Scraps of Hope in Banda Aceh
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Marjaana Jauhola Marjaana craps of Hope in Banda Aceh examines the rebuilding of the city Marjaana Jauhola of Banda Aceh in Indonesia in the aftermath of the celebrated SHelsinki-based peace mediation process, thirty years of armed conflict, and the tsunami. Offering a critical contribution to the study of post-conflict politics, the book includes 14 documentary videos Scraps of Hope reflecting individuals’ experiences on rebuilding the city and following the everyday lives of people in Banda Aceh. Scraps of Hope in Banda Aceh Banda in Hope of Scraps in Banda Aceh Marjaana Jauhola mirrors the peace-making process from the perspective of the ‘outcast’ and invisible, challenging the selective narrative and ideals of the peace as a success story. Jauhola provides Gendered Urban Politics alternative ways to reflect the peace dialogue using ethnographic and in the Aceh Peace Process film documentarist storytelling. Scraps of Hope in Banda Aceh tells a story of layered exiles and displacement, revealing hidden narratives of violence and grief while exposing struggles over gendered expectations of being good and respectable women and men. It brings to light the multiple ways of arranging lives and forming caring relationships outside the normative notions of nuclear family and home, and offers insights into the relations of power and violence that are embedded in the peace. Marjaana Jauhola is senior lecturer and head of discipline of Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on co-creative research methodologies, urban and visual ethnography with an eye on feminisms, as well as global politics of conflict and disaster recovery in South and Southeast Asia. Pro et Contra Contra et Pro SERIES Pro et Contra SERIES Scraps of Hope in Banda Aceh Gendered Urban Politics in the Aceh Peace Process Marjaana Jauhola Pro et Contra 1 Published by Helsinki University Press www.hup.fi © Marjaana Jauhola 2020 First published in 2020 Cover design by Ville Karppanen Cover photo: Pietro Scozzari / Alamy Video credits: Production: Scraps of Hope / Marjaana Jauhola Main camera, script, edit: Heartwaves Design / Seija Hirstiö Research, script, camera 2: Marjaana Jauhola Interviews: Marjaana Jauhola, Zubaidah Djohar Transcripts and translations: Evi Susianti, Mifta Sugesti Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd. Pro et Contra. Books from the Finnish Political Science Association ISSN (Print): 2736-8513 ISSN (Online): 2736-9129 ISBN (Paperback): 978-952-369-016-5 ISBN (PDF): 978-952-369-017-2 ISBN (EPUB): 978-952-369-018-9 ISBN (Mobi): 978-952-369-019-6 https://doi.org/10.33134/pro-et-contra-1 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (unless stated otherwise within the content of the work). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. The full text of this book has been peer reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see http://www.hup.fi/ Suggested citation: Jauhola, Marjaana. 2020. Scraps of Hope in Banda Aceh: Gendered Urban Politics in the Aceh Peace Process. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://doi.org/10.33134 /pro-et-contra-1. To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit https://doi.org/10.33134/pro-et-contra-1 or scan this QR code with your mobile device: Contents List of Illustrations vii List of Videos ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction: No More – Re-Centring the Subalterns of the Aceh Peace Process 1 De-Centring the Masculinist Peace Mediation 5 MoU poetry 5 Outline of the Argument 12 Chapter 1: Stumbling Scholarship: Reversing Research Praxis of Everyday Subjectivities 17 1.1. Researched Subjects and Postcolonial Paranoias 17 1.2. On Everyday Subjectivities: Feminism, Islam, Agency and Freedom 20 1.3. Methods for Decolonisation / Reversal of Research Praxis 28 1.4. From Street Ethnography to Film Production, and Visual Representations 32 1.4.1. Multi-Sited Ethnography (2012–2016) 32 1.4.2. On Documentary Video Production 36 1.4.3. Teasing Out a Coherent Story 38 1.5. Beyond Fables and Peace Brands 43 Chapter 2: Kota Madani (Civilised City) and the Struggle to Define Ideal Womanhood 45 2.1. City in Transition and the Rise of Shari’a Populism 45 2.2. Governance of Gender and Sexual Politics: Colonial (Dis)Continuities? 48 2.3. Kota Madani – Towards a ‘Civilised Islamic City’ 55 2.4. Bunda’s Advice: Paradise Awaits 66 Nasihat bunda – Mother’s advice 67 2.5. Guidance towards Ideal Womanhood through State Structures 73 2.6. Contestation of the Public Sphere and Islamic Women’s Respectability 76 2.7. Paradise Awaits, for Whom? 85 Chapter 3: ‘Because You Are a Woman’: Resisting a Single Story 87 3.1. Smile that Hides Sorrow? 87 3.2. Stranger in Her Own Village 90 3.3. Solving Problems Like a Man 93 3.4. Cursed by the Second Wife 98 3.5. Grandmother Really Understood Me 100 3.6. What to Do If No Children Are Mine? 103 3.7. Smile as a Self-Care? 106 Chapter 4: Subjugated Post-Conflict Masculinities: From Premanisme to Sufism 107 4.1. The Many Faces of Masculinities 107 4.2. The Long Journey from 1976 to 2016 114 4.3. Premanisme and Conflict Presence in the Post-Conflict City 122 4.4. Subjugated Non-Violent Masculinities – Oral Transmission of ‘Kitab Mujarabat’ 124 4.5. Ilmu Bodoh – Healing as an Alternative Political Economy? 127 Chapter 5: Chaotic Pavements: Punk/Metal Scene Keeping the Traumas of the City Open 129 5.1. Bastard Illiza and Punks’ Politics of Repression in Banda Aceh 129 5.2. Our Wounds: Keeping the Tsunami Trauma Open 135 5.3. Rhizomatic Homes across the Indonesian Archipelago 138 5.4. Justice – Studying Up the Rule of Law 139 5.4.1. Chronology of the Rex Incident 140 5.4.2. The Trial 149 5.4.3. Written by Yudi Bolong at Tsunami Museum Banda Aceh, 26 May 2014 151 5.4.4. Marjaana’s Reflection on Gendered Everydays of Ethnography 154 5.5. Chronic – Changing Dimensions through Metal 156 5.6. Difference Is Not a War 159 Chapter 6: Queer Community and Care: Being and Belonging in the Verandah of Mecca 161 6.1. ‘Queering Peace’ in Aceh? Reflecting on Theory and Methodology 161 6.2. Queer Aceh 167 6.3. The LGBTI Activist City 171 6.4. Becoming Tomboi and Transman in Aceh 173 6.5. Poetic Expressions of Love, Intimacy and Care 176 6.6. Knowledge as Violence: Strategy to ‘Wipe Out’ LGBTI from Aceh 180 6.7. Precarious Queer Virtuality 184 6.8. Negotiating Dignity and Safety with Local and Global Human Rights Defenders 189 6.9. From Queering to Dig, Dag, Dug – Feeling of a Heartbeat 190 Chapter 7: The Political Economy of the PET Bottle 193 7.1. In Search of Piety through Bottled Water 193 7.2. History and Context 197 7.3. Bottle Recycling Centre 201 7.4. Street Economics: From an Internally Conflict-Displaced Preman Economy to Social Rafting 210 7.5. Commodification of Water in a Middle-Class Family 212 7.6. From Shadows of Political Economy to Seeking Just Futures 214 Conclusions: Centring Ilmu Bodoh Foolish Knowledge, Changing the Way in Which Gendered Peace Is Conceptualised? 217 Glossary 225 Notes 231 References 243 A Note on the Sources of the Chapters 271 Index 273 List of Illustrations Image 1: Helsinki MoU handshake used in the peace mediation white paper in 2010. 10 Image 2: Map of Banda Aceh. 33 Image 3: Film poster with Illiza. 68 Image 4: Tupperware sales exhibition at Taman Sari. 75 Image 5: Hajj event – dance/karaoke. 76 Image 6: HT’s Women and Shariah Campaign phases. 79 Image 7: Illiza bastard. 130 Image 8: Gig advertisement from 2014. 158 Image 9: Instagram post by Mayor Illiza in 2016. 181 Image 10: Suggested video effect for Coaching to be strong transman video. 186 Image 11: Plastic cup recycling in Banda Aceh. 194 Image 12: Implementation of Shari’a Islam results in guidance, managing waste and ultimate blessing. 202 List of Videos Video 1: Scraps of Hope Aceh teaser (02:23). 2 Video 2: Poetic resistance I: whose peace is this? (05:07). 7 Video 3: MoU Helsinki: reclaiming back history (16:52). 12 Video 4: Shari’a and visions for peace: blueprint for just and equal Islamic law (10:29). 53 Video 5: Poetic resistance II: because you are a woman (03:20). 88 Video 6: Smile that hides sorrow (08:19). 90 Video 7: Solving nikah siri – unregistered marriage (09:46). 93 Video 8: A good mother (07:37). 100 Video 9: From ex-combatant to Sufi healer 1–3 (08:21). 116 Video 10: From ex-combatant to Sufi healer 1–3 (05:55). 116 Video 11: From ex-combatant to Sufi healer 1–3 (05:44). 117 Video 12: Totaliter: penjara pemikiran/prison of thoughts (02:12). 151 Video 13: Coaching to be strong transman (05:59). 185 Video 14: Don’t be angry (03:19). 206 Video 15: Dreamcatcher (06:24). 213 Acknowledgements This book and the accompanied video documentaries would have not been possible without the support of a number of people over the past eight years, some going way beyond that, all the way to early 2000s at the Peace Station in Helsinki and dialogue with Acehnese human rights defenders. First of all, I want to thank all those Acehnese who allowed the project team and me to enter your homes and lives – I have a deep gratitude of having gained insights that led research towards appreciating Ilmu Bodoh, subaltern theoris- ing on peace.