In Indonesia, to advocate for women’s rights is to find yourself in a minority position. As researcher Ahmad Nuril Huda writes, like many minorities of all sorts in many different places, Indonesian feminists have benefited from the ability to talk to each other across geographical boundaries using the internet.
Huda writes that feminism as a distinct ideological current has been part of the country’s culture since the early twentieth century, when some young educated women began creating feminist organizations and magazines. Some of the country’s feminist projects are secular, but many are grounded in the nation’s majority Muslim faith.
The arrival of the internet allowed young Muslim women to more freely learn about Islam and share their own ideas. It also made existing feminist media and ideas much more accessible to people across the country.
One of the groups working in the new online spaces is the Congress of Indonesian Women Ulama (KUPI), which was founded in 2015 as a space for feminist ulama, Islamic scholars. It has run a series of deliberation sessions in which participants produce Islamic legal opinions (fatwas) on a range of topics including sexual violence against women, child marriage, waste management, and female genital cutting.
Huda writes that KUPI has both an official website, launched in 2022, and a slightly older wiki site with a variety of resources that can be uploaded by trusted members. The organization also uses social media to share information about its fatwas, upcoming activities, and messages from prominent feminists.
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It also works with networks that include Muslim and secular political action groups as well as Islamic scholarly groups. Given the controversial nature of its work, KUPI encourages scholars and supporters to share their interpretations without referencing the organization, and most also avoid the label “feminist.”
Another feminist initiative connected with KUPI centers on mubadalah.id, a blog created to discuss topics related to mubadalah, or reciprocity, including in the context of gender relations. Its small staff publishes articles and social media posts on theology and current topics, including head covering, handshakes between men and women, and legislation on sexual violence. The Mubadalah operation also sends representatives to schools and community centers to promote its work.
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Huda writes that many participants in the online discussions are already committed to KUPI’s view of Islam. But there are also plenty who come to the articles and posts simply to learn. Many visitors to mubadalah.id, in particular, are Indonesian students who find the site through Google searches, often in relation to Islamic family law.
Women from many different backgrounds use the online resources to learn about religious interpretations, as demonstrated in the comments they leave. One noted that “before reading this post, I thought female circumcision was obligatory.”
Huda concludes that the online resources constitute “an alternative public space that runs in favor of its feminist interests and against dominant discourses on women that exist across many patriarchal cultures in Indonesia.”
