Islamic feminism, local women’s NGOs and women’s movements in Aceh
In her research on women Islamist movements in Egypt, Saba Mahmood (2001, 206), defines agency as ‘the capacity to realise one’s own interests against the weight of custom, tradition, transcendental will or other obstacles’.
Based on the experience of rural Acehnese women, Siapno (2000, 278) argues that Acehnese female agency is not articulated in the form of modern, progressive political movements, as often happens with male nationalist movements. According to Siapno, Acehnese women’s agency has instead formed as an indigenous form of local feminism, in which women exercise power but not within a ‘Euro-American analysis’ of gender agency. She points out that women in Aceh have participated actively in the struggles of their times, though not perhaps in publicly visible positions or in an overt form of opposition. In addition, Siapno makes the point that ‘women’s agency in Aceh has not been passive and silent’. The relative absence of Acehnese female representation in the public domain should be seen as a function of historiography, which places too much emphasis on organized political movements and the nation-state.My research on how Acehnese women respond to sharia implementation by mobilizing into women’s movements reaffirms Siapno’s argument that women’s agency in Aceh has not been passive and silent. The urban and educated women who have become part of local women’s movements have actively attempted to reform Islamic law by challenging the religious authorities and local government. Women are mobilized because of the discriminatory practices against many Acehnese women, those who live in urban and rural areas across Aceh. Based on six months’ fieldwork, this research reveals that many Acehnese women demand reform of the Islamic law through rereading and reinterpreting the religious texts.
Since they were established, local women’s organizations and NGOs have become the main avenue for many Acehnese women to struggle for peace, to protect women and promote equality, economic and socio-cultural rights and civil and political rights.
These local women’s NGOs and activists later became the backbone of Aceh’s women’s movements. Chapters 3 and 4 show that Acehnese women have gained greater opportunities to engage in public spheres since Aceh was granted autonomy as the result of Indonesia’s political democratization. The autonomy granted to provincial and regional administration in Indonesia has benefitted women’s groups at the local level because it provided them with more freedom to express their views and to organize (Blackburn 2004, 13). On the other hand, this autonomy has also posed a new challenge for Acehnese women, as male religious authority and Islamist groups try to use the available political space to impose their agenda of returning women to the domestic sphere (Brenner 2005; Rinaldo 2006; Blackburn 2004, 2008). This is because political democratization does not always necessarily mean respect for women’s rights (Blackburn 2008, 103).As elaborated in Chapter 2, the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh was initiated in 1999, during the early phase of Indonesia’s transition to democracy following the fall of Suharto’s authoritarian and militaristic administration in 1998. This introduction ignited debate over the importance of the formalization of sharia, as an Islamic way of life. Since its introduction almost ten years ago, the Acehnese remain divided in their responses to the implementation of Islamic law. While many Acehnese see it as an opportunity to return to the ‘local’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘authentic’ ‘values’, which will distance them from the domination of Jakarta, others see it mainly as a strategy to displace the earlier demands of Acehnese for justice and an equal economic share in the province’s wealth.
Despite these ongoing debates, the introduction of Islamic law has brought the issue of women’s equality, women’s role and women’s rights into the wider debate on Islam, Islamic law and women’s rights. Issues relating to women’s roles and women’s rights in Islam have increasingly been discussed not only among many Acehnese women but also among the reform-minded Acehnese Muslims.
Following Bowen (1993, 27), I argue in Chapter 2 that Islam in Aceh has become ‘transparent’ as it became subject to public scrutiny, not least because many Acehnese participate in both scholarly and private conversations regarding Islam, Islamic law and women’s rights.This research demonstrates that Islamic law in Aceh, which was introduced in 1999, has, indeed, discriminated against women and other groups in society. However, it has not totally impeded women from taking public roles, as is often assumed. Acehnese women have, instead, been able to use the available space to challenge the implementation and the authorities. The presence of local NGOs has facilitated women of different social backgrounds to demand justice. This is because, as I argue in Chapters 4 and 5, the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh has occurred alongside Indonesia’s democratic reform, and democracy had provided Acehnese men and women from different levels of society opportunities to engage in debates regarding women, Islam and Islamic law. In addition, the democratic mechanism also provides Acehnese women with the chance to engage in public policy-making, as it is guaranteed by the law. As discussed in Chapter 2, Acehnese men and women participate rigorously in the resulting discussions, ranging from how the sources of Islamic law, the Qur’an and Hadith, should be interpreted, to who has the authority to interpret them, and to how that interpretation should be implemented in Aceh.
The continuing debates that have emerged over the implementation of Islamic law reflect significant changes that have occurred in the local politics in Aceh. I explore how Acehnese are divided in the way they perceive the implementation of Islamic law in Chapter 3, however, it is important to note that those who are critical of the implementation of Islamic law do not express a total rejection of it; rather they demand the implementation of Islamic law in a way that treats Acehnese men and women more fairly.
For women activists, the implementation of Islamic law has provided them with momentum to examine what they see as the real message of Islam regarding their rights and status in the family and in community. They also look to Aceh’s history, when the Islamic kingdom allowed women freedom to take leading roles in the public domain, for example by becoming the ruling queen or leading the navy, or fighting in battle. Local Acehnese women’s NGOs and their activists have now begun to develop distinct women’s movements in which they demand that Islamic law in Aceh be reformed through a rereading of the Islamic texts and Islamic jurisprudence, based on Aceh’s cultural values. This can be seen, for example, in the Charter of the Rights of Women in Aceh, signed on 11 November 2008. The signatories of the Charter believe that fair treatment of women is entirely in line with the basic principles of Islam.
The demands of local women’s NGOs and women’s movements in Aceh for legal reform through rereading the Qur’an mirror what Muslim women in many other Muslim societies have been arguing. In Muslim societies, such as in Malaysia, the struggle of Muslim women for equality is also derived from within Islam, and is often referred to as ‘Islamic feminism’. Thus, what local women’s NGOs and women’s movements in Aceh have demonstrated can be contextualized within broader women’s movements in the Muslim world. As believers in Islam, Acehnese Muslim women challenge patriarchal social norms of Aceh’s male-dominated society and their legal doctrines by combining their knowledge of Islamic teachings and Aceh’s adat with feminist ideas.
The arrival of international institutions and foreign NGOs following the tsunami of 26 December 2004 strengthened local activists’ capacity to promote women’s rights, as the international institutions and foreign NGOs introduced international norms regarding human rights. The presence of foreign and national NGOs has also, however, prompted Acehnese women activists and reform-minded Muslims to engage in discussions regarding gender in Islam.
This is in line with the argument made by Saptari and Utrecht (1997, 319), who observed that the international community has significantly advanced women’s NGO activities in Indonesia. It is international NGOs and foreign institutions that have enabled them to strengthen their lobbying and organizational skills, and have provided access for Indonesian women’s NGOs to transnational women’s movements. So, local women’s NGOs in Aceh, have, for example, now been introduced to Muslim women’s networks, such as Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML) and Musawah. Likewise, in 2009, leading Acehnese women activists such as Dr Nurjannah Ismail attended an event organized by Musawah in Malaysia. Musawah is a global Muslim women’s movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family.As discussed in Chapter 4 local women’s movements strategize to negotiate with local authorities including religious institutions, the Ulama and local government. The two women’s networks, JPUK and GWG, employ different approaches to problems. These differences result from the fact that activists within these two movements come from different backgrounds, and have experienced different patterns of activism. One women’s movement, JPUK, which consists only of local activists, has taken an approach of maintaining local adat and culture in negotiating with Acehnese male authorities. It focuses its activism on influencing policy-making. The other women’s movement, GWG, has a more diverse background. It includes nationally based and foreign activists in its ranks, and they tend to be more confident in discussing new ideas. Compared to JPUK, GWG focuses more of its activities on developing public awareness of gender equality and women’s rights.
My case study of MISPI shows how this local women’s NGO chose to take a ‘local’ approach in promoting equality and women’s rights in the context of the implementation of Islamic law. As mentioned, its strategy has proven successful. MISPI’s Islamic piety has generated respect from religious authorities, the legislature, the government bureaucracy and conservative religious communities.
In conducting its activities, MISPI works hard to maintain Islamic credentials, as can be seen, for example, in how it deliberately seeks to express the religious piety of its members. This choice to maintain Islamic credentials is derived from an understanding that resistance from the conservative religious communities can only be challenged by using Islam. The result is that MISPI continues to exercise more leverage than many other local women’s NGOs. MISPI has thus demonstrated its ability to exercise agency in advancing women’s status through strategizing and manoeuvring with at least three institutions: local authorities including the Ulama, activists from national-based NGOs, and the international community. I argue that in a society with a strong patriarchal culture like Aceh, women need to strategize and negotiate with the state and with social structures in a way that is acceptable in that society (Waylen 1996). The moves taken by MISPI are thus in line with what Afshar (1996, 1) has argued, namely that women in the Third World negotiate with the state and this does not have to be equated with weakness, nor should their strategies be classified as either temporary or unimportant.MISPI is one of many local women’s NGOs in Aceh that has attempted to employ ideas of ‘equality’ derived from Islamic feminist movements that have appeared in places like Malaysia, and in the Middle East or North Africa. They have also learned from similar movements that have been present in Jakarta since the 1990s. Their interaction with outside communities, both with Indonesia-based and foreign NGO activists, has equipped local women activists with knowledge of the rights of women both within Islam, and by reference to international norms such as CEDAW.
My research also reveals that the attempts of local women’s NGOs to reform Islamic legal doctrines will continue to be reliant on their interaction with nationally based NGOs, as well as their ability to access funds and support from international donors or foreign NGOs. Also likely, Indonesia’s democratization and the achievement of peace in Aceh will allow local women’s NGOs to develop and have the freedom to continue to advance women’s status within the confinements of Islam. This thesis foresees that local women’s NGOs activisms in Aceh will continue to affect the future of the implementation of Islamic law. Equally, possible threats towards women’s advances in public life will continue to be driven by the use of Islam by male authorities under the rubric of ‘Islamic resurgence’.
The work of local women’s NGOs and women’s movements in Aceh has certainly been subject to criticism. This is especially directed at NGOs working on issues related to ‘syari’at’, women’s rights and women’s empowerment. Some Acehnese accuse local women’s NGOs of exchanging their Islamic and Acehnese traditions with Western ideology or Western feminism. Other challenges to the work of women’s NGOs and women’s movements in Aceh come from within their own movement. As mentioned in Chapter 4, in 2008 local activists have found a local term (timang) to replace ‘gender’, as ‘gender’ is considered foreign and had created resistance among the Acehnese. Timang was presented as referring to the concept of ‘equal relations’ between men and women as enshrined in Islam and entrenched in Acehnese tradition.
Observing Indonesia’s women’s movements, Blackburn (2004, 11) observes that conflicts of interest contribute to hampering their work. Women’s movements in Aceh have encountered this problem. Local women’s NGOs and women activists within the women’s movement still have to struggle to define how they should promote women’s rights. While some assert the need to maintain Acehnese and Islamic identity, others are starting to see that accepting international norms is not necessarily a violation of Aceh’s adat and Islamic values. There are groups that still believe certain norms within the international law are not compatible with their values, while others are starting to think differently.
In the literature on women and politics there has been a debate about who is represented by women’s NGOs and women’s activists in politics. It is argued that women’s NGOs and activists come mainly from the middle and upper class, and that they thus represent only this group. This is also what Rinaldo (2003) points out based on her research on women’s movements in Indonesia that women’s movements are unable to escape from the fact that they are mainly represented by middle- and upper-class women. She writes that women activists have acknowledged that the recent outcome of Indonesia’s legislative elections has shown that their activism has not connected with the grassroots, and they have been concentrating on issues that do not affect most women. A similar problem, I argue, also confronts local women’s NGOs in Aceh. In the 2009 legislative election, for example, some women activists nominated themselves as candidates, but failed to win the votes of Acehnese women. Aceh, in fact, has among the lowest women’s participation in the local parliamentary election with only 28.8 per cent of women participating in the election, that is less than the 30 per cent quota set by the Indonesian election regulation (Puskapol 2013).
Local women’s movements in Aceh, I argue, still lack a strong social basis in Aceh, partly because women’s movements in Aceh do not have sufficient connection with Islamic institutions such as Dayah, the traditional Islamic educational institution in Aceh. This can be seen from the difficulty of including Teungku or religious leaders in their work. It may thus be worthwhile for local women activists in Aceh to study similar attempts in Java, where gender equality has been introduced and disseminated by male religious leaders from pesantren. Although such trends are not common in Aceh, MISPI has begun to experiment with similar initiatives.
While women activists acknowledge that the reform of interpretation of the Qanun requires a rereading of the two sources of sharia, the Qur’an and Hadith, few efforts have yet been made to address this. They have not yet focused their energy on the field of Qur’anic interpretation or exegesis (tafsir) and so have not been able to find effective ways to explicate an egalitarian message from the text of the Qur’an. Among local activists, there is only one, Dr Nurjannah Ismail, who has the capacity to deal with the issue of interpretation (tafsir), but she has so far had little opportunity to influence the whole movement.
The struggle of local women activists in Aceh is made difficult because many activists obtained their education mostly from public schools, which are secular. Unlike Muslim women activists in Jakarta, most Acehnese women activists do not have previous training on Islamic education, for example, from traditional pesantren, and only a small number of them trained in Islamic higher educational institutions such as IAIN. The majority of the prominent NGO activists, as mentioned in the previous chapters, obtained their education from secular educational institutions, such as Syiah Kuala University. Activists such as Soraya Kamaruzzaman (founder of Flower Aceh), Samsidar (founder of YPW), Syarifah Rahmatillah (MISPI), Raihani Arifin (RPUK), Norma (Balai Syura), Azriana Noerdin (Balai Syura), Shadia Marhaban (LINA), Fatima Sjam (LBH Apik), Raihan Diani (Beujroh) and Hasdiana (Yayasan Matahari) were all educated in non-Islamic educational institutions. During my research I met female academics from IAIN Ar-Raniry (Dr Nurjannah Ismail, Eka Srimulyani, who also works as a consultant for LOGICA-AIPARD, an Australian-based NGO, and Soraya Devy, the head of IAIN’s Women’s Centre, Roosmawardani, the founder of Putro Kandee and Rasyidah) who have taken part in local women’s movements. However, only Eka Srimulyani, Soraya Devy and Roosmawardani have the resources and access to work directly with Acehnese women. Otto Sjamsuddin Ishak says:
Of all the women activists, only Dr Nurjannah Ismail who has the capacity and knowledge to reveal the egalitarian message of Islam, however, she has only limited access and opportunity to do so.
(Interview, Banda Aceh, 17 March 2007)
In addition, there has been also lack of support from male Muslim scholars from IAIN Ar-Raniry for the women’s movement.
The limited knowledge of women activists on Islamic legal matters has contributed to the difficulties they face in engaging with Islamic texts and challenging the conservative religious community. Due to their secular background, the conservative religious community perceive activists as lacking either capacity or authority in reinterpreting religious texts. In addition, activists face problems in deciding how they should embrace the Dayah community and reach out to religious leaders. Because of this, it becomes important for women activists to develop strong networks with institution like IAIN AR-Raniry. At the same time, Islamic scholars from IAIN Ar-Raniry are also challenged to moderate the conservative understandings of Islam predominant among the Acehnese. They need to introduce the same ‘renewal’ movement (gerakan pembaharuan) as scholars of the UIN/IAIN in Java have showed (Hefner 1993; Feener 2007).
It should be remembered, however, that prolonged conflict has also contributed to the relatively limited opportunities that Acehnese women have had to engage with these issues. Thus, there is, I argue, a need for local Acehnese women’s activists to learn from the experience of other Muslim women’s movements and activists in Java. Although women’s movements operate in very different circumstances within and outside Aceh, it is still important for them to look at similar movements for guidance.
Finally, this book shows that women’s NGOs in Aceh have been able to engage their Islamic and Acehnese identity with a ‘Western’ framework on women’s rights. In doing so, women’s NGOs have become the most visible avenue for Acehnese women to exert their agency to challenge the sociopolitical and religious structures. To do so, they need to receive support from both national and international NGO communities.
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