Networking

The proliferation of women’s NGOs in Aceh and the variety of issues they were working on were, in part, the result of the arrival of foreign NGOs and international institutions, which originally came to Aceh to provide humanitarian assistance to the Acehnese.

An officer working for a UN organization said that although at the beginning many international NGOs came simply to assist in the physical reconstruction of Aceh, they were later ‘required’ by their donors to include gender main-streaming within their programmes (interview, Banda Aceh, 12 March 2007). Thus, when international institutions such as the UN or other international NGOs work with local women’s NGOs, they created a ‘gender mainstreaming’ component in their programmes. With dozens of foreign donors supporting local organizations to work on ‘gender’, ‘gender mainstreaming’ suddenly became a ‘buzzword’, occupying the attention of many Acehnese, both in villages and towns. Thus, there were criticisms over this development, arguing that the gender campaign in Aceh has been primarily the creation of Western NGOs, as local NGOs will not receive support if they do not include a ‘gender’ element in their programmes (Mahdi and Zein 2008, xviii).

Before the arrival of foreign NGOs in Aceh, women’s issues were primarily dominated by the state’s gender ideology, as discussed in Chapter 3 (Brenner 2005; Suryakusuma 1996; Robinson 2009). Although already established, local women’s NGOs in Aceh played a minimal role in promoting women’s issues in public during the conflict.

The changing policy of the state towards women cannot be separated from the role of the international donor community, which introduced new strands of aid policy as foreign NGOs intervene, challenging the assumptions and priorities, in this case demanding that women’s interests to be taken into account (Kabeer 1991, 45).

In the context of Aceh, along with the ongoing political reform and the implementation of Islamic law, foreign institutions and international NGOs introduced new discourses such as ‘political participation’, ‘empowerment’ ‘women’s rights in Islam’ and ‘gender perspective’. This can be seen from the role of foreign funding in disseminating new ideas to women activists, for example in JPUK or GWG, as discussed earlier. Although the idea of creating JPUK came from local women activists, JPUK also receives support from foreign donors such as the Asia Foundation and international organizations such UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women).

The Asia Foundation is one foreign NGO that openly attempts to increase women’s participation in politics, democracy and good governance in Indonesia. For example, it considers it important for local women activists at JPUK to participate in local politics. In the context of the implementation of Islamic law, the Asia Foundation introduced local activists to a comprehensive understanding of women’s rights in Islam and how women’s rights are guaranteed by the international norms such as CEDAW. It also considers it necessary to introduce local women activists in Aceh to developments in Islamic feminist discourse in other places in Indonesia, such as Jakarta, for example.

In 2007, the Asia Foundation facilitated a workshop for 19 Acehnese women activists on understanding women’s rights in Islam. The workshop aimed to introduce the Acehnese activists to attempts made by Indonesian Muslim feminists and reform-minded Muslims to reinterpret the basic sources of sharia; the Qur’an and Hadith. This workshop was held in Cirebon, West Java, on 15–21 March 2007, and was called the Kursus Islam dan Gender untuk Aktivis Perempuan Aceh (Workshop on Islam and Gender for Acehnese Women Activists).

The training or pelatihan was organized by Fahmina Institute, an NGO based in a pesantren located in Cirebon. Fahmina is one of the leading Muslim organizations working on the need to reinterpret Islamic religious doctrines, in particular, those pertaining to women’s roles within the family and in public (Bowen 1998; Feener 2007). Most Fahmina activists are kyais (Ulama)¹⁹ with a background in Islamic law. This organization mainly focuses its efforts on promoting gender equality within the pesantren community, which has strong conservative and traditional understandings of Islam. The Asia Foundation considers that in order for Acehnese women activists to have better understanding on how to read the sources of Islamic law, they need to understand methodological issues in interpreting sharia principles. One activist, Soraya Devy, who participated in the training recalled that, in his welcoming speech, Faqihuddin, a kyai and activist at Fahmina, said that the training aimed to listen to how Acehnese women experience the implementation of Islamic law (interview, Banda Aceh, 23 March 2007). He explained to the participants that both men and women have equal opportunities to form the legal regulations such as Islamic law in Aceh. For that reason, he said it is important for women activists to understand their rights in Islam and what Islam says about women and Islamic law. Among the themes covered at the workshop were discussions about polygamy, divorce, marriage and inheritance, emphasizing that all these practices need to be understood and revisited by rereading Islamic texts.

Devy said after the training she has a better picture of the position of women within Islam, and became more confident that Qanun must not discriminate against women. She wondered, however, if she and her fellow activists at JPUK will be able to share their new knowledge with local Ulama (religious leaders) or people in the Dayah (traditional Islamic boarding school in Aceh), because religious leaders in Aceh, in her view, often perceive their knowledge of Islam as more advanced than other Indonesians and the idea of letting them know they learned it from Javanese kyai would further jeopardize women activists’ goals.

UNIFEM was another international institution that worked closely with local women’s NGOs and women activists in Aceh. In a meeting at her office, the director of UNIFEM explained that when they came to Aceh in 2005, the agenda was to provide support and protection to women affected by the tsunami and they had no mandate to work on issues pertaining to the implementation of Islamic law (interview, Banda Aceh, 25 March 2007). One way to support women in recovering from the tsunami was, however, for UNIFEM to focus on working with the local government to ensure that the spirit of good governance is applied. To this end, good governance was translated as guaranteeing women and other disadvantaged groups better support. Thus, when it started talking about good governance, UNIFEM had to deal with issues such as transparency, justice and equality, leading it to touch on the issue of the implementation of Islamic law. Its work was confined to how to ensure that the implementation of Islamic law could promote clean governance and transparency. If these aims were fulfilled, then women’s rights will be protected. In the director’s opinion, Acehnese women, in particular women activists, made tremendous efforts during their transition from conflict and in post-tsunami. She said:

Aceh is a special place, it has Islamic law, and it has its customary law and also the special autonomy status, which are not present in other areas in Indonesia.

She believed Aceh can be a progressive place where men and women have equal opportunity, as they live under Islamic law. To her, Aceh can be a place to showcase how Islamic law can promote women’s rights, good governance and transparency because of the availability of democratic mechanisms. In 2008, UNIFEM introduced Acehnese activists to CEDAW by supporting local women’s NGOs activists with training on CEDAW. This was the first forum to allow local activists to learn about international norms that guarantee women’s rights and equal opportunity.

Like the Asia Foundation, UNIFEM also sought to provide Acehnese women activists with the skills necessary to allow them to influence policy-making. From 8–10 January 2008, for example, UNIFEM supported JPUK to conduct a workshop on legal drafting. JPUK found that both civil society in Aceh and the legislature still lack the ability to create effective and coherent legal products, as is seen by the continuing creation of discriminatory Qanun. JPUK’s workshop on legal drafting for activists was expected to equip the activists with a better understanding of the law-making process in Aceh, the position of Qanun within the hierarchy of Indonesia’s legal system, and international legal and human rights norms.

An interesting debate took place during the legal drafting workshop. Some activists questioned why in drafting the Qanun, the speaker, who was a foreigner, did not suggest the Qur’an and Hadith as the primary references. From their perspective, since they are drafting an Islamic law, the Qur’an and Hadith should be the primary source of the rules of law. For example, Teungku Daniel from Lhoksemauwe explained that in formulating Qanun, the primary source must be the Qur’an and Hadith, and that requires an understanding of Islamic theology and methodology of interpreting Islamic texts in order to form Fiqh, which later becomes the basis of the law. For him, ‘Islam is not the aspiration but Islam is the inspiration’.

The increasing awareness by Acehnese women of their rights in politics and in Islam was later manifested in the creation of a Charter of the Rights of Women in Aceh, the development of which was supported by GTZ, the German aid agency. Nine public institutions in the province of Aceh, including the Governor of Aceh, the Chairman of the Provincial Parliament of Aceh (DPRA), the judiciary, the police, representatives of Islamic institutions and local NGOs signed the Charter:

We, the signatories of the Aceh Charter on Women’s Rights, believe that fair treatment of women is in line with the principles of Islam.²⁰

Khairani, a woman activist, says that the creation of this Charter is timely, considering the many problems that Acehnese women face (IDLO, 5 July 2008). She underlined that although the creation of this Charter was inspired by the principles contained in CEDAW, it pays more attention to the rights of women from a local perspective. Policy-makers and government institutions were expected to refer to the Charter in developing their policies in the future of Aceh. This Charter sets out, among others, the rights of women to life and security, freedom from discrimination, intimidation and violence, the rights of women in education, the rights to legal protection and equality before the law, the rights of women within the family, the rights of women to organize and express opinions, and rights of access to, and control of, resources, and political rights.

In addition to activists, international organizations have also contributed to developing gender awareness among Acehnese academics and researchers. One example was the activities introduced by the Aceh Research Training Institute (ARTI), an initiative of universities in Australia and Indonesia. Since its arrival in Banda Aceh after the tsunami, it has worked to develop the academic capacity of young Acehnese academics and researchers.²¹ ARTI’s programmes are designed to develop critical skills in order to produce high-quality and relevant research. With the support of the Myer Foundation and the Australian aid agency (AusAID), ARTI supports young Acehnese academics and researchers from different disciplines and introduces the need for them to understand gender analysis. In addition, ARTI also offers international academics the opportunity to become involved and collaborate with local Acehnese academics.

When I visited Banda Aceh in 2008, I was very fortunate because Professor Virginia Hooker from the Australian National University (ANU) led a course on Gender and Society, from 14 to 25 January 2008. In addition to Professor Hooker, Muslim feminists such as Musdah Mulia, Lies Marcoes-Natsir, Nina Nurmila and Muhammad Faqih also participated in the course. About ten male and female academics and researchers from different universities in various districts participated in the programme. Participants were introduced to the need to use a gender perspective when conducting research. Participants were also introduced to the methodology available in interpreting the Qur’an and Hadith. It is hoped that Acehnese academics will contribute in developing gender awareness in their own educational institutions. They were also, later, expected to participate in contributing to the process of drafting Qanun, so that the Qanun will guarantee justice, equality and gender-sensitivity.

Local women’s NGOs have not only developed networks with international institutions and foreign NGOs. They also work with the national NGOs, for example, Kapal Perempuan (Women’s Ship), Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (or Indonesian Women’s Coalition), and many others. Siapno (2002, 173), however, found that some women activists in Banda Aceh ‘resist being integrated into a progressive-national feminist agenda’. According to Siapno, the resentment of Acehnese activists continues to be nurtured and replicated in the way that local Acehnese activists think about their fellow women activists from Jakarta. She says that Acehnese women activists are often careful to not follow any ideology that is subscribed to by activists in Jakarta.

From the discussion above, it is clear that the resentment of local women activists towards Jakarta-based activists that Siapno (2007) observed has not disappeared. During numerous interviews and personal communications, I often heard expressions of contempt towards women activists from Jakarta, although many of the interviewees had worked collaboratively with them. One activist told me, for example, that even though she was very grateful for the support given to Acehnese activists, she needed to be very cautious since she found some of the agenda of activists in Jakarta not in line with her own ideas regarding the struggle of Acehnese women (interview, Banda Aceh, 13 February 2007). Among her concerns is the fact that women’s activists in Jakarta have often forced Acehnese activists to accept issues that are still difficult for many Acehnese to deal with. These include same-sex relations or homosexuality. Some activists told me that if tolerance of this behaviour is promoted, resistance to the women’s movement in Aceh will increase. I observed, however, that those who are critical still express a willingness to collaborate and continue developing networks with Jakarta.

In relation to the implementation of Islamic law, local women activists acknowledge the success of movements established in Jakarta but are reluctant to pursue a similar approach. In many of their statements, some women activists seem reluctant even to refer to the success of the efforts of activists in Jakarta at all. This is because the nature and characteristics of Acehnese society are seen as not being the same as other Muslims in Indonesia. In other words, Acehnese women activists share a common local idea that Aceh has a separate identity to that of the rest of Indonesia.

Despite the benefits that these international NGOs and foreign institutions have brought to Aceh, there are criticisms still directed towards their work as well. Fatima Sjam, a leader of LBH Apik based in North Aceh, Lhoksemauwe, for example, said that the presence of international NGOs has, in fact, weakened local capacity (interview, 12 March 2007). She referred to two cases. The first is the ‘cash for work’ programme introduced by the World Bank immediately after they arrived in Aceh. The programme asked villagers to clean their villages of rubbish and paid them for cleaning up their own houses, gardens and mosques. Fatima Sjam sees this practice as having changed the attitude of Acehnese towards their village. Ever since the ‘cash for work’ programme was introduced the villagers have been reluctant to clean up their villages unless they are paid for it, she argues. Worse, according to Fatima, since these foreign institutions always give money to the Acehnese, they become more materialistic. They always expect to get financial rewards for anything they do, even if it is for their own benefit. For local women’s NGOs this means that they also need to give money to villagers whenever they seek to work with them. She said that when her NGO initiated a programme to introduce Qanun to villagers in North Aceh, she was disappointed, as the village leader immediately told her that it would be impossible to ask villagers to sit and listen to her unless she brings money for them.

Second, many international NGOs come to Aceh, Fatima Sjam said, without having adequate knowledge of Aceh’s social and cultural setting. When they start working in the area most of these organizations recruit locals. Some of these local people have a professional background in women’s issues, but there are many who do not. Since international NGOs offer a big salary, often 15 times more than local salaries, many activists quickly leave their local NGOs to work with the international ones. According to Fatima, international organizations and foreign NGOs in Aceh have thus caused what she calls a ‘brain-drain’ for the staff of local women’s NGOs.

The international NGOs are also criticized for introducing a culture of consumption to Aceh. Seminars, workshops and other programmes are most often organized in hotels in Banda Aceh. Shadia Marhaban, a woman activist of LINA, for example, argues that instead of spending so much to pay for hotels, money saved could be used to support Acehnese women, whose lives are still difficult.