Mobilizing Piety This Page Intentionally Left Blank Mobilizing Piety Islam and Feminism in Indonesia

Mobilizing Piety This page intentionally left blank Mobilizing Piety Islam and Feminism in Indonesia Rachel Rinaldo 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rinaldo, Rachel, author. Mobilizing piety : Islam and feminism in Indonesia / Rachel Rinaldo. pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–994810–9 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–994812–3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Muslim women—Political activity—Indonesia—Jakarta. 2. Muslim women—Indonesia—Jakarta—Societies and clubs. 3. Women in Islam— Indonesia—Jakarta. 4. Feminism—Indonesia—Jakarta. 5. Feminism—Religious aspects—Islam. I. Title. HQ1170.R58 2013 305.4209598c22–dc23 2013003238 9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper CONTENTS A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s v i i 1. Islam and Feminism in Jakarta 1 2. Islamic Politics and Gender Politics in Indonesia 32 3. Fatayat and Rahima: Islamic Reformists 63 4 . Th e Prosperous Justice Party: Islamizing Indonesia? 111 5. Solidaritas Perempuan: Feminist Agency in an Age of Islamic Revival 155 6 . C o n c l u s i o n 192 Appendix A: Methodology 203 Appendix B: Human Development and Gender Indicators in Indonesia 207 Notes 211 References 221 Index 231 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Th is book would not have come to fruition without the assistance of many people and organizations. First and foremost, I appreciate the participa- tion of Solidaritas Perempuan, Fatayat NU, Rahima, and Partai Keadilan Sejahtera in this research project. Th eir hospitality and willingness to work with a foreign researcher have been beyond compare. I would especially like to thank Ciciek Farha, Syafi q Hasyim, Maria Ulfah Ansor, Dwi Rubiyanti Kholifah, Salma Safi tri, Titi Soentoro, Risma Umar, Nursanita Nasution, Ledia Hanifa, and Sri Utami for their time and assistance during my fi eldwork in Jakarta. I am indebted to Eva Amrullah for her excellent work as a research assistant in 2005 and 2008, and for her continued willingness to comment on chapter drafts. Th is book is based on dissertation research and writing that was made possible by grants from the U.S.–Indonesia Society, a Fulbright- Hays Dissertation Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, and writing fellowships from the Committee on Southern Asian Studies at the University of Chicago. I con- ducted additional fi eldwork and began working on the book during postdoctoral fellowships at the Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore) and the Center for the Pacifi c Rim at the University of San Francisco. Th e fi nal stages of writing were supported by a University of Virginia Sesquicentennial Fellowship. Colleagues at all of these academic institutions helped me to develop this project. My committee members at the University of Chicago were especially infl uential. Leslie Salzinger has known me from my fi rst days as a graduate student in the sociology department. It was in her Ethnography Practicum that I learned the joys and frustrations of conducting ethnography. Over the years she has given me both intellectual guidance and crucial career advice. Andreas Glaeser encouraged me to make structural changes that greatly improved the dissertation and has continued to be a strong supporter of this project. Danilyn Rutherford supervised the dissertation from its inception, which was not long after I took her extraordinary class on the ethnography and history of Indonesia. And Saskia Sassen has been unfailingly encouraging and supportive of a project that crosses disciplin- ary boundaries. I depended on the support of my dissertation writing group, which included Phaedra Daipha, who helped me work through the structure of my arguments and whose friendship has long been a source of sustenance. At NUS, Bryan S. Turner and colleagues at the Asia Research Institute provided critical feedback and much intellectual stimulation as I began the process of revising my dissertation. My postdoctoral year at USF provided precious time and space and a supportive environment to develop my ideas, as well as the assistance of Danicar Mariano, who is now working on her own PhD. At the University of Virginia, my writing group colleagues Simone Polillo and Rina Williams helped me to weld an overly detailed dissertation into a book manuscript. Th eir conceptual insights have been very signifi cant for me and I learned much from working with them. As the manuscript approached completion, Ann Tickamyer and Orit Avishai off ered incredibly perceptive and crucial suggestions that helped to shape its fi nal form. Rachel Mann provided excellent editing on a short timeline. And I am also indebted to the anonymous reviewers for Oxford University Press. I have presented parts of this book at too many conferences, workshops, and seminars to count. I am grateful for all the comments and advice I have received at such events, but a few stand out: the Religion and Utopia panel organized by Orit Avishai at the American Sociological Association meet- ing (2012); the Sawyer Seminar on Globalization and the New Politics of Women’s Rights at the Center for Research on Gender and Women at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2011); the Th eorizing through Religion panel organized by Michal Pagis at the Association for the Sociology of Religion (2010); the Religion in Politics: Resistance, Negotiation and Transcendence conference at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore (2008); and an invited presentation at Kapal Perempuan in Jakarta (2008), at which Indonesian women’s rights activists encouraged me to think more critically. Friends and family are crucial for such a long project as this. I am especially thankful for the support of the Rinaldo family, especially my par- ents, who always encouraged me to pursue my dream of writing a book. Th e Wyrod family has also given me tremendous support. I am also grateful to the family of Djanalis Djanaid in Malang, Indonesia. I spent a year with them as an American Field Service high school exchange student, and [viii] Acknowledgments they introduced me to the beauty of their country. Th eir daughter Mely Noviryani has kindly hosted me on return visits to Indonesia, and I’ve enjoyed seeing her children grow and her career develop. Finally, I am forever in debt to the University of Chicago for bringing me together with Robert Wyrod. He has been my companion in every way possible and he has made my life meaningful even through the diffi cult years of dissertation and book writing. Acknowledgments [ix] This page intentionally left blank Mobilizing Piety This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 Islam and Feminism in Jakarta INTRODUCTION Th e Nahdlatul Ulama building, headquarters of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, rises up from a hectic Jakarta thoroughfare. Its calm sand- stone color and vaguely Arabic design are distinctive in this enormous city of glittering skyscrapers and packed residential neighborhoods. I stood at the entrance to this building on a muggy morning in 2002 because I had come to Jakarta to study women’s activism in this Muslim majority country. Th e eclectic cityscape around me mirrored the interest- ing and creative ways in which women participated in the tumultuous process of democratization. Th is process began in 1998 after a massive economic crisis and a burgeoning grassroots opposition movement led Indonesia’s longtime dictator Suharto to resign. In a country where women are often encouraged to fulfi ll traditional expectations as daughters, wives, and mothers, these same women were proving to be impassioned agents for reform. Women swelled the ranks of rallies calling for change, mobi- lized food deliveries for the poor, organized commemorations of one of the country’s female heroines, and demanded an end to violence against women after dozens of Chinese-Indonesian women were raped during the riots that accompanied the regime’s demise. Some of these activists worked for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) advocating gender equality, human rights, and social justice. In addition, many younger women were becoming committed to Islam as they joined activist alliances. In this new atmosphere of unparalleled political freedom, I wanted to know how these women activists were adapting ideas about women’s rights for the Indonesian context. Th is book is inspired by my own background as a feminist sociologist and a middle-class American who spent a formative year as a high school exchange student in East Java.

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