Insights Into the Lives of Indonesian Female Tablighi Jama'at (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Asian Social Science Research, 2020
This article studies the role of women of the Tablighi Jamaat, a transnational Islamic propagation movement, in the process of Islamic propagation (da’wah) in Indonesia. It aims to analyze the role played by female followers of Tablighi Jamaat in developing da’wah by focusing on the role of nyai (female family members of a religious leader of traditional Islamic learning institution [pesantren]) in developing masturah da’wah in Pesantren Al-Fatah and Temboro Village. This study uses a qualitative approach to understand how nyai of Pesantren Al-Fatah were involved in da’wah activities in Temboro. The required data were collected through observation and interviews. The findings show that like their spouses who were obliged to go for da’wah in the form of khuruj, female followers of Tablighi Jamaat of Pesantren Temboro were assigned to conduct da’wah through masturah, a form of Islamic propagation which was only targeted on, organized and attended by the women of Tablighi Jamaah in Tem...
Seeking sanctuary in 'the age of disorder': women in contemporary Tablighi Jamā'at
This article addresses the novel phenomenon of the attachment of women from privileged backgrounds to the Tablighi Jamā'at movement in Indonesia. How to understand the involvement of these urban wealthy women who eventually give up their high-class lifestyles for the sake of their new understanding of Islam? The common stereotype of Tablighi Jamā'at women is that they are oppressed, cannot exercise agency, and do not contribute to the development of the movement. However, based on an ethnographic study of middle and upper-class Tablighi Jamā'at women, I found that their passion to return to the true path of Islam and the commitments it embodies have made them aware of their capacity to exercise agency within the movement's structuring conditions. The women's privileged social background has enabled them to embrace the meaning of being active in a religious group. The most notable contribution of these women is their effort in undertaking recruitment and sustaining this religious network of shared meaning with their colleagues. Within these activities they are social agents, not just tools of the movement's men.
2021
This article explores one of the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) teachings self-islah that develops in its dawah practices. Self-Islah emphasizes improving oneself through a proselytization program called khuruj from one community to another, from one mosque to another. The phenomenon of TJ dawah shows a different approach and pattern where da’i play dual roles not only as subject (preachers) but also as an object (listeners) during that khuruj program. Self-islah in this context includes strengthening faith, morals, and gender awareness. The gender aspect is strong external critics of TJ religious tradition where it does not involve women in their religious activities and even avoids interacting with them. Thus, TJ members must handle all the needs while staying in the mosque for religious camps, such as washing clothes, cooking, washing dishes, and serving guests from the local and international community. The article investigates changes in gender relations within the TJ family in the post-...
The Religious Patterns of the Tablighi Jamaat in Indonesia
International Journal of Demos, 2022
One of the promises of religion is happiness for its followers. The promise is translated according to their respective mindstreem. One of them is the Tablighi Jamaat. The Tablighi Jamaat claims to be a neutral community in terms of sects, mass organizations, and politics, but within the framework of ahl al-sunnah wa aljamâ'ah. They emphasize their religious activities in real terms through the practice of da'wah by prioritizing morality. This study aims to determine the religious pattern of the Tablighi Jamaat by studying the pattern of their life and da'wah. This study uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive method in describing the results of the study. The results of the research on the religious patterns of the Tablighi Jamaat mutually influence the dimensions of doctrine, teachings, rituals, appreciation and practice, so that the social interactions that are formed between the two are dialectically and associatively intertwined because they are influenced by motivational orientations and value orientations. In the application of the religious pattern, the Tablighi Jamaat adheres to the six doctrinal principles they profess.
American Journal of Islam and Society, 2009
This work examines the negotiations that Indonesian Muslim women have made in certain areas of life in the post-Suharto era, an era of socio-political reform in which "it is possible to question accepted attitudes and break new ground" (p. 16), and their religious practices and identities. The editors claim that their work breaks new ground in that (a) it informs readers of "how the women themselves experience their religion and actively engage with it in their lives" (p. 1); (b) it focuses on women and Islam in the post-Suharto period, in which Islam is more prominent and it is more acceptable to put forward feminist views in Indonesia and within Islam; and (c) it is the effort of insiders-Indonesian women with western and Islamic training-who can bridge the gap between western and Indonesian scholarship on Islam and women. The editors state up front that the book does not deliberately engage in a critical feminist theory and that they are not feminist writers; rather, they are influenced by feminism and desire to show that women are active participants and not mere "passive victims of male oppression" (p. 2). This edited work consists of seven chapters organized under three sections, namely, representation and identity, regional variations, and organizational negotiation. In the first section, Nina Nurmila (chapter 1) provides an interesting analysis of her fieldwork involving polygamous marriage vis-àvis three different cases as regards the 1974 Marriage Law, which discourages and restricts its practice. She concludes that how the women respond to this practice is influenced by their beliefs about polygamy and the attitudes
Da’wa and politics: lived experiences of the female Islamists in Indonesia-Springer
14,19-47, 2020
Stories about women activism in the Tarbiyah movement in Indonesia has gained scholarly attention. The existing literatures, however, tend to focus on the official discourses. This article discusses female members’ everyday experiences within the the liqo activity, as part of the Tarbiyah movement (circle of religious teaching). It examines the extent to which liqo members experience, receive, and practice the da’wa ideology designed by the Tarbiyah movement. It focuses on cadres’ stories about the lived experiences they have had through joining the liqo, with special reference to the female liqo group in Jakarta. Using ethnographic approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 26 female liqo members from a total of 45 interviewees and 15 observations of the liqo sessions. The study concludes that although the official form of religiosity, piety and political identity have been promoted by the Tarbiyah movement and its leaders, the experiences and practices of women revealed a heterogeneity and complexity of meanings of being in the liqo. This study attempts to contribute to the existing analysis of the da’wa (Islamic preaching and mission) and politics of a contemporary female Islamist movement with a case study of the Indonesian Tarbiyah movement.
Journal of International and Global Studies, 2016
Gender and Power in Indonesian Islam contributes to a burgeoning body of literature on the subject formation of women leaders in Islam—a line of inquiry that has been fruitfully opened up by postcolonial scholarship in reaction to Orientalist thinking that has long denied agency to Muslim women. The essays contained in this edited volume demonstrate that in Indonesia, female leadership has, in fact, placed important limits on the patriarchal structures of Islamic institutions. The essays, moreover, show that the Salafi movement—a fundamentalist movement associated with literal, puritanical interpretations of Islam—that emerged in Indonesia in recent decades has had to accommodate locally specific patterns of gender relations and cultural meanings. Rapid economic development, democratization, foreign aid intervention, political conflict, and other social changes have nonetheless affected female autonomy in contradictory ways: while gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment have become the buzzwords of the post-Suharto era, fundamentalist Islamist forces have gained some traction in civil society and have even risen to power in local governments. The deepening conservatism associated with this rise of Islamist forces is encapsulated in control over women’s sexuality, ideologies in favor of polygamy and child marriage, and restrictions on women’s leadership in institutions of religious learning (pesantren). Yet, as Smith and Woodward point out, the rise of Salafism has also reinvigorated societal debates about gender equity and the position of women in Islam, introducing spiritual pluralism to a region that had been the hotbed of Sufism—Islamic mysticism—for centuries. At the forefront of the struggle to promote gender equity are Muslim women and their male allies in the pesantren—actors who accommodate religious norms legitimating male tutelage, even as they strive to enhance authority for women in the public sphere.
Journal of Asian Social Science Research
Reformist Muslim ideology has been perceived to liberate Muslim women from the shackles of patriarchal religious and cultural norms. This article analyzes the extent to which contemporary reformist Islamic theology influences Muslim women’s movement in the light of Muslim debates on women and gender issues. In doing so, it focuses on the case of Islamic reform by Indonesian liberal-progressive Muslims since the late New Order and its influence on the Muslim women’s movement in the country. This article argues that Islamic reform promoted by contemporary liberal-progressive Muslims has given a significant contribution to the development of Muslim women’s movement. It has laid the ground for an Islamic paradigm shift on the discourse on Islam and gender. The opening of the gate of ijtihad and respect for modernity espoused by reformist Muslims have provided tools for radical change in Islamic discourse on gender while still ground such change on an Islamic basis. It has empowered Musl...