The Contribution of Religious Groups to Indonesian Development with Special Reference to the Involvement of Muslim Women in the Political Process

Women’s religious groups in Indonesia have made an undeniable contribution over the years to national development, as may be seen from their activities on behalf of the people both before and after independence. Aisyiyah, for example has been playing a significant role in public affair since its birth in 1917. As the female wing of Muhammadiyah it has, in addition to its specific mandate, to support the policies of the parent body, especially in terms of political decisions. This shows a relative dependence which is in fact unavoidable. Its independence, however, lies especially in its socio-religious activities. Like Aisyiyah, the Muslimat and Fatayat movements of the Nahdlatul Ulama (the one directed at the maturer, the other at the younger generation of Muslim women), in spite of being autonomous bodies, face the same situation. Aisyiyah nevertheless took part in the establishment of the Kongres Perempuan Indonesia in 1928, while both Aisyiyah and Muslimat NU played an important role in the establishment of BMOIWI (Badan Musyawarah Organisasi Islam Wanita Indonesia, The Council of Indonesian Muslim Women’s Organizations) in 1967. Since 1956 (ten years after its establishment) Muslimat has also been active in KOWANI (Kongres Wanita Indonesia, The Indonesian Women’s Congress), while Fatayat NU joined the latter in the 1990.
In the time of the Old Order, Indonesian women in general and Muslim women in particular did not have the chance to make their particular abilities known to their male fellow citizens in the national political agenda. Their “conventional activities” were perhaps not yet recognized as a meaningful contribution to the country. They are still largely seen as peripheral. During the pre-independence era, women’s organizations operated outside the colonial system; therefore they had relatively the same objective as their male counterparts, which was Indonesian independence. In the post-independence era, however, they have become part of the political system, to which they are expected to lend their support; thus, in strengthening the existing system and they are forced to give up more of their freedom. The only exception to this trend was during the era of Liberal Democracy (Constitutional Democracy) from 1950 to 1957, when eighteen women were elected as members of the first Indonesian parliament: five from PKI (Indonesian Communist Party), four from Masyumi (Majlis Syuro Muslimin Indonesia, The Consultative Council for Indonesian Muslims), four from the Nahdlatul Ulama, one from the Indonesian Socialist Party and four from the Indonesian Nationalist Party.
At the present time we find Indonesian women participating at an increased level within the nation’s three main political parties : Golkar (The Functional Group), PPP (The United Development Party) and PDI (The Indonesian Democratic Party). Admittedly, in terms of quantity, there has been considerable improvement in the numbers of women, both in the General Assembly and the Parliament, although in terms of quality the contributions of women still fall short of the mark. Why? Because women are allowed to be involved, but generally only at subordinate or second-class levels, while the leadership is still dominated by male-oriented policies. As a matter of fact the percentage of female voters is higher than the male. This situation has naturally done little to help to bring women’s issues to the forefront. Ironically not a single party raises women’s issues as part of its platform.
Golongan Karya has always had women’s divisions at every level of its committees; however, it is obvious that they have relatively fewer strong women “politicians” than may be found in the PPP, such as Aisyah Amini (Wanita Islam), Asmah Syahruni (Muslimat NU) and Megawati Sukarnoputri (PDI, Muslim by birth). It might be noted here that the present representatives of Muslimat NU are Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi in Golkar, and Machfudlah Ali Ubaid in the PPP. It is important to note here that most Aisyiyah figures focus on academic life and a career in the civil sevice; therefore, the restrictions on being involved in political parties is unavoidable, which is why we find they are more involved in educational and social rather than political activities. We may mention in this connection Prof. Baroroh Baried and Prof. Maftukhah Yusuf, who are prominent Aisyiyah figures teaching at Gajahmada University and IKIP Jakarta.
Muslim women’s organisations have had to face other obstacles as well. In the time of the New Order for example,all Islamic parties were fused into one political party, the PPP. The government did not allow this group to use the term Islam. At this stage the Islamic party was tamed. But this strategy proved to be ineffective as a means of reducing Islamic influence. Allowed to retain the Ka’bah as its emblem, it was still able to secure the Muslim vote. In the 1982 general election the PPP still made a relatively strong showing against Golkar. The government however was not satisfied until it had compelled the Islamic party to renounce its religious principles and adopt the state ideology of Pancasila as its basic principle. The holy Ka’bah symbol was therefore replaced by a star. The PPP is therefore no longer officially a Muslim political federation, but an open party like any other.
As an example of how women are influenced by state policy, we may cite the example of the New Order’s policy of restructuring political life in Indonesia in 1972 by amalgamating political parties and strengthening its control over every mass organization, without exception. The women’s movement was also affected by this policy. In 1974 all women’s organizations within government and public institutions were replaced by government-sponsored organizations. Dharma Wanita was founded to replace all such organizations within the government itself while the wives’ organisations in the armed forces were replaced by Dharma Pertiwi. The PKK (Family Welfare Movement) was also founded to control women in local administration. In the same year the government started to give funding to KOWANI, which resulted in the state’s gaining control over the latter. According to Sullivan, these organizations reinforced the patriarchal ideology of the New Order that had relegated women to the status of secondary citizens. In addition, the government placed more of a burden on women by reinforcing their dual role in the state guidelines (GBHN) of 1978, in which it is stated that women are expected to fulfil their “essential nature” as housewives and as educators of the younger generation. Despite the establishment of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (1978 with a deputy minister, and a full minister in 1983), there was some doubt as to the capabilities of this ministry to handle women’s issues.
These issues show us how the existing political system has obviously influenced the political attitude of Indonesian women in general and Muslim women in particular, e.g., from broad and open horizons to narrower objectives which are really of little assistance to them. Fortunately women are not simply passive victims of this kind of repression; indeed, they have struggled in many different ways to emerge from its influence. The constraints were transformed into challenges encouraging them to establish new women’s movements in the 1980s. Soendari identifies three types of the latter. The first included liberal women’s movements, such as Gerakan Kesadaran Perempuan (Women’s Consciousness Movement), Kelompok Kebangkitan Perempuan Indonesia (Indonesian Women’s Awakening Group), and Kalyanamitra. The second included NGO women’s movements which focused on the economic position of rural women, for example YASANTI (Yayasan Annisa Swasti). The third and last type included women students’ associations such as Forum Perempuan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Women’s Forum), Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity) and Yayasan Perempuan Mardhika (Association of Women’s Independence). A common goal of all these new movements was to search for a way to challenge the repressive New Order.
Muslim women in particular have been actively involved in the attempt to improve women’s status in the country. Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi mentions that prior to the emergence of marriage legislation in 1974, Muslimat NU, Wanita Islam and Aisyiyah contributed greatly to abolishing child marriage, which had been allowed by the former Islamic marriage legislation in accordance with fiqh. Aisyiyah and Muslimat NU have also been involved in initiating the establishment of the Advisory Council on Marriages and Repudiations (Badan Penasehat Perkawinan dan Penyelesaian Perceraian), which aims to empower women before the courts. It has made a significant difference in this respect, especially for women in rural areas.
Muslimat NU and Aisyiyah have been active in pushing for higher learning for women, in providing health care centres and in improving earning capacity. In the educational sector Aisyiyah and Muslimat have established kindergartens throughout the country. They also provide vocational schools for girls, such as home economics schools, teacher’s colleges, schools for midwives, and nursing schools. In the health sector Muslimat and Aisyiyah are running maternity clinics and hospitals to assist women with pregnancy, family planning, and the pre- and post- natal health of mothers and babies. Fatayat NU, with its younger membership, focuses more on promoting the messages of Islamic teaching on women’s health issues and personal rights in preparation for marriage and afterwards. They provide gender awareness training, reproductive health training and leadership exercises. With the collaboration of the Indonesian government and UNICEF, Fatayat NU has succesfully trained about 5000 women in 16 provinces to be health motivators in child survival programs. Aisyiyah also has been active in this project. In the economic sector, three of these organizations provide Kelompok Bina Usaha, (Enterpreneur Group) programs which train women to improve their skills in home economics, marketing and accessing bank loans.
Aisyiyah and Muslimat NU have also been active at the International Conference of Women (ICW) and the National Commission on the Status of Indonesian Women (KNKWI). Fatayat and Muslimat NU have established cooperative groups, known as Annisa, in collaboration with the Department of Cooperatives of the Republic of Indonesia. In July 1994, Muslimat and Fatayat NU, in conjunction with AIDAB (the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau), conducted training for fruit and vegetable traders, while Muslimat alone has been working with the Indosat corporation to provide loans for petty traders in Jakarta.
The 1990s have been a significant period for Muslim women in Indonesia. During the last decade new Muslim forums and groups have been established, and new Islamic books published which are much more favorable to women than had prevously been the case. Muslimat, Fatayat and IPPNU (The Association of NU Daughters) in Jakarta have, for instance, set up a joint forum on Islam and the advancement of women. In 1994 Pustaka Bandung publishers simultaneously published Indonesian translations of three books: Women in Islam, by Fatima Mernissi, Women in the Qur’an, by Aminah Wadud Muhsin, and Muslim Women and Social Pathology, by Mazhar al-Haq Khan. Indonesian women activists have also had an opportunity to engage in dialogue with Ashgar Ali Engineer, the author of The Rights of Women in Islam and Riffat Hassan, a Pakistani-American Muslim feminist who is constructing a new interpretation of the Qur’an from a woman’s perspective.
In this same era several female political figures have emerged, although education, economics, health and social welfare programs are still considered the most suitable fields for women. Educational programs aimed at women, for example, still place stress on non-formal education rather than non-traditional fields such as engineering or the physical and natural sciences. In addition, the conventional interpretation of the holy Qur’a>n and H}adi>th in regards to some women’s issues still dominates the field and does little to help improve the status of Muslim women.
On the other hand, there are many influential and prominent Islamic leaders who support the emergence of a more liberating interpretation of Islamic teachings. We may mention here Nurcholish Majid, Abdurrahman Wahid and others. Quraish Shihab, religious supervisor for the Islamic daily newpaper Republika, has played an important role in creating a new, modern and more acceptable interpretation of Islamic discourse concerning women’s issues. Fatayat NU working with Kalyanamitra and Masdar Farid Mas’udi has provided female santris in some provinces with training in gender awareness and reproductive health programs, projects that directly focus on actual women’s issues.
These developmentss tend to prove that the conventional interpretation of the Qur’a>n often misses the real intention of the text. Women today believe that the real intention of the scripture is to guarantee the equality of all humans and to indicate that all are the same before God. Those involved in such reformist efforts should look at the cultural and historical context, thus not only the context of Arabia in the seventh century but also the specific event for which a particular part of the Qur’a>n was revealed. Nurcholish Majid says that the Qur’a>n was never intended to be an absolute guide regulating every last detail of the believers life but rather was intended to be a revelation of God’s intended ideals and guiding principle for man. Abdurrahman Wahid remarks that the social teachings of Islam must be re-interpreted in accordance with the demands of a rapidly changing society and in response to modernity. Similarly, Johan Effendy is aware of the need for a fresh, new approach to understanding Islam in the context of Indonesian society in the twentieth century. He argues that ‘openness to new ideas and fresh ways of seeing was an inescapable requirement for the rational development of Islamic thought.’
Thus, according to some recent interpretations given by Indonesian thinkers, the Qur’a>n acknowledges that men and women are a safeguard for one another. This means that Islam recognizes that men and women are equal before God, that they have the same duties toward God and humankind alike, and enjoy rights and responsibilities in accordance with their position in society. Maftukhah Yusuf remarks that most Indonesian Muslim men are like men in other Muslim countries: they are not yet willing to give up their power and do not recognize the rights of women to exercise leadership. She proposes that the way to change this is to convince men that women’s leadership will not lessen the prestige of men’s leadership; rather, it will offer an alternative form of problem-solving that men’s leadership cannot achieve. She argues further that women themselves have to struggle to prove that they have the ability to be leaders. She also believes that present attitudes towards women are incompatible with the teachings of the Qur’a>n.
Despite her progressive thought on women, Maftukhah still maintains a conventional belief in the gender-based division of labour. She argues that although men and women are equal, they have different functions. She remarks that bringing up children and taking care of the household are a woman’s duties. However, in practice she often has her husband take care of the children, do the shopping, or cook while she is busy with her own work. She uses the rhetoric ‘my husband took over my responsibilities at home.’ The question is then, why does this prominent woman need to emphasize that she is a good housewife and mother? Maftukhah answers that women’s leadership can be accepted in male dominated society with some conditions. One of them is the ability of women to prove that they fulfil the characteristics of a ‘good woman,’ the criteria for which include believing in God, fulfilling one’s duties as a housewife and mother, and obeying one’s husband without reducing one’s dignity and independence.
As is indicated in some recent aoutobiographies many Muslim women are dissatisfied with their role of merely being wife and mother. Baroroh Barid for example argues that if a woman is merely acting as a housewife and mother it means that she is only playing one third of her role as a human being. She further says that Muslim women have responsibilities in their society and therefore should take greater part in public life.
The truth is that Islam assures both men and women the right to exercise leadership either in the family or in society. Kiyai Wahid Zaini remarks that Islam gives equal opportunity to both husband and wife to be the head of the family. He argues that the Islamic teachings on family leadership are complementary and points out that in Indonesia there has been a tradition whereby that husband and wife help each other, for example, when women work in the rice field or in the office their husbands take care of the children, a practice which is in line with Islamic teaching. Kiyai Ali Yafie firthermore has criticised the interpretation of the hadith that says: a group of people will not be successful if they are led by women.’ He notes that this hadi>th was in response to a controversy surrounding the succession in Persia, where on the death of the king the higher officials appointed his daughter to lead the country, a decision which in this case led to the kingdom’s ruin due to her lack of ability. The hadith was Prophet Muhammad’s comment on this particular issue and was never intended as a blanket injunction against women serving as leaders of society. The Qur’a>n mentions a wise woman ruler, queen Balqis (the queen of Sheba), for instance, in the period of the prophet Sulaiman.
Although Masdar F. Mas’udi and Quraish Shihab argue that the role of women as educators of children is very important, they encourage women to participate in public life. Masdar argues further that if a wife works for an income, the income belongs to her personally and need not be shared. Quraish Shihab also emphasises that the wife has a right to maintain her own property without the husband’s agreement. Commenting on a wife’s obligation to obey her husband, Ali Yafie argues that the husband’s consent is not absolute. For example, a wife who refuses to have sex with her husband is not automatically guilty of sin. If there is a ‘valid’ reason it is not opposed to the religious norm.
On the question of polygamy, the new discourse emphasizes the woman’s rights rather than the man’s. The wife’s opinion on this matter is absolutely vital, and the most important requirement of polygamy is justice. The Qur’a>n al-Nisa>’ 3 says that ‘If you fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, two, or three or four. But if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hand possess. That will be more suitable to prevent you from doing injustice.’
Abdurrahman Wahid and Masdar Farid Mas’udi both agree that justice here is to be defined not only from the husband’s view but also from the wife’s. The former argues that this verse means that it is the wife who should determine whether the husband is being just or not, while the latter says that we should look at the issue of polygamy in the context of its revelation. In the pre-Islamic period there were rich men and leaders of tribes who had countless wives. Therefore Islam’s limit of four wives was a revolutionary attitude for that time. In this era when monogamy is the norm, the strict requirement to have no more than one wife must be strengthened. Masdar believes that ‘if this requirement is carefully observed, there might be no men who can have polygamy.
It is very important to note here that more liberating discourse on women still circulates among only relatively few educated Indonesians. The fifty-six religious books on women’s issues analysed by Johan Meuleman support conventional discourses. The writing of most editorials and the supervision of religious or counselling columns in Islamic journals and newspapers are likewise still dominated by men.

Concluding remarks:
On the basis of the above explanation, one may tentatively conclude that the Indonesians seem to recognize the important role that women have to play in the development, at least at a cognitive level; however, in practice most social institutions do not optimize the agenda of women’s empowerment. Obviously they respect women‘s achievement in theory, and trumpet them in their development slogans but they nevertheless ignore them in political practice. Indonesians need to understand that women face a triple struggle: as backward citizens; as poor peasants and as women in the middle of a male-dominated society. Muslim women’s organizations especially Aisyiah, Muslimat and Fatayat NU need to support women physically and spiritually on the one hand and at the same time, while realizing the importance of their conventional ststus, challenge them with more selective activities of modern development.


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*The Contribution of Religious Group
Paper for Icmi Conference Montreal May 10-12, 1999 by Sri Mulyati