BEING CHRISTIANS IN THE ACEHNESE WAY: Illiberal Citizenship and Women’s Agency in the Islamic Public Sphere

Muhammad Ansor, Yaser Amri

Abstract


This article examines the ways in which Acehnese Christian women’s identities expressed in the Islamic public sphere. The article argues that although theoretically Islamic Shari'a only applies to Muslims, its implementation in Aceh has a significant impact on the daily life of Christian women. The first part of the article presents a critical review regarding the Islamic sharia in Aceh dealing with the discourse of citizenship and the position of non-Muslim. Furthermore, drawing on agency theoretical frameworks, the authors describe the experiences of Christian women from diverse backgrounds to show how they became Christians in the Acehnese way. The article finally shows that Christian women's agencies as a minority in Aceh face a critical situation, although they remain independent and are not easily subdued by public sphere driven by the values and religious identities of the majority.

Keywords


Woman agency; Aceh Christian; Islamic public sphere

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abaza, Mona. “Shifting Landsapes of Fashion in Contemporary Egypt.” Fashion Theory, 11, no. 2/3 (2007), pp. 281–298.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013.

----------. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist, 104, no. 3 (2002), pp. 783–790.

Abu-Rabia-Queder, Sarab, and Naomi Weiner-Levy. “Between Local and Foreign Structures: Exploring the Agency of Palestinian Women in Israel.” Social Politics, 20, no. 1 (2013), pp. 88–108.

Afrianty, Dina. “Local Women’s NGOs and the Reform of Islamic Law in Aceh: Case of MISPI.” In Islam and the Limits of the State: Reconfigurations of Practice, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh, edited by R. Michael Feener, David Kloos, and Annemarie Samuels, 118–140. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

----------. Women and Sharia Law in Northern Indonesia: Local Women’s NGOs and the Reform of Islamic Law in Aceh. London: Routledge, 2015.

Ahmed, Leila. A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011.

Al-deen, Taghreed Jamal. “Agency in Action: Young Muslim Women and Negotiating Higher Education in Australia.” British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40, no. 5 (July 4, 2019), pp. 598–613.

Alfian, Ibrahim. Sastra Perang: Sebuah Pembicaraan Mengenai Hikayat Perang Sabil. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 1992.

Anonymous. “Mupsida Minta Jemaat GBI Beribadah di Gereja.” Serambi Indonesia. Banda Aceh, February 20, 2015. http://aceh.tribunnews.com/2015/02/20/muspida-minta-jemaat-gbi-beribadah-di-gereja.

----------. “Muspida Langsa Segel Ruko di Jalan Iskandar Muda.” Serambi Indonesia. Banda Aceh, February 28, 2015. http://aceh.tribunnews.com/2015/02/28/muspida-langsa-segel-ruko-di-jln-iskandar-muda.

----------. “Ruko Jadi Gereja, Warga Langsa Desak Tutup.” Waspada. Medan, February 16, 2015.

----------. “Toko Bukan Dijadikan Tempat Jualan di Langsa tapi Jadi Gereja.” Global Aceh. Banda Aceh, February 18, 2015. http://www.globalaceh.com/2015/02/toko-bukan-dijadikan-tempat-jualan-di.html.

Ansor, Muhammad. “Being Woman in the Land of Shari’a: Politics of the Female Body, Piety and Resistance in Langsa, Aceh.” Al-Jami’ah, 52, no. 1 (2014), pp. 59–83.

----------. “‘Kita Kan Beda!’: Persamaan Remaja Perempuan Muslim dan Kristen di Langsa, Aceh.” Harmoni, 13, no. 2 (2014), pp. 37–50.

----------. “‘Menjadi Seperti Beragama Lain’: Jilbab dan Identitas Hibrid Mahasiswi Kristen Aceh.” Penamas, 29, no. 1 (2016), pp. 11–30.

----------. “Post-Islamism and the Remaking of Islamic Public Sphere in Post-Reform Indonesia.” Studia Islamika, 23, no. 3 (2016), pp. 471–515.

----------. “‘We Are from the Same Ancestors’’: Christian-Muslim Relations in Contemporary Aceh Singkil.’” Al-Albab, 3, no. 1 (2014), pp. 3–24.

Ansor, Muhammad, and Yaser Amri. “Beyond Pious Critical Agency: Women, Interfaith Marriage and Religious Conversion In Aceh.” Analisa, 1, no. 2 (December 21, 2016), pp. 217–238.

Ansor, Muhammad, Yaser Amri, and Ismail Fahmi Arrauf. “Under the Shadow of Sharia: Christian Muslim Relations from Acehnese Christian Experience.” Komunitas, 8, no. 1 (2016), pp. 125–134.

Ansor, Muhammad, and Cut Intan Meutia. “Jilbab dan Reproduksi Identitas Perempuan Kristen Ruang Publik Sekolah Aceh.” Kawistara, 6, no. 2 (2016), pp. 157–174.

Aritonang, Jan Sihar, and Karel Steenbrink. A History of Christianity in Indonesia. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008.

Asad, Talal. “Agency and Pain: An Exploration.” Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1, no. 1 (2000), pp. 29–60.

Avishai, Orit. “‘Doing Religion’ in a Secular World: Women in Conservative Religions and the Question of Agency.” Gender & Society, 22, no. 4 (2008), pp. 409–433.

Bahri, Saiful. “MIUMI Aceh Kecam Dosen UIN Ar-Raniry Pembawa Mahasiswa ke Gereja.” Dakwatuna.Com. Banda Aceh, January 9, 2015. https:www.dakwatuna.com/2015/01/09/62343/miumi-kecam-dosen-uin-ar-raniry-pembawa-mahasiswa-ke-gereja/#axzz4uBvuZQqp.

Bartkowski, John P., and Jen’nan Ghazal Read. “Veiled Submission: Gender, Power, and Identity Among Evangelical and Muslim Women in the United States.” Qualitative Sociology, 26, no. 1 (2003), pp. 71–92.

Bautista, Julius. “The Meta-Theory of Piety: Reflections on the Work of Saba Mahmood.” Contemporary Islam, 2, no. 1 (2008), pp. 75–83.

Bedmar, Vicente Llorent, and Vero´nica Cobano-Delgado Palma. “The Muslim Veil Controversy in French and Spanish Schools.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 21, no. 1 (2010), pp. 61–73.

Beta, Annisa R. “Hijabers: How Young Urban Muslim Women Redefine Themselves in Indonesia.” The Intenational Communication Gazette, 76, no. 4 (2014), pp. 377–389.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Crituque of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.

----------. Outline of A Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Brenner, Suzanne. “Reconstructing Self and Society: Javanese Muslim Women and ‘The Veil.’” American Ethnologist, 23, no. 4 (1996), pp. 673–697.

Bucar, Elizabeth M. “Dianomy: Understansing Religious Women’s Moral Agency as Creative Conformity.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion of Religion, 78, no. 3 (2010), pp. 662–686.

Bustamam-Ahmad, Kamaruzzaman. “The Application of Islamic Law in Indonesia: The Case Study of Aceh.” Journal of Indonesian Islam, 1, no. 1 (2007), pp. 135–180.

Butler, Judith. Exitable Speech: A Politics of Pervormative. New York: Routledge, 1997.

----------. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Taylor and Francis e-Library, 1999.

Chapman, Madeleine. “Feminist Dilemmas and the Agency of Veiled Muslim Women Analysing Identities and Social Representations.” European Journal of Women’s Studies, 23, no. 3 (2016), pp. 237–250.

Crouch, Melissa. “Implementing the Regulation on Places of Worship in Indonesia: New Problems, Local Politics and Court Action.” Asian Studies Review, 34, no. 4 (2010), pp. 403–419.

Fasya, Teuku Kemal. “Memperbaiki Keberagamaan Singkil.” Kompas. Jakarta, 2015.

Febriandi, Yogi. “Identitas Tunggal dan Minoritas Non-Muslim di Kota Langsa.” In Praktik Pengelolaan Keragaman di Indonesia: Konstruksi Identitas dan Ekslusi Sosial, edited by Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf, Trisno Sutanto, Subandri Simbolon, and Azin Anwar Fachrudin, 133–148. Yogyakarta: CRCS Universitas Gadjah Mada, 2018.

----------. “There is No Place for Christians: The Experiences of Christian Students in Getting Access to Residence in Langsa, Aceh.” In Annual International Conference on Islamic Studies XVII, 1–15, 2017.

Feener, R. Michael. Shari’a and Social Engineering: The Implementation of Islamic Law in Contemporary Aceh, Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

----------. “State Shari’a and Its Limits.” In Islam and the Limits of the State: Reconfigurations of Practice, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh, edited by R. Michael Feener, David Kloos, and Annemarie Samuels, 1–23. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Fleetwood, Jennifer. “Narrative Habitus: Thinking through Structure/Agency in the Narratives of Offenders.” Crime Media Culture, 12, no. 2 (2016), pp. 173–192.

Ghodsee, Kristen. “The Miniskirt and the Veil: Islam, Secularism, and Women Fashion in the New Europe.” Historical Reflections, 34, no. 3 (2008), pp. 105–125.

Giddens, Anthony. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.

Gökariksel, Banu, and Anna Secor. “Between Fashion and Tesettür: Marketing and Consuming Women’s Islamic Dress.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 6, no. 3 (2010), pp. 118–148.

Gole, Nillufer. The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Grayman, Jesse Hession. “Humanitarian Encounters in Post-Conflict Aceh, Indonesia.” Harvard University, 2012.

----------. “‘We Build Our Own Stories’: The 19-Th-Century Figure and 21st-Century Myth of the Acehnese Poet Dokarim.” Indonesia, 99 (2015), pp. 51–65.

Grossmann, Kristina. “Muslim Female Activists and Sharia in Indonesia: Scopes of Acting in National and International Perspectives.” Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, 48, no. 1 (2014), pp. 95–125.

----------. “Women’s Rights Activists and the Drafting Process of the Islamic Criminal Law Code (Qanun Jinayat).” In Islam and the Limits of the State: Reconfigurations of Practice, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh, edited by R. Michael Feener, David Kloos, and Annemarie Samuels, 87–117. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Guindi, Fadwa El. Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance. New York: Berg, 1999.

Hamzeh, Manal. “Deveiling Body Stories: Muslim Girls Negotiate Visual, Spatial, and Ethical Hijabs.” Race Ethnicity and Education, 14, no. 4 (2011).

Ichwan, Moch. Nur. “Official Ulema and the Politics of Re-Islamization: The Majelis Permusyawaratan Ulama, Shari’atization and Contested Authority in Post-New Order Aceh.” Journal of Islamic Studies, 22, no. 2 (2011), pp. 183–214.

Idria, Reza. “Cultural Resistance to Shariatism in Aceh.” In Islam, Politics and Change: The Indonesian Experience after the Fall of Suharto, edited by Kees van Dijk and Nico J.G. Kaptein, 247–268. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2016.

Janoschka, Michael. “Habitus and Radical Reflexivity: A Conceptual Approach to Study Political Articulations of Lifestyle- and Tourism- Related Mobilities.” Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure & Events, 3, no. 3 (2011), pp. 224–236.

Jones, Carla. “Fashion and Faith in Urban Indonesia.” Fashion Theory, 11, no. 2/3 (2007), pp. 211–232.

Keating, Maree. “Rethingking Women’s Resistance and Agency: The Case of Retrenched Textile Workers.” Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 23, no. 2 (2013), pp. 137–149.

Kloos, David. Becoming Better Muslims: Religious Authority and Ethical Improvement in Aceh, Indonesia. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2018.

----------. “In the Name of Syariah? Vigilante Violence, Territoriality, and Moral Authority in Aceh, Indonesia.” Indonesia, 98 (2014), pp. 59–90.

Kupari, Helena. “Lifelong Minority Religion: Routines and Reflexivity: A Bourdieuan Perspective on the Habitus of Elderly Finnish Orthodox Christian Women.” Religion, 46, no. 2 (2016), pp. 141–157.

Kymlicka, Will. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Lewis, Reina. Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.

----------. “Veils and Sales: Muslims and the Spaces of Poscolonial Fashion Retail.” Fashion Theory, 11, no. 4 (2007), pp. 423–442.

Madhok, Sumi. “Action, Agency, Coercion: Reformatting Agency for Oppressive Contexts.” In Gender, Agency, and Coercion, edited by Sumi Madhok, Anne Phillips, and Kalpana Wilson, 102–121. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Mahmood, Saba. “Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent : Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival.” Cultural Anthropology, 16, no. 2 (2001), pp. 202–236.

----------. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Makin, Al. “Islamic Acehnese Identity, Sharia, and Christianization Rumor: A Study of the Narratives of the Attack on the Bethel Church in Penauyong Banda Aceh.” Journal of Indonesian Islam, 10, no. 01 (2016), pp. 1–36.

----------. “‘Not a Religious State’: A Study of Three Indonesian Religious Leaders on the Relation of State and Religion.” Indonesia and the Malay World, 46, 135 (2018), pp. 95–116.

Miswari. “Mu‘ḍilat Al-Aqlīyah Al-Masīḥīyah Fī Ḥudūd Balad Al-Sharī‘ah Al-Islāmīyah.” Studia Islamika, 25, no. 2 (2018), p. 351.

Mitra, Subrata K. “Introduction: Citizenship as Cultural Flow-Shifting Paradigms, Hybridization, or Plus ca Change?” In Citizenship as Cultural Flow: Structure, Agency and Power, edited by Subrata K. Mitra, 1–21. London: Springer, 2013.

Mujiburrahman. Feeling Threatened: Muslim-Christian Relations in Indonesia’s New Order. Leiden: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.

Nisa, Eva F. “Embodied Faith: Agency and Obedience among Face-Veiled University Students in Indonesia.” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 13, no. 4 (2012), pp. 366–381.

Okin, Susan Moller. “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” In Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?, edited by Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard, and Martha C. Nussbaum, 7–26. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Otto, Benjamin, and Jan Michiel Otto. “Shari’a Police in Banda Aceh: Enforcement of Islam-Based Regulations and People’s Perceptions.” In Islam and the Limits of the State: Reconfigurations of Practice, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh, edited by R. Michael Feener, David Kloos, and Annemarie Samuels, 185–213. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Pitts, Victoria. In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Richmond, Oliver P. “Critical Agency, Resistance and a Post-Colonial Civil Society.” Cooperation and Conflict, 46, no. 4 (2011), pp. 419–440.

Rinaldo, Rachel. Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

----------. “Pious and Critical: Muslim Women Activists and the Question of Agency.” Gender & Society, 20, no. 10 (2014), pp. 1–23.

----------. “Women and Piety Movements.” In The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, edited by Bryan S. Turner, 584–605. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Ropi, Ismatu. “Muslim‐Christian Polemics in Indonesian Islamic Literature.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 9, no. 2 (1998), pp. 217–229.

----------. Religion and Regulation in Indonesia. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

Safitri, Dian Maya. “What Went Wrong With Veil? A Comparative Analysis of the Discourse of the Veil in France, Iran, and Indonesia.” Al-Jami’ah, 48, no. 1 (2010), pp. 81–100.

Salim, Arskal. Challenging the Secular State: The Islamization of Law in Modern Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008.

----------. “‘Sharia from below’ in Aceh (1930s–1960s): Islamic Identity and the Right to Self‐Determination with Comparative Reference to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).” Indonesia and the Malay World, 32, no. 92 (2004), pp. 80–99.

Salmenniemi, Suvi. “The Making of Civil Society in Russia: A Bourdieuan Approach.” International Sociology, 29, no. 1 (January 12, 2014), pp. 38–55.

Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990.

----------. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Resistance. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985.

Scott, Joan Wallach. The Politics of the Veil. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Scott, Rachel M. The Challenge of Political Islam: Non-Muslims and the Egyptian State. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2010.

Scott, Rachel M. “Contextual Citizenship in Modern Islamic Thought.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 18, no. 1 (2007), pp. 1–18.

Seo, Myengkyo. “Defining ‘Religious’ in Indonesia: Toward Neither an Islamic nor a Secular State.” Citizenship Studies, 16, no. 8 (2012), pp. 1045–1058.

Setiawan, Deny, and Bahrul Khoir Amal. “Membangun Pemahaman Multikultural dan Multiagama Guna Menangkal Radikalisme di Aceh Singkil.” Al-Ulum, 16, no. 2 (2016), pp. 348–367.

Siregar, Hasnil Basri. “Lessons Learned from the Implementation of Islamic Shari’ah Criminal Law in Aceh, Indonesia.” Journal of Law and Religion, 24, no. 1 (2008), pp. 143–176.

Smith-Hefner, Nancy J. “Javanese Women and the Veil in Post-Soeharto Indonesia.” The Journal of Asian Studies, 66, no. 2 (2007), pp. 389–420.

Sofjan, Dicky. “Gender Construction in Dakwahtainment: A Case of Hati Ke Hati Bersama Mamah Dedeh.” Al-Jami’ah, 50, no. 1 (2012), pp. 57–74.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grosberg, 271–313. Urbana: University Illionis Press, 1988.

Sulaiman, Teuku Muhammad Jaafar. “Dampak Qanun terhadap Eksistensi Rumah Ibadah di Aceh.” In Praktik Pengelolaan Keragaman di Indonesia: Konstruksi Identitas dan Ekslusi Sosial, edited by Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf, Trisno Sutanto, Subandri Simbolon, and Aziz Anwar Fachrudin, 173–186. Yogyakarta: CRCS Universitas Gadjah Mada, 2018.

----------. “Robohnya Rumah Tuhan di Negeri Syariat: Perjuangan Hak Beribadah Gereja Bethel Indonesia di Kota Bandar Wisata Islam.” In Praktik Pengelolaan Keragaman di Indonesia: Kontestasi dan Koeksistensi, edited by Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf, 11–35. Banda Aceh: CRCS Universitas Gadjah Mada, 2015.

Syihab, Mahdi. “Penegakan Syariat: Etnografi Aksi Razia Santri Dayah di Aceh Utara.” In Serambi Mekah yang Berubah: Views from Within, edited by Arskal Salim and M Adlin Sila, 57–91. Jakarta: Alvabet and ARTI, 2010.

Taylor, Reed. “Syariah as Heterotopia: Responses from Muslim Women in Aceh, Indonesia.” Religions, 6, no. 2 (2015), pp. 566–593.

Taylor, Reed W. “A Postcolonial Inquiry of Women’s Political Agency in Aceh, Indonesia: Towards a Muslim Feminist Approach?” Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2012.

Veer, Paul van ’t. Perang Aceh: Kisah Kegagalan Snouck Hurgronje. Jakarta: Grafiti Press, 1985.

Wagner, Wolfgang. “The Veil and Muslim Women’s Identity: Cultural Pressures and Resistance to Stereotyping.” Culture & Psychology, 18, no. 4 (2012), pp. 521–541.

Wardlow, Holly. Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society. Berkeley, London, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006.

Zion-Waldoks, Tanya. “Politics of Devoted Resistance: Agency, Feminism, and Religion among Orthodox Agunah Activists in Israel.” Gender & Society, 29, no. 1 (2015), pp. 73–97.




DOI: 10.15642/JIIS.2020.14.1.77-112

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Indexed by:

    

Creative Commons License

View My Stats

Journal of Indonesian Islam (ISSN 1978-6301 and E-ISSN 2355-6994) is published by the Postgraduate Program (PPs) and the Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (LSAS), State Islamic University (UIN) of Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

Journal of Indonesian Islam by http://jiis.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/JIIs/index is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright ©2020 State Islamic University (UIN) of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Powered by Public Knowledge Project OJS.