JOURNAL: Piety and Sexuality in a Public Sphere: Experiences of Javanese Muslim Women’s Political Leadership

Piety and Sexuality in a Public Sphere: Experiences of Javanese Muslim Women’s Political Leadership 

Kurniawati Hastuti DEWI

(Dewi, 2017)

Dewi, K. H. (2017). Piety and Sexuality in a Public Sphere: Experiences of Javanese Muslim Women’s Political Leadership. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 23(3), 340-362.

My summary:

Some factors may contribute to their votes for their winning, including experience of being legislative members, women’s religious identity, and previous experience as a leader or members in women’s organisation and political parties  (Dewi, 2017; Prihatini, 2018a). However, women’s ability for their polical leadership may be shadowed by the oligarchy, including political kinship and more capital in Indonesia (Dewi, 2017; Prihatini, 2018a).  

ABSTRACT

“Familial ties,” “political dynasties” and “moral capital” are some factors previously believed to explain female leadership in Asia. However, these are no longer sufficient to understand the rise of Muslim women in Indonesian politics, surrounded by the third wave of Islamization and globalization in the 21st century. This paper analyses competing ideas of Islamic piety and sexuality behind the rise of Muslim women in Indonesian local politics. It explores the stories of four female Javanese Muslim political leaders in using ideas of gender, piety and sexuality in private life and as political strategy. This paper reveals that the idea of Islamic piety, such as wearing the veil to show modesty within the increasing engagement of Indonesian society with Islamization has been prominent. Donning the veil not only signifies their Islamic modernity, it also provides comfortable spaces for manoeuvre in the public sphere. The discourses and practices of sexuality focusing on heterosexual norms have been predominant in shaping societal expectations and are used in political campaigns. This paper sees that the gender normative standard that stipulates appropriate positions and roles of women and men in Javanese society and politics has changed, in favor of greater participation by Muslim women in the public sphere.

The Third Wave of Islamization in Post-Suharto Indonesia

I identify three stages in this rise of female political leadership; namely, first, from the late 19th Century to the New Order, marking the beginning of political roles for Indonesian women; second, Islamization and the early stages of democratization, seen in the strengthening of Indonesian women’s roles in politics; third, democratization in the post-Suharto period that saw the expanding roles of women in politics (Dewi, 2015, p. 28–49). (pp 334)

First, from the late 19th Century to the New Order, marking the beginning of political roles for Indonesian women;

During the New Order (1966– 1998), Indonesian women were not given any political autonomy under the gender ideology of “state ibuism” (Suryakusuma, 1996, p. 96), which expected the total devotion of Indonesian women to be wives and mothers. In the New Order, an industrialization program that was launched in the 1970s, resulted in the rapid growth of the industrial sector, which opened new employment opportunities for women, during which factories producing clothing, textiles and footwear came up. As a result, women acquired better skills and incomes, which led to growing confidence among them to expand their roles and positions. Here we can see that the level of socioeconomic development in Indonesia, especially after the 1970s, affected the structure of society in such a way that more women were able to get out of their homes and undertake jobs that had become available in the new industrialized era. Later, this facilitated their greater participation in the public sphere in the democratization era. P.344)

The expansion of Indonesian women’s role in politics (Dewi, 2015, p. 43– 45), was possible due to transformation of “state ibuism” a gender ideology that had been imposed as of the early 2000s. These institutional changes had helped facilitate women’s engagement with progressive agendas in support of larger roles for women in politics. At the same time, following 2001, we witnessed the rise of women activists and NGOs, which promoted affirmative action for increasing the representation of women in parliaments in the 2004 general elections (Dewi, 2007, p. 34). These persistent efforts continued in the 2009 and 2014 general elections. All these developments illustrate the positive impact of increasing public awareness and discussions on the issues of gender equality and women’s leadership, which gradually changed societal expectations regarding the greater participation of women in politics

The trend of an increasing number of Indonesian women pursuing political careers in local politics has developed along with the growing engagement of Muslims in Islamic principles and norms from the first to the third waves of Islamization in post-Suharto Indonesia. The first wave of Islamization in Indonesia occurred following the thirteenth century. I have seen elsewhere that the penetration of Islam in Southeast Asia, including in Java, which began in the thirteenth century, marked the transition from the ancient East Javanese Hindu-Buddhist regimes to the Islamic Kingdom, which led to significant changes in Javanese livelihoods, affecting everyone, including women, following the late fifteenth century (Dewi, 2012).

Second, Islamization and the early stages of democratization

The second wave of Islamization in Indonesia as a modern nation state occurred in the 1980s. Suharto’s authoritarian leadership during the New Order (1966–1998) constrained political Islam. However, his rigid stance regarding political Islam provoked the revival of Islam, a socio-religious movement that encouraged the internalization of Islamic principles within society after the 1980s. This was inspired by the spirit of Islamic revival in the 1970s across the Muslim world, including Malaysia and Indonesia (Feener, 2007); (Hamayotsu 2002). One of the vivid consequences of Islamization in the 1980s was the gradual adoption of veils by young Muslim women (Brenner 1996; Feillard, 1999; Alatas & Desliyanti, 2002; Ida, 2008). The vibrant role of Islamic organizations in bringing Islamization to Indonesia resulted in a more plural form of Islam, one of which was to welcome ideas about Islamic feminism following the early 1990s. P 345

Third, democratization in the post-Suharto period that saw the expanding roles of women in politics

Within the third wave of Islamization, scholars also paid attention to changes in the lives and roles of Muslim women, individually and collectively (Adamson, 2004; Syamsiyatun, 2007; Nurmila, 2007; Blackburn, Smith, & Syamsiyatun, 2008; van Wichelen, 2010). With this important development, Islam has gradually moved into the center of Indonesian society and shapes Muslim Indonesian women’s involvement in the public sphere.

Now, we are entering the third wave of Islamization in post-Suharto Indonesia. It is generally understood that contemporary Indonesian Islam, more specifically political Islam, in this era has declined which is indicated by the weakening of Islamic political parties, while “social Islamization,” as Masaaki, Atsushi and Suaedy (2010, p. 3–5) put it, has deepened. Several studies explore the impact of the growing engagement of Indonesian society with Islamic norms in post-Suharto Indonesia (Bamualim, Scoot, van der Meij, & Abubakar, 2006; Fealy & White, 2008; Hilmy, 2010; van Bruinessen, 2002; Hasan, 2009). This period is also signified by the rise of liberal Islam pioneered by young generations of Muslim intellectualism in organizations such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdalatul Ulama (NU) (Kersten, 2015), as well as, the emergence of transnational Islamic movements. Interestingly, van Bruinessen (2013, p. 3) notes the “conservative turn” in mainstream Indonesian Islam in which the modernist and liberal views within established Indonesian Islamic organizations Muhammadiyah and NU were increasingly rejected by 2005. For example, Menchik (2016) notes that Indonesia’s mainstream mass Islamic organizations (NU, Muhammadiyah, Persis) are tolerant about the country’s religious diversity, but they do not want liberalism to exist in Indonesia.

The structure may seem patriarchal, but in their everyday lives, it is the women who control the day to day household and have the authority to do so. Pp 355

This study indicates that the piety and good sexuality of Muslim women political leaders may be only be a very superficial part of their being able to get wide approval and power. This is similar to my earlier study of the three Javanese Muslim women political leaders (in Kebumen, Pekalongan, Banyuwangi) who used Islamic piety for their portrayal in politics. I note there that “Perhaps in the realm of politics, it does not matter whether a candidate truly embraces Islamic piety (meaning, as their own inner personal experience of the transformative path into a more divine life), or whether they just utilize it or even manipulate it. However, their actions have surely transformed the idea of Islamic piety: from a personal act of worshiping God to a public piety in which the ideas and norms of Islamic piety become instrumental in politics in defining what I call the ‘common rule of conduct’ for showing modesty in an increasingly Islamized society in contemporary Indonesian politics” (Dewi, 2015, p. 182). This may serve to caution us as such processes may indicate strengthening of the politics of identity along the lines of religion, ethnicity, and race. Pp 354

Dewi, K. H. (2017). Piety and Sexuality in a Public Sphere: Experiences of Javanese Muslim Women’s Political Leadership. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 23(3), 340-362.