ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the patterns of how Muslim women’s, intellectuals’, and youths’ responses to Islamic developmentalism (Islam pembangunan) intersect with the integration of feminist ideas of equality into Islamic settings. It also demonstrates how such intersection leads to the reworking of Islam as an ethical paradigm that is compatible with feminism. In the 1980s, the state solidified the political and social order by instilling the politics of kewaspadaan (vigilance) and the “floating mass” by reinforcing Pancasila as the sole foundation (azas tunggal) in Indonesia’s sociopolitical life and enacting the 1985 Election Law. The state’s imposition of Pancasila restructured the relationship of Muslims to the state, especially among members of Muslim women’s movements, intellectuals, and youths. Muslim women’s movements, such as Aisyiyah (1917) of Muhammadiyah, Persatuan Islam Istri (Persistri, 1936) of Persatuan Islam (the Islamic Union), and Muslimat (1946) of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), reiterated the support for the gender order, yet they set the tone for spiritual equality between men and women beyond the register of biological determinism (kodrat). As Muslim women’s movements emphasize the importance of enacting a paternalistic model of Islam, they frame the “virtuous mother figure” narrative as being normative or even ideal for women. Quite differently from the paternalistic model of Islam, Muslim intellectuals, such as Djalaludin Rahmat, Abdurahman Wahid, Nurcholis Madjid, and Ibrahim Husen, question Islam’s relationship with Pancasila and the role Islam plays in it as an ethical framework. Muslim intellectuals’ responses to the relationship between Islam and Pancasila consist of three types: (1) comprehensive Islam (Islam kaffah), (2) Islamic humanity (kemanusiaan Islam), and (3) Islamic reform (pembaharuan Islam). The intellectual debates over the compatibility between Islam and Pancasila within the context of Islamic developmentalism (Islam pembangunan) propelled the framing of gender issues as part of a new modern reform project in Islamic thought. Likewise, the integration of feminist and gender analyses into Islamic settings, especially the institution of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), Muslim women’s movements, and Islamic-based nongovernmental agencies, solidifies the feminist analysis in an Islamic lens. Interestingly, the integration of gender and feminism in various Islamic sectors runs parallel with the reworking of the devotional movement among youths, which rekindled interest in Islam as a correct “way of life.” By the mid-1980s, the integration of piety rhetoric invigorated the emergence of the jilbab (head-covering) movement, especially among female students who were introduced to Muslim youth activism in secular institutions. While the reworking of the public sphere shows the paradox between the Islamization of the secular space and the secularization of Islam, this multifaceted intersection allows for the integration of secular ideas, such as “gender” and “feminism,” into Islamic thought and gender activism in multiple Islamic and secular settings. The integration of gender and feminism into Islamic thought discursively and nondiscursively makes the integration era.
