. The valuing and devaluing of

women in terms of their beauty is sustained in a society where femininity is articulated only

through their bodies. The body narrative in women’s literature calls into question this

necessarily “true” vision on women’s value because it proposes the articulation of women’s

bodies through female narrative voices which aim to ascertain that women’s bodies are not

only the affair of women. Women’s bodies are a battlefield where the politics of female

positioning is debated and polemicised. Body narratives suggest that a woman’s body can

never radically escape from the male gaze, signifying that women are, by and large,

identified under man’s eyes. Nevertheless, from the male gaze women can, in turn, look at

their own bodies, which signals the gaze returned and a commemoration of valuing their

femaleness. In other words, woman’s identity operates in a circular motion of how woman

devalues herself from male gaze from which she returns the gaze and enables herself to

value her body. She then becomes visible, turning herself from observed and passive object

to active subject defining her ownership of the body.

The main character in Noda Pipi remains nameless throughout the narrative. By not naming

her main character—not making her a special individual—Ratna shows that the problems

of woman’s beauty are applicable to all women, making it central to woman’s identity. The

nameless woman of Ratna’s story generates a dichotomy. On the one hand, the nameless

woman involves a lack of identity, of personhood, that is essential for any individual. On

the other hand, the nameless woman transports herself from specific to general agent. This

is the same for the husband who also remains nameless throughout the story. The parallel of

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the nameless husband and wife (of man and woman) acts progressively, playing the gender

politics of equality between nameless man and nameless woman.

Rambutnya Juminten74 (Juminten’s Hair) also focuses on the politics of woman’s body.

Ratna admits that this story was created as a result of patriarchal ideology imposing a

husband’s authority on his wife’s body, in this case, her hair.75 In this story, hair also

functions as a metaphor for a woman’s identity, body and beauty. The story recalls how

Juminten must submit her wish to model her hair to her husband. Panuwun, Juminten’s

husband, never ceases to remind her that she beautifies herself for her husband only.

Juminten wants to have her hair cut for easier care, but Panuwun declines her request

saying that with long hair she would look like Nawang Wulan, a beautiful goddess. Despite

her allergy to the shampoo Panuwun gives her, showing her loyalty to Panuwun Juminten

continues to grow her hair. Juminten’s long hair attracted Nardi, the son of Panuwun’s

employer, and through jealousy Panuwun limits Juminten to their home. She is forbidden to

leave their house without his escort, even to join a female congregation of Qur’anic reading

and reciting (pengajian). Some villagers supported Panuwun’s decision, while others said

that Panuwun oppressed his wife. Believing that the problems are all because of Juminten’s

hair, despite her protest, Panuwun finally orders Juminten to have her hair cut very short.

An Indonesian proverb says that hair is a woman’s crown. This, by and large, places

woman’s body central to female identity, in that the body is parcelled and policed through a

discursive system, which establishes identity through a relationship process between parts

of the body and assigned cultural meanings. Hair, representing the body, becomes a

fragmented agent in determining the sexual identification, strongly suggesting that parts of

the body must implement specific functions, and be situated in appropriate places, to be

considered normal. This is what Judith Butler calls, the “integrity” and “unity” of the body.

Drawing her reading from Monique Wittiq’s theory on sex and gender, Butler posits that

“numerous features [of the body] gain social meaning and unification through their

74 Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, ‘Rambutnya Juminten’ in Lakon Di Kota Kecil, Penerbit Jendela, Yogyakarta,2002, pp. 68 – 75.75 Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim, ‘Secangkir Kopi – Pengantar Penulis’, Lakon Di Kota Kecil, pp. ix – xi.

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articulation within the category of sex [consequently] ”integrity” and “unity” of the body,

often thought to be positive ideals, serve the purposes of fragmentation, restriction and

domination.”76 The cultural meaning assigned to this material body part pervades body

politics and hair becomes a metaphor for the social. Because it is part of her body Juminten

has no right over her hair; she must relinquish her ownership and is subjected to her

husband’s order. Hair, then, signifies fragmentation, restriction and domination at the same

time. Although Ratna does not explicitly state the significance of Juminten’s hair with

interpretations of women’s beauty in Islam, this, however, correlates to a verse in the

Qur’an restricting a woman to display her beauty and ornaments only to her husband and

those not eligible to marry her.77 Although there is no consensus about what constitutes

“beauty and ornaments,” the institutionalised interpretation of this verse in Indonesian

contexts emphasises that a woman should not display her beauty other than to her husband.

Panuwun’s rule for Juminten clearly shows the application of this verse. Public admiration

of Juminten’s hair must certainly be prohibited and declared to be a breach of refined

manners. As this was caused by Juminten’s hair, placing the blame on Juminten alone is

necessary. The problematic body part in the story stimulates subject position and narrative

paradigm in which contemporary women take up the body through literary practices. The

body story, for the author, the character and the reader, functions simultaneously as a

personal and political, psychological and ideological boundary of meaning, a subjected

agency through which identity and objectification emerge. The corporeal body is turned

into a cultural “body” in which oppressive cultural identification is clearly visible and

articulated. This short story is indeed interesting, as the author illustrates the repression and

the marginalisation of the female body by unfolding the power of domination, and directly

scrutinising the body and its cultural meanings. In so doing, this particular story is in itself

a cultural critique of the patriarchal hegemony, and at the same time it creates an awareness

of the relationship between a specific body, the cultural “body,” and body politics.

76Judith Butler, Gender Trouble Feminism and The Subversion of Identity, Routledge, New York, London,

1990, pp. 114 - 115.77 Sura An-Nur verse 31, The Holy Qur’an English Translation of the Meaning and Commentaries, KingFahd Holy Qur’an Printing Complex, Al-Madinah A- Munawarah, Saudi Arabia, 1410H, p. 1012.

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Delimitation and Definition of Female Identity

The problematic nature of woman, her body (and hence her sexuality), is not the only

subject of Ratna’s writings. Woman can also be subject of subjectivity, through which the

universal human subject has been culturally secured, and she too can embody the

complexities of her cultural assignments. With her narratives Ratna attempts to picture such

subjectivity through representation and thus into identities, which are secured by narrative

representations. In her stories Lebur (Melted) and Bunga Mentega (Mentega Flower), she

speaks of the assigned identity of a “true woman”: the language of martyrdom and tireless

self-sacrifice that often supersedes physical and emotional discomforts. The women in

these stories are labelled by others as “true women” who are sensitive to suffering, eager to

sacrifice themselves to others, willing to serve as vessels for another’s will.

Lebur78 engages the story of Liana who has to accept a man’s marriage proposal against her

wish. Liana wishes to accept Jono’s proposal but the timing is not right: she is not ready for

marriage as she wants to have a job of her own to enable her to finance the education of her

younger siblings. As the eldest child, her mother (her father is deceased) relies heavily on

her. This is typical of Indonesian values: culturally the eldest child has more responsibility

for helping the family’s financial sources. When she fails to find a job Liana has no choice

but to accept Jono’s proposal for Jono has promised her, and her mother, he will finance her

siblings’ education. Here, economic hardship becomes central in defining female identity.

Liana must surrender her own wish and submit to the family’s interest. Jono’s wealth and

Liana’s poverty are juxtaposed to give readers the clear idea that the politics of economics

is closely intertwined with the shaping of female subjectivity and identity. Liana is by no

means unaware of her situation but she is incapable of reacting against her economic

positioning:

If her job application were accepted, she would sail in the blue ocean together withthe seagulls, she would go to a town in Kalimantan and that town would be far away

78 Ratna, ‘Lebur’, Aminah Di Satu Hari, Galang Press, Yogyakarta, 2002, pp. 87 – 95.

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from her parent. . . . [she said to herself] “My God, I don’t love Jono! Am I selfish?Oh God, if I refuse Jono’s proposal it means that I don’t want to help my family.Now with this flame of love of mine I knock on Your door. Which door could Ienter so that I could give You this love . . . God, which door could I enter? Then asif there was a voice, “Here all doors are never closed, as long as you want to enter.”79

Liana gives up her freedom because of economic position and, most importantly, to be a

“true woman” who is expected to sacrifice her own will. Her identity has already been

delimited; martyrdom is a female affair. However, from a character who begins the

narrative in a marginal position, Liana finally is able to reverse the narrative dynamics and

call into question her victimisation, by turning and consoling herself that she (like Titis

Basino’s characters) is searching for the love of God. In so doing, she is able to manage her

sacrifice, because she believes that, perhaps through her sacrifice, she will be able to attain

God’s love. Liana’s sacrifice, to a certain degree, is a form of restriction and delimitation of

female freedom. However, instead of feeling hopeless and subdued she reacts against such

confinement by submitting herself to the greatest power, which Muslims believe in—the

love of God, and because of this she is prepared to endure the oppression forced upon her.

The value of this story lies in its ability to explore subtly the cultural norms of oppression,

which largely delimit female space, without blatantly attacking such oppression. Ratna

informs readers of the marginality and exploitation endured by Indonesian Muslim women.

Bunga Mentega80 is another narrative of the restriction of female space and freedom. The

story concerns Rusmini, a junior high school teacher, who has to give up her dream of

becoming a flight attendant because of her sex. In this story public and domestic space is

sharply divided: only men can occupy public space, women must stay in domestic. Because

of cultural norms Rusmini abandons her yearning to “see the world”: she has to reside in

the domestic world and take care of her ill mother, whereas her brother is given the

opportunity to “see the world.”

“I just want to see the world,” she could only say it to her brother. She [Rusmini]never wanted to do anything [but be a flight attendant]. But, since that night, shedreamt of wearing the uniform of a flight attendant and travelling around the cities

79 Ibid., pp. 87 – 94.80 Ratna, ‘Bunga Mentega,’ Aminah di Satu Hari, pp. 41 – 51.

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of the world . . . [and] one day she would write her journey in every corner of theworld.81

Ratna’s story reveals the cultural norm: adventure is not women’s world, only men can

travel and be adventurous. The division of female domestic and male public is seen as a

natural division. Rusmini’s brother, Rahman, decides to quit his university studies and see

the world. “A man must see the world before getting married,”82 their mother replies when

Rahman tells her of his decision. But when Rusmini mentions that her application to be a

flight attendant has been accepted, her mother and all family members simply say: “It’s

better for you to be a teacher and accompany your mother at home. If you and your brother

want to travel around the world whom will your mother stay with?”83 For Rusmini her

identity has already been fixed and sealed: be a teacher and have marriage as the ultimate

goal. Even in a society where Rusmini’s ability to work as a teacher underlines the claims

of offering equal opportunities for social mobility for women, marriage is still regarded as

the only means for women to improve their status and form their identity.

Rahman is expected to freely traverse geographical boundaries before entering married life

in which a man is considered an adult: a full member of society. It is different for Rusmini.

To be fully regarded as a societal member she must perform her domestic obligations. It is

culturally determined that, as a daughter, Rusmini must care for the elderly, and experience

confinement, because she is a woman. Although as a teacher Rusmini occupies a job

outside the home, her dream of extending her world beyond her family is restricted. Her

world is fixed between her family and her teaching job, and although she dreams of leaving

her family behind and pursuing a career of her own choosing it is not possible. Opposition

to her living outside her family world functions as both sign and proof of the culture’s

devaluation of women. It is indeed interesting that Ratna uses “the female job” in

juxtaposing the strict dichotomy between domestic and public spheres. Flight attendant is

largely regarded as woman’s job as it mainly provides service and care, which are closely

associated with the female world. Ratna’s narrative indicates that women are delimited

81Ibid, p. 45.

82 Ibid., p. 42.83 Ibid., p. 43.

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within a constructed world of domesticity. In her story she critically accommodates where

society has placed women even though their work appears to be different. Her story shows

that the sharp division between women’s and men’s spheres is a powerful means of

reinforcing dominant patriarchal ideologies, but it also shows that the subject status of

women embodies tactical reinterpretations of those ideologies.

Within the defining of women’s identity, one discursive practice contributing to such

defining is the limited freedom given to women. If men are supported in extending their

private territorial boundaries, women are not. If freedom is associated with men, women are

associated with restriction. Women are defined as wives, mothers and bearers of future

citizens, rather than in terms of social roles, which portray them as full social beings

endowed with autonomy, social control and prestige in their own right. Freedom is

certainly a contested arena, strongly administered to ensure that it will not contradict

women’s domesticity. The story Bukan Pinang Dibelah Dua (Not an Identical Twin)

reflects the problematic of female freedom and independence. The story, mostly through a

monologue of the narrator, Yana, illustrates her struggle for freedom. Yana has a twin

sister, Yani. They have a similar physical appearance, personalities, achievements and

expectations; Yana wants to break this definition. In so doing, she has to leave her home

and family. She leaves home and works as a typist for Nuke, her relative, who at the age of

forty is still single. Yana says to her family:

It’s time for me to be myself. There is only emptiness here. Mom and Dad nevertake me as Yana who has different opinion and style from Yani. Mom and Dad arejust like most people believing that twins have exact tastes and opinions ineverything. You can’t treat me like Yani who is smart in everything she does. Withleaving this house, people will be able to distinguish me from Yani. I hope Momand Dad can respect our different principles.84

Yana’s choice to leave home was not supported by her parents who believed being a typist

was a marginal occupation, and one that would not secure her future. Yet Yana deliberately

chooses this job in order to prove to her parents and society that she is different to Yani.

Her desire is to be a writer and have autonomy outside the shadow of her famous family

name, “I am Yana and I don’t want people to know me because of my family’s big name. . .

84 Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, Bukan Pinang Dibelah Dua, Grasindo, Jakarta, 2003.

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I will start from scratch. I will gain success with my own effort.”85 Freedom and

independence is Yana’s greatest goal. In her society, however, autonomy for women is

always a suspect. An autonomous woman not subject to man’s control is regarded as

potentially threatening to the male-dominated social order. Yana’s quest is then not an easy

one, especially when she decides to break off her relationship with Indra, her fiancé, before

leaving for her new job. She is persistent in her efforts to move on and attain autonomy. For

her, independence is the freedom to choose, or not to choose, the alternatives that life

brings,86 and to exist without any constraint.87 Yana’s search for autonomy does not stop as

the story ends. As Nuke finally decides to get married, her employment is no longer

necessary and she feels betrayed with Nuke’s wedding. Yet, she completely understands

that Nuke does what society expects, and Nuke has her own freedom to choose what is best

for her. Nuke’s brother, Priambodo, reminds her that freedom and youth are interconnected:

that as a young girl she needs to “see the world,” to leave home to become her own self.88

What is most important in this story is Yana’s claim to her own female identity: she sees

the possession of self as the essential core, which is only gained through the possession of

freedom and autonomy through her own agency.

Yana’s method of resistance includes her effort to construct herself as different to Yani.

Among other things, her difference is manifested when she decides to become a fiction

writer, despite all the criticism from her family. She suppresses the modes of power, which

undermine the construction of her identity, by choosing a profession regarded as marginal

by her family. Unlike Yani who lives her life controlled by her rationality, her sister and

parents often mock Yana because they consider her life full of nonsense imagination.

According to her sister she is a daydreamer. Whereas Yani chose to settle her life within

her family’s security Yana intends to live outside it: she prefers to live a life that might

generate unexpected results. She also refuses to reside at “home” and takes an alternative

path to live by her own ideals, though such ideals require her to make her own living and

85 Ibid., p. 9.86

Ibid., p. 14.87 Ibid., p. 23.88 Ibid., p. 83.

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surrender her bourgeois family background. For Yana, difference becomes her trope; it

enables her to separate herself from her sister, and herself from others, and she uses this to

make sense of herself. The binary oppositions presented in this text, such as

rational/imaginary, home/away, settle/unsettle, function as a process of differentiation,

division and splitting which constructs subjectivity and identity, and this is best understood

as a process which is always in the making, is never finished and complete. As William

Connolly argues, it is difference through which all identities are formed: one knows one’s

self through one’s difference from some other and all identities are simultaneously

threatened by the difference(s) of the other.89 However, Yana’s difference is not entirely

substantiated. Ratna leaves Yana’s story open and it is not clear whether Yana has achieved

her difference. Thus, the readers are reminded that the process may never be completed,

because the contingent nature of identity is ambiguous and contested. Yana herself does not

know where her choice will lead, but she knows that she has to leave Nuke’s house and go

to a new place. Her search for identity is never meant to be settled, and this notion of

unsettling creates her modes of resisting any delimitation of female identity.

The In-between-ness

Best known as a short story writer, Ratna expanded her talent by publishing her first novel,

Lemah Tanjung, in 2003. This novel, based on a true story, concerns the struggle of local

residents—led by an environmental activist named Ibu Indri—to preserve the only green

area in the city of Malang, Lemah Tanjung. The novel narrates the story of Gita, the main

character, whose involvement in Ibu Indri’s struggles enables her to resolve the problematic

of her identity. Gita is married to Paul, who is of Chinese descent, and they have a teenage

daughter, Bonet. In 1998 Indonesia experienced political and social upheavals, and Chinese

Indonesians were targeted. Because of the fear of becoming a possible target Paul emigrates

to Perth, Australia, and asks Gita and Bonet to follow him immediately he finds a secure

89 William E. Connolly, Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiation of Political Paradox, CornellUniversity Press, Ithaca, 1991.

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place for them to settle. The story occurs in this “waiting period” when Gita is unsure about

her decision to leave the city and the people she loves most. Her acquaintance with Ibu

Indri (often addressed as Bu In) secures her ability to be an agent in constructing her

conception of identity and community. From Bu In, Gita learns the meaning of struggle and

she begins to question the social roles and responsibilities expected of women.

Furthermore, she starts to participate in public life. Bu In’s struggles open her eyes and she

moves from merely a domestic role to public engagement, becoming aware at the same

time of her changing state of consciousness; reflecting her understanding of herself and her

situation as related to her social and biological condition. Without saying no to the system

which positions her, Gita focuses on positively constructing her own system in order to

make meaning of her life and choices. Thus characterized Gita, in seeking justice and

support and an awareness of gender formation, is working within a feminist agenda.

The novel opens with Gita’s wish to show Bonet the beauty of fireflies: she writes to a

reader’s column in a local newspaper enquiring about places to see fireflies. Bu In responds

to her letter and their acquaintance begins. Gita and Bonet go to see the fireflies in Lemah

Tanjung; this area is in dispute, because the local government intends to develop it for

shopping malls, whereas Bu In and her group of environmental activists insist the area must

be left as a home for various endangered species of birds and plants. (The story ends

without resolution of the dispute). The more Gita sees of Bu In’s struggles to preserve

Lemah Tanjung, the more she is inspired by her strength and empowerment. Bu In is a

middle-aged widow with three grown up children and a lecturer at the Akademi Penyuluh

Pertanian (APP, Academy of Agricultural Trainings), which was previously located in

Lemah Tanjung before being moved to another area, Randu Agung. Bu In opposes the

development of Lemah Tanjung because it is the only green area in the city where nature is

preserved.

Gita’s story is a story of migration and border crossing. Gita’s husband, Paul, had never

thought of himself as a “keturunan” (a Chinese descendant), as his mother was Sundanese.

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Identity was not a problem; Paul simply accepted it. Although ethnically/racially90 he was

different to Gita, culturally and religiously he was not. He converted to Islam long before

he met Gita and he wants to raise his children in Malang seeing it as a still secure and

natural place. The 14th of May1998 riots changed his mind. Paul is forced to see that

ethnically he is different to Gita, and that due to this difference he will be treated

differently. Paul witnesses the atrocities against the keturunan and their families: his female

cousin is raped, and he and his cousin just manage to escape an angry mob of rioters trying

to kill them. It is then that Paul begins to question his identity and ethnic difference. Paul

believes that he is no longer accepted as an Indonesian, a pribumi (native)92 and he decides

to follow his two brothers who had earlier emigrated to Australia. For Paul, despite his

conversion to Islam, his ethnic appearance proves more important in the eyes of the wider

community than his religion and social position.

Gita is also forced to an awareness of ethnic difference, which at first seemed to be

unproblematic. But her new awareness of the difference makes her position difficult. On

the one hand, she wants to close this gap between her and Paul, be it ethnic or spatial

difference, thus following Paul will bridge the gap. On the other hand, the idea of

displacement worries Gita. She does not want to leave Malang, because it is linked closely

to her identity. However, Gita feels her attachment to Malang is no longer secure and she

eventually crosses the geographical border and migrates to Australia. Being not actually

settled and rooted in a fixed identity she will become one of those migrant identities

moving between two different borders—people with different identifications. Her voyage

must then be rooted in two poles, Indonesian and Australian. Her Indonesian identity is at

risk with her spatial displacement, Gita understands this and it drives her to empowerment:

“Yes, I know, sooner or later, I must leave Malang, for how long I can’t be sure. Perhaps,

before leaving this beloved town, I must do something.”93 Gita decides to create history,

her own and her homeland’s. Her border crossing is reflected not only in her travel, but also

90In Indonesia, Chinese descendants are believed to be ethnically rather than racially different. Racial

difference is only applied to Westerners whose appearance is racially Caucasian.92

Ratna, Lemah Tanjung, Grasindo, Jakarta, 2003, p. 8.93 Ibid.,p.21

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in her decision to marry Paul where she moves beyond her own ethnicity, which is

Javanese. But, her most powerful border crossing is perhaps her movement from the

domestic to the public arena—from “housewifization” to social activism.

What Gita does for the rest of the story is not merely empowerment on a personal level, but

social and political levels as well. Previously focusing on just domestic affairs, Gita

becomes an environmental activist joining and supporting Bu In’s struggles. In her

association with Bu In and her NGO she meets numerous activists, including Mbak

Syarifah, who later also becomes a mentor. Mbak Syarifah is perhaps the author’s persona

in the story, although Ratna denies this similarity, saying that Mbak Syarifah is too puritan

to be her persona.94 Like Ratna, the disabled Mbak Syarifah is an activist in numerous

NGOs, particularly NGOs whose agendas oppose inequality, injustice and victimisation.

Through Mbak Syarifah, Gita learns to be critically aware of any injustice surrounding her.

The story is then taken to a more social and political level. It is no longer a story about Gita

per se; it becomes a powerful apparatus to critically assess the political and social condition

of the nation, particularly the chronic conditions of the nation caused by Suharto’s regime.

The name Syarifah metaphorically constructs an image of nobility in Muslim identity, as

Syarifah derives from the Arabic syarif meaning noble: to be syarif is to be able to trace the

family genealogy to the Quraishi tribe of the Prophet Muhammad in seventh century

Arabia. However, in the story Mbak Syarifah is not simply a reference to Arabic descent,

rather, her name signifies a personality that, despite physical disability, has a noble quality.

It thus parallels her actions to the struggles of the Prophet when promoting justice and

equality to the early Muslims. In so doing the narrative connects gender to the ideal

struggles of Islam and gives women symbolic importance in striving toward social justice.

When Paul admits he is having an extra marital affair with an Australian journalist, a friend

whom they met in Bali, Gita feels betrayed and focuses more on her activism. Gita offers a

divorce to Paul who is devastated with the offer and immediately suggests reconciliation, as

he is aware his affair is caused by loneliness. Gita is still reluctant to follow Paul for she is

94 Interview with Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim, 20 July 2004.

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deeply involved with Bu In’s community. She believes that even if Paul no longer loves

her, she will never feel lonely, because she will still have Bu In, Mbak Syarifah, her best

friends and her family at her side through happiness and sadness. Gita strongly trusts in

their comradeship. As Mbak Syarifah keeps reminding her, they all met in similar

disempowered circumstances where they had to battle against injustice. Moreover, her

engagement with Bu In’s struggles marks her attempt to root an identification emerging

from rejection against injustice. Through her association with Bu In and Mbak Syarifah

Gita has developed an awareness of how her identity is constructed. She says to herself:

I am Paul’s wife who should be following him wherever he is. In fact, I prefer tostay here. If I choose to keep on staying in Malang with Bonet, people and myselfwill consider me to be unfaithful. . . . We are angry with the domestic-social roles[given to us as women] which taught us, whether are aware or not, that we shouldonly want to be just a housewife. We are never taught to be ambitious upon career.95

Gita’s response to such positioning is her effort to ensure that she can create a new identity,

which will accommodate her strategies to challenge the old system. Gita believes that her

choices and actions are valuable not only for herself, but for others as well, and that her

struggles will be continued by the younger generations. Indeed, Gita has taken her struggle

to the higher level. For her, her actions are levelled to nilai-nilai luhur (highly-valued

norms). Gita tells her daughter that she wants to “use my time with things beneficial to

others.”96

During her journey to manufacture and establish her new identity Gita meets challenges

and hindrances. Most of her friends are surprised that she engages with Bu In’s community.

They believe she should just follow her husband, be a mother to Bonet and concentrate

merely on domesticity. During these times of despair and disillusionment Bu In is a heroine

in Gita’s eyes: one who does not easily let herself be bent by circumstance, and she became

Gita’s source of resilience:

“Bu In, lately I feel like just giving up,” [Gita lamented to Bu In]. “I admire you.You never seem to be giving up.” [Bu In answered] “Sometimes I do want to give

95 Ibid., p. 89.96 Ibid., p 376.

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up. But, when I am feeling despair, Mbak, I take a pause and pray to God to give mestrength and blessing in what we are doing.97

Bu In’s perception of her struggles is typical of Muslims, who believe that any action they

execute is framed within the conviction that they are vice-regents whose actions necessitate

God’s sanction. This also illustrates the theme of religious obedience for Muslims. Ratna’s

continual message in her narrative is that within religious boundaries, struggle against

injustice is part of God’s will. Although no characters in the story mention their resistance

(the dominant theme of the novel) can be regarded as jihad (to fight in the path of Allah),

when Bu In’s environmental struggle to revive a sense of nature in everybody’s life is

modelled and idealised, jihad is implicit in the text. Bu In’s jihad is in civil activism, as

jihad here is never considered to be taking up arms to uphold a specific supremacy. Bu In’s

jihad is unmistakably militant in the sense that she persistently maintains her struggle.

Admittedly the war evoked in the story is certainly metaphorical, but the struggle it

connotes is no less real. The reality of Bu In’s struggle lies both in the narrative and the

Real, as this story is based on a true story and on a true female heroine, Bu Indrasi.98

The story ends with Gita’s decision to finally follow Paul to Australia: she reasons that she

is Paul’s wife and her place is at his side and Bonet’s. The narrative decision is not a

surprise, because, as Ratna admits, Gita, like any Indonesian wife, still places herself in

between two divergent roles: between the traditional role of domesticity and the more

modern role of social activism.99 Gita could not totally reside in the public arena and

neglect her domestic responsibility, even though advancing to the new system guaranteed

her a greater role in public affairs, because she was still constructed within the prevailing

old system.

Gita, like Yana and most of Ratna’s female characters, desires to travel and leave the

domestic territory. Travel is significant in Ratna’s narratives. This correlates to the last of

the five pillars of Islam: the hajj, the pilgrimage. One hadith says that one must seek

97Ibid., p. 265.

98 Interview with Ratna, 20 July 2004.99 Ibid.

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knowledge even if one needs to travel to China. Travel for hajj and seeking knowledge

becomes essential embodying movement between space and time. The Prophet himself had

to undergo a hijrah (the Prophet’s emigration) to find a place where the practice of Islam

was not constrained. Travel may be interpreted as crossing confined boundaries, connecting

points of departure and return. For Muslims, travel, be it literal or symbolic, allows

simultaneous self-positioning in the local and the global: it also allows movement back to

the past and then back to a transformed present. Gita’s travel is symbolic of such

movement. Malang is the point of departure, then travel to Australia, and then back to

Malang again: she desires to return to Malang later as she gets older—as point of return—

but her return certainly will be a transformed one. Her movement between points of

departure and return narrates her in-between-ness, as she moves flexibly across

geographical boundaries, which oscillate between destination and origin. Yet, she retains

deep connections with a specific place, her homeland. For Gita, travel is an indispensable

part of her material and spiritual identity: identity which is constructed between two poles;

between rooting herself in a specific territory and pointing towards another territory, a

projected place where travel must be undertaken to connect the gap between Malang and

Perth. However, this travel always anticipates return to a realm where the “fixed” point of

departure and return is re-imagined and further travel inspired. Through the story of Lemah

Tanjung, it can be argued that contemporary forms of identity cannot be simply regarded as

continuing the past, although the past undoubtedly shapes present forms. In the context of

this story, identity, to a great extent, is generated by the new environments individuals find

themselves in. Elements of identity are selectively redefined, reconstructed, created or

dropped. Identity thus has to be regarded as a multi-faceted, dynamic and malleable

construct. It is formed, maintained and modified by social process and social interaction.

Lemah Tanjung is a remarkable story of how women like Bu In and Mbak Syarifah make

meaning of their life in their own way. Gita takes them as her role models. What may be

odd in this story is Gita’s decision to become involved in the community’s efforts to create

a better environment when her husband is a victim of ethnic/racial injustice by that very

same community. She seems to blind herself to her husband’s fear, and to his plight and

fear of relocation. Malang appears to be an unjust place for people like Paul. Indeed,

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Ratna’s portrayal of racial injustice against the Chinese (which reached its peak in the May

1998 riots) is worthy of notice, because, through her narrative, Ratna shows the affect the

atrocities have on individuals. Paul’s fear of discrimination leads him to leave the country:

at the same time it shows the problematic position of Chinese Indonesians within

Indonesian society. Chinese Indonesians however, are not monolithic; as with the wider

society, they too are composed of a variety of classification: for example, totok, peranakan

and keturunan.100 Most Chinese Indonesians largely practice traditional Chinese beliefs and

are generally adherents of Christianity or Buddhism. Muslim Chinese are a minority within

a minority, and as such there is an unease about their ethnic identity. “[T]he Chinese

Muslims are almost like a buffer zone; not fully integrated in either of them, not fully liked

by any of them.”101 Jacobsen suggests the marginalisation of Chinese Muslims results from

various causes; partly from the reinforcement of Dutch colonial law racially separating the

Dutch, foreign Orientals and indigenous Indonesians in terms of class and economic status,

(the Dutch included Chinese Muslims as indigenous), partly from Sukarno’s and the New

Order’s discrimination policies toward the Chinese; and resulting also from internal

discrimination of other Chinese toward Chinese Muslims. Those who convert to Islam are

seen “as endangering the societal position of other Chinese as well as offending the latter’s

sense of ethnic identification.”102 Paul exemplifies the minority of the minority. Within

such circumstances his flight to Australia is justifiable, although the story never clearly

reveals whether he will make his adopted country his own, for he still proclaims himself to

be an Indonesian, admitting that his nationality even grows stronger whilst living in

Australia.103 The story ends with the departure of Gita and Bonet to Australia, whether or

not they will move back to Malang is never resolved.

This narrative is not only about the struggle of a local environmentalist hero, but it also

tackles the violence against the Chinese, the problems within inter-ethnic marriage and the

100Totok and peranakan are the two major labels. Totok commonly refers to China born recent Chinese

migrants to Indonesia, who still speak Chinese: peranakan or keturunan are acculturated ethnic Chinese. Yetanother label is Cina perantauan, meaning migrated Chinese.101 Michael Jacobsen, ‘Islam and Processes of Minorisation among Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia: Oscillatingbetween Faith and Political Expediency’, Asian Ethnicity, Volume 6, Number 2, June 2005, pp. 71 – 85.102 Ibid., p. 83.103 Lemah Tanjung, p. 15.

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uneasy identity construction of those crossing both geographical and ethnic/race

boundaries. Gita is not blind toward Paul’s misery: she makes an effort to help Paul

overcome his fear and guilt at not being able to help his relative when she was raped. In a

consultation with a psychologist she is told that it is necessary for Paul to help himself

recover from his trauma.104 Paul is a victim of social and political construction; he is a

victim of political disturbance, because of the failure of the state to protect its citizens by

creating a more tolerant and assimilated society. In a world where injustice takes place,

such as that experienced by Bu In and Paul, Gita is called to play her part in the struggle

against that injustice.

Gita has made an attempt to join the fight against injustice through her involvement with

Bu In’s community. Although her engagement is not part of stopping the anti-Chinese

sentiment that victimises her husband, her activism underlines her effort to be against any

oppressive power relations. Bu In is in a minority, just like Paul. It can be argued that in a

parallel position, Gita is also fighting for Paul, wishing that if she can tell Paul about Bu

In’s courage she can convince him that he too can be like Bu In.105 Gita believes that seeing

Bu In’s resilience will enable Paul to solve their problems: the gap between them and his

loss of his sense of belonging. Gita does not want Paul to go to Australia: she wants him to

stay with her in Malang and fight, with her, against ethnic discrimination by showing the

public that she and Paul, despite their ethnic difference, can create a tolerant and

harmonious relationship.

In most of Ratna’s stories the state has a crucial role in victimising its citizens. In Lemah

Tanjung, for example, it is the state that endangers the lives of its citizens by destroying the

only green area in the city, and it is also the state’s racial policy that endangers and

marginalizes the life of people like Paul. After the resignation of Soeharto, subsequent

presidents (Habibie, Wahid and Megawati) introduced new regulations allowing Chinese to

practice their traditions: such as publishing books and newspapers in Chinese, freely

learning and speaking Chinese in public, and celebrating Chinese holidays. Since then,

104 Ibid., p. 8.105 Lemah Tanjung, p. 9.

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Chinese culture has appeared more and more in Indonesian cultural life. Most importantly,

with the abolition of official discrimination against the Chinese, it is expected that

everyday discrimination against the Chinese will gradually disappear and the Chinese will

live their lives more easily and be fully assimilated within society. Whether or not anti-

Chinese sentiment will totally disappear from the Indonesian mind, only time will tell. The

politics of belonging is an on-going process, which requires the engagement of all societal

elements, and it flourishes only in conducive environments.

Through her narratives Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim presents women who challenge meta-

narratives, which write them out of the social and cultural present. Her narratives question

the social, political, cultural, and religious placement of women, and at the same time

demonstrate the ways that women manage to construct their own identities. Her writing

functions as a vital weapon in attacking the injustices that most women in Indonesia—

particularly in rural areas—experience, because of the autocratic power exercised by the

state and the influence of patriarchy. In investigating the relationship between domestic and

local sources of oppression of women, and exposing the dangers of women’s invisibility in

their social and cultural lives, Ratna’s writing makes women visible. Bringing the body

discourse into fiction is crucial as it elevates reader’s awareness that body politics can be a

channel to question received gender construction. Ratna’s stories constantly insist on

women’s right to claim a place in the annals of their people, while at the same time arguing

that the various women she captures in her stories are not of a single identity, but of many

possible speaking positions. Ratna attempts to understand, then challenge, women’s

positioning in cultural, social and political constellations.

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Chapter 8

Representation, Identity and Religion: Images of Muslim Women, Their Lives and

Struggles in Fiction

(Part II)

Abidah El Khalieqy and Her Feminist Project

Raising the general awareness about issues concerning women and Islam can be

channelled through numerous ways, including book publication. Abidah El Kahieqy is

famous for her engagement in disseminating awareness of the rights of women within

the bounds of Islamic values. Her short stories and novel are commonly perceived as

promoters of Muslim women’s authenticity, intellectual ownership, identity and

struggle within their community, in order to advocate equality for women in a male-

dominated world. Her stories are largely backgrounded in pesantren, which may be

regarded as a subculture of Islam, particularly within Javanese settings. Abidah is a

Muslim activist who imbues her writing with a strong advocacy for rights of Muslim

women: the right of her body in relation to reproduction rights, the right to education,

the right to social and economic resources, and to political power. Most importantly, she

also addresses problems of gender inequality arising out of male-biased interpretations

of religion. For Abidah, religion is an essential component of life: one of the pertinent

factors contributing to her identity and social role. The following discussion attempts to

examine Abidah’s narratives, which navigate identifications with a common purpose:

that is, her narrative voices calling for justice and freedom. In developing awareness and

stimulating public discourse about women’s rights, and what issues are precisely

relevant in contemporary Indonesian Islam, Abidah’s works are highly influential.

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Muslim Women and Their Rights

Abidah’s Perempuan Berkalung Sorban (Woman with a Sorban Necklace) was

published in 2001. The publication of this novel was party funded by Yayasan

Kesejahteraan Fatayat (YKF), Yogyakarta, and the Ford Foundation (FF). It is stated in

the introductions from both YKF and FF that the novel seeks to educate readers on

women’s rights, especially reproduction and education rights within the tenets of Islam.

In this novel Abidah clearly depicts her feminist project, often defined as Islamic

feminism.

The novel strongly articulates women’s demands for equality with men. The title itself

suggests that the positioning of women is always confined within limitations produced

by men. Perempuan berkalung sorban literally means a woman who is wearing sorban

as her necklace. Sorban is the headdress worn only by male Muslims. Metaphorically,

the title signifies prescribed relations between men and women: their social positions in

Islamic society where religious interpretations play as constructions formulating those

relations and positions.

Education Rights

The story focuses on the life of Nisa, the shorter name for Annisa Nuhayyah, meaning

an intelligent woman.1 Nisa is the daughter of KH. Hanan Abdul Malik, a famous kyai,

the head of a Pondok Pesantren Putri (pesantren for girls). As the only daughter, it is

understood that Nisa will be her father’s successor in heading the pesantren: nowadays

it is common for pesantren putri to be headed by ibu nyai, the wife, or the daughter, of a

kyai. However, Nisa doesn’t see herself living only within the pesantren walls, she

desires to seek knowledge beyond the pesantren walls and she often mingles with the

village children outside the pesantren. Nisa is raised in a patriarchy-dominated world

where the sexual division of labour is seen to be natural. At school she uses reading

1 Abidah El Khalieqy, Perempuan Berkalung Sorban, Yayasan Kesejahteraan Fatayat, Yogyakarta,20001, p. 51.

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materials supportive of this division: within the family the father is the bread winner

working in an office; the mother is in charge of domestic duties; the son plays in the

yard, and the daughter helps her mother’s household load.2 Abidah displays her

criticism of Indonesian formal education, especially of the elementary level where the

ideology of the sexual division of labour is persistently reinforced; gender hierarchy is

maintained by propagating such representation and roles. Domestic ideology becomes a

powerful means to strengthen the patriarchal domination through such teachings.

The protagonist of the story, Nisa, intends to break all the constraining walls, which

limit women in their social roles. She wants to grow up having male roles rather than

female roles, because this will provide her with more control in the public sphere.

Nisa’s status as a daughter is symbolic. All women are daughters, but not all are wives

and mothers. Nisa’s daughterhood acts as a representation of all women, because it

shows that all women can be oppressed, but at the same time it also shows that

daughters can respond to unjust situations and demand their rights as though they were

sons. Nisa’s close relationship with her distant relative Lek Khudhori (Uncle Khudhori)

contributes greatly to her striving for gender equality. From Khudhori, the young Nisa

learns about the equality and justice that Islam ideally brings to its adherents. Khudhori

satisfies Nisa’s thirst for knowledge about women’s history in Islam:

I was more and more yearning to learn qira’ah [to recite the Qur’an beautifully]and horse-back riding. I did them all with high spirit though secretly. . . . I spentall my free time exercising for horse-back riding, listening to the stories of theProphet’s wives, the forgotten queens of Islam and stories of female Sufis fromLek Khudori.3

The passage above well illustrates Nisa’s desire for education beyond domesticity. Her

dream is to imitate Aisyah, the Prophet’s youngest wife, who led an army in the Battle

of Camel. Although Aisyah led the losing side, the fact that she led indeed captivated

the young girl. For Nisa, Aisyah’s heroism, and her ability to lead an army of men,

conjures up images of an earlier Islam where women were given greater space in public

life. Within these images Nisa sees women’s authenticity.

2 Ibid., p. 10.3 Ibid., p. 24.

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Not only does Nisa have an early education in the history of early Muslim women, she

also has an interest in literature and poetry. Khudhori often recites the poems of famous

poets, in particular those of Jalaluddin Rumi. Nisa often writes her own poems and

sends them to Khudhori who is away at Al-Azhar, Cairo, for tertiary education.

Imagination is a powerful ally for Nisa’s struggles. Imagination enables her to create

her own interpretations and thus fill the gaps in the collective memory of Islamic

tradition, which, by and large, erases the presence of female Muslims in history. She

begins her own interpretations at an early age when critically assessing Sura At-Takwir

on female infanticide in pre-Islamic Quraishi culture:

How could they be called fathers? Or is it what they really are? Burying babygirls alive? Who are then their mothers? Who are their wives? Aren’t theywomen themselves? Why don’t they bury their wives alive as well? Sometimes Ifeet that father doesn’t really love me. [Is it] because I am a girl?4

From an early age Nisa criticises the gender hierarchy that discriminates against girls in

her environment, because of their sex. Her most essential effort is to defy her worst

enemy—patriarchal domination—and achieve justice and equality. She persistently

maintains her goal: to obtain her freedom. “Women are not men’s servants. Nor are they

slaves of life. I don’t want to be a slave.”5

Nisa’s struggles are not without challenge. Soon after her graduation from elementary

school, at the age of twelve she is forced into marriage with Samsudin, the son of a

famous kyai. Forced marriage and child marriage are another form of subordination that

Nisa has to undergo. Her struggle to be an autonomous body must necessarily be

punished, as it deviates from the religious and social norms of the pesantren world.

Samsudin, who is considered the black sheep of his family, comes from a devout santri

family. He is a promiscuous young man, incapable of the upstanding behaviour

expected of a santri gentleman. The narrative paints him as a monster: he abuses Nisa,

and frequently rapes her when she does not desire sexual intercourse. When Nisa

protests about Samsudin’s immoral behaviour to her family, they simply tell her that it

is her responsibility to change him into a better person. Nisa is sacrificed and punished

for attempting to have her own autonomy.

4 Ibid., p. 43.5 Ibid., p. 85.

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For Nisa, education is her way to cope with this unjust treatment. She focuses only on

her education and ignores Samsudin’s misbehaviour. Samsudin is outraged that Nisa

ignores him and soon brings a woman, Kalsum, home as his second wife. Kalsum is a

widow and far older than Samsudin. Although it is perhaps unusual for wives to share

the same house in Indonesia, it sometimes happens in pesantrens. Samsudin’s

polygamous marriage is a relief for Nisa, as it releases her from her responsibilities as a

wife: she accepts this practice gladly. She can now concentrate more on her education,

because Kalsum, being her helpful ally, takes over Nisa’s responsibility for managing

the household and fulfilling Samsudin’s sexual needs. Kalsum also gives him a

daughter, Fadillah. Here, Abidah gives polygamy a new face. The dynamic of polygamy

is presented very well when Abidah uses it as a useful ally for Nisa in seeking her self-

empowerment. As in Titis’ story, Dia, Abidah’s depiction of polygamy becomes a

significant means for women’s improvement. Because Samsudin takes a second wife,

Nisa can finish her education. However, Kalsum is also Samsudin’s victim: his promise

of material luxury, which seduced her, is a lie. A bond between Nisa and Kalsum is

established when Kalsum shows interest in Nisa’s education, and asks Nisa to be her

mentor on issues concerning women and Islam: sisterhood emerges between the

victimised women. Their bond is their response to an external threat, as they remember

events they come together in sorrow. And through Nisa’s teaching to Kalsum they

establish a sense of collective identity.

Education is centralised within this story. Lack of education is an essential contributing

factor in women’s victimisation. Kalsum’s lack of education, not knowing her rights as

a wife, makes her an easy target for Samsudin’s violence. Nisa’s young age and her

high school education are inadequate for her to fight back against Samsudin’s violence.

Abidah shows that within a santri family marriage, which is commonly perceived to be

closest to Islamic ideals, domestic violence can take place. Abidah further questions

gender bias in relation to the wife’s responsibilities regulated in kitab kuning and taught

in pesantren. At school Nisa is taught that a wife will be cursed if she refuses her

husband’s desire for sexual intercourse. However, in her explanation to Kalsum on this

matter, Nisa critically rebuffs such teaching, saying that it is heavily drawn for men’s

benefit, and intentionally neglects women’s own words about it. Nisa believes women’s

feelings need to be taken into account: is she prepared? Does she want to? For Nisa, a

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husband’s imposition of intercourse when the wife refuses, is clearly an act of rape.

However, Nisa’s knowledge means nothing, because she has no power to stop

Samsudin’s violence: she is too young and too scared to defy her husband. Nisa’s young

age and Kalsum’s ignorance indeed make them perfect allies for subjugation.

As Abidah vocalises her discontent with child marriage and polygamy, these seemingly

perpetual problems Indonesian women have to deal with, she illustrates the hostile

conditions in which women have to live. Abidah even goes further, saying that child

marriage is largely due to patriarchal manipulation of what is termed ijbar in Islamic

shari’a. This is where a Muslim girl is subjected to the over-ruling power, or ijbar, of

her father or guardian, supposedly in the interests of the girl herself. Through the story

of Nisa, Abidah critically assesses ijbar. How could a girl twelve years of age know her

own interest, particularly in the choice of husband? The most common interpretation of

ijbar is when the father, or a guardian, asks a girl whether she approves of a certain

person and if she keeps silent this means she agrees with the father’s (or guardian’s)

choice. This is Nisa’s experience. Her silence when she is asked, which shows her

ignorance, is simply perceived as her agreement. Through the voice of Nisa’s uncle,

Khudhori, Abidah criticises ijbar, because she believes that it is entirely against the

spirit of autonomy in Islam. Ijbar should be located within certain contexts and

conditions, it was never meant to be monolithically applicable to all circumstances.

Upon her graduation from high school at the age of seventeen, and encouraged by

Khudhori who has returned from Egypt and Germany, Nisa finally agrees to speak

about Samsudin’s abuse to her parents. When matters are settled between her family

and Samsudin’s, she files for divorce. Being a young divorcee, she is subjected to public

prejudice, in particular about her close relation to Khudhori. However, determined to

start a new life and pursue higher education, Nisa leaves her hometown for university

education in Yogyakarta. A year later she marries Khudhori. Her second marriage is her

escape from her janda status, because she cannot bear the prejudicial societal treatment:

with her marriage to Khudhori, who is a lecturer in Islamic studies, these prejudices

soon disappear. Nisa gains what she has struggled for. Her activism on women’s issues

within an Islamic perspective is supported by her Khudhori and she becomes a strong

supporter of the women’s movement. Her feminist project is to provide equality and

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justice for women who are subjugated through patriarchal domination, her own

experience. Her marriage to Khudhori is an ideal one, each supporting the other in

creating sakinah mawaddah wa-rahmah family (a harmonious, peaceful and

affectionate family). When their son Mahbub is one year old, Khudhori dies in a car

accident. It is rumoured that Samsudin is responsible for the hit and run accident, which

kills Khudhori, but the truth is never revealed in the story. Nisa herself believes that life

and death are in the hands of the Creator. The death of Khudhori is a significant device

in the story, for it reminds the readers that the kind of family life that Nisa and

Khudhori have exists only at an ideal level.6

Nisa’s struggle for education is not an easy struggle, but Nisa pursues education despite

her circumstances. She is iconic, because she attempts to formulate interpretations of

Islam within the perspectives of women’s experiences. In this story women become the

central social actors: first subjugated then empowered, Abidah moves women’s social

position from the periphery to the centre. She advocates women’s rights within Islam,

and within the contexts of Islamic teaching, and highlights domestic violence, because it

is often believed to be non-existent in Islamic reality. She creates a heroine who

portrays a course of action that constantly resists gender bias, and who refuses to play

the role of a slave victimised by patriarchy. The role of education sets the central theme

of the text. In addition to her explicit opinions on child and forced marriage, polygamy,

and domestic violence, Abidah emphasises the significance of education in resisting

oppression based on conservative Islamic teachings. For Abidah, education functions as

a means of psychological independence; freeing women from oppression and providing

room for emancipation. It is a reverberating call against certain traditional practices,

such as child and forced marriage, and polygamy.

Reproduction Rights

As part of their responsibilities as the vicegerents on earth, Muslims are adjured to

ensure the survival of the human race through reproduction conducted through sexual

6 Interview with Abidah, 7 July 2004.

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relationships regulated within the sanction of marriage. Women, with their sole ability

to bear children are then central, for they are the linking entity of the past and the future.

Humankind relies on women’s bodies to secure the existence of future generations.

However, in a society like Indonesia where religious teaching regarding the power of a

husband over a wife is very strong, a woman’s right over her own body is significantly

disregarded. Her ownership and reproduction rights are denied, because the ability to

control her own reproductive behaviour smacks of self-determination and freedom from

male authority—anathema to men in most societies, let alone Indonesia. Women’s

reproductive health is, by and large, dismissed from male politics.

Although recent developments have shown that many NGOs and women’s

organizations are now strongly addressing reproduction rights, according to UNICEF

the maternal mortality rate and lifetime risk of maternal death are still high, because of

the poor handling of women’s reproductive health.7 To make matters worse, numerous

aspects of women’s reproductive rights have intentionally been neglected by the state,

for example, abortion and infertility.8 Blackburn argues that it is difficult for women

who fall pregnant against their will to secure an abortion, because there is no consensus

on the issue. Religious objections create more difficulties for the state to sanction

abortion based on women’s needs. Infertility is another problematic matter. In infertility

problems the blame is simply placed on the woman, rather than on men, without really

knowing the cause.9 In addition, despite the fact that leukorrhea,10 commonly known as

keputihan, can be a vital symptom of dangerous reproductive diseases, such as sexually

transmitted diseases, the Ministry of Health fails to classify it as needing urgent

attention.11

7 UNICEF, Internet, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/indonesia_statistics.html1/#1, (2 May 2005).8 Susan Blackburn, Women and the State in Modern Indonesia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,2004, pp. 155 – 162.9 Ibid., p. 162.10 Leukorrhea may occur at any age and affects most women. It is a non-blood vaginal discharge, whichmay be normal, or represent minimal pathological changes from various causes. Leukorrhea duringmature periods, before or after menstruation, or during pregnancy without any other symptoms or odour,is normal vaginal discharge. Once it is persistent and accompanied by other symptoms, such as pain anditchiness, then it may be a pathological reaction, an early symptom of more serious diseases, such asreproduction organ diseases or liver, kidney and heart disorders. See http://www.martha-tilaar.com/indo/perlutahu/perlutahu_07.shtml.11 An Interview with Sri Endah Kinasih, a researcher in Women’s Studies Centre of AirlanggaUniversity, Surabaya, Indonesia, 23 April 2004.

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The lack of women’s awareness on the notion of “woman’s body woman’s right” also

contributes greatly to the failure to implement women’s reproductive rights. There is

very little discourse about, or attention given to, the subject. Religion is probably the

most significant reason for this lack of attention. Traditional interpretations of Islam

view that women are half of men, and a woman’s body is owned by the male lineage,

exemplified exclusively with the ijbar right when she is single, and her husband’s

control when she is married. A wife is subject to her husband’s responsibility, thus

control over her body and integrity is in the hands of her husband. Who is the owner of

a woman’s body is certainly problematic. The notion of “woman’s body woman’s right”

implicates authority, and the right for women to control their bodies, sexuality,

reproductive organs: for most men, this will definitely jeopardise their control over

women.

Issues of reproduction rights are also presented strongly in Perempuan Berkalung

Sorban. The novel is included amongst the few books published in Indonesia from

1990-2003 which are said to cover “all issues concerning women’s reproduction rights

and women’s reproductive health, including violent acts and violations of women’s

rights.”12 The story translates the issues of reproduction rights from social and cultural

approaches within the context of the pesantren world. Abidah’s fictionalisation of these

issues proves to be more powerful and influential than if they were represented in more

clinical terms, as the story relates to the life and experiences of many women. It

articulates women’s own concerns, and turns their concerns into an informative

teaching method, for instance, when Nisa tells her relative, Lek Ummi (Aunt Ummi)

about women’s reproduction rights:

Caring for children is the husband’s responsibility. . . . Also, for example if LekUmmi refuses to breastfeed the baby because the household load is too heavy,Lek Mahmud [Lek Ummi’s husband] is obligated to find a surrogate motherwhom he’ll pay well enough. These are the husband’s responsibility, Lek. . . .You mean, you don’t know if you have the right to decide whether you want toget pregnant or not, Lek?13

12 Irfan Abubakar, ‘Islam and Gender Books Published in Indonesia (1990 – 2003)’, Kultur TheIndonesian Journal For Muslim Cultures, Volume 2, No 2, 2002, p. 138.13 Abidah, Perempuan , p. 259

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Abidah’s story covers important reproduction rights issues: domestic responsibilities are

to be shared by both husband and wife; the wife has the right to her body; she has the

right to decide whether to have a baby. On other occasions, Abidah, through the voice

of Nisa, speaks of a wife’s right to initiate and enjoy sexual intercourse with her

husband. Although this might seem odd to most Indonesian Muslims, as only men may

initiate sexual relations, Abidah directly voices her feminist rhetoric on the issue of

sexual rights, always bearing in mind that sexual relationships are only to take place

within marriage.

Indeed reproduction rights are not new in Islamic law. Classical books on fiqh have

regulated such issues ranging from sexual relations to childbearing. According to K.H.

Sahal Mahfudz, classical religious interpretations of such rights place women at the

centre.14 Verses in the Qur’an secure these rights: husbands are responsible to treat their

wives with respect, and women, due to their childbearing ability, deserve to receive

respectful treatment.15 Islam says that because of their so-called reproduction burden,

women are given exemption in their vicegerent responsibilities, particularly in the

matter of ibadah (worshipping). However, Kyai Sahal reminds us that the practicality

of those verses is far from the ideal in most Muslim communities. Women’s

reproduction rights often exist only on a rhetorical level, and are never actually applied

at the practical level. Efforts to raise women’s awareness of their reproduction rights are

still needed to finally reach the ideal goal of just and equal Islamic communities.

Gender-based Violence: Domestic Violence

In her novel, Abidah also raises one of the most contemporary issues that Muslim

feminists struggle against: violence against women. To a certain degree, most female

characters in the story suffer from gender-based violence, whether direct or indirect,

physical or mental. Exposing marital rape, a term only recently used by the Muslim

14 K.H. Sahal Mahfudz, ‘Islam dan Hak Reproduksi Perempuan: Perspektif Fiqih,’ Menakar HargaPerempuan Eksplorasi Lanjut atas Hak-Hak Reproduksi Perempuan dalam Islam, Syafiq Hasyim (ed),Penerbit Mizan, Jakarta, 2002, pp. 113 – 118.15 Al Qu’ran, Sura Al-Nisa verse 19, and Sura Luqman verse 14.

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feminist movement, is Abidah’s attack on patriarchal subjugation. Nisa, her co-wife

Kalsum, her relative Lek Ummi, and even her mother, reflect many Muslim women who

are taught that anytime a husband wants sexual intercourse with his wife, even if she is

not ready, or willing, his wife should never refuse. The practice has long been

uncritically accepted due to an interpretation of a Qur’anic verse, which states that a

husband has “the right” to beat his wife if she is found to be nusyuz (disobedient).16

Nusyuz has long been subject to debate in Islamic communities. Conservative

interpretations believe that this verse endorses a husband to be the sole controller and

owner of his wife, including the right to “punish” her in case of nusyuz. Modern and

gender-equal interpretations of this term demand contextual readings of this verse. If it

is not to be abolished, just like the abolition of slavery, nusyuz is only applicable under

special conditions. Hussein Muhammad reasons that most violence against women in

Muslim societies is basically an extension of this verse.17 It, therefore, is against the

Islamic ideals of protecting five basic human rights in the perspective of modern

interpretations of Islam: rights to have religion, to live, to think, to reproduction and to

possession of property.18 Hussein Muhammad argues further that theological dogma,

which says that man’s authority over woman is natural, needs to be reformed and

reconstructed in order to be more gender equal, which is indeed the basic of Islamic

ideals. Marriage is a contract based on equality and justice, and relations between

husband and wife are not to be based on hierarchical power-relations.

The fact that Abidah addresses gender-based violence in her novel is indeed crucial,

because many studies conducted by NGOs on women’s issues have shown that

reporting of gender-based violence, especially domestic violence has increased due to

the rise in awareness of such issues. Rifka Annisa, an NGO specialising in women’s

issues in Yogyakarta, recently published its research on domestic violence in Central

Java. Its findings are noteworthy, because they show that domestic violence, either

physical, sexual or emotional, which was previously perceived to be non-existent was

16 Sura An-Nisa verse 4.17 Hussein Muhammad, ‘Refleksi Teologis tentang Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan’, Menakar HargaPerempuan, p. 203 – 212. Nusyuz is controversial in its nature. Interpretations of this term vary betweenulama. Generally it is understood that “to beat” his wife, a husband must not harm her physically, and it isbest not to use “the right.”18 K.H. Sahal Mahfudz, p. 114.

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suffered by many women in the research area.19 Violence from a partner was the most

common form of domestic violence:

Women are at the greatest risk of violence from their husbands; one in everyfour women in our sample had been sexually or physically abused by a partner.Sexual violence was more common than physical violence, with one in fivewomen reporting sexual violence (i.e., being forced to have sex against their willensuing physical force or threats), whereas one in ten women experiencedphysical violence from a husband at some point in their lives.20

On the 14th September 2004, the Indonesian government enacted Undang-Undang No.

23 tahun 2004 called as Undang-Undang Penghapusan Kekerasan Dalam Rumah

Tangga (PKDRT—Abolition of Domestic Violence Act). This act aims to give legal

protection for women from violence occurring within domestic walls. However, the act

does not automatically guarantee a more women-friendly environment. The Javanese

idea of harmony might hamper the implementation of this act. Many women victims of

partner violence are still reluctant to report their suffering, because Javanese ethics,

reinforced by traditional Islamic interpretation of women’s duties, emphasise harmony

within the family at all cost. Women are burdened with their duty to be loyal to their

husbands even though their wellbeing is at stake, and many women choose silence over

reporting violence to the police for the sake of a harmonious household.21 Indonesian

women, irrespective of ethnic, religious, cultural or social backgrounds, are all at risk of

being victimised by domestic violence, and some cultural and religious norms even

encourage a tolerant attitude to gender-based violence, as well as encouraging silence in

the face of abuse.

Abidah’s Perempuan Berkalung Sorban remarkably raises these issues in the context of

women and Islam, placing such issues at the heart of women’s everyday life. In a rather

blatant manner, Abidah writes about previously taboo issues, such as marital rape and

domestic violence. She brings them to public notice and, transparently, seeks to educate

her readers, hoping that they will come to understand that any violence is intolerable.

19 Hakimi Mohammad, Elli Nur Hayati, V. Utari Marlinawati, Anna Winkvist, Mary C. Elsberg, Silencefor the Sake of Harmony: Domestic Violence and Health in Central Java, CHN-RL GMU, Yogyakarta,Rifka Annisa Women’s Crisis Center Yogyakarta, Umeå University, Sweden, Women’s Health Exchange& Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, USA, 2001. The research sample was 13,094 womenat their reproduction age 15 – 49 years. The research area was Purworejo Distrct in Central Java.20 Ibid., p. 77.21 Ibid., p. 85.

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That any violence in the name of Islam is un-Islamic: this is the awareness that Abidah

hopes to create.

Geni Jora and The Global Woman

Abidah’s most recent publication, Geni Jora (Jora’s Fire, 2004),22 was the runner-up in

the 2003 novel writing competition held by the Jakarta Arts Council. Acclaimed by

many critics, this story reflects one girl’s global journey in the search and struggle for

justice. In this story, Abidah, who is now often labelled the “Nawal el Sadaawi of

Indonesia” portrays the journey of a girl named Jora (the short version of Kejora,

meaning the brightest star), the daughter of a famous kyai, moving between the

pesantren world in East Java to regions in the Middle East and northern parts of Africa.

As in her previous work, Perempuan Berkalung Sorban, in this novel Abidah also uses I

as the narrator, presenting her story in a frank manner so that the reader can easily grasp

its message. Abidah believes that literary writing should not merely revolve around the

oddity of the imaginary world; rather it should focus on its role to enlighten its readers

with a strong mission and vision.23 Departing from her former works, this novel is

written in diary form, creating an autobiographical power of truth and authenticity.

Here, the autobiographical mode of writing gives this novel a significant agenda of

recording female experience, bringing female existence to the heart of self-

representation and self-disclosure. In offering a fictional autobiographical diary, Abidah

raises Jora’s subjectivity, giving her a role as the bearer of collective social memory.

Memory is then Abidah’s’s closest ally in Jora’s self-narration. In the novel, Abidah

continuously moves between the past and the present, between 1993 Marrakech, 1982

East Java, 1992 Damascus, 1993 Amman and 1993 East Java. The time movement does

not develop in conventional linear manner: Abidah jumps easily between times,

between regions, between spacio-temporality. Jora is positioned as a speaker writing her

own self within the constituency of selfhood and story telling. As Sidonie Smith posits:

22 Abidah El Khalieqy, Geni Jora, Matahari, Yogyakarta, 2004.23 ‘Pengantar Penerbit,’ Geni Jora.

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[Autobiographic writing] becomes both the process and the product of assigningmeaning to a series of experiences, after they have taken place, by means ofemphasis, juxtaposition, commentary, omission. . . . an interpretation of life thatinvests the past and the “self” with coherence and meaning that may not havebeen evident before the act of writing itself. The very language she uses to nameherself is simultaneously empowering and vitiating since words cannot capturethe full sense of being and narratives explode in multiple directions of theirown.24

Jora’s writing signifies her self-interpretation within the constant movement of social

memory, revealing personal, social, cultural and intellectual histories. Her profound

concern is selfhood, for the process of self-reading and self-writing facilitates

relationships between historical contexts and individual circumstances, the socio-

cultural construction of gender and cultural ideologies of the collective memory

presented by the writer. With her autobiographic writing, she mixes fiction and fact,

past and present, and the personal and the public. Moreover, she gives stories that

construct her ideology of selfhood and self-definition, rendering woman’s story as the

story of speaking and empowerment: in opposition to male-defined culture, which

forms woman’s story as a story of silence, powerlessness and self-effacement. Jora’s

self writing becomes a strategic move, opening up a space where Jora, as a subject of

history writing her own story, at the same time positions herself as an agent of

discourse, and engages in a dialogue with herself as historical subject and discursive

agent. Modes of interaction between the personal and the political are thus created, and

metaphors give her narrative significance within the larger social and historical spheres

in which she lives.

Education and Travel

In Geni Jora, Abidah also moves beyond geographical constraints, she portrays Jora as

a global woman, a transnational body whose journey marks both her physical and

intellectual journey to freedom and justice. In the same manner as for Gita in Ratna’s

Lemah Tanjung, travel functions as an important formation of Muslim identity. In Jora’s

24 Sidonie Smith, A Poetics of Women’s Autobiography: Marginality and the Fictions of SelfRepresentation, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987, pp. 45 – 46.

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journey to Algeria, Jordan, Syria and Morocco she seeks knowledge, and continues her

education at the global level. In so doing, she is working toward a gender’s redefinition

of what constitutes a “global Muslim woman,” and challenges contemporary discourses

on gender and Islam.

Education is the key theme in this novel. The story of Jora revolves around her

educational experiences from the pesantren world in East Java to the Middle East and

North African regions. The theme of female education in this novel requires

consideration within the contexts of both modern and traditional educational

environments. In the pesantren world, Jora is taught a system of Islamic education that

has long existed in Indonesian Islam: a methodology that emphasizes the importance of

acquiring Qur’anic knowledge and upholding Islamic traditions. Nevertheless, the

pesantren that Jora attends for her early education has both Islamic and secular schools

of thought. The role of Jora as a global educated Muslim female indeed becomes a core

element in the text’s reflection of Islamic feminism in Indonesian Islam. In the character

of Jora Abidah shows a type of liberal progression as she moves away from the more

classical Muslim female stereotypes, such as in the characters of Nisa and Kalsum in

Perempuan Berkalung Sorban. Although Nisa does enjoy the privilege of having a

tertiary education, the traditional attitude towards female education still considered it

unwise to invest in female education, given that women were married young. The novel,

because it is written in an autobiographic manner, results in a new depth and complexity

in character development. Abidah takes an introspective look at the thought process of

the protagonist, Jora, closely examining her struggles and subsequent choices.

In Jora’s opinion her name sounds more like “juara,” meaning the champion. Since

early childhood, she had created herself as the smartest student who desires only

winning, not losing. Jora understands completely that only through education can she

draw her life story:

I opened hundreds of pages, thousands, millions, even billions of pages of theworld books, eternal books and speeches, lectures of teachers, uztads andlecturers. As a student, as a santriwati, I sat facing each of them. I listened andfocused my sight. I absorbed knowledge with my brain and my fuad [heart]. Ichewed it for the nutrition of my life.25

25 Abidah, Geni Jora, p. 32.

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For Jora, knowledge is her nutrition for life. Jora, as did Nisa, developed an ability to

ijtihad, and critically assessed lessons she was taught at school.

Abidah’s portrayal of the pesantren world provides a realistic investigation of the life

behind the pesantren walls. She demystifies the notion of sacredness that all santris or

santriwatis must be necessarily pious and chaste. The pesantren world in Abidah’s eyes

is parallel to any other world. It is at risk of moral corruption just like any other world.

Similar to any single-sex school, pesantren cannot radically escape from juvenile

delinquency, such as group misbehaviour, theft and even lesbianism. In her story

Abidah attacks the notion of pesantren piety with descriptions of peer-group pressures

common to the teenage world:

For almost four years, their [Detty’s gang] misbehaviours have not been handledby majelis taklim. . . . Dissimilar from Detty’s gang, Sonya’s gang is morebarbaric and defiant. Two of them were punished . . . because of lesbianism. Oneof them was punished because of stealing.26

In the story, lesbianism, previously denied as occurring in the pesantren world, is

brought into public view. Abidah’s, protagonist, Jora, calls the immoral conduct and

immoral influences within the pesantren a kanker (cancer), which is destructive to other

students coming to seek knowledge and religious piety. Abidah shows that the world of

the pesantren can be manipulated to function as a correctional facility and rehabilitation

centre for teenagers whose parents can no longer control their children’s misbehaviour,

which sometimes results in unwanted pregnancies and juvenile delinquency. This is

harsh criticism of such a religious institution, but Abidah develops it in her story as

something violating the ideals of Islamic education for the sake of financial benefits,

because parents of troublesome teenagers are willing to pay to transfer the responsibility

to educate their children into the hands of the pesantren. She clearly shows that the

pesantren is not an exclusive world immune from moral corruption: it cannot escape

from internal or external change.

Time is also an essential part of the story. In the social production of memory (and in

Geni Jora this is done through autobiographic writing), the past is negotiated

continuously, and memories are made and remade. Social memory is not just the

26 Ibid., p. 54.

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property of individuals, although their life stories contribute to it; rather it is a complex

cultural and historical phenomenon in which individuals are shaped. Childhood stories

often represent a mythic, autonomous, more poetic and sometimes utopian world. Jora’s

narration of her childhood life suggests a memory of many childhoods: it implies a

dysfunctional reality; an inclusion of historical incursions and conflicts, resentments and

struggles rather than a pre-adolescent idyll. She and her elder sister Lola (nickname for

Bianglala, meaning rainbow), were constantly reminded during their childhood that

girls and women were not to fight back against men: they had to relinquish their rights

when they conflicted with men’s rights. Her grandmother always told Jora that no

matter how smart she was, in reality man was still primary, and woman would always

be positioned under man.27

As a peranakan Arab (a descendant of Arab and indigenous Indonesians) Jora

remembers her childhood as living in a “harem”: she, Lola, and Prahara their brother,

were the children of a second wife; her stepmother—her father’s first wife, was

childless. Jora learns about Arabic queens, who were powerful and empowered, from

her stepmother’s bedtime stories. Living in a “harem” Jora and Lola are isolated from

other children of the neighbourhood, because only Prahara is allowed to play outside the

house walls. In the story Jora’s objection to polygamy becomes stronger because of how

unhappy her mother is, and how heavily burdened she is with domestic responsibilities.

The first wife, however, enjoys the privilege of a more public role. It is from witnessing

the injustice her mother has to suffer that the search for justice becomes Jora’s strongest

motivation in her life. Jora faced both discrimination and violence whilst growing up.

Both Jora and Lola were targets of their uncle’ attempted rape: a secret they kept to

themselves, for if their father found out he would certainly put the blame on them and

not on their uncle, his younger brother.

Jora realises that she will need to be man’s equal to enable her to attack male

domination, and this can only be achieved through education, personal power, mandiri

(independence) and, most importantly, by keeping a strong belief that men and women

were created equal: “the ideal that Islam taught Kafa’ah. Sama. Sederajat [equal].”28

27 Ibid., p. 62.28 Ibid., p. 144.

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Jora grows up aspiring to autonomy and freedom, and also with a strong faith. Her boy

friend Zakky, the son of a famous kyai says:

You are consistent with your belief. Your inspiration is free and you walk upona strong foothold, are not easily drifted away even by storm of pleasure. Evenbesides your lover, you look very independent. From you I listen to the holyverses [of the Qur’an] in a fresh way. Very different.29

In the process of becoming autonomous Jora tests not only her intellectual capacity, but

also her mental and physical ability. Her ability to speak English and Arabic paves the

way for her to be the executor of her own agency and gives her a strong hold on her

own subjectivity.

Faith and struggle are the core of Jora’s identity. Constantly she reminds the reader of

the words of the Prophet: “Inna hayaata aqiidatun wa jihaadun” (indeed your life is

aqidah [generally meaning Islamic creed] and jihad [here meaning struggle]). Jora

balances faith and world responsibilities. In a similar way to Titis’ characters, her strong

faith is manifested in religious submission. Her actions are based on religious

conviction, and her diary is full of verses quoted from the Qur’an. Her jihad is her

struggle to achieve equality and justice. The witty and smart Jora is a contemporary

heroine who dares to demystify the myth of female defeat, oppression, weakness,

ignorance and disempowerment.30 She is the antithesis to such derogatory myths:

No single stain remaining from the old and rusty myths. That women is garbagebin of defeat, oppression, weakness, ignorance and disempowerment. This is thesecond phase of living an enthusiastic life: living in a free world when rebellionhas achieved its peak. It produces no waste. And there is no eternal injustice. Italways gives birth to rebels with various types and models. And I thinkdestroying injustice is by placing a mirror in front of the protagonist. Give himthe exact shadow of his action. In this chaotic milieu, apology has no longerpower to revolt. . . . when desire to power is the only goal, what is expected ofan apology? Nothing. Just disillusion. Thus, if you are hit on your nose, hit themback with similar power.31

Jora is revolutionary. She seeks equality and believes in “an eye for an eye.” Apologies

mean nothing to her: they are just words. Action is the only way to fight any unjust

discriminative practice.

29 Ibid., p. 141.30 Ibid., p. 214.31 Ibid., p. 215.

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Abidah’s works can be regarded as serving a broad-minded and progressive gender-

jihad: a jihad that brings stable structures of ideal justice and equality. The fiercest

criticism of Abidah comes because of her supposed attack on cultural traditions—local

or national, and on traditional interpretations of Islamic principles. Abidah and other

female Muslim writers would agree that their writings challenge certain cultural and

religious norms, which are detrimental to female rights. Forced marriage, for example,

is largely believed to be a religiously endorsed practice. Abidah’s views come from her

close reading of Islamic sources, and from her ethical motivation as a Muslim. It is from

this that she authenticates her claim that female rights to education equal to male’s are

sanctioned by both the Qur’an and Hadith, and that both sources of Islamic principles

furthermore authorize education in securing the role of Muslims, female and male, to be

vicegerents on the earth. Faith facilitates the spiritual and moral development of

Muslims, and it continuously articulates that knowledge will expand their intellectual

capacity. But, faith alone will not accommodate the ideal role of vicegerency.

Exemplified by Aisyah, female Muslims have long consumed scholarship and

knowledge, and contributed to the economic, cultural and political progress of Muslim

communities. Female education is not an anomaly within Islamic tradition; it must,

therefore, be aspired to and highly prized, and shared equally between both sexes.

The notion of “seclusion” for women is strongly challenged by Abidah with her

presentation of female characters that consistently defies physical and spatial

restrictions through their attainment of university degrees and the pursuit of professional

careers. Abidah reinterprets the notion of female seclusion, in order to maintain female

chastity, in the light of contemporary situations. In her view, seclusion must not be a-

historical or a-political. Abidah uses characters such as Nisa and Jora to prove that

contemporary Muslim women can work outside their homes without losing their

chastity. They adhere to their faith, but at the same parallel their faith with present

sociological conditions. Abidah may indeed be a harsh critic of discriminative and

unjust practices in the name of Islam, yet her perspectives are justified in the Qur’an

and Hadith. Abidah’s feminist agenda, projected through her writing, is to promote

female rights, but also to balance the sociological and theological in order to give norms

perspectively flexibility to Islamic teachings. In this way Islam can face the challenges

presented by social change, while still reflecting the transcendental essence of Islamic

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ideals.

Helvy Tiana Rosa and Her War Stories

UNICEF figures show that the number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in

Indonesia is around 1.4 million, with the majority being women and children. This

substantial number was mostly driven by “conflict and violence across the archipelago

[that] harmed and traumatised and displaced children and women on a massive scale.”32

However, the massive scale of the problem does not automatically mean that in day-to-

day reality it receives much attention or urgent remedy. The problems are almost too

complex for many Indonesians to face. For this reason, the causes of the displacement

of IDPs are at risk of being undocumented within the nation’s historiography.

The most discussed violence against women is the May 1998 rapes of ethnic-Chinese

women. In this political turmoil, at least 138 rape cases occurred in Jakarta over a two-

day period (13th and 14th May).33 The disclosure of this tragedy by human rights

activists was a shock, because many people denied that such violence was possible in

Indonesia.34 The fact that problems in conflict areas receive such little attention may

result from the SARA policy of the Soeharto regime (see Chapter Seven), where the

slogan was used by the state apparatus to severely restrict public discussion about

problems of difference: racial, ethnic or religious. Further, as conflict in these areas has

occurred over a long period, public attention tends to diminish. Although immediately

after the collapse of Soeharto’s authority in 1998 conflict areas received much more

attention, as Indonesians always say: “jamur di musim hujan” (mushrooms in rainy

season). It only exists for a very short time. In the minds of the Indonesian public today,

32 UNICEF, Internet, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/indonesia.html, (5 May 2005). Conflictareas’ (daerah konflik) is the term referring to regions across Indonesia where numerous conflicts rangingfrom ethnic, religious and ideological occur. Regions such as Sampit, Poso, Ambon, Aceh, Papua are themost notable conflict areas.33 Ariel Heryanto, ‘Setengah Tiang’, Kompas Cyber Media, Minggu, 15 Mei 2005, Internet,http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0505/15/naper/1748927.htm, (15 May 2005).34 Melani Budianta, Ph.D., ‘Beyond Tears and Anger: Representations of Violence Against Women (AReflection)’, Kultur The Indonesian Journal for Muslim Cultures, Volume 2, Number 2, 2002, p. 56.

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such conflicts only take shape in generality: there is hardly any acknowledgement of the

writing of the experiences of people who suffered violence in these areas. Perhaps

people are sceptical, for, despite the many efforts to find solutions to the violence,

attainments are few. Or, perhaps, as Melani Budianta writes: “In the immediate

aftermath of the waves of violence in Indonesia in the last decade of the 20th century,

many poets, artists and writers felt they had been stunned to silence. No words or image

can give form to the shock, sorrow, anger, confusion, or disbelief at the scale of atrocity

that human beings can affect on one another.”35 Melani Budianta believes that it is the

massive scale of the violence which silences people and stops its portrayal. Nonetheless,

there are some writers who consistently tell, and therefore remind us, of such atrocities.

One of those who dares to break the silence is Helvy Tiana Rosa. Helvy is a prolific

short story writer and essayist whose works are laden with portrayals of violence against

women in conflict areas where “war is the ultimate result of conflict.”36

Helvy and her war stories may well function as representation for silenced aspirations

and local struggles. Through her war stories she raises several lines of questions central

to the construction of self-reflexivity: questions about the forms of status and power that

victimise women and erode their subjectivity, and how women perceive violence and

challenge that violence and their victimisation. These points are powerfully addressed in

Helvy’s stories. Helvy’s stories might be classified as fictional, but they capture how

women can challenge power and the violence perpetrated against them.

35 Melani Budianta, ‘Beyond Tears and Anger’, p. 47.36 Rosnani Sahardin, ‘Sudahkan Status Perempuan Itu Berubah?, Jurnal Perempuan, No. 24, p. 7. Theretwo special editions of Jurnal Perempuan focusing on women in conflict areas: Perempuan di WilayahKonflik (women in conflict areas), Jurnal Perempuan, No. 24, 2002, and Perempuan Dan PemulihanKonflik (women and conflict recovery), Jurnal Perempuan No. 33, 2004.40 Helvy Tiana Rosa, ‘Jaring-Jaring Merah,’ Lelaki Kabut dan Boneka (Dolls and the Man of Mist)Kumpulan Cerpen Pilihan Dwi-bahasa , Asy Syamil, Bandung, 2002. This short story collection waswritten in Indonesian and has been translated into English. Except for the title, the quotes taken from thiscollection are from its English translation.

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Armed Conflicts, State Violence and Women

Through her short story Jaring Jaring Merah40 (The Red Net), Helvy scrupulously

depicts the atrocities occurring in Aceh, the northern part of Sumatra, where the

inhabitants are predominantly Muslim. Aceh is perhaps the most well-known conflict

region in Indonesia. The area has a long history of social and political conflict. The

class conflict of 1945, for example, divided the Acehnese between those supporting the

uleebalang and those from other social-political groups, which the former believed had

altered the social structures of the Acehnese. This was followed by the 1950s rebellion

of the DI/TII—Darul Islam/Tentara Islam Indonesia, a separatist group that rebelled

against the government of Indonesia and attempted to establish a separate state

implementing only Islamic law. In 1966, like most parts of Indonesia, this region was

also swept by the G30S/PKI rebellion where civilian forces, backed by the army and

other military apparatuses, were in conflict with those accused of being communists. In

1976, Hasan Tiro announced the establishment of a new state, independent of Indonesia,

called Negara Aceh Merdeka, but popularly known by the name of its military

movement Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh Movement). Soeharto’s government

dealt repressively with the rebellion, which was stigmatised as a subversive crime

against the authority of Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia (NKRI—The Unitary

Nation of the Republic of Indonesia). The government applied DOM (Daerah Operasi

Militer, Military Operation Zone) in Aceh from the 1988 until 1998.42 Under DOM,

Aceh became a killing ground: oppressive military rule was established, and the armed

forces were the only authority recognized by the government. The implementation of

DOM was closed from public eyes, but soon after the fall of Soeharto’s regime the

public was made aware of the atrocities in Aceh during the DOM implementation. The

area is currently called Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD)—Aceh The State of Peace/

Islam), and the Islamic sharia is implemented as the provincial law.

Helvy’s Jaring-jaring Merah, acclaimed by the literary magazine Horison (horizon) as

one of the best stories in the past decade, is a written portraiture of brutality during the

DOM implementation in Aceh. The story centres on a girl, Inong, who suffers mental

42 Rosnani Sahardin, ‘Sudahkan Status Perempuan Itu Berubah?’, pp. 10 – 11.

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trauma after witnessing her whole family brutalised and murdered by the army. Inong’s

father, Zakaria, is accused of being a member of GAM. His defence, that he is simply a

muadzin (one who calls for prayer), is useless, and soldiers murder his wife and two

sons and rape Inong, before shooting him. His house and others are burnt to the ground,

and neighbours who attempt to help Zakaria and his family are either beaten to death or

silenced. The trauma Inong experiences leads to her mental illness, yet, she is still

capable of recognising her mental state:

A long time ago, after my family were slaughtered and I was violated by severalmen, I felt like I had succumbed into a deep muddy pit. I tried with all my mightto pull myself up a bit, reaching to the surface. But the pit had no boundaries. Icouldn’t lift myself up, nor even touch anything, except all things that werebitter. I ate and drank anguish each day until I met Cut Dini and became a bird.Then everything seemed lighter.43

Cut Dini is Inong’s caretaker and her friend, for everyone else in her neighbourhood

abandons her through fear of more abuse from the army if they help. Inong’s ability to

cope with the violence perpetrated against her is her self-identification as a bird. A bird

metaphorically signifies freedom, because with its wings it can fly free from any

imprisonment. Inong sees herself as caught in a jaring (net), which she can escape by

becoming a bird: imagining the freedom to fly and pretending mental illness are Inong’s

methods of coping with her trauma. Rape is perhaps one of the most common forms of

violence against women in war times. A woman’s body becomes the site of oppression

and the signifier of male possession and power. The politics of the body, represented in

the rape of Inong, dramatically exposes the intimate relationship between the female

personal body and the theme of body politics in many women’s writing. Through this

story Helvy writes the history of the subjected and violated body. Inong’s body

functions simultaneously as a personal and political, psychological and ideological

boundary of meaning, a contested border of self-possession and of transgression

through which her subjectivity is subdued, yet able to challenge her oppressors through

psychological pretension. The problematic of body-possession is central in this story.

Despite the violence and brutality that Inong experiences in relation to her body, she

finds ways to resist the kind of body pressed upon her through a politics of the body:

she becomes a bird, a body-less female. A bird has no social or sexual identification to

human society: it is not a culturally charged and classified body. By leaving her body

43 Helvy, ‘The Red Net’, p. 100.

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behind, becoming a bird, Inong manages to survive, because the “homelessness” of her

body becomes her resistance to violence. Inong’s body is marginalised through rape, yet

with her body-less self-identification she is able to engage in a process of critical self-

consciousness through which she comes to an awareness of the relationship between her

personal material body, and the cultural meanings assigned to her gendered body in

body politics.

Helvy’s story of the atrocities in Aceh during the DOM period is based on historical

truth. Through the voice of Cut Dini, the NGO activist who looks after Inong, Helvy

illustrates the state institutionalised violence, which is the primary cause of the brutality

that Inong and others like her have experienced. When, after the fall of Soeharto,

military officers ask Cut Dini to sign an agreement not to speak to strangers about the

brutality suffered by Inong, she refuses:

No! How about the rapes and tortures all this time, the slaughters at rumohgeudong, the scattered corpses at Buket Tangkurak, Jembatan Kuning, SungaiTamiang, Cot Panglima, Hutan Krueng Campli . . . . and other places!” Cut Diniraised her voice. “And the village of three thousand widows, the neglectedorphans . . . that heartless! No!”44

Cut Dini’s refusal to be silenced about the cruelty of government and military

oppression signifies women’s struggle to recapture their stories, and become agents

provocateurs infiltrating their voices inside the nation’s documented history. Their

stories of violence and violation and the extreme state violence against its citizens, will

be heard. There were mass murders of men accused of being supporters of GAM, as a

consequence thousands of women and children were left with no means of support.

They were simply abandoned by the state. Many of these victims took refugee in the

supposedly more secure refugee camps, yet here these IDPs faced another type of

victimisation, as many camps are usually in poor conditions and lack food, clean water,

health care, sanitary facilities and other social services.45

Similar stories take place in other conflict areas such as in Poso, Ambon, and Sambas.

Armed conflicts and wars result only in sorrow and victimisation. Tabrani Yunus argues

44 Helvy, ‘The Red Net’, p. 102.45 Julius Lawalata, ‘Fakta Tak Terlihat Posisi Perempuan Dalam Konflik Sosial Maluku,’ JurnalPerempuan No. 33, 2004, pp. 10 – 13. His study shows that around 75% of the victims in Moluccanconflicts are women, and this is similar in other conflict areas.

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that indeed it is the “patriarchal civilisation” that causes such conflicts, because

conflicts are usually preceded by ideological or political disputes. Generally, only men

are involved in the decision making of war, yet the most victimised are women and

children, particularly those at the grass roots level with no ideological or political

interests.46 Julius Lawalata adds further that differences in religion, educational level,

social status, culture and language do not contribute significantly to the effects of armed

conflicts on women. Any armed conflict or any war will bring about similar violence to

women: economic violence, health violence, and social violence. Economic violence is

when their husband’s death leaves women as single mothers with a double burden to

support their family, because the state fails to provide enough economic support; health

violence occurs with the poor conditions in the refugee camps; social violence is where

women are at risk of sexual harassment in the refugee camps through a lack of

privacy.47 Another kind of violence elucidated by Lawalatta is where the state fails to

provide security and stability, either socially or politically. Another interesting point

raised by Lawalatta is the number of abandoned pregnant women in the conflict areas.

Military men, who are stationed to help secure the areas, are often involved in

relationships with local women, and when their tour of duty is over, many of them

abandon these pregnant women.48

Exile versus Home

Poso in the island of Sulawesi, and Ambon in the Moluccas, are regions in Indonesia,

though with different historical conditions, experiencing similar, so-called, religious

conflict between Muslims and Christians. Labelling such conflict as religious conflicts

is rather inappropriate, as difference in terms of religion does not automatically create

conflict. In a multi-ethnic society such as Indonesia, differences of ethnicity and other

ethnic identifiers, such as religion, have never been the source of conflict. Bertrand, in

46 Tabrani Yunus, ‘Petaka Bagi Perempuan: Pemahaman Baru Konflik Politik Bersenjata di Aceh’,quoted in Julius Lawalata, p. 13.47Julius Lawalata, pp. 11 – 12.48 Ibid., p.13.

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Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia (2004), writes a remarkable analysis

about the emergence of conflicts in Indonesia. He concludes:

A complex mix of factors such as institutional incentives and threats, eliteinterests, and state policies shape the politicization and mobilization of ethnicidentities. Although groups identify themselves in ethnic terms and differentiatethemselves from other groups along a variety of ethnic identifiers, such aslanguage, religion, or race, these differences are not a source of conflict. Rather,grievances arising from different statuses for groups, discrimination, exclusion,or differentiated access to political representation or economic resources aremuch more plausible factors in violent outcomes.49

From Bertrand’s conclusion, it is obvious that discrimination and unequal economic

distribution give rise to conflicts, which later develop and masquerade in religious

difference. In looking specifically at the conflict in the Moluccas, Bertrand also

concludes that different religions are never sources of conflicts in that area, rather

factors related to institutional change are the initiators for creating religious conflicts.

He argues:

The ambiguity of the role of Islam in the Indonesian nation and patrimonialrelations sustaining the New Order regime reinforce divisions betweenChristians and Muslims in Ambon and Maluku. The regime’s policies andmanipulative use of religion for political support had negative consequences,particularly since Dutch colonial policies had created a divide among thereligious community.50

Bertrand further adds that the rapid transition to more democratic conditions also likely

stirs up the violence. Democracy brings a whole new notion to the conception of the

nation, and there is growing uncertainty on the part of individuals and groups about

positioning within new national structures.51 Violence in Indonesia—be it ethnic or

religious—cannot be categorized under one label. Bertrand shows that difference is not

the problem. The problem is obviously injustice, marginalisation and inequality in

distribution: be it distribution of welfare, or political representation at the nation level.

Such imbalance is made worst when the ruling elite manipulates political representation

for its own benefit, and it results only in heightened tensions easily sparked into conflict

and violence.

49 Jacques Bertrand, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, 2004, p. 214.50 Jacques, Bertrand, ‘Legacies of the Authoritarian Past: Religious Violence in Indonesia’s MoluccanIslands’, Pacific Affairs, Spring 2002, 75, 1, p. 62.51 Ibid., p. 85.

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Because this section focuses on Helvy’s stories, the affects of violence are portrayed

from a Muslim perspective. However, adherents of both religions are indeed victims

when religious conflict as such takes place. Violence victimises everybody, and

regardless of its actors—perpetrator or victim, violence is a problem for all; it affects

everybody, even when one is not directly involved.

In Helvy’s story Sebab Aku Angin Sebab Aku Cinta (Because I am Wind Because I am

Love), the setting is Ambon and the narrator is the wind, retelling a story about a girl’s

struggle to keep her religious identity, despite the injustices and brutality that are forced

upon her. In this story, the narrator is the wind, presumably Helvy’s voice articulating

her personal views on the acts of inhumanity that war never ceases to produce. The

narrative centres on Nona—often called Cinta (love) by the narrator. Nona is a typical

Ambonese title for a young girl. Darahitam, another of Helvy’s short stories also

captures the story of an unnamed girl of Kalimantan. In both stories, the anonymity of

the protagonist aims to show the generality of the experience: any girl, of any social

categorisation, might become another Nona of Ambon, or another nameless Dayak girl

of Kalimantan. Nona and the nameless Dayak girl are representations of the many

nameless girls and women across the archipelago who are victimised by forces external

to them, who are violated because of their gender, and who have to struggle to maintain

their identity. In Sebab Aku Angin Sebab Aku Cinta, the narrator recalls the occasion

when Muslims were massacred during their Eid El Fitri prayers. The most celebrated

day in the Muslim calendar was turned into a tragedy, as Nona and many other Muslims

witnessed their families, neighbours and others killed: Nona sees her father beheaded in

front of her; her mother stoned to death; and her baby brother thrown into a burning

building. Since that massacre many Muslims have been driven away from the city of

Ambon: thousands became IDPs. This story is Helvy’s fictional representation of the

true incident that took place on the 19th January 1999, when the so-called religious

conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims began to spark. What triggered the conflict

remains unclear, although many believe that what began as a criminal issue escalated

into religious incidents and conflict and resulted in extreme social cost.52

52 Julius Lawalata, Fakta Tak Terlihat, Jurnal Perempuan, p.10.

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IDPs are a major phenomenon of war, as is exile, and thus many stories about war

reflect this phenomenon. The symbolic representation of woman as

mother/earth/country/homeland appropriates woman as signifier of communal identity.

The relationship between place and identity is strongly embodied in the gendered nature

of such allegory, which posits woman as bound by communal identity. Exile is forced

upon the majority of women and children in conflict areas, and because they have to

leave their land—their community - it is no longer available as a signifier of identity.

For many women, losing their land—losing their identity—also means the collapse of

female agency. In the story of Nona female identity revolves primarily around land and

religion: resistance to exile functions as a complex strategy to reinforce identity. When

Nona, in order to secure her safety is faced with exile—leaving her motherland - and the

removing of her jilbab, the relinquishing of religious identity, she is defiant. Rather, she

chooses to confront her assailants: to define her own agency, her own jihad: “I will

never leave. . . . All I have now is Allah and this land. I have to defend the truth.”53

With her love of the land, her vow to remain in her homeland, and her faith, she creates

a story of struggle in defence of her right to freedom.

Regardless of their religion, ethnicity or ideological creed, there are those who do not

take sides in conflict, yet are victimised because of their refusal to choose a side. In the

battle between the oppressor and the oppressed, the ultimate victims are the innocent.

Helvy’s story Darahitam embodies the victimisation of the innocent. Any conflict has a

cost, but the innocent pay the major cost. Without taking sides, through this story Helvy

suggests that in war all sides lose. This is the message Helvy wants the reader to grasp:

everyone is a victim and only violence survives. Darahitam captures the experience of a

nameless Dayak girl whose father is murdered by a Madurese, a migrant in the Dayak

homeland. She is the only survivor of the family. The story took place in Sambas, in the

heart of Kalimantan, where ethnic conflict between the indigenous Malay Sambas

(often called Dayaks) and the migrant Madurese, who are mostly Muslim, reached its

peak between 1999-2000, and resulted in the displacement of the Madurese from the

region. The nameless girl hates the Madurese for murdering her family, yet when her

neighbour, a drunk, indigenous Malay named Nerang attempts to rape her, it is her

Madurese neighbour, Alawy, who saves her. Alawy, a Muslim, operates an orphanage

53 Helvy, ‘Because I am Wind Because I am Love’, Lelaki Kabut dan Boneka, pp. 142 – 143.

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for children, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. Someone from the ethnic group she

despises saves her. The nameless girl witnesses the beheading of Alawy by Nerang, 54

and hears his last confession about how conflict generates more complicated problems:

It’s true that I’m of Madurese descent, but I was born in Palangkaraya. I’venever been to Madura . . . My parents have lived there for many years. Oh yes,my name is Alawy. What’s yours?55

Alawy brings into the story the complicated definition of “home.” Ethnically Alawy is a

Madurese, but his home is Sambas. Alawy’s case shows the ambivalence of migrant

identity. What is “home”? Is it defined in terms of genealogy, race, ethnicity, culture or

geographic location? Through the figure of Alawy Helvy presents the sense of the

problematic of migrant identity.

In a multi-ethnic society, ethnicity occupies a crucial place in the formation of one’s

identity. In Indonesia, for example, the emphasis is more on one’s ethnic identity,

rather than one’s sense of being an Indonesian. Living inside Indonesian territorial

borders one is not much challenged in terms of one’s national identity: a sense of being

an Indonesian is usually taken for granted. Reading Anderson’s Imagined Communities

in a simplistic way:56 since it is imagined, a sense of being an Indonesian seems to exist

beyond everyday reality. Nationalism is only strongly felt when an Indonesian is living

overseas and his/her nationalism is confronted. As for Alawy in the story, for most

Indonesians, especially those living outside multi-ethnic cities like Jakarta, ethnic

background is important. To the question, ‘Anda orang mana?’ (where are you from?),

the common answer would be, ‘saya orang Madura,’ (I’m a Madurese or I am from

Madura) and not, ‘I am Indonesian.’ However, Alawy’s grounding of identity is not

formed by his ethnicity per se, but his “earth” or his place also contributes a notion of

identity that resists being subsumed under merely ethnic labelling. Alawy could be an

example of migrant identity that is often inevitably hybrid. Hence, Helvy introduces the

hybridity of cultural practices between the Madurese and the Dayaks. Aware that

migrant identity walks an uneasy line between adopted and genealogical practices, she

is concerned with articulating that in-between-ness, rather than attempting to

54 Beheading or mangayau is a common way for the Dayaks to kill someone.55 Helvy, Darahitam, p. 120.56 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism,Rev. and extended ed., Verso, London, New York, 1991.

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dogmatically assert any sense of ethnic purity. It is always uneasy to try to establish

identity solely through ethnicity, especially in Indonesia where almost everyone comes

from the cross of ethnicity, religion, culture, class and status.

Ethnic difference and religious difference indeed are not the major source of conflict,

the most primary cause is likely the failure to understand and tolerate difference. The

nameless girl of Helvy’s story understands this: although she is horrified at the death of

her family by the Madurese, she is equally horrified by Always’s death at the hands of

Nerang. After witnessing Alawy’s tragic and violent death and knowing his devotion to

love and non-violence, the girl takes him as her role model. At the end of the story she

decides to take a new road, “the road that was once laid down by the man [Alawy] in his

indifference. The road of most love, the road that doesn’t discriminate anyone’s

blood.”57 Alawy, despite his genuine nature and religious piety: his amr ma’ruf nahy

munkar (enjoining good and forbidding evil acts) is not exempted from the violence of

war. His innocence does not allow him to escape from death, but the girl realises that

violence must not be returned with violence, that revenge hatred will not stop the cycle

of violence and victimisation. The story ends without clearly giving us a solution to the

problem: the conflict between the Dayaks and the Madurese is never resolved. The war

brings only death, despair, anger, revenge, hatred, and sorrow, and this reflects the

reality of the conflict. All the Madurese were driven out of Sambas and were no longer

welcomed by the Dayaks. In recent years the conflict in Sambas has been suppressed,

but the problems caused by relocation are yet to be resolved.58 Nevertheless, through

her character, Helvy celebrates an alternative way to reconstruct a plural community

based on justice and equality: a road with no discrimination. The girl continues Alawy’s

heritage, looking for alternative means to violent action, and becoming involved in

causes to help the oppressed and the dispossessed, such as the children that Alawy

housed in his orphanage. Her awareness and sensitivity that war results only in

victimisation lead her to become socially committed to peace and active for change in

her personal life. Helvy’s Dayak girl is a representation for a culture of non-violence.

57 Ibid, p. 121. The Dayaks believe that they can identify the Madurese and any other ethnic group fromthe smell of their blood. This is difficult to understand if one is not of Dayak origin.58 Mita Noveria and Haning Romdiati, ‘Kehidupan Pada Masa Pemulihan: Kasus Perempuan KorbanKerusuhan Sambas di Kabupaten Pontianak’, Jurnal Perempuan, No. 33, p. 39.

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With this story Helvy challenges any attempt to categorize conflicts such as that

between the Dayaks and Madurese as solely caused by ethnic-religious factors. In effect

she challenges a simple homogenisation of cause. In any group—ethnic, religious, class,

or any other, conflicts are likely coloured by personal interests, which are undeniably

central yet very subtle. Ethnic, religious or ideological differences are then used to

envelop and mask these vested personal interests. Ethnic, religious and ideological

values are, to a certain degree, dissimilar, yet personal and communal relations between

members of different groups are not always shaped by such differences. Labelling a

person simply from her/his ethnicity or religion is dangerous and problematic, because

classification is often used to discriminate. This is illustrated in the case of the Dayak

versus the Madurese in Helvy’s story. Alawy, for example, is of Madurese descent, yet

culturally he is Dayak and religiously he is Muslim, not helu (the earliest religion of the

Dayak Ngaju).59 Alawy’s dying “confession” brings into focus the problematic of

identity. Identity is not monolithic, nor a univocal system determined only through

structures within that system. It is often fragmented and thus opens possibilities for a

multi-vocal construction of personal and communal identity.

Alawy is an example of the innocent, like the millions of IDPs who are forced from

their homelands into exile. Where violence rules their innocence is simply sacrificed.

For Alawy, and for IDPs, self and place are intertwined in shaping one’s identity and

exile is a terrible fate. The nameless Dayak girl and Inong represent the many women in

conflict areas who are dominated, violated, abused, beaten, raped, and who commit

suicide or are killed by men who are themselves manipulated by power. It is a vicious

circle in which women are the ultimate victims.

War in the Global World

Physical spaces, geographic locations, homelands, are key indicators of the divergent

articulations of cinta tanah air (literally meaning loving the homeland—patriotism) that

women writers are producing. Patriotism is not exclusively male. The character Nona,

59 Ibid., p. 117 and p. 121.

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for example, transgresses this territory commonly associated with men and transforms it

into hers. As Nona parallels her jihad to those of other Muslims across the world in

Bosnia, Palestine, Kashmir, Kosovo, Myanmar, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Algeria and

other regions where Muslims are targets of ethnic/religious conflicts, her story moves

beyond regional boundaries, 60 and Helvy undeniably moves her national agendas to

global ones. Helvy’s stories, Maut di Kamp Loka (Death in Loka Camp), Bait-bait Aku,

Ayah dan Dudayev (The Stanzas of Mine, Father and Dudayev), Je Ne Te Quite Jamais,

Palestine61 (I Will Never Leave You, Palestine) all have similar themes of the brutality

and injustices that Muslims have to suffer. In these stories, Helvy attempts to address

the notion of patriotism through her female protagonists. Through the jihad of her

female characters the author posits the struggle for national identity within the

boundaries of female narratives. In Maut di Kamp Loka the character Lizetta, a Bosnian

Muslim, struggles against the Serbians who are about to kill all the Bosnians in the

Loka Camp. Before her death (she is run over by a military tank) Lizetta helps her

fellow female Muslims in the camp to revolt against their Serbian oppressors. Her

martyrdom is justified through religion and patriotism, as she believes that to die in

defence of her religion and national identity is part of a Muslim’s responsibility. Lizetta

says that to fight in the path of God and to die for it satisfies Muslims’ yearning to meet

their Creator. She is not afraid of death for she sees it as a way to reach God.62

The character Zahwa in Je Ne Te Quite Jamais, Palestine is similar to Lizetta. Zahwa

comes from a rich family and follows her parents to live in Paris when Israel invades

Palestine. After ten years of exile in Paris her longing to see her homeland takes her

back to visit Palestine. In Gaza, she meets Sarah, the mother of three children, whose

husband was killed by Israeli soldiers. Sarah is suspected of having Hammas

connections and is shot dead in front of Zahwa and the children. Zahwa, however, is not

harmed, because the Israelis know that she is the daughter of Kareem Abror, a

Palestinian political elite. As with all Helvy’s female characters, Zahwa too becomes a

witness to atrocities and because of this decides to leave her luxurious life in Paris,

despite her father’s disapproval, to join Hammas. Zahwa is a political science student

60 Ibid., p. 142.61 All these stories are collected in Ketika Mas Gagah Pergi, Asy Syaamil, Bandung, 2000.62 Hevy, Maut di Kamp Loka, p. 52.

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and she feels that Hammas is the only way she can manifest her patriotism. Zahwa

understands Hammas’s use of intifadah to destroy the oppression of the Israeli invasion.

Zahwa trades her luxurious life for patriotism, risking her life to join those, who in her

conviction, were those refusing to sell their land for anything.63 The story of Vakha

Bolshov in Bait-bait Aku, Ayah dan Dudayev is also a story of resistance to oppression.

This story depicts the struggles of Chechnya against Russian aggression. Vakha follows

her father’s military calling and becomes a female commander famous for her bravery

and courageous patriotism. At the end of the story she loses the people she loves and

admires most, her father and General Dudayev. Vakha models herself after Dudayev: on

his strong belief that in faith alone rest the strongest power, and that the future belongs

to only those who have strong faith.64

In those stories Helvy portrays her woman protagonists as victims of war, however, they

are not simply silenced victims. They are able to show their resistance, even if it means

they need to give up pleasure, or their life. Their jihad is substantiated by their belief

that going to war, especially when it is done for the “right” cause is dignified. For them

war must be exercised when all other means fail. They make sense of war by enforcing

another war in which they are participants. Through this means they reach autonomy.

However, it is interesting to see that their participation in war takes place after they

witness violence or have violence forced upon them. In her war stories Helvy shows

that indeed women, like men, are capable of inflicting violence. She demystifies the

notion of female physical weakness and submissiveness. Female engagement in war

also signifies female insertion into the narratives of patriotism and nationalism.

However, although women may attain autonomy and freedom through war, such

freedom and autonomy are not built upon solid ground. Violence begets more violence,

pain brings more pain, authority is challenged by yet more authority, and power with

more power. Seeking liberation through war means that liberation is achieved only

through death, not through life, and the result is yet more death. When war is used to

destroy aggression the ultimate result is victimisation and destruction. In most of

Helvy’s stories she champions war as a liberating agent for female characters on the one

hand, but on the other hand, her stories show the dreadful face of war and conflict.

63 Helvy, Je Ne Te Quite Jamais, Palestine, p. 121.64 Helvy, Bait-bait Aku, Ayah dan Dudayev, p. 96.

290

Helvy constantly warns the reader that war and violence can be exploited in the name of

religion and ethnic supremacy, and that warfare and violent acts are often authoritative,

legitimised means for actions of vengeance.

Helvy’s stories reveal that for Muslims jihad is a contested term: it is multi-faceted and

can be located in very diverse and complex backgrounds. Esposito argues that the multi-

definition of jihad situates the term at the centre of Muslim’s identity. The following

quote from Esposito captures the broad notions of jihad ranging from non-violent to

violent acts:

Jihad as struggle pertains to the difficulty and complexity of living a good life:struggling against the evil in oneself in order to be virtuous and moral, making aserious effort to do good works and to help reform society. Depending on thecircumstances in which one lives, it can also mean fighting injustice andoppression, spreading and defending Islam, and creating a just society throughpreaching, teaching and, if necessary, armed struggle or holy war. The twomeanings of jihad, non-violent and violent, are contrasted in a well-knownprophetic tradition. . . . The greater jihad is the more difficult and moreimportant struggle against one’s ego, selfishness, greed, and evil.65

Helvy’s characters engage both in non-violent and violent jihad. The nameless girl in

Darahitam achieves her triumph through understanding and kindness, whereas women

like Vakha of Chechnya and Zahwa of Palestine choose to take a violent path by joining

armed struggles. Different reasons and social contexts provide the multi meanings of

jihad and the ways Muslim make sense of it. Nonetheless, within any circumstance,

jihad as violent struggle brings only destruction and victimisation to everybody

involved. Ironically this is the very reason jihad comes into existence, as a counter

struggle to destruction and victimisation. Jihad is meant to preserve life, not to bring it

to destruction.

Helvy’s portrayal of war and conflict serves as a reminder of the pain that war causes.

Through her stories all of us are challenged to move beyond stereotypes and differences

in terms of ethnicity, religion, and historical grievances, to recognize our shared values

and interests and to build a common future, which is just and more humane. Also

through her stories she makes us aware of what is happening, and what indeed can

65 John L. Esposito, Unholy War Terror in the Name of Islam, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002,pp. 27 – 28.

291

happen in a multi-ethnic society such as Indonesia. She is perhaps the first Indonesian

female author who has created narratives that look closely at violence: what it is meant

by violence, how it affects people, and the factors that bring it about. Like the other

three authors, Helvy portrays clearly the imperfect conditions under which her fellow

“brothers” and “sisters” reside, regardless of their differences in terms of religion,

nation or ethnicity. Through her stories she illustrates the devastating consequences of

conflict, and at the same time presents us with her solutions to reduce such conflict.

Various Women, Various Lives, Various Identities

Through their female characters all four writers promote an agenda of female agency

and autonomy. Through their heroines the authors disseminate their ideas on female

identity, and use their narrative strategies as a means of suggesting new ways of

thinking about women’s own selves. The stories have an allegorical quality: they

exemplify women of multiple faces showing a complexity of female experiences. A

woman is subjugated yet achieves power; one is in a peripheral position yet is able to

centre herself, and another gains autonomy through hardship. They are stories of

complex forms of resistance to women’s subjugation and exclusion, which offer ways

for women to claim themselves as subjects through negotiation and re-negotiation their

positions.

Despite the criticism that the works of the four selected authors are merely didactic and

lack literary merit, their works are significant as they present a variety of ways women

can make meaning of their lives. For example, although the works of Abidah and Helvy

are said to have a strong didactic element, their didacticism is a valuable element in

disseminating messages and ideas. Abidah and Helvy make powerful points in

presenting circumstances where injustice takes place. The reader gains a clear picture of

what is just as opposed to unjust, and what is equal as opposed to unequal. Even though

their pictures are fictional, the characters the authors create in their narratives represent

women within various cultural, social and political constellations. These characters raise

questions, often providing answers, about situations in which real women in real life

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might find themselves. The authors’ accommodation of various female representations

in their works is an affirmation of women’s search for identity and position. They

deserve their position within the canon of Indonesian literary tradition.

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Conclusion

The various strands of contemporary feminism call for more nuanced readings of the

political, ideological construction of women’s roles within which feminist theory,

practice and reading are situated. Muslim women are undeniably responsive to such

calls and suggest various ways of engaging with their own social, cultural and political

conditions. Through various discourses of their own they demonstrate their subject

position and call for the “woman question” to be centred at the public level. In so doing

they show that they are no longer “objects” in identity construction.

The works of Titis Basino, Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim, Abidah El Khalieqy and Helvy

Tiana Rosa offer narratives of feminist discursive practices, which provide new and

fresh engagements of women with both Islam and modernity. Within their feminist

reading the writers understand that gender roles are negotiable rather than inherent. In

representing women in a variety of discourses they draw multi-faceted women

struggling against repression and domination, and resisting their status as “powerless.”

The authors tackle various issues across a wide spectrum in their works: ranging from

women’s place in the domestic sphere to women’s place in the public domain. What is

central in their writing is their refusal to define women other than from the perspective

of women themselves. Giving women voice to women allows them to place themselves

at the centre of their identity construction.

Helvy Tiana Rosa, for example, uses a discourse of women and war to represent the

struggles of women. In her narratives women are victims because are subjected to

violence, yet at the same time women can be perpetrators of violence, especially against

men. Women can be actors, perpetrators or victims in these home front narratives.

Helvy challenges the notion of women’s physical weakness. In so doing, the characters

she creates are a mixture of feminine and masculine qualities. The erosion of a clear-cut

division between the feminine and the masculine is a sharp challenge to gender

construction and roles: she shows roles can be negotiated. Through her characters, she

authorises the “other,” and creates ukhuwah Islamiyah, sisterhood under the banner of

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Islam. Helvy is often accused of presenting through her narratives an “us versus them”

attitude: Muslims against non-Muslims. Nevertheless, if read closely, her stories

construct women deprived by warfare, yet from this they learn understanding, how to

negotiate, and find ways to move peacefully through their lives. When Helvy’s

characters use jihad to protect their bodies and land the term takes on new meaning.

What happens to women in war and conflict? The answer to that question is provided by

Helvy’s war stories: she gives women a place in history.

Abidah El Khalieqy is indeed a promoter of women’s rights in the heart of Islamic

discourses. Her narratives capture the ways women conceptualise their bodies and their

sexual and reproductive functions, which are intricately linked to their social, cultural

and political environments. She uses the language of the female body to represent

women’s own culture. Abidah’s female characters place education, social reform and

reproduction rights at the centre of women’s self-construction.

Ratna Indraswati Ibrahim’s discourse is different. Her narratives concentrate on the

victimisation of women because of their sexual identity. In her narratives women

function as objects inherited from a society that says women matter less than men: a

society that thinks women barely belong to the culture that marginalizes and silences

them through domesticity. Ratna raises critical issues about the subjugation and

domination of women, and captures the imbalance in social relations. Yet Ratna’s

women are not all submissive: those denied their rights respond to the injustice they

experience. Through her narratives Ratna acknowledges the struggles of women,

especially those in under-privileged conditions.

In establishing a women’s culture, Titis Basino presents narratives that view women

from the perspective of an Islamic mystical terrain, namely Sufism. Titis’ works largely

emphasise the spiritual dimension of her female characters, representing the inner or

esoteric sphere of Islam. Her characters are mostly housewives, whose first and

foremost struggle involves choosing at each critical moment in their lives to remember

and surrender actively to God. Her use of Sufism attacks the general perception of

Sufism which is considered to be orthodox. In Titis’ world, the spiritual realm of Islam

is everywhere, and is not limited by time and space. Titis believes that without

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spirituality an adherent of a religion will simply lose her/his core identity. Titis’ other

strong narrative issue is the practice of polygamy; she approaches the issue from various

stands. She looks at the influence of historical conditions, and her narratives show that

the voices of women involved in the practice must certainly be heard, and understood in

terms of complex cultural and social relations.

Where Islam is the core entity around which identity revolves, it must be understood by

Muslims that Islam teaches justice and equality, but also understood that Islam is also

subject to interpretation, which is contextualized across time and space, and across

cultures and regions. The construction of Muslim women’s identity is also subject to

different contexts of time, space, cultures and regions. Through their fiction Titis,

Ratna, Abidah and Helvy present the multi-faceted identities of Muslim women: they

depict different experiences in response to different settings. Nevertheless, all the

women aim for the creation of more just and equitable conditions for human beings of

all sexual and social categorisations.

In breaking silence and giving voice to women, the four authors have indeed created

“feminist novels”. They take ethical and moral positions and are didactic in the project

of cultural transformation, of establishing new values, which underline justice and

equality. They are revisionist mythmakers who refuse to keep silent. They replace

heroes with heroines, and revise the stories of grand heroic figures with stories of

ordinary women. The authors celebrate female survival that may be found in the

different ways in which women have responded to their historical situations.

The discourses of Titis, Ratna, Helvy and Abidah remind their readers of a uniting value

of various identity constructions for Muslim women. Their female heroes effect and

inspire readers that Islam opens its door widely for its adherents to speak their voices in

response to the authoritative discourse restricting and denying Muslims their rights.

Their readers’ responses show that these writers raise issues of women’s rights and pose

challenges to the prevailing women’s identity which is often believed to be very

restricted. They give readers new eyes in looking at the problems of gender conveyed in

their writings. Their female readers may find inspiration from the characters presented

while male readers may be made aware of how male-dominated culture impacts on

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gender constructions. Their authors’ messages may well be received thus readers can

soon put into action their jihad for equality and justice.

This is only a partial study of a much broader feminist project. Joining their sisters in

the rest of the Muslim world, women presented in this study, Indonesian and non-

Indonesian, are struggling to improve women’s condition and grant women better life in

quantity and quality. Certainly, other studies are deemed beneficial to fill the gaps, to

complete what is lacking and to continue what is left off. Further researches of Muslim

women; their identities, their efforts for rights are crucial in giving a broad spectrum of

how Muslim women look at their identity. As this study is an academic endeavour to

portray the dynamics and multiplicity of the politics of religious identity of Muslim

women in Indonesian fiction and their demands for women’s rights, such activism does

not stop here. NGOs, academic lectures or public lectures can be tools for expressing

women’s ideas and beliefs, providing a necessary avenue of analysis for a

comprehensive understanding of Indonesian Muslim women’s life.

Muslim women in Indonesia do enjoy greeter freedom than their sisters in the Middle

Eastern regions. Yet sharing similar goal for promoting and striving for women’s equal

position in the eyes of Islam, the Indonesian Muslim women are shaped by local

interpretations and local cultures. Because of the transnational network of Islamic

movements across the globe, certainly there are those who attempt to colour Indonesian

Islam with only Middle Eastern emblems and cultural practices. However, there are still

many of those who believe that the practice of Muslim religious identity in Indonesia is

uniquely Indonesian because of different culture and tradition. Muslim women in

Indonesia arguably enjoy better social positions than their sisters in more conservative

Islamic regions. Yet, exemplified by the writings of the four selected authors, women

are not automatically allowed freedom equal to men. Women’s participation in private

and public arenas is still limited reminding readers that the road to equality is still a long

way off. A danger for the future, when women are perceived as societal members

having equal rights as men, lies in the fact that the growth of more conservative,

orthodox interpretations of Islam that confine women from broader social participation

appear to be stronger. These may be consciously exaggerated and exploited to satisfy

vested interests of individuals having political power. Muslims in Indonesia should be

297

made aware of such agendas. Radicalism in theological practices also poses another

danger to the development of the feminist movement. A culture of tolerance needs to be

supported and encouraged in order to prevent emotional and strident reactions within

the Islamic community accusing reformers of betraying Islam. The seeds for civil and

public tolerance, which have been within Indonesia’s Islamic community for so long,

can be developed and used as a core to represent a form of Islam fully compatible with

democracy, pluralism, and non-confrontational relationships with elements of

Indonesian societies and the rest of the world.

Despite the fact that Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, its

appearance in discourses about Islam, particularly in Western ones, is rare. Islam is

immediately given a Middle Eastern reference. That Indonesian Islam has a thriving

cultural life is often neglected by many scholars, mostly Westerners and Arabs who

maintain that Islam is only centred in the Middle Eastern regions. Indonesian Islam, in

its attempt to represent democratic aspirations, provides needed balance to understand

politics in the Islamic world. In speaking of Islam, Muslim women and gender

construction, Indonesian interpretations and its ongoing cultural dynamics certainly

need to be included. The importance of Indonesian Islam within the global Islamic

scope should not be underestimated, suggesting that it is necessary to remind the

international world that Islam comes in numerous faces and its adherents make sense of

it in numerous ways considering its culturally diverse contexts.

It is hoped that this study will reach greater readers outside the academics. A larger

readership will generate more dissemination of the messages delivered by the authors

this study has examined. In so doing, this study will not solely reside in academic

discourse. My hope is that it becomes a moving text in the mind of its readers that they

eventually transform words into actions.

298

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330

Appendixes

331

Questionnaire

The results of this study will be used to find out the readers’ responses on the writings ofcontemporary Indonesian Muslim women writers, especially the narratives of Abidah ElKhalieqy, Helvy Tiana Rosa, Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim, and Titis Basino P.I.

Participation is voluntary.

All information provided will be treated as confidential by the researcher. The reportswill use summaries of information and not reveal the identities of individuals. If you haveany queries please contact Diah Arimbi (diah@student.unsw.edu.au; telp +62 31 5034638).

Please fill in as many questions as you can. Write any further comments in the spacesprovided or on the reverse side.

Thank you for your participation.

Please tick () the appropriate respond.

About Yourself

1. You are Female Male

2. What is your age group? 18 – 20 21 – 23 24 – 26 Over 26

3. Which year of study are you enrolled in the undergraduate programs? 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year Over 4th year

4. State your educational institution: Airlangga University IAIN (State Institute for Islamic Studies)

332

Familiarity with the writers5. Are you familiar with the writings of any of the following writers:

Abidah El Khalieqy Yes No

Helvy Tiana Rosa Yes No

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim Yes No

Titis Basino P. I. Yes No

6. Arrange the following writers in the order based on your familiarity with theirworks (whose writings you read)!1 never 2 often 3 quite often 4 very oftenPlease indicate your familiarity with the scale mentioned above.Abidah El Khalieqy --------------------Helvy Tiana Rosa --------------------Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim --------------------Titis Basino P. I. --------------------

7. Which of the following writers write narratives within Islamic contexts? Abidah El Khalieqy Helvy Tiana Rosa Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim Titis Basino P. I

8. Please state your reason(s) for your choice above!

9. Do you agree if those four writers are perceived to be Muslim writers? Pleaseprovide your choice with reasons!

Yes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. Do you think that these four writers enjoy prominent positions in Indonesianliterary tradition(s)? Please provide your choice with reasons!

333

Yes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Do you believe that any of these four writers are dealing with women’s issues intheir narratives?

Yes No

12. If yes, please mention their names!

13. 12. Do you believe that any of these four writers are also promoting women’srights in their writings?

Yes No

14. If yes, please state their involvement to the women’s rights promotion in the orderof :1 not strong 2 strong 3 very strongAbidah El Khalieqy --------------------Helvy Tiana Rosa --------------------Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim --------------------Titis Basino P. I. --------------------

14. Which amongst the writers are also known as women activist? Please tick! Abidah El Khalieqy Helvy Tiana Rosa Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim Titis Basino P. I

15. Please, provide reason(s) for your choice!

Familiarity with the writings

16. Are any of the writings of these writers, reflections or mirrors of contemporarysituation?

Abidah El Khalieqy Yes No

Helvy Tiana Rosa

334

Yes No

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim Yes No

Titis Basino P. I. Yes No

17. What are most common issues that Abidah El Khalieqy narrate in her writing?Tick more than one if necessary!

Violence against women including domestic violence Women’s reproduction rights Women and war in conflict areas Polygamy Discrimination against women Women and lack of education Women’s lack of intellectual capacity Women’s sexuality Other, please specify! ------------------------------------------------

18. What are most common issues that Helvy Tiana Rosa narrate in her writing? Tickmore than one if necessary!

Violence against women including domestic violence Women’s reproduction rights Women and war in conflict areas Polygamy Discrimination against women Women and lack of education Women’s lack of intellectual capacity Women’s sexuality Other, please specify! -------------------------------------------------

19. What are most common issues that Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim narrate in herwriting? Tick more than one if necessary!

Violence against women including domestic violence Women’s reproduction rights Women and war in conflict areas Polygamy Discrimination against women Women and lack of education Women’s lack of intellectual capacity

335

Women’s sexuality Other, please specify! ----------------------------------------------------

20. What are most common issues that Titis Basino narrate in her writing? Tick morethan one if necessary!

Violence against women including domestic violence Women’s reproduction rights Women and war in conflict areas Polygamy Discrimination against women Women and lack of education Women’s lack of intellectual capacity Women’s sexuality Other, please specify! -----------------------------------------------------

21. Do you feel any influence on your understanding of gender issues after readingthe writings of the following writers?

Abidah El Khalieqy Yes NoIf yes, tell us about the influence!

Helvy Tiana Rosa Yes NoIf yes, tell us about the influence!

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim Yes NoIf yes, tell us about the influence!

Titis Basino P. I Yes NoIf yes, tell us about the influence!

22. Do you believe that any of the writings of the writers challenge any perception ofMuslim women in Indonesia? Please, provide reasons for your choice!

Abidah El Khalieqy Yes NoReasons:

336

Helvy Tiana Rosa Yes NoReasons:

Ratna Indraswari Ibrahim Yes NoReasons:

Titis Basino P. I Yes NoReasons: