The concern for piety among contemporary middle‐class Muslims has led to efforts to establish a halal (permissible according to Islamic principles) economy. This can be seen in the thriving Islamic ...cultural economy in Malaysia, which refers to the links between Islamic culture and economic practices. Malaysia tops the Global Islamic Economy indicator, which serves as the dominant framework for evaluating and measuring the global halal economy. This was achieved through various initiatives, such as establishing research centres, of which the International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART) is among the most prominent. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and digital ethnography, this article focuses on INHART initiatives for building transnational halal networks. This article aims to explore how halal interpretations and practices travel across borders. I argue that halal research centres, such as INHART, signify both the decentring and centring of power transnationally and economically in terms of the global flow of halal knowledge and practices.
In the past 20 years, divorce has increased in Indonesia. Indonesian statistics show that divorces initiated by women exceed those by men. One issue that is often neglected is how socioeconomic ...differences also play a role in this matter. Drawing on our collaborative research on Muslim divorces in Indonesia, this paper focuses on the interplay between divorce strategies and socioeconomic differences among Muslim couples. Our in-depth interviews with 93 Muslim men and women and 19 judges from Islamic courts show that class differences shape distinctive dynamics of divorce among Muslim Indonesians. Couples from less educated, lower-income backgrounds accept marriage dissolution more easily, with women becoming much less tolerant of men’s behaviors such as infliction of domestic violence, infidelity, and failure to provide financial support. Educated, middle-class urban couples divorce for similar reasons but tend to experience a lengthier process accompanied by complex layers of conflict. Many educated women’s narratives emphasize their ability to support themselves through working, and a desire to be free of a bad marriage at any cost. Class and education thus contribute to significant differences in the experience and trajectories of divorce in Indonesia.
The Indonesian democratic transition, which occurred after the collapse of the New Order, was a significant moment that enabled diverse Islamic groups to use media for their own interests. However, ...little has been discussed regarding the use of media in dakwah (Islamic proselytising) performed by Muslim activists who are not inclined to participate in radical activities. This article focuses on the use of social media in dakwah by One Day One Juz (ODOJ), which endeavours to encourage Muslims to revive the spirit of reading the Qur'an through the mobile application WhatsApp. Given that ODOJ has successfully recruited more than 140,000 followers in Indonesia and abroad, this article investigates the key actors of ODOJ and the extent to which it has mobilised religious sentiments among Muslims from diverse affiliations. It argues that WhatsApp has enabled the birth of a semi-virtual Qur'anic movement, which is rooted in the Tarbiyah movement. Unlike well established Islamic movements in Indonesia that harness global computer networks to strengthen their influence, ODOJ has been dependant on technology since its inception. It demonstrates the capacity of technology in generating and crafting this new semi-virtual socio-religious movement. ODOJ has painted new colour onto the contemporary Islamic public and its presence is imperative to understanding the transformation of the religious media-scape in Indonesia.
Recently, Indonesian Muslim women successfully convened the world's first congress of women Muslim scholars (KUPI). This is only one segment of the story of Indonesian Muslim women. There are many ...narratives regarding Indonesian Muslim women and their diverse agenda. This article focuses on what has been brought by KUPI into a broader discussion of Islam in Indonesia. Drawing on intermittent offline research predominantly conducted in Jakarta and online research from 2017 to 2018, this article argues that KUPI, with its symbolic preferences, has strengthened the voices of civil Islam in Indonesia. KUPI has productively generated global attention due to its progressive emphasis that women can be ulama. However, there are other women's voices of Islam and gender that are robust, particularly due to their rigorous use of information and communication technology. At the same time, this might be seen as promoting conservatism. Within the local context, this ideological position that is contrary to KUPI has gained more traction. Additionally, this article argues that progressive and conservative Indonesian Muslim women feature not only in the democratic pluralism of religious expression in the Indonesian offline and online spheres but also in the ongoing intricate interplay between Islam, civil society and gender equality.
Studies have highlighted the increased vulnerability of women during and after disasters. Thus, there has been a call for gender-aware disaster management—an approach which is certainly needed, ...especially when a patriarchal culture is embedded in a society. Unfortunately, studies on women as vulnerable agents are often not balanced against careful examinations of instances where women help women. Drawing on (digital) ethnography conducted between 2020 and 2022, this article focuses on analysing the voices and activities of gender-just ʿulamāʾ (Muslim scholars) in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected traditional religious gathering practices, has led to creative solutions to social proximity restrictions. Many ʿulamāʾ have been “forced” by the situation to adjust to digital religion. This article analyses how female religious authorities who colour the daily daʿwa (proselytization) landscape in Indonesia deal with the uncertainties brought on by the pandemic. The daʿwa scene in Indonesia has long been the site of contention among various competing ideological understandings. The pandemic and the proliferation of digital religion has led gender-just ʿulamāʾ to relegitimize their authority through an online presence so they can compete and counter the narratives of tech-savvy conservative Muslims.
The article analyses internet usage by Indonesian face-veiled women (cadari). Such women desire to return to a true Islam, and are often understood by mainstream Muslims as oppressed. Taking ...advantage of the freedom of speech that has emerged in Indonesia’s post-authoritarian period, they use media strategically for their own purposes in ways quite different from those motivating the internet habits of mainstream Muslims in Indonesia. The article analyses how the women create and maintain subcultures through the internet. Specifically, it focuses on the mailing list of one group of Salafi women, and a virtual business enterprise run by a cadari. While the existing literature tends to emphasize those aspects of the internet that can contribute to the creation of civil society, the internet has enabled cadari to fashion differing trajectories compatible with their subcultures.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and literary analysis, this article analyses the Forum Lingkar Pena (FLP), the largest transnational writers' collective for Muslim readers, writers, and publishers in ...Indonesia. In the light of the different FLP 'subcultures' embedded within the local framework of the respective branches, we examine moral solidarity as a unifying element of the forum's divisions. We presume that the FLP is characterized by moral solidarity, which is to be understood here to mean responding to the moral needs of other people by means of sympathetic understanding. This essay depicts the ways in which moral solidarity functions in the FLP, and how it opens up new perspectives for people who have a less privileged position in society. Moreover, it demonstrates that to better understand this writers' collective and the wider FLP family, the concept of moral solidarity needs to be complemented by a consideration of individual moral agency.
This article analyses the life experiences of face-veiled university students and their involvement in the Salafi Islamic revivalist movement in Indonesia. Studies on Salafi groups in Indonesia have ...often neglected the face-veiling practices of women, who are the main female constituents of the groups. Focusing on women's adoption of the cadar (face-veil) and their religious transformation, this article demonstrates how veiling shapes women's formation as religious subjects. Drawing on the life experiences of young women in several groups, this article shows that fulfilling religious obligation is the women's main priority. Their life experiences and the process of negotiating wearing the cadar reveal their struggle to reconstruct their religious identity and their capacity for exercising a specific type of religious agency.
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