Author: David Kloss1, Nor Ismah2
1KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden, Netherlands;
2Research Institute and Community Service and Development, Nahdlatul Ulama University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2023.2249495
In this article, Kloos and Isma (2023) elucidate the progressive step to advocate women’s authority in slam and advancing women’s rights and gender equality in the religious perspective through Kongres Ulama Perempuan Indonesia (KUPI). Kloos and Isma explore the Islamic feminism theory, religious women’s authority, intersectionality, knowledge exchange, and local and global social movements to emphasize how KUPI challenges male supremacy and patriarchy in Islam by collecting Muslim women scholars and women’s activists to discuss the authority role of women in religion to strengthen women and their rights. This conference was claimed to be the expansion of global Islam feminism, which resonates in the local context and has potential as an impactful social movement. Moreover, KUPI was seen as the medium of public communication, where secular and religious knowledge inform and shape each other, highlighting the struggle for authority in the Indonesian public sphere and emerging Islam feminism as the act of activism and thought.
Theoretically, the writers propose evidence that Islamic feminism is a social movement as the response to patriarchy’s domination in interpretation and religious practice and employ the tafsir method and ijtihad to articulate gender equality in the theology of Islam paradigm. Through the KUPI, Kloos and Ismah show that Islamic feminism has developed as a local social movement that seeks to implement the global feminism theology into practice, connecting with a particular social context and promoting the suitable pedagogic model. Thus, this article describes how Islam feminism was operated as the theory and practice that combine religious and secular thought, advocating the straightforward gender authority project that is equal to male authority in the context of organized religion.
Furthermore, this article not only explains the conclusion of the KUPI but also its methodology and nuance of the knowledge in the process of the formation of gender-sensitive religious fatwas and opinions. Interestingly, this article also spotlighted the influence of the Islamic conservative camp in the analysis process of how Islam feminism challenges public alteration. With an ethnography approach, this research employs interdisciplinary studies such as religion, gender, and sociology to illustrate the comprehensive Islamic feminism in Indonesia.
The authors also provide convincing evidence in their argument. For instance, they cited the Indonesian government’s endorsement (Ministry of Religious Affairs – Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin) for KUPI in the closing ceremony event. Documenting the nuance and support from the audience during the reading process of “Kupi’s religious decision and view.” The writers also mentioned the endorsement from every level of stakeholder and society, such as the local representative assembly and the sultan’s wife of the Yogyakarta kingdom.
In conclusion, this article seeds the dynamic in implementing the global context of Islam feminism to the local society movement through the National Female Muslim Conference scheme. Consequently, for further research, the scholar or student can explore topics such as the analysis of Muslim women’s role in society, the influence of KUPI on Islamic law interpretation, and in what scheme the conservative’s perspective can influence Indonesian Islamic discourses.