Dina Afrianty. Women and Sharia Law in Northern Indonesia: Local Women’s NGOs and the Reform of Islamic Law in Aceh

Abstract

Women and Sharia Law in Northern Indonesia: Local NGOs and the Reform of Law in Aceh Dina Afrianty London and New York: Routledge, 2015, viii+194p.One of the earliest legal texts available to us from the Malay world was written in Aceh at the request of its female ruler: Mir?at al-?ullab fi tashil ma?rifat al-a?kam al-shar?iyyat li malik al-wahhab of ?Abd al-Ra? uf al-Sinkili (d. 1693) commissioned by the contemporary sultana Safiyat al-Din Taj al-?Alam (r. 1641-75). The book and its author, as well as the sultana, have been enjoying memorable position in the historical memory of appealing equally to its learned and unlearned classes. In present-day Sharia law has generated much debate for almost last two decades especially with regards to the oppressive attitude of law towards the women, and one might wonder why female ruler should ask member of her elite to write book about oppressive Sharia law. Although the answer might be concern of historical enquires, the book under review gives an answer through ethnographical research. A rather provocative answer comes from reputed pious activist at Banda Aceh who says: There is something about the Acehnese that connects us with sharia and the people from outside Aceh will never be able to understand that connection. Putting to one side any judgment, the book does try to understand the connection in fascinating way.Dina Afrianty's Women and Sharia Law in Northern Indonesia: Local NGOs and the Reform of Law in Aceh conveys the nuances of women's lives under Sharia law. One of the major contributions of the book is implicit in its title itself: Aceh's differentiation between Sharia law and law, which might sound synonymous at first glance. But Afrianty substantiates how both should be understood differently. Taking cue from the earlier arguments of Hooker (1983), Mir-Hosseini (2006), and others on the division between Islam and its law, she tells us how the Acehnese distinguish between the sharia as divine law based on such foundational scriptures as Quran and Hadith, and the law implemented as Qanuns. The latter is only Fiqh of Aceh, which is a product of Acehnese ?ulama?'s interpretation of scriptures that is then used by politicians (p. 78). It would have been even more insightful if the author had elaborated on this division and its conceptualization by local women activists in the following chapters.Based on her six-months of fieldwork in Banda Aceh (the capital city of Aceh Province, northwestern Indonesia), Afrianty investigates the responses of Acehnese women towards the implementation of law, the roles of their indigenous identity and local culture, and most importantly, the ways in which religious Acehnese women activists reconcile their understanding of gender, equality, women's rights with those of Western/international values (p. 3). Afrianty conducted interviews, attended seminars and workshops, and utilized archival materials and the book is composed of five chapters (including one case-study), together with an introduction, conclusion, and postscript.In the first chapter titled Women's Movements in Muslim Societies, Afrianty contextualizes her work within three broader concerns: the existing literature on the Muslim women's movements across the world, their encounters with Sharia and law, and their collective attempts to engage with law that often resulted in Islamic feminism. She argues that since Muslim female intellectuals and activists understood gender inequality and repression towards Muslim women as deriving from the misuse and misinterpretation of scriptures by male rulers and elites, they turned towards the original scriptures to reinterpret those while being more sensitive to gender equality and women's rights. This global movement has influenced Southeast Asia too, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia. …