Sultan of Yogyakarta: A feminist revolution in an ancient kingdom
The Sultan of Yogyakarta holds a powerful political and spiritual position on the Indonesian island of Java. He is manoeuvring to make his eldest daughter his heir, sparking a bitter feud, as the BBC’s Indonesia editor Rebecca Henschke reports.
“From generation to generation the sultan who reigns over Yogyakarta seems to adapt himself to the changing of times,” says Wedono Bimo Guritno quietly as he ushers me through the elaborate palace complex.
He is one of the nearly 1,500 abdi dalam, members of the royal court. A keris, a sacred Javanese dagger, is tucked into his sarong.
“In the past it was not difficult to choose a prince, because in the past, the sultan had more than one wife,” Wedono Bimo Guritno tells me. We duck under low gateways into a maze of tree-lined courtyards surrounding the Kraton Kilen, the Sultan’s private residence.
“But you know it’s always been women that hold the real power in Javanese households,” Bimo says with a smile.
Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hayu says she was raised to be equal with men
As is required of anyone entering the palace, I have been traditionally dressed and groomed for over an hour. I am in a tight batik sarong, with a black silk blouse known as a kebaya. My hair has been pulled back and tied into tight bun, a sanggul.
Everything in this palace, from the placement of trees to the movements made by the royal court, has meaning.
In Javanese culture, things are not said directly, but instead conveyed by symbolism.
The sultan, who is 72, recently changed his own title so that it is gender neutral and has given his eldest daughter the new name Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Mangkubumi – which means The One Who Holds the Earth.
That was seen as further indication she is being lined up to take over the throne when the time comes.
The princess laughs when I say her title holds a lot of responsibility.
“As in all families, as the eldest I have more responsibility than my sisters. But what the future holds, that decision is the hands of my father,” she says with a smile.
She rarely talks publicly about succession and is careful with her words.
“I have been raised not to dream about those things, or hold wishes beyond living a happy life now.”
But she adds: “There have been queens in Aceh and in other Islam kingdoms, that’s all I need to say.”
Princess Mangkubumi has been given the title The One Who Holds the Earth
Her younger sister, Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hayu, is bolder in speaking about the unprecedented power the princesses have been given.
They were all sent overseas to study in Europe, America and Australia and now hold various leadership positions in the palace that were once the domain of men.
“I am very lucky to have parents that never said that is not a woman’s job,” she says in fluent English.
“It doesn’t sit well with some people but when the sultan says so, you kind of have to go along with it,” she laughs.
“That’s the importance of a man saying that it’s not the time for women to stay back any more.”
‘They will be evicted‘
The sultan’s brothers and sisters are not going along with it. They are outraged and most of them, like GBPH Prabukusumo, are now refusing to speak with the sultan or attend royal events.
“We are an Islamic royal family and the title is for a man. What would we call her – the sultante? It’s impossible,” he laughs.
The sultan’s siblings are no longer talking to him or attending royal events
He says the move is a dangerous break with hundreds of years of tradition and accused his brother’s family of being power-hungry and greedy.
And he sends a strong warning about what will happen.
“We have made a family commitment that we will not fight now, but when the sultan has left this world, we have an agreement with the people that we will drive his wife and his daughters out of the palace.”
“They will be evicted, as they are no longer members of our family,” he says.
That would create quite I stir, I say.
“That’s OK, just remember who is in the wrong here.”
Two queens?
Outside the palace walls most people are reluctant to take sides, saying they will accept the decision of the royal family.
There is concern about what the Queen of the South Sea will think of a female monarch
But among the devoted followers there is concern about what the Queen of the South Sea will think.
The Javanese royal rule stretches back to the 16th Century and while the family is now Muslim like most Indonesians, the rituals they carry out are steeped in mysticism, a product of Hinduism, Buddhism and animism of the past.
And tradition has it that the Sultan of Yogyakarta has to take the goddess Kanjeng Ratu Loro Kidul as his mystical wife.
“There is a vow between the sultan and the Queen of the South Sea Loro Kidul that has been written down in our sacred text, that together they will rule and keep the peace,” explains the Sultan’s brother GBPH Yudaningrat.
Fingernail clippings and locks of the sultan’s hair are offered to the sea goddess every year. They are also offered to the ogre Sapu Jagat inside Mount Merapi, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes that looms over the city.
Rituals in the palace are carried out in the same way they have been for hundreds of years
The offerings and spiritual union are meant to ensure the sacred alignment between the volcano, the palace in the middle, and the Indian Ocean, and thus the safety of the people.
“What will happen if there are two queens? How can they be together? I am not sure that can happen,” asks Agus Suwanto, a tour guide outside the palace.
That’s a good question and a good point, smiles Wedono Bimo Guritno, the palace guide, when I ask him.
“The sultan’s role is to keep both the goddess of the south sea and the god of the volcano in balance. Some people forget about the volcano, god. I am sure the sultan will make a wise decision for the people of Yogyakarta.”
Challenging times
The Sultan of Yogyakarta also has to make decisions about more earthly matters as the governor of the city and the surrounding area.
When Indonesia gained independence, Jakarta allowed the Yogyakarta royal family to keep its power, out of gratitude for their role in fighting the colonial Dutch rulers.
So Yogyakarta is the only place in Indonesia where residents don’t get to directly elect their leader. When it was suggested by Jakarta that this should change in 2010 there were angry protests on the streets of Yogyakarta and the central government backed down.
The Sultan of Yogyakarta is the last in Indonesia with real political power.
But Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has been a controversial modern leader with wide ranging political and business ambitions.
When Mount Merapi started erupting in 2006 he told villagers to listen to scientists rather than the palace-appointed gatekeeper of the volcano about when to evacuate.
And some in Yogyakarta accuse him of turning this cultural, once sleepy, capital into a city of shopping malls, billboards and high-rise buildings.
Mystic Islam
These are challenging times for Java’s unique moderate, mystical form of Islam that the Sultan and the Kraton represents.
Sultan Hamengkubuwono X is a prominent moderate Islamic leader.
Veneration of objects or idols, and hints to polytheism, run in conflict with the Wahhabis strain of Islam that is growing in popularity in Java.
“I run the social media pages for the palace and I see this conservative view,” says Princess Gusti Hayu.
“But we have reasons why we carry out rituals here the way we do and it might not be exactly the same as in the Koran but we don’t stray, we don’t do weird cult things,” she laughs.
Princess Haryu says opening up the palace is the only way for the culture to survive
“This is an Islamic kingdom, it’s not about walking around looking like someone from the Middle East and just sounding very religious. Islam is woven into everything we do daily.”
She says past royal families took pride in being exclusive and being shrouded in mysticism, but that the way to survive is to open the palace up.
“So the young don’t lose touch with their Javanese side because if we lose our cultural identity it’s not going to come back.”
Despite an increasing number of young Javanese Muslim women now choosing to wear the headscarf, hijabs are not allowed in the palace.
“Lots of women who wear the headscarf take it off when they enter the Kraton for rituals, voluntarily, and put it on again when they leave,” says the Queen Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hemas .
“This is not about religion, it’s about protecting our culture and tradition and society understands that. The Sultan is above all religions.”
But this is increasingly a provocative stance to take in today’s Indonesia.
Recently the daughter of Indonesia’s first President Sukarno, Sukmawati, was reported to the police for blasphemy and forced to apologise for saying in a poem that the Javanese hairbun was more beautiful than a Islamic chador.
Queen Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hemas is accused by the Sultans family of leading the revolt.
The sultan’s extended family accuses the queen, who is a senator in the national parliament, of leading the revolt against tradition.
She says she raised her daughters to be independent and to believe they were equal to men.
“When my daughters were 15 years I told them they had to leave the palace, to get educated in the world, to bring back what they learnt.”
Grooming them for leadership? I ask.
That decision is in the hands of the sultan, she says firmly.
“But, yes, the heir has to be the bloodline, so there is no need for you to dig deeper.”
“There will always be conflict and power struggles at times of change,” she adds.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43806210?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cmj34zmw7vmt/indonesia&link_location=live-reporting-story
On-campus seeds of terrorism? What we know so far
The National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit’s recent raid and arrest of three people at a state university has opened a new chapter in the country’s fight against terror.
While radicalism has reportedly been growing in higher education institutions in the last few years, the alleged terrorism on campus is new. The police were said over the weekend to have found explosive materials hidden at the Gelanggang Mahasiswa student facility of the social and political sciences department (FISIP) at Riau University in Pekanbaru.
What’s next for Indonesia’s counterterrorism measures? Should it send intelligence officers to universities, known as a place of academic freedom in democratic Indonesia?
Here is what we know so far on the Riau University case:
The suspect
A police statement made available on Sunday named the suspect as Muhammad Nur Zamzam or Zamzam, also known as Zega.
The statement said the police had been targeted Zamzam for some time and when they arrested him on campus on June 2, Zamzam was with two other people, Rio Bima Wijaya and Orandi Saputra, alias Kalek, who were also detained for questioning.
As of noon on Monday, the police were yet to declare either Rio or Orandi as suspects.
Zamzam was formerly enrolled in Riau University’s Tourism department in 2003 (not 2005 as previously reported), and had already graduated. He was a member of the university’s extracurricular organization Mapala, the mountaineering club. Most universities in Indonesia have such a club with life membership, so many alumni can still access campus facilities.
According to the police statement, Zamzam was connected with Jamah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local pro-Islamic State (IS) group led by Aman Abdurrahman, who is standing trial for allegedly masterminding the Jl. Thamrin bombing in Central Jakarta in January 2016. The police also said Zamzam knew the people behind the recent May 16attack on the Riau Police station.
Zamzam’s university friend, Syahrul Mubarak, who referred to Zamzam as Zega, said he knew Zamzam from enrolling at the university in the same year and because both were members of the mountaineering club. Syahrul said Zamzam had not been a devout Muslim until a year ago, and described him as “preman mau insaf”, loosely translated as a “repentant delinquent”.
Syahrul said Zamzam began to change when he read about Palestine’s fight for their own country and about the IS on the internet.
“All of a sudden, he started bragging that he wanted to do jihad, talking about bombs and going to Syria. We, the friends who usually hung out with him, of course laughed at him,” Syahrul told The Jakarta Post on Monday. “Don’t get us wrong, he is not a devout figure. He does not even pray five times a day. If there were people drinking together, he joined [them],” he said.
Syahrul added that Zamzam worked as a contractor and sometimes got projects on campus, which was why he often stayed at a homestay belonging to the mountaineering club, even though his parents lived in Pekanbaru.
Syahrul said Zamzam often told him “tall tales” about suicide bombings and terrorist networks, but that he did not believe the stories. However, since the arrest, Syahrul said all of Zamzam’s tales were probably true.
The evidence
Along with Zamzam’s arrest, Densus 88 personnel confiscated several weapons and explosive materials consisting of six kinds of gunpowder, an air rifle, two bows with eight arrows and several hand grenades. The police also found an IS video and a book titled Perjalanan Rahasia (The Secret Journey).
A Riau Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officer arrange evidence during a press conference following a raid at Riau University in Pekanbaru on Saturday night. The police said they found explosive material on campus. (Antara/Rony Muharrman )
“The book contains tutorials on making bombs, weapons and land mines. It also contains techniques on survival, security and alert,” the police statement read.
During the raid, Riau Police chief Insp. Gen. Nandang said that four high-explosive bombs had been defused, and that the bombs were reportedly similar in explosive power to the ones used last month in the terror attacks in Surabaya, East Java.
“The bombs were allegedly constructed by Zamzam. He allegedly also used social media to teach others [to make bombs] and to campaign for suicide bombings,” said Nandang.
The police said Zamzam and the two other arrested alumni had been staying at the Gelanggang Mahasiswa FISIP building for a month.
“We had been watching them for around two weeks. They allegedly planned to blow up the Riau Legislative Council [in Pekanbaru] and the House of Representatives building in Jakarta,” Nandang said.
Syahrul said the police discovered the evidence in an empty room on the second floor of the Gelanggang Mahasiswa FISIP. “There are many rooms in that building. We don’t know when and how he built the bomb,” he said. He also had no idea how Zamzam could store such materials without anyone else noticing. “Every day, many people flock the building because several organizations are headquartered there. But it could get a bit deserted at night, although there would usually be some students spending the night in other rooms there,” he said.
The raid
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Iqbal stressed that the raid had been carried out according to the police’s standard operating procedure.
“There were explosive materials at the scene within the campus. We deemed them to be dangerous, hence the measure [to remove them] was taken when there was no academic activity on the campus,” he said as quoted over the weekend by tribunnews.com.
Iqbal went on to deny that the raid was part of the police’s attempt to repress university activities, noting that, ”We’d do the same thing if the crime occurred in, for example, a house of worship.”
Riau University rector Aras Mulyadi condemned the alumni’s on-campus activities.
“They weren’t even allowed to be living there [at the Gelanggang Mahasiswa FISIP]. They’re not students, university staff or lecturers,” said Aras.
Aras said he would immediately summon university management and the leaders of student organizations and ask them to work together to prevent such incidents from happening again.
“This should be the first and the last attempt at plotting terror that occurs on our campus. We’ll declare our condemnation of terrorism on Monday,” he added.
Campus radicals ‘not the same’ as terror cells
University of Indonesia terrorism expert Ridwan Habib said on Sunday that students and other members of academia exposed to extremist teachings were not necessarily part of a radical group or would potentially become involved in terror acts.
However, he said Saturday’s arrests in Pekanbaru showed that members of terror groups were approaching and recruiting students or academics at educational institutions.
“These [extremist] groups often use a personal approach in recruiting those with prior links to other Islamic groups that have values similar to those they offer,” said Ridwan.
Zamzam’s friend Syahrul said, however, that as far as he knew, Zamzam had not been recruited on campus, but through social media. He believed the other two, Orandi and Rio, were unlikely to be involved in terrorism and radical activities. (evi)
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/06/04/on-campus-seeds-of-terrorism-what-we-know-so-far.html
Child Marriage: Open Communication, Holistic Approach Needed to Change Mindsets
Jakarta. In many parts of rural Indonesia where child marriage is still considered a viable option, it remains a challenge to establish open communication between those involved, which is crucial to changing mindsets and ending the practice.
For Dwi Ayu Pratiwi, who saw many of her classmates getting married at a young age, changing parents’ mindsets is key to stopping child marriage.
However, that in itself is no easy task, especially when strong cultural norms on adult-child relations favor the former. To avoid being labeled disobedient, many children refrain from voicing their doubts or disagreement, even when it comes to crucial decisions.
“Most of the time, parents tell us that we must not be disobedient or confrontational. But I think it’s better to be engaged in a discussion, so the child can be more open and communicative with her parents,” Dwi told the Jakarta Globe in a recent interview.
A study found that 32 percent of married women between the ages of 20 and 24 in her village in Sukabumi district, West Java, got married before they were 18 years old.
According to an article based on the study, published in January 2016 in Jurnal Perempuan, Indonesia’s first feminist academic journal, “this is slightly higher than the provincial data, which stood at 26 percent in 2015. It is higher compared with the national data on marriage before 18, which is 23 percent.”
The study formed part of ongoing doctoral research by the Van Vollenhoven Institute at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
The study looked at child marriage in Sukabumi and the role of girls’ agency towards parents or elders in such situations and highlighted that gender and age are “crosscutting hierarchies with girls at the most powerless side of the equation.”
“In the village, your silence is perceived as agreement … Sometimes young girls may be afraid of being labeled disobedient, or they lack good communication skills to discuss the matter with their parents,” said Navita Hani, field coordinator at the Java Village Foundation, which was established in 2007 to focus on improving the lives of vulnerable communities, especially women and young people, in West Java.
Lack of Bargaining Power
According to Navita, a strong tradition of child marriage and a deeply entrenched patriarchal culture contribute to the high prevalence of child marriage in Dwi’s village.
“The women are not in a position to bargain when they get married,” Navita said.
In addition, many villagers also consider marriage the best option to avoid extramarital sex, or zina.
Since many girls enter into religious marriages, or nikah siri, such unions are not registered with the government. A comparison between the 2016 research findings and official data shows that child marriages are often unreported.
Indonesia’s 1974 Marriage Law sets the legal marriageable age at 21, but with parental consent girls as young as 16 are allowed to marry, whereas the minimum age for boys is 19. However, there is an exemption allowing girls as young as 13 to legally marry with parental consent and judicial approval.
According to the 2016 article, which featured six of 28 qualitative case studies, some girls were only 14 years old when they got married.
The case studies showed that various factors, including religion, poverty and pressure from parents and neighbors, contribute to the continuing practice.
“Besides parents, there’s also pressure from the community. In some cases, the parents feel they have to marry off their girls or boys to avoid gossip by neighbors, or the fear of zina,” Java Village Foundation chairwoman Mies Grijns told the Jakarta Globe. Grijns is also an external doctoral researcher at the Van Vollenhoven Institute.
Education
Navita said the pursuit of education is not encouraged in the village and that most respondents in the case studies either did not complete primary school, or ended their education at that stage.
“Many parents don’t consider education as important. They think that even without education, their kids can still go to work and their daughters can be married off,” Navita said.
Dwi, who is now 19 years old, told the Jakarta Globe that there were fewer girls in her class when she entered middle school compared with when she was in primary school. She added that there were even fewer by the time she entered high school.
“[Our] parents think, why should we go to school for so long? Especially girls. At the end of the day, won’t we just spend time in the kitchen anyway?” Dwi said.
As part of its work in the village, the Java Village Foundation recognizes that youth empowerment is crucial to resolving some of the ongoing issues and that this would also change people’s mindsets, which is key to ending the practice of child marriage.
The Java Village Foundation plans to launch a learning center in Dwi’s village later this year to empower and support the local youth – those between the ages of 12 and 24 – and encourage them to actively participate in the community.
In preparation for the program launch, the foundation has been holding monthly meetings and discussions, and it is currently creating training courses that will form part of the learning center’s regular activities.
Navita said the meetings address youth-related issues, including reproductive health, drugs and bullying.
“By involving the youth, the learning center aims to foster a sense of ownership in the community and create a support system that respects children’s rights,” she said.
She added that the village youth has been enthusiastic about the program, a sentiment echoed by Dwi.
“The learning center can guide us through training, which will be important to shape our skills and help us find work later,” Dwi said.
Social Engagement
However, there is not one single solution to ending child marriage, Grijns said.
“It really needs to be contextualized. Listening to adolescents is a crucial step, but there are many more actors that deal with child marriage,” she said.
As a small foundation, Java Village carries out its mission through cooperation with civil society, including teachers, youth leaders, the village administration and staff at the local community health center, or puskesmas.
The foundation is also planning to engage village officials and religious leaders in the community to raise collective awareness of the issue of child marriage.
“There’s a strong religious tradition in the village, and religious figures have the power to legitimize child marriage, so that’s one of the challenges we plan to tackle by engaging these figures,” Navita said.
Source: http://jakartaglobe.id/news/child-marriage-open-communication-holistic-approach-needed-to-change-mindsets/
Countering the rise of radicalism in private Islamic schools in Indonesia
A series of terrorist acts has rocked Indonesia in the past week. Starting from a clash in a detention centre at the Police Mobile Brigade headquarters in Depok, West Java, last week, attackers then bombed three churches in Surabaya, East Java, last Sunday, followed by another terrorist bombing at Surabaya Police Headquarters. Dozens were killed and wounded.
In response, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has reiterated the government’s commitment to exterminate terrorism down to its roots.
We must appreciate Jokowi’s statement. However, terrorism is a complex issue because there is no single factor that can explain why a person becomes a terrorist.
The importance of schools to prevent radicalism
One of the strategies that the government can use to stop terrorism in Indonesia is to take preventive steps using educational institutions to promote tolerance, which can eventually stop the spread of radical thoughts.
But what is happening in Indonesia is the opposite. Many schools in Indonesia have become fertile ground for radicalism.
The latest surveys from the Wahid Institute, Pusat Pengkajian Islam Masyarakat and the Centre for Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) and Setara Institute have indicated the spread of intolerance and radical values in educational institutions in Indonesia.
A student tolerance survey from Setara Institute in 2016 revealed that 35.7% of the students showed a tendency to intolerance in their minds, 2.4% were involved in acts of intolerance, and 0.3% had the potential to become terrorists. The survey was based on 760 respondents who enrolled in public high schools in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java.
Surveys from the Wahid Institute and PPIM have shown the same worrying trend.
The characteristics of schools prone to radicalism
In 2017, I was involved in research on efforts to respond to radicalism at 20 private Islamic schools in Central Java. The research involved academics from Monash University in Australia, Walisongo State Islamic University in Semarang, Central Java, and Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta with funding support from the Australia-Indonesia Centre.
We managed to identify three types of schools that are prone to radicalism. In accordance with confidentiality principles, we will not publish the schools’ names in this article.
These three types of schools are:
1. Closed schools
Instead of embracing changes, this type of school offers students a narrow perspective and tends to shut them off from foreign ideas.
We interviewed one of the headmasters from these schools. He explained the importance of Islamic civilisation to protect students against Western values.
Aside from see Islam and the West as being in conflict, closed schools also stress the importance of practising their version of Islamic teachings and reject the moderate Islam that most Muslims adhere to in Indonesia.
2. Separated schools
These schools can be identified from their teacher recruitment system and their limited participation in social activities.
The teacher recruitment process in these schools is very strict, especially the recruitment of religion teachers. In addition, these schools do not want to participate in social activities that they deem to be against their values.
This type of school is very different from other Islamic schools that are affiliated with the country’s more traditional Muslim organisations such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) or Muhammadiyah. Whereas separated schools recruit religion teachers from their own groups only and will use their networks to recruit alumni who share the same Islamic values, NU and Muhammadiyah schools will not consider differences in their teachings as an issue. For example, one of the headmasters from a NU-affiliated school stated that his school also recruited teachers from Muhammadiyah.
NU and Muhammadiyah schools are also active in social activities, including interfaith activities. Separated schools are not.
3. Schools with pure Islamic identity
The third type can be identified by the way they create students’ Islamic identity. The schools that are prone to radicalism tend to build in a student a single Islamic identity, refusing other identities.
This understanding is different from other Islamic schools, which tend to consider that a person’s identity as a Muslim is not against his/her other identity. Moderate Islamic schools do not see a conflict between their students’ identity as Muslims and as Indonesian citizens.
When a school builds this single Muslim identity, that school will also foster radical attitudes among students as they only believe in a single Islamic interpretation that is in line with their values.
Headmasters from this type of school usually order their students to follow all religious rituals at schools, despite the students’ different religious background.
A headmaster told us that his students with a NU background must abandon their prayer ritual in the morning called qunut when they are enrolled in his schools.
This policy is different from other schools that allow flexibility for their students in their religious practices.
In addition, the rejection of other identities creates a “we versus them” attitude not only between different religions but also within the larger Islamic community itself.
What we can do
These three types of schools contribute to the growth of intolerance as well as radicalism at schools, which can lead to terrorist acts.
Therefore, we believe that the recent terrorist attacks should give momentum to the government to plan preventive measures to promote diversity, social integrity and diverse identities in various schools across the country.
The government’s campaign on tolerance should reach different educational institutions via the Culture and Education Ministry as well as Religious Affairs Ministry.
The government must also provide platforms and programs to promote tolerance. Apart from that, related government institutions in the regions must develop the capacity to identify schools that are prone to radicalism and apply persuasive approaches to prevent the spread of radicalism in those schools.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/05/17/countering-the-rise-of-radicalism-in-private-islamic-schools-in-indonesia.html
Essay: Minang wisdom and radicalism
In a recent conference attended by around 100 clerics and scholars from different countries to discuss promoting the concept of moderate Islam in Bogor, West Java, the grand imam of Al Azhar University, Syekh Ahmed Ath-Thayyeb, said differences and conflicts between Islamic groups had weakened the Muslim community.
In Indonesia, such differences and conflicts have metamorphosed into terror acts by those who had manipulated and hijacked the peaceful teachings of Islam.
For Indonesians, fighting terrorism should entertain a local approach since the “think globally, engage locally” principle is the key to figuring out radicalism finding its foothold in different regions.
In the context of the archipelago, however, a lot has to do with the region’s cultural characteristics. Customs, traditions and local wisdoms might play a pivotal role in combating terrorism in this country.
Local wisdoms, for instance, might contribute in an attempt to fight terrorism in Indonesia — case in point: the culture of Minang.
First of all, Minang culture accentuates inclusivity. The adages of dima bumi dipijak, disinan langik dijunjuang (the sky will be held high no matter the ground you stand on) and lain lubuak lain ikannyo lain ladang lain belalangnyo (each grassland is home to its own kind of locust and each pond is home to its own kind of fish) suggest that we must observe local customs since each place has its own customs and culture. Thus, we should not measure others by our own yardstick.
Such strong emphasis on inclusivity makes it easier for Minang people to interact with people of different backgrounds and cultures. That is why there is no “Padang town”, unlike China towns or Javanese villages, which are easily found across the archipelago. They believe that being exclusive is not simply detrimental to their social transformation but also opens the door to conflict.
Concerning terrorism as a part of radical teachings, there is a strong tendency for terrorists to appear on an exclusive social stage; intermingling with their own people instead if assimilating with others, undermining their non-group members and viewing their values as superior to the locals’ moral standards. They believe themselves to be saviors with unquestionable claims of truth and salvation.
Considering the terrorists’ exclusive treats, the government might team up with Minang intellectuals, ulema and traditional leaders to restore those involved in terrorist circles through an educational approach such as dialogue and field trips. Cushioned by strong Islamic values within the Minang culture, it is hopeful that those recruited by terrorist groups will be rehabilitated into friendly Muslims.
Second, democracy constitutes an essential value in Minang culture. When people pay Istano Basa Pagaruyung a visit — a palace without a king, rebuilt after the suppression of the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI) movement in 1958 in West Sumatra — they will not find a throne in it. Why? Because Minang culture adheres to the notion of duduak samo randah tagak samo tinggi (when sitting down, we are equally low; when standing up, we are equally tall). Social castes and discrimination have been long culturally blocked in favor of open-mindedness within the Minang culture.
Underpinned by the principle of duduak samo randah tagak samo tinggi, Minang people never look up to someone to the point of reverence.
In this perspective, the Minang culture could be instrumental in taming the tendency of idolizing and worshipping any particular leader preaching radical thoughts.
Together with historians, the government could launch a massive campaign against terrorism through biographical studies of Minang figures as to the connection between their democratic way of life and Minang culture.
This attempt would expose the very nature of Hatta, Sjahrir, Agus Salim, Hamka, M. Yamin, Natsir and Tan Malaka. In spite of their ideological distinctions, they are considered great individuals who managed to escape the entrapment of radical acts often used by others to justify their means. The biographical studies would later conform to the fact that their greatness is inseparably linked to their Minang background.
Third, Minang culture pays much attention to the power of traditional networking. In terms of leadership, Minang wisdom highlights the significance of networking.
In Minang terms, the success of leadership is rooted in the balance of three pillars – known as the tigo tungku sajarangan (the three stoves at the hearth). They are niniak mamak (head of the clans), alim ulama (religious scholars) and cadiak pandai (experienced and enlightened elders).
In practice, West Sumatra’s unique form of administration is useful in coping with various social problems, like gambling and adultery. Central to their success in tackling assorted social illness is a regular forum involving the three pillars.
Former Solok regent Syamsu Rahim, for example, does well to push down crime rates, social illnesses and crisis of legitimacy at the level of nagari, an administrative system equal to the kelurahan (village) in other provinces, for his breakthrough in involving niniak mamak, alim ulama, and cadiak pandai across his regency.
Syamsu’s success story reminds us of the necessity of traditional networking system in response to assorted social pathologies, including terrorism. It is often the case that traditional leaders have more penetrating powers into untouchable areas.
Similar approaches may prove to be effective in eradicating the spread of radicalism, especially considering the likely accessibility of traditional leaders’ toward radical kingpins.
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The writer, a lecturer at the School of Cultural Sciences at Andalas University, Padang in West Sumatra, is pursuing a doctorate at Deakin University, Australia.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/05/21/essay-minang-wisdom-and-radicalism.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1526877098
Delaware on verge of being first U.S. state to ban child marriage
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Delaware is poised to become the first of the 50 states in the United States to outlaw child marriage despite years of legislative battles, said officials, who hoped this would pave the way for other states to follow.
The measure banning marriage under age 18 without exception was approved by both legislative houses, and the state governor is expected to sign it into law as early as this week, a governor’s spokesman said on Monday.
While 18 is typically the minimum age for marriage in the United States, every state has legal loopholes or exceptions allowing children to wed at a younger age.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that this is a significant moment for girls. This is historic,” Fraidy Reiss, founder of Unchained at Last, a non-profit group opposed to child marriage, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Between 2000 and 2010, about 170,000 children under 18 were wed in 38 U.S. states where data was available, according to Unchained at Last.
Globally 12 million girls are married before 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides, a partnership of organizations working to end child marriage.
Currently in Delaware, a small northeastern state along the Atlantic Ocean coast, children under 18 can marry with parental consent, and there are exceptions in cases of pregnancy.
The measure banning marriage for anyone under 18 passed Delaware’s Senate unanimously last week after passing the state House of Representatives in April.
The successful bill comes after roughly three years in which legislation failed in other U.S. states, Reiss said.
“Almost two dozen states have rejected or watered down legislation,” Reiss said. “This is a vestige of the past that we need to let go of, and legislators were having a tough time doing that.”
Lawmakers in Florida recently considered a bill to ban marriage for anyone under 18 but compromised on a law banning marriage under 17.
A bill to end child marriage in New Jersey is moving through the legislature where it is expected to be approved.
“I’m just hoping that Delaware won’t remain the only state to pass this,” Rep. Kim Williams, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I’m hoping states throughout the nation will join us.”
Campaigners are concerned that children married young tend to leave school early and are at increased risk of abuse. They have more health issues in pregnancy and childbirth and are poorer than those who marry at a later age, studies show.
Many who oppose ending the practice cite religious freedom or seek exceptions for those in military service or pregnant.
Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-childmarriage-ban/delaware-on-verge-of-being-first-us-state-to-ban-child-marriage-idUSKBN1I82F7
Indonesian children marry despite outcry
Two Indonesian children got married in Sulawesi this week, after a long battle to do so which drew nationwide attention and criticism.
The 15-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl had sought permission from a religious court for their wedding.
The case triggered strong criticism at home and abroad. The government is now planning changes to the law.
Indonesia is a majority Muslim country and has among the highest number of child brides in the world.
The current minimum marriage age is 16 for girls and 19 for boys, but religious courts can issue exceptions and often do so.
The young bride told reporters their marriage was “destiny” and that the two initially dated for five months.
When their families found out, they immediately urged the two to get married.
The bride’s mother had also been married at the age of 14.
Too young?
Their request to get married was rejected though by the office of religious affairs (KUA), which is responsible for weddings, on the grounds that they were too young.
The couple’s parents then took their case to a religious court which overruled KUA. On Monday, the pair finally wed.
According to the bride, she plans to pursue her education before thinking about having children.
Her 15 year-old husband, who has already dropped out of school, said he would continue working to feed his family.
Political action
While not the norm, early marriages take place throughout Indonesia.
According to the UN’s children office Unicef, 14% of women in Indonesia are married before they turn 18 and 1% are married before they are 15.
The young couple’s case sparked opposition from citizens, religious scholars and garnered a lot attention on social media.
President Joko Widodo has now said he plans to introduce new regulations to stop the practice of child marriage by raising the minimum age.
Lies Marcoes, an expert on gender and Islamic studies, told BBC Indonesia: “The state must recognise this very serious crisis – early marriage is a silent death alarm because it contributes to the high maternal mortality.”
In 2017, a group of female Islamic clerics in Indonesia issued an unprecedented edict against child marriage.
The clerics urged the government to raise the minimum legal age for women to marry to 18 from the current 16.
The female clerics cited studies which highlight that many Indonesian child brides are not allowed to continue their education and half the marriages end in divorce.
According to Human Rights Watch, “there is overwhelming evidence child marriage has devastating consequences,” often leading to poverty and health risks linked to early pregnancies.
Child brides are also more likely to experience domestic violence, the NGO says.
Additional reporting by BBC Indonesia’s Famega Syavira.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43876307
Qiwamah and Wilayah: Equality in the Muslim Family
Musawah has undertaken a groundbreaking, multi-faceted knowledge building initiative on male authority in Muslim legal tradition.
The five-year Knowledge Building Initiative on Qiwamah and Wilayah focuses on the concepts of qiwamah and wilayah, which are commonly understood as sanctioning men’s authority over women. As interpreted and constructed in Muslim legal tradition, and as applied in modern laws and practices, these concepts play a central role in institutionalising, justifying and sustaining a patriarchal model of families in Muslim contexts. In Muslim legal tradition, marriage presumes an exchange: the wife’s obedience and submission (tamkin) in return for maintenance (nafaqah) and protection from the husband.
This theoretical relationship, which still underlies many family law provisions in our contexts as Muslims today, results in inequality in matters such as financial security, right to divorce, custody and guardianship, choice and consent in marriage, sexual and reproductive health and rights, inheritance and nationality laws.
This inequality is at odds with the underlying ethical principles of Islamic as articulated in the Qur’an. It also clashes with contemporary notions of Islamic and human rights principles, and with the reality that men are often unable or unwilling to protect and provide for their families.
It’s time to recognise that women often serve as the providers for and protectors of their families.
In order to campaign and advocate for laws and practices that promote equality and justice in Muslim families, we need new knowledge and perspectives on qiwamah and wilayah.
This initiative seeks to show how laws based on outdated interpretations of these concepts, which place women under male authority, no longer reflect the justice of Islam. Other interpretations are both possible and more in line with human rights principles and contemporary lived realities.
A set of background papers commissioned for this initiative has been published as Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition, edited by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani and Jana Rumminger (OneWorld 2015).
Through the Global Life Stories Project component of the initiative, teams of researchers and activists in 10 countries (Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, and the United Kingdom) have been documenting women’s life stories to better understand women’s experiences with qiwamah and wilayah. The methodology and some initial findings are presented in a chapter of Men in Charge?
Source: http://www.musawah.org/what-we-do/qiwamah-and-wilayah
Latin America Losing the Battle Against Child Marriage: Unicef
Child marriages especially affect indigenous girls, added the report, girls living in rural areas, girls from poor families, among others.
Latin America and the Caribbean has become the only region in the world where child marriages have not decreased significantly over the past decade, according to a recent report by the U.N. children’s agency (UNICEF).
Other regions such as South Asia record a 30 to 50 percent decrease in the past 10 years, while Latin America and the Caribbean only lowered by 25 percent.
“We are observing a real progress in other parts of the world to protect girls from child marriage,” stated in Panama City Maria Cristina Perceval, chief of Unicef for Latin America and the Caribbean. “However, this has not been the case in our region, where one out of four women are being married before 18 years old.”
As a result, these girls do not benefit from the same life opportunities in the medium and long term, with a higher risk of sexual violence, early pregnancies, dropping off school, in addition with the social exclusion from their peers, added Perceval.
Only four countries in the region have banned child marriage, with Honduras, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Guatemala.
In February, another Unicef report warned that there had been insufficient progress in reducing high teenage pregnancy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean: although overall teenage pregnancy rates “dropped slightly” over the past three decades, the region has the second-highest rate globally.
The total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year and without public policies properly addressing the issue, more than 150 million additional girls will marry before their 18th birthday by 2030, found the report.
Globally, about one in six adolescent girls (aged 15 to 19) are currently married or in a union. West and Central Africa has the highest proportion of married adolescents (27 percent), followed by Eastern and Southern Africa (20 percent) and the Middle East and North Africa (13 percent).
Source: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Latin-America-Losing-the-Battle-Against-Child-Marriage-Unicef-20180408-0018.html