Indonesian Muslim Women Research Articles

Women, Leadership, and Mosque's Cultures: Indonesian Heritage in New York City

This paper examines the use of social, religious and cultural heritage for community building and mosque participation by Indonesian Muslim communities in New York City and its impact on women’s leadership in al-Hikmah mosque and their production of moral agency and pious self in the mosque setting. I argue that Indonesian Muslim women in AI-Hikmah mosque has more leadership capacity due to the cultural heritage of Indonesian Islam and the complementary status of women in their communities. In this paper, I will, first, discuss how the cultural heritage of a mosque along with its patriarchal, masculine leadership influences women's treatment. I will, secondly, examine how female authority is produced within the enmeshed patriarchal leadership, the heritage of Indonesian values. and masculine mosque cultures. In particular, I will discuss how women's religious and social activities generate empirical characters that shape the performance of female moral agency and the cultivation of the pious self. I will, finnally, analyze a pattern of female authority in the mosque and the way in which women construct their authority as leaders in the mosque. Throughout the paper, I draw parallels between female authority in AI-Hikmah mosque and the social and cultural practices in Indonesia.

Genealogy of Islamic Fatayat Politics in the Era of Soekarno and Soeharto: a Feminist Studies on Organizational History

Indonesian Muslim women had long been an inseparable part from political activities since the colonial period to present era. During colonial era, although they did not work formally under certain Islamic women’s organizations, they made real contributions to the women’s political movement in Indonesia since they formed women’s branches of existing mass organizations. Fatayat, this organization is the sister branch of the largest Islamic organizations in Indonesia: Nahdlatul Ulama. This paper narrates that the involvement of Fatayat in politics had its historical and genealogical roots since Soekarno era. Sukarno facilitated Fatayat to develop power capacity in politics. However, during Soeharto era Fatayat experienced a setback due to New Order’s control toward women’s organization with its “ibuism” ideology. In order to maintain its existence, Fatayat decided to collaborate with government by incorporating state’s program such as PKK, Posyandu into their activities while alos made network with national and international funding organization.

Law, Women, and Property in Contemporary Indonesia

On 27-28 August, 2013, the School of Graduate Studies of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta organised a two day conference on Law, Women and Property in Contemporary Indonesia. The conference was aimed to enhance understanding of recent socio-legal changes that affect Indonesian Muslim women and their access to property in the past few decades. In particular, it sought to investigate changing patterns in marriage and post-divorce payments, property transfers and the implications they are having upon women, children and legal processes in Indonesia.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v21i1.884

Muslim Women in Indonesian Religious Courts

The 1974 Marriage Law and the Compilation of Islamic Law in Indonesia stipulate that permission of the religious court (Pengadilan Agama) is required for all divorces regardless of which party initiates the divorce. Thus, a man wishing to divorce is required to obtain permission to pronounce the divorce formula, and a woman wishing to divorce is required to go to court to initiate a khulʿ divorce. However, while both men and women must obtain permission from the court to divorce, women come to the courts to resolve their marital problems more often than men do. In recent years, the percentage of divorces initiated by women has been increasing. In 2001 57.5 percent of all divorces nation-wide were initiated by women while 42.5 percent were initiated by men. By 2009 66.4 percent of divorces were initiated by women and only 33.6 percent by men. Going to court, which entails making private matters public, can be troublesome and costly, but many women decide to do so. This essay investigates the reasons underlying women’s increasing use of the Islamic courts by examining the attitude of Indonesian Muslim women towards divorce and divorce law as reflected in the narratives they present when petitioning for divorce in court. I examine how and why women use the court and analyze strategies used by women to achieve their objectives. By presenting dispute narratives or stories told by litigants in court hearings, I attempt to understand the attitude of Indonesian Muslim women toward divorce and divorce law and their understanding of themselves as legal actors.

Women Career Advancement in Public Service: A Study in Indonesia

There are lots of facilities provided by the Indonesian public service to the Muslim women public servant to ease the effect of working on their families such as child care, job sharing, flexible hours, longer maternity leave and working from home. On top of that, policies available that support the women are treating them with the same trust and confidence, giving them the same assignment, paying them comparable salaries as men and not to relocate them for the sake of career advancement. It is found out that the factors that contribute to their career success were experience, education, seniority, interpersonal skills, ability in tackling superiors, commitment and dedication, support from superiors, colleagues and family and leadership styles. On the other hand, they believe that there are some factors that hinder them from career advancement which are preference for family, limited access to professional training, personality, lack of leadership charisma, lack of confidence, society expectation, gender bias, lack of qualification; power; prestigious developmental assignments and informal network, no mentoring system, low self esteem and not taken seriously. They believe that Muslim women are capable in leading organizations as physical inferiority compared to men is not a factor in their religion. In fact, they should be obeyed and respected as men as their religion does not prohibit them to be the leader of men in general. This is due to gender is not a factor but their capabilities are. Moreover, Indonesian Muslim women public servants are more concerned of their staff. However, family is more important than their career. Thus, these Indonesian public servants believe that Muslim women should assist their family financially if the husbands are unemployed or terminally ill. Majority agreed that they have good prospects for promotion in their departments. Hence, they would apply promotion in the next three to five years. In order to get the promotion, they are willing to devote their time to advance in their career such as to further studies, perform abilities, attend courses, develop network with management or change leadership style. Majority of them would also like to adjust their career aspiration if they are unsuccessful in their career advancement. However, only one of them would like to leave the organization.

The Rise of the Jilbabisasi in Indonesia

This article reviews current literature in English about the nature of veiling in modern urban Indonesian society, particularly in Java, and presents key reasons behind the relatively recent rise in numbers of jilbabisasi, young Indonesian Muslim women who are choosing to veil. It argues that Christians need to be more strategic in the way they interact with jilbabisasi, presenting the gospel as an alternative, distinctive means of achieving the personal and social changes to which they aspire.

GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR AND POLYGAMY

The Indonesian patriarchal culture and gender inequality is reflected in state policies, regulations and laws. As a pluralistic country comprising of different ethnic groups with specific cultures and traditions, Indonesia has four formal religions: Islam, Christianity, Hindu and Buddhism. Because of this, Indonesian law reflects cultural and religious diversity, including customary law or Adat law, the Marriage Law of 1974 as well as civil and criminal law. Two serious concerns of Marriage Law of 1974 are in relation to gender division of labour and polygamy which undermine Indonesian Muslim women. This paper discusses such an issue to allow women to get equaliry before the law and highlights its contribution to domestic violence.There are two contradictory stipulations with respect to the Marriage Law of 1974: equality in marriage and gender division of labour within marriage. On the one hand, Article 31 (1) and Article 3 3 clearly state that there is no difference between husband and wife with respect to their basic rights such as love; respect, or fidelity. On the other hand, both of these Articles are contradicted with other articles which differentiate between a husband's and wife's responsibilities. For example, Article 31 (3) and Article 34 stipulate a clear division between the roles of husbands and wives within marriage. This has become a reference point for Indonesian views in determining gender relations in marriage.Marriage Law of 1974 still which supports gender division of labour between wife and husband should be revised by providing a clear statement that these roles are conditional. This means that husbands can be domestic carers including taking care of children if they have no jobs, while wives can be finacial providers or the head of household if they are capable to do so. In this context, gender roles can be exchanged and are not strictly for a certain gender.

Indonesian Muslim Women Creating Justice

Indonesian Muslim Women Creating Justice

Indonesia’s Emerging Muslim Feminism: Women Leaders on Equality, Inheritance and Other Gender Issues

In this article, whose title means "Muslim feminism emerging in Indonesia: women leaders about the similarities, inheritance, and other gender issues", In this article the author presents and discusses a number of Indonesian Muslim women on various issues concerning gender, or relations and the division of roles between women and men in social life.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v4i1.787