It started innocently enough (these things usually do): A holiday with my husband Tim to Cirebon on the north coast of Java, to celebrate my birthday.
Why Cirebon? First, because I'm a big batik fan, and Cirebon batik is a favorite. Second, because Cirebon's seafood is seriously yummy! Third, because of Cirebon's remarkable history of cultural diversity, combining Javanese, Sundanese, Malay, Chinese and Arabic elements in syncretistic versions of Islam that seem very far from the mainstream. Last but not least, because of Fahmina, an NGO "working in the field of religious studies, strengthening civil society and community empowerment".
Ho-hum, we've heard that before . but in fact there is plenty that makes this NGO different and unusual, including one of its founders, Kiai Haji Hussein Muhammad. He's an ulama (Muslim religious scholar and leader) who hails from a pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding school), and is still the head of Pondok Pesantren Dar al-Tauhid Arjawinangun in Cirebon. But he is also a ladies man, in the best possible sense: That's right, Kiai Hussein is one of Indonesia's leading feminists.
What? A traditional kiai (who really looks the part as he recites verses from the Koran, wearing his traditional pesantren cap), championing women's rights? Surely that can't be right?
But it is and, what's more, he's not the only one, just one of the first. In fact, Kiai Hussein is now a leading and influential figure in the field of Islamic feminism, as well as pluralism, civil rights and social justice. And he has done all this by using the medium he knows best, the Kitab Kuning - the classic fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) texts used for teaching in the pesantren - but with new interpretations.
Kiai Hussein started his "womanizing" (as he jokingly calls it) in 1993, 16 years ago, when the New Order was still going strong. He said it was then an unusual and marginalized struggle, especially for a man. When you're trying to alter the social construction of womanhood, that involves changing men as well - and how many men would willingly relinquish the privileges accorded them by patriarchy?
I had long wanted to get to know this exceptional man. I first met him in 2001, at the launch of his book Fiqh Perempuan (Women's Fiqh), which deals with rituals, morals and social legislation: A feminist reinterpretation of fiqh. I was one of the discussants, but unfortunately had no real opportunity to chat with him. This time I wasn't going to miss out, so before we caught the train to Cirebon, I made sure we would meet.
Soon after arriving, I sat down with him at his office and asked how it all began. It started innocently enough, he replied, when he started questioning how Islam, which claims to uphold justice for all, could be used to allow so much injustice against women. "I felt that Islam was stagnating", he said, "and even going backward, and talking to some Islamic feminists, I realized that elevating the position of women could be a spearhead for everything else."
It turned out that one of the first women who helped Kiai Hussein see the light was Lies Marcoes, now a senior program officer on gender and Aceh at the Asia Foundation in Jakarta. Way back in 1984, she was my assistant in researching gender relations in a rubber plantation village in Sukabumi, part of my work on the social construction of womanhood in New Order Indonesia.
Having been brought up in a pesantren, Lies knew a lot about Islam and village life (which is why I hired her) but she had not then had much contact with feminist ideas. That was not surprising, as the "F-word" was virtually taboo at the time, identified with western liberalism, or even communism. In the course of our project, Lies came to learn about feminism, and is now one of Indonesia's leading experts on gender and Islam.
So when Kiai Hussein introduced me to the Fahmina staff, he said, "This is bu Julia, she's my mbah" (grandmother, in Javanese). Of course, he didn't mean I was literally his long-lost grandmother - he was speaking in terms of the inheritance of knowledge, but it was mind-boggling that someone like him could be passing on feminist ideas, and that I had more in common with him than I would with, say, a radical feminist.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I'd have a kiai as a 'grandson', let alone one who is also a Commissioner at the National Commission on Violence against Women, let alone one who had between 2000 and 2001 helped found three organizations that focused on women's rights and democratization: Fahmina (http://fahmina.or.id/en), Rahima (http://www.rahima.or.id/) and Puan Amal Hayati (http://www.puanamalhayati.or.id/), both in Jakarta (Puan has branches across Java). All now work closely with pesantrens and other religious institutions, mainly at the grass roots level.
Indeed, Kiai Hussein believes the best way to reform and introduce progressive ideas is to use existing beliefs, traditions and institutions. This approach, sometimes called "post-traditional Islam", is all about packaging and presentation. Don't speak of "pluralism", say "diversity"; don't speak of "feminism", say "women's rights"; and don't invent new doctrines, instead use classic texts and mainstream ideas to justify new interpretations. See for yourself and read his essay "The Women's Movement" (http://fahmina.or.id/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=593...
Kiai Hussein and others of his ilk represent the future of both Islam and democracy in Indonesia. They plod along, under the radar, doing hard work and achieving great things, while Noordin M. Top and other terrorists who hog our headlines are actually the losers, which is why they adopt such desperate, violent measures.
It's just a pity for us all that the face of Islam in our country is too often represented by murdering criminals, and not real heroes like Kiai Hussein.
The writer is the author of Julia's Jihad (www.juliasuryakusuma.com).
****
This article first appeared in Jakarta Post, 12th August 2009, available at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/08/12/an-unusual-ladies-man-pesantren039.html
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