6 Religious reform Women in positions The Study of religious authority

Teachers, missionaries, and activists. Female religious leadership and social mobility in Southeast Asia, 1920s-1960s

Iris Busschers, Kirsten Kamphuis What roles did Malay and Indonesian women play in early twentieth century religious and David Kloos reform? Both Muslims and Christians felt confronted in this period by a need to adapt their practices and institutions to modern times. Increasing women’s participation in religious education, ritual, and proselytization was a key aspect of this urge for renewal. Yet, very little has been written about women in positions of religious authority and historical research about women and women’s movements has a decidedly secular imprint. At the same time, the study of religion is deeply biased toward men. In both perspectives, female religious authority is a neglected theme. How did women, whose experiences were shaped largely by and through religious engagement, navigate a changing world and their own place therein? Three brief portraits provide a glimpse. They suggest that the agency of these women was more significant than commonly assumed, and also, albeit often confined to local spheres, both reflective of and conducive to new paths for social mobility.

refused to accept subsidies from the colonial government, and stated that she aimed to teach “young Muslimas, the daughters of Indonesia”, using the nationalist term for the territory.10 Diniyyah Puteri was a prestigious school in the colonial era, and remained so after Indonesian independence. As early as the 1930s, some of its graduates continued their religious education in Egypt, a global centre for modernist Islamic learning.11 In the 1950s, Rahmah herself became the first woman to receive the honorary title syeikhah from the famous Al-Azhar University in Cairo, an acknowledgement of her prominent role as a scholar of Islam. Nowadays, Diniyyah Puteri is still a flourishing institution that offers Islamic education from primary school up to secondary school level. The school will soon celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary.

Wanita Rukun Santoso: picture probably taken at an annual conference of WRS at Swaru. NL-UtHUA 1567 file 320 photo album De Vries and De Vries-Kruyt (ca. 1934). At the forefront of public life: Khaironnisah Mohd Ali Spearheading Islamic a family of ulama, scholars of Islam, and Ideologically, Diniyyah Puteri was part As in West Sumatra, the 1920s and 1930s education for girls: received practical and religious education of the kaum muda [young generation]. This in Penang could rightly be called “an age in Rahmah el Yunusiyah from the women in her family. Her older was a political and educational movement motion”. Like other port cities in the region, brother, Zainuddin Labay el Yunusy, founded that aimed to strengthen Islam by integrating such as Bangkok, Rangoon, and Batavia, this The 1920s have been characterized as a coeducational primary school for Islamic Western science into the religion. By combining island just off the coast of the Malay peninsula “an age in motion”, a period of new ideologies, education.3 Rahmah, however, argued that Islamic with secular, ‘modern’ knowledge, became a centre of social and political new technologies, new media, new forms girls should have the opportunity to follow kaum muda schools, including girls’ schools, change. Alongside Singapore and Malacca, of education, and new visions of the future.1 a designated educational programme in sought to educate a new generation of Muslim Penang was part of the so-called British Straits It is in this period that Rahmah el Yunusiyah an all-female environment. This, she believed, intellectuals capable of freeing Islam from Settlements. The expansion of trade and (1900-1969) came of age. Rahmah was one of was required in Islam. In Rahmah’s eyes, colonialism.6 They were regularly raided by commerce, the development of the local press, the most prominent figures in Islamic education women’s religious education ran the risk the colonial police and many were closed down a thriving cultural scene, and a wide range of for girls in the Netherlands Indies, and continued of being neglected in favour of men’s, and by the government. This never happened to new religious and political movements created to play an important role in education and she was determined to change this. After Diniyyah Puteri, however, possibly because unprecedented opportunities for social mobility religious politics after Indonesian independence. divorcing her husband, to whom she had Rahmah refused to align her school with overtly and emancipation. Women across social Her life story poignantly illustrates how some been married off at age fourteen, she anticolonial organizations such as PERMI classes benefited from this atmosphere of Indonesian women were able to gain significant remained unmarried and dedicated her life (Persatuan Muslimin Indonesia, the Indonesian change as they joined local and international religious authority, in spite of their doubly to the cause of women’s education.4 Muslim Union). The government considered organizations, secured access to education, marginalized position as colonized women In 1923, at the age of 23, Rahmah PERMI a grave threat and did everything it and found employment in local schools, in a racially structured society that valued opened a new school called Diniyyah Puteri could to frustrate the organization. Its schools hospitals, offices, and banks.12 men over women. [Religious Education for Girls] in a mosque were frequently raided and in 1932, PERMI It is in this atmosphere of possibilities that Rahmah was born in West Sumatra, a region in Padang Panjang. To raise the necessary leader Rasuna Said (1910-1965) became the Khaironnisah binti Mohd Ali (1933-2017) was known throughout the Netherlands Indies for funds, she had travelled extensively through first Indonesian woman to be imprisoned for born.13 Her father was a clerk at the Hollandsche the prominent place of Islam in local culture, West Sumatra and Aceh. The school was anticolonial activities.7 Interestingly, Rasuna Bank [Dutch Bank], while her mother took care and for the particularities of Minangkabau a novelty in the Netherlands Indies, offering was a former teacher at Diniyyah Puteri who of six children. The family lived in Jelutong, society. The Minangkabau are well-known for a combination of religious and secular had left the school after a conflict with Rahmah a peri-urban area outside the island’s main their matrilineal traditions. The family line, and education in a girls-only boarding school about the content of its education. Rasuna city Georgetown. From the age of seven to some extent property, passes through female environment. The curriculum was not wanted her classes to have an anticolonial onwards, Khaironnisah attended a local Malay- family members. In line with this strong position restricted to religious education and Arabic, character, while Rahmah insisted that the medium primary school. During the Japanese of Minangkabau women, West Sumatra has as was common in traditional Quranic school should be politically neutral.8 occupation, this school remained open, a longstanding tradition of girls’ education in schools. Instead, the programme included That said, Diniyyah Puteri did have an teaching children Japanese in the morning Quranic schools.2 Rahmah el Yunusiyah played a range of secular school subjects such as undeniably nationalist outlook. In the school and religion in the afternoon. Khaironnisah was a crucial part in expanding girls’ education in history, Dutch and English, geography, and newsletters Soeara Moerid [The Voice of the a good student and at twelve years old she her region into the realm of secular knowledge. economics. Diniyyah Puteri quickly gained Students] and Kodrat Moeda [Force of the already taught the Quran to younger children. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, popularity in West Sumatra and beyond, and Youth] students wrote about the important But she entered the most formative years of more and more parents sent their daughters to five years after its opening the school moved role of Muslim women in the struggle against her education only after the war. Together European-style secular schools established by to a large two-storey building that served as colonialism. Soeara Moeda stopped appearing with a few friends, she was enrolled by her the colonial government. a pondok [dormitory]. By the end of the 1930s, in 1926 after its editor-in-chief was arrested religious teacher in the famous Al-Mashoor Rahmah believed that a different kind hundreds of girls were registered, hailing from and sent to the Boven-Digoel prison camp school in Georgetown. Founded in 1916, Sekolah of education was needed for local girls. Her as far as modern-day Malaysia, Singapore, by the colonial authorities.9 al-Mashoor was one of the most important passion for religious knowledge and education and Ambon. One of them was Aishah Ghani, As convinced of the importance of Indonesian institutions of modernist Islamic education was sparked early in life. She came from a future minister of independent Malaysia.5 independence as her students, Rahmah herself in Southeast Asia.14 In contrast to traditional The Newsletter No. 85 Spring 2020 7 The Study

Islamic schools, the curriculum included Wetan (GKJW) [East Java Christian Church] Asian YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Notes religious and secular subjects. It had a modern in 1931. Under pressure of Javanese Christians Association) conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka administration, a classroom system, and and the international missionary community, as the only Javanese attendant. Like the other 1 Shiraishi, T. 1990. An Age in Motion: Popular was open to both male and female students. the East Javanese church became (partially) WRS women highlighted here, Arsiah acted both Radicalism in Java, 1912-1926. Ithaca: Al-Mashoor was thus comparable to Rahmah independent from the mission. Javanese men within missionary circles through her work at Cornell University Press. el Yunusiyah’s school in Padang Panjang and, occupied most of the leadership positions in the the school, and in the context of the GKJW in 2 Hadler, J. 2008. Muslims and Matriarchs: due to its location in Penang, a focal point church but chairmanship remained in the hands her role as WRS board member. Moreover, she Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through of the growing urban Islamic middle class. of a Dutch missionary. Dutch missionaries combined these activities with a third function Jihad and Colonialism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp.107-108. Khaironnisah’s mother took her daughter and thus handed some of their authority back for the transnational Christian organization 3 Rasyad, A. 1991. ‘Rahmah El Yunisiyah, her friends to school every morning, until one of to Javanese Christians after having taken YWCA, implementing YWCA work in Malang. Educational Pioneer for Girls’, in Rasyad, the teachers could no longer bear the sight over leadership in Javanese congregations WRS board member Soewati was also A., Salim, L. & Saleh. H. (eds) Rahmah El of the old woman plodding through the streets. during the nineteenth century.16 instrumental to the work of Slotemaker de Yunusiyyah dan Zainuddin Labay El Yunusy. It was decided that the girls would have to The organization of women’s work among Bruïne. Like the other women discussed here, Dua Bersaudara Tokoh Pembaharu Sistem board. A girls’ section was thus established and with Javanese Christian women was she received Christian education beyond Pendidikan di Indonesia. Riyawat Hidup, parallel to the boys’. Another big change an important element in the reconfiguration the village school level and she was part Cita-Cita, dan Perjuanangnya. Jakarta: occurred in 1949. Five female teachers got of the Christian mission and church in East of important Christian family networks. Pengurus Perguruan Diniyyah Puteri married, more or less simultaneously, and Java. Dutch missionaries and Javanese church Her brother, for instance, was the secretary of Padang Panjang, pp.245-260. left Penang. The best students, including leaders feared that Javanese Protestants would GKJW. Like many members of WRS board, she 4 1938. Boekoe Peringatan 15 Tahoen ‘Dinijjah School Poeteri’ Padang Pandjang. Padang Khaironnisah, sixteen years old at the time, lag behind the organizational vigour of other lived in Malang and adhered to the idea that Panjang. were pitchforked into a new job as teacher. Javanese groups, including nationalist and village women needed further Christianisation 5 Ghani, A. 1992. Memoir Seorang Pejuang. The girls agreed but, ambitious and assertive religious (Muslim and Catholic) organizations. and education. Soewati accompanied Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka as they were, only on the express condition The establishment of schools and associations Slotemaker de Bruïne on multiple tours of local Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, pp.6-10. that their own education received particular women’s associations, providing the necessary 6 Abdullah, T. 1971. Schools and Politics: would not suffer from attention. Slotemaker contacts for the Dutch missionary. Through the Kaum Muda Movement in West it and that they would In the early to de Bruïne’s coordinated this labour, Soewati hoped to be appointed Sumatra (1927-1933). PhD thesis Cornell be taught by the senior women’s associations as inspector for WRS, a position that entailed University; Noer, D. 1973. The Modernist teachers two days per and women’s making working visits to local associations. Muslim Movement in Indonesia, 1900-1942. mid-twentieth century Singapore: Oxford University Press. week. Four years later, evangelising work When WRS appointed an older and married 7 White, S. 2013. ‘Rasuna Said: Lioness of Khaironnisah became the Malay-Indonesian as part of a broader woman instead, Soewati moved into a position the Indonesian Independence Movement’, head of the girls’ section, transition that included of surveyor for the mission’s district nursing in Blackburn, S. & Ting, H. (eds) Women in as the first woman in the archipelago, similar moving Christian life organization in Malang. For Soewati, then, a Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements. history of al-Mashoor. beyond villages and position in the Christian women’s federation Singapore: NUS Press. She was an active and mechanisms of agency into the cities of Malang was also a means of making a career. 8 Boekoe Peringatan 15 Tahoen. enterprising leader. and social mobility and Surabaya (which For Slotemaker de Bruïne, these three 9 Witrianto. 2013. ‘Dampak Pendidikan The girls of al-Mashoor, attracted increasing women were key intermediaries, advancing terhadap munculnya Pergerakan Nasional she believed, should were at work in numbers of Christians), her missionary labour. However, their activities di Padangpanjang’, Analisis Sejarah 3:29- be knowledgeable and the founding of new as Christian social reformers and sometimes 30. 10 Boekoe Peringatan 15 Tahoen. but also prepared for Muslim and Christian Christian schools and proselytizing women were by no means confined 11 1932. ‘Doea Orang Gadis Bp. Berangkat ke 17 responsible roles in (youth) associations. to being a go-between for Dutch missions. Mesir’, Pandji Poestaka 23(10):365. society. She therefore communities. In her first years in They were evidence of the manoeuvring space 12 Lewis, S.L. 2016. Cities in Motion: Urban Life regularly organized East Java, Slotemaker and potential for social mobility implicated and Cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia, extra-curricular trainings de Bruïne set out to in Javanese women’s roles in the context of, 1920–1940. Cambridge University Press, in skills such as public speaking. coordinate activities that, to a large extent, and particularly in moving between, mission, pp.12-13. Khaironnisah’s ambition to prepare her were already taking place, albeit not under church, and Christian associations. 13 The following paragraphs are largely based students for a visible role was modelled, at Dutch coordination.18 In her effort to coordinate on the (transcriptions of) interviews with least partly, on her own experiences. In 1946, women’s associations, she depended on Khaironnisah Mohd Ali, carried out by Mahani Musa (Universiti Sains Malaysia) and she represented al-Mashoor at an assembly of gaining access to existing local Christian Religious activism as a her students, between 2008-2014, in the the Malayan Union (the first experiment with women’s associations and the overarching pathway towards social framework of the project (also led by Mahani self-determination, orchestrated by the British federation called Wanita Rukun Santoso (WRS) mobility Musa) “Oral History Documentation, Al- and the Malay aristocratic elite). Her speech [Women Harmonious and Steadfast]. Javanese Mashoor School Pulau Pinang, 1940s-1980s” did not remain unnoticed. New political women founded WRS in 1929 as a follow-up In the early to mid-twentieth century (History Section, School of Humanities, parties were conscious of the importance of to the annual women’s conferences organized Malay-Indonesian archipelago, similar Universiti Sains Malaysia in partnership with youthful commitment, and Khaironnisah was by missionary wives since 1926. WRS’s slogan mechanisms of agency and social mobility Malaysiana and Archives, Hamzah Sendut scouted by the local branch of the United read “spiritual and material progress”. In 1936, were at work in Muslim and Christian Library, USM, Penang State Museum, and Malays National Party, the organization the organization added the aim of “bringing communities. The most significant difference Yayasan Islam Pulau Pinang). Additional interviews were carried out by David Kloos that would dominate the national political others to Christianity”. Motherhood and the between Christian and Muslim female and Mahani Musa in 2014 and 2016. For landscape for more than sixty years to come. guarding of morality, especially of Christian activists was, of course, their relationship to a longer biography, see: Mahani Musa. In 1957, the year in which Malaya became daughters, were central concerns, similar to the British and Dutch colonial regimes. While 2016. ‘Dato’ Hajjah Khaironnisa’ bt Mohd 19 an independent nation, Khaironnisah tried some Muslim women’s associations. WRS the Dutch colonial government often actively Ali: Bekas Pelajar, Guru, dan Guru Besar to resign from al-Mashoor. Her husband had united approximately thirty local associations, supported Christian missions, for example, it Sekolah perempuan Al Mashoor,’ in Mahani found a job in Singapore and she had decided which all put the federation’s slogan into repressed certain Muslim organizations which Musa. (ed.) Memori 100 Tahun Sekolah Al to follow him. The school board, however, practice in their own manner. However, it considered a threat to its authority. At the Mashoor. Georgetown: Jam’iyah Al-Ikha’ did not accept her resignation and instead all local associations organized bible circles, same time, Christian women used their skills Al-Khairiyah, pp.104-13. offered her husband a job as a teacher. They offered sewing or weaving circles, and to create a more prominent place for local 14 Mahani Musa. 2016. Memori 100 Tahun stayed. A few years later she did step down provided financial aid to those in need. people in previously European-dominated Sekolah Al Mashoor, pp.17-31; ibid. note 12, pp.191-92. WRS thus combined social, economic and religious spaces, suggesting that they did as a school director so she could dedicate 15 Slotemaker de Bruïne was not the first herself more fully to her growing family. It was religious initiatives. not always accept the colonial status-quo. woman to work for the mission, but the end of a short and turbulent career, but The work performed by Javanese women The individual women portrayed here rather the first woman to carry the title not of her visible role in local politics and civil was indispensable to fostering Christian also differed significantly, and not just in ‘missionary’. Dutch women had been part society. Khaironnisah remained active on the belonging and building up active Christian terms of their religious backgrounds. Some of mission work in different capacities forefront, as a political activist, as a member women’s associations in East Java. For of them were educated at official schools, (as missionary wives, teachers, nurses of several associations, and as a religious Slotemaker de Bruïne, these women could act while others received education at home, and and doctors) and Javanese women too teacher of both children and adults in her as intermediaries. One of the women she worked the social position of their families of origin participated in missionary and church life as neighbourhood. She continued to fulfil some with was S. Mestoko, who was married to the varied. What they had in common, however, njoras, nurses, teachers, and as members of local church councils. of these roles up until her death in 2017. first minister of the GKJW. She was chair of was a strong dedication to their religious and 16 Aritonang, J.S. & Steenbrink, K. (eds) 2008. WRS and together with missionary wife Hester social aspirations in a time of great change. A History of Christianity in Indonesia. Schuurman-Nijhoff taught the wives of future An interesting insight, in this respect, bears Leiden, Brill, pp.639-719 Christian women’s leadership: ministers at the training college for Javanese on the apparently relatively strong stance 17 Nortier, C.W. 1939. Van Zendingsarbeid tot ministers in Malang. In her capacity as chair of of several of these women toward marriage Zelfstandige Kerk in Oost-Java. Hoenderloo: Wanita Rukun Santoso WRS, Mestoko helped Slotemaker de Bruïne gain and divorce. This brief inquiry into the lives Zendingsstudieraad, pp.243-248. Christian women, too, were able to achieve access to the meetings of local associations. of Rahmah el Yunusiyah, Khaironnisah Mohd 18 The following paragraphs are based on the religious authority. In the context of Christian At the same time, this position also allowed her Ali and the women of Wanita Rukun Santoso three-monthly reports by Slotemaker de missionary work and Christian churches in East to curtail Slotemaker de Bruïne’s access. For demonstrates that a focus on Southeast Asian Bruïne published in the Women’s Mission Java, women played important roles in local example, by forbidding her from speaking at the women’s religious agency in the colonial era League’s journal Vrouwen Zendingsblad (1935-1940) and the archival files containing religious and social life. In 1935, the Women’s annual congress of WRS, instead relegating her can wield fascinating results. Their stories letters and reports about her work in the Mission League and the Dutch Missionary to the youth department, which she considered have the potential to transform the ways in mission archives located in Utrecht: NL- Society appointed Christine Slotemaker more suitable for a Dutch unmarried woman. which scholars interpret the religious history UtHUA 1102-1 files 3478 and 3526. While de Bruïne as the first woman missionary Mestoko also joined Slotemaker de Bruïne in of the region, connecting women’s religious these files report on Slotemaker de Bruïne’s in East Java.15 Her appointment meant a some of her journeys. Together with two other commitment to new pathways towards work, they also provide a record of the more sustained commitment by the mission Christian women they visited the public meeting mobility and the forging of public roles. activities of multiple Javanese Christian to dedicate itself to work “by women, for of Aisjiah, the women’s section of the Islamic women. women”. Slotemaker de Bruïne’s tasks included modernist organization Muhammadiyah, in 1938 Iris Busschers, PhD Candidate, Faculty 19 Locher-Scholten, E. 2003. ‘Morals, coordinating women’s associations and training in Surabaya. In response to that visit and the of Theology and Religious Studies, Harmony, and National Identity: “Companionate Feminism” in Colonial Javanese women in evangelising labour. broader debate about the proposed marriage University of Groningen Indonesia in the 1930s’, Journal of Women’s The East Java mission conference created law in 1937, Mestoko spoke about marriage Kirsten Kamphuis, junior researcher History 14(4):38-58. 20 Slotemaker de Bruïne’s position in response to at various WRS meetings. at the Cluster of Excellence Religion 20 Locher-Scholten, E. 2000. ‘Marriage, the “age in motion” in Java. Her appointment Another influential board member of WRS and Politics at Münster University Morality, and Modernity: The 1937 Debate was part of a series of changes in missionary was R. Arsiah, who worked as a teacher at David Kloos, senior researcher at the Royal on Monogamy’, in Women and the Colonial policy, the most evident of which was perhaps the Christian domestic science school in Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian State. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University the establishment of the Gereja Kristen Jawi Malang. In 1936, Arsiah participated in the and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden Press, pp.187-218.