Women’s Agency in Transforming Religious Discourse: Gender-Sensitive Interpretations of Islam in Indonesia

Författare

Ann Kull

Redaktör

Kersten Carool

Summary, in English

The purpose of this article is to present and analyse gender sensitive interpretations of Islam in Indonesia and a reform of fiqh from a gender perspective. These interpretations can be seen as an expression of Islamic feminism, a discursive framework that has grown from the Islamisation processes of Muslim societies in the 1980s. Another aim is to depict the specific Indonesian environment where these ideas have evolved. Firstly, the domestic feminist movement and the influence of international feminist scholars of Islam. Secondly, the liberal approach in Islamic thinking promoted by Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid and especially their emphasize on the importance of context in the endeavour of ijtihad, independent reasoning or interpretation of the Islamic scriptures. Thirdly, the increase and reform of higher Islamic education and not least the high percentage of female students and scholars. In conclusion, I will present and analyse gender sensitive interpretations of Islam by Indonesian scholars as part of an Islamic feminist discourse. The focus is on what these interpreters actually say and how they relate to tradition – universal Islamic and local Indonesian – in order to legitimise their ideas, but also shortly on how their ideas are used and perceived in Indonesian society. These interpretations can be regarded as Indonesian conceptualizations of Islamic feminism, or to put it differently, interpretations of text in context.

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