Politicizing Piety
Women's Rights and Roles in the Tarbiyah Movement in Indonesia
Keywords:
Islam, Tarbiyah movement, women, rights, roles, equalityAbstract
The Tarbiyah (education) movement in Indonesia today is the best known and has the largest number of members amongst groups in the Dakwah (proselytizing) movements that mostly work in Indonesian campuses. Using the notion of Islamic feminism, this study aims to explore the numerous and varieties of women’s activities in this movement, especially in relation to the ways women see their rights and roles within their notion of piety. Female and male activists of the Tarbiyah movement in six state universities in East Java are used as data. Participant observations and in-depth interviews are used as techniques of data collection. Data collection was done from April 2015 to September 2016. One important finding indicates that the Tarbiyah members conceive that male and female are segregated in nature (biological construction), yet in fact they subscribe to concepts of women’s rights and equality while maintaining sexual segregation.
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Interviews
Interview with SMP, Universitas Airlangga. October 11, 2011.
Interviews with members or activists of Tarbiyah movement at Universitas Airlangga, Institute Teknologi Surabaya, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Universitas Brawijaya, Universitas Negeri Malang and Universitas Jembe. April 2015 to September 2016.
Interview with LLF, activist of Tarbiyah Movement at Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA/State University of Surabaya), March 26, 2015.
Interview with FWEP, activist of Tarbiyah Movement at Universitas Negeri Malang (UNM/State University of Malang), May 15, 2016.
Interview with INS, activist of Tarbiyah Movement at Universitas Negeri Jember (UNEJ/State University of Jember), June 18, 2016.
Interview with NNS, activist of Tarbiyah Movement at Universitas Negeri Malang (UNM/State University of Malang), May 15, 2016.
Interview with ZIN, activist of Tarbiyah Movement at Universitas Negeri Jember (UNEJ/State University of Jember), June 18, 2016.
