Introduction

The freer political environment in post-tsunami Aceh has helped women activists to engage in debates about how best to interpret the Islamic doctrines as the basis to form Islamic law.

In trying to understand the responses of Acehnese women activists, two women’s networks are worth looking at. These two women’s networks were established after the Islamic law was introduced. They were JPUK or Jaringan Perempuan Untuk Kebijakan (the Women’s Policy Network) and the Gender Working Group (GWG). Both JPUK and GWG represented local women’s movements in Aceh whose members were NGO workers from both local and national branches of NGOs working in the province, academics and government officials. They voluntarily joined the networks, united by the agenda of the movement, to advance women’s call for justice and equality under the implementation of Islamic law. The advocacy and activities carried out by these two networks made them part of the major civil society movements in socio-political and legal reform in Aceh.

Literature on women’s movements has acknowledged the difficulty of strictly defining what should be considered to be ‘women’s movements’. ‘Women’s movements can be seen as [a process] of women’s mobilization based on appeals to women both as a constituency and as an organization’ (Ferree and Mueller 2004, 577). Women’s movements bring women’s political activities to empower women to challenge limitations to their roles, and create networks among women that enhance women’s ability to recognize existing gender relations as oppressive and in need of change (Ferree and Mueller 2004, 577).

As mentioned, women’s movements can consist of women activists of Muslim-based organizations or women’s NGOs. NGOs, unlike women’s movements, are run by specialized, paid and professional staff with only a small number of volunteers (Alvarez 1999, 185–186). In terms of funding, NGOs obtain the support of international or national donors. They engage in pragmatic and strategic planning which aims to influence public policy. Unlike NGOs, women’s movements are largely made up of volunteers, who are sporadic participants rather than ‘staff’. They also have more informal organizational structures and operate on a smaller budget. Women’s movements and their actions are guided by ‘more loosely defined, conjectural goals or objectives’. Based on this discussion, I categorize women’s movements in Aceh as encompassing all kinds of women’s activism, including women’s organizations involved in human rights, research and advocacy, women’s NGOs and women members of religious, mass-based organizations attempting to enhance women’s awareness of gender relations, and to initiate change and reform to both social norms and Islamic legal doctrines.¹

JPUK and GWG were the two major women’s networks that existed in Aceh during post-tsumani reconstruction that not only actively demanded reform of the Qanun but also attempted to advance the socio-economic and political interests of Acehnese women. These two networks used and navigated different strategies and targeted different audiences while they shared similar goals. They attempted to develop public awareness of women’s rights in Islam to challenge discriminatory practices in the implementation of Islamic law. Women’s movements demand that religious leaders and government institutions include women in rereading the sources of Islamic law, so that Qanun will not discriminate against women but instead guarantee equality. They worked to teach the local communities, both male and female, how to understand Islamic texts, about the history of revelation of the Qur’an and Sunna, and how Islamic texts become the rules of the people. The social interaction of the local activists with those from outside Aceh has contributed to the different views they offered over particular topics pertaining to women’s issues, gender equality and the issue of justice and rights.