Rising public piety and the status of women in Indonesia two decades after reformasi

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Dina Afrianty

AbstractIndonesian women were at the forefront of activism during the turbulent period prior to reformasi and were a part of the leadership that demanded democratic change. Two decades after Indonesia embarked on democratic reforms, the country continues to face challenges on socio-religious and political fronts. Both the rise of political Islam and the increased presence of religion and faith in the public sphere are among the key features of Indonesia's consolidating democracy. This development has reinvigorated the discourse on citizenship and rights and also the historical debate over the relationship between religion and the state. Bearing this in mind, this paper looks at the narrative of women's rights and women's status in the public domain and public policy in Indonesia. It is evident, especially in the past decade, that much of the public conversation within the religious framework is increasingly centred on women's traditional social roles. This fact has motivated this study. Several norms and ideas that are relied on are based on cultural and faith-based interpretations - of gender. Therefore, this paper specifically examines examples of the ways in which social, legal, and political trends in this context affect progress with respect to gender equality and gender policy. I argue that these trends are attempts to subject women to conservative religious doctrines and to confine them to traditional gender roles. The article discusses how these developments should be seen in the context of the democratic transition in Indonesia.

Inter ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
Elena V. Onegina

The conservative ideology influences the life scenario of LGBTQ+ people by pushing them out of the public sphere and controlling the private sphere of their lives. At the same time, over the past three years, online projects about and for LGBTQ+ people and communities have been actively developing, gaining popularity and support. LGBTQ+ scene is a decentralized space of various initiatives, organizations, and independent activists. The participants of the scene are fighting against gender and sexual-based discrimination by organizing protests, educational projects, and other activities. The empirical basis of the study is 20 interviews involving LGBTQ people.The LGBTQ+ scene is constituted through a reflexive, often conflicting discussion of issues that have fundamental importance for the community such as status of sexuality, public actions, power, and hierarchy, as well as new sexual and gender identities.The person engaging in activism on an individual level not only chooses a form of participation (professional work, volunteering, or independent activity), but also the direction of activity within the community or outside it. The core of the scene is set by active individuals and groups, the periphery and borders are supported by passive participants and opponents of the LGBTQ+ scene. The article examines the relationship of solidarity of LGBTQ + scene participants with other initiatives, or rather, what values serve as the basis for the formation of intergroup solidarity. KEYWORDS:


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Mary Varghese ◽  
Kamila Ghazali

Abstract This article seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the relationship between political discourse and national identity. 1Malaysia, introduced in 2009 by Malaysia’s then newly appointed 6th Prime Minister Najib Razak, was greeted with expectation and concern by various segments of the Malaysian population. For some, it signalled a new inclusiveness that was to change the discourse on belonging. For others, it raised concerns about changes to the status quo of ethnic issues. Given the varying responses of society to the concept of 1Malaysia, an examination of different texts through the critical paradigm of CDA provide useful insights into how the public sphere has attempted to construct this notion. Therefore, this paper critically examines the Prime Minister’s early speeches as well as relevant chapters of the socioeconomic agenda, the 10th Malaysia Plan, to identify the referential and predicational strategies employed in characterising 1Malaysia. The findings suggest a notion of unity that appears to address varying issues.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2006
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Berger

The relationship between law and religion in contemporary civil society has been a topic of increasing social interest and importance in Canada in the past many years. We have seen the practices and commitments of religious groups and individuals become highly salient on many issues of public policy, including the nature of the institution of marriage, the content of public education, and the uses of public space, to name just a few. As the vehicle for this discussion, I want to ask a straightforward question: When we listen to our public discourse, what is the story that we hear about the relationship between law and religion? How does this topic tend to be spoken about in law and politics – what is our idiom around this issue – and does this story serve us well? Though straightforward, this question has gone all but unanswered in our political and academic discussions. We take for granted our approach to speaking about – and, therefore, our way of thinking about – the relationship between law and religion. In my view, this is most unfortunate because this taken-for-grantedness is the source of our failure to properly understand the critically important relationship between law and religion.


Author(s):  
Nicole M. Elias

Our understanding and treatment of gender in the United States has evolved significantly over the past four decades. Transgender individuals in the current U.S. context enjoy more rights and protections than they have in the past; yet, room for progress remains. Moving beyond the traditional male–female binary, an unprecedented number of people now identify as transgender and nonbinary. Transgender identities are at the forefront of gender policy, prompting responses from public agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. Because transgender individuals face increased rates of discrimination, violence, and physical and mental health challenges, compared to their cisgender counterparts, new gender policy often affords legal protections as well as identity-affirming practices such as legal name and gender marker changes on government documents. These rights come from legal decisions, legislation, and administrative agency policies. Despite these victories, recent government action targeting the transgender population threatens the progress that has been made. This underscores the importance of comprehensive policies and education about transgender identities to protect the rights of transgender people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Predrag Terzić

The process of creating a modern state and forming political institutions corresponds to the process of transforming the subjects of the past into a community constituted on the principle of citizenship. The citizen becomes the foundation of the political community and the subject, which in interaction with other citizens, forms the public sphere. However, this does not mean that all members of the community have the same rights and obligations contained in the status of a citizen. Excluding certain categories of residents from the principle of citizenship raises a number of issues that delegitimize the existing order by colliding with the ideas of justice, freedom and equality. The aim of this short research is to clarify the principle of citizenship, its main manifestations and excluded subjects, as well as the causes that are at the root of the concept of exclusive citizenship. A brief presentation of the idea of multiculturalism does not intend to fully analytically explain this concept, but only to present in outline one of the ways of overcoming the issue of exclusive citizenship. In order to determine the social significance of the topic, a part of the text is dedicated to the ideas that form the basis of an exclusive understanding of citizenship, the reasons for its application and the far-reaching consequences of social tensions and unrest, which cannot be ignored.


1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenn Goddu

Abstract: This paper examines the interaction between women's groups and the media between 1980 and 1995. In particular, this analysis documents the relationship between the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and REAL Women of Canada and newspaper and magazine journalists. Using extensive examples from major Canadian daily newspapers and magazines and drawing on individual interviews with group leaders on whom the media focused, this study demonstrates how journalists stressed the personal, private details about the women leaders of the more feminist groups in an effort to contain the role of women in the public sphere. Résumé: Cet article examine l'interaction entre les groupes de femmes et les médias de 1980 à 1995. En particulier, cette analyse documente la relation entre d'une part le Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women ("Le Conseil consultatif canadien sur la condition de la femme"), le National Action Committee on the Status of Women ("Le Comité d'action national sur la condition de la femme") et REAL Women of Canada ("Femmes "réelles'' du Canada") et d'autre part les reporters de journaux et revues. Utilisant des exemples détaillés provenant de revues et de quotidiens importants au Canada et se fondant sur des entrevues particulières avec des dirigeantes de groupes sur lesquels les médias ont porté leur attention, cette étude montre comment les journalistes ont mis l'accent sur les détails privés et personnels ayant trait aux dirigeantes des groupes plus féministes afin de restreindre le rôle des femmes dans la sphère publique.


1986 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çigdem Kagitçbasi

The status of women in Turkey may be examined from several perspectives. One perspective might focus on the public sphere and take into account the legal, political, and institutional reforms of hte Republican era and their reflection in the increasing literacy rates, educational attainment, political participation, labor force participation, and professionalization of women in Turkey. A second perspective might focus on the private sphere, mainly the family, and consider family dynamics and interaction patterns as well as the place of the woman in the family. This paper will adopt the second perspective. Before taking it up in detail, however, it may be helpful to consider briefly the general picture of the public sphere. This should provide us with necessary backgorund and help put our findings into context.


Author(s):  
Charlotte Sabourin

Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, mayor of Königsberg, was a friend and former student of Immanuel Kant. This chapter investigates Hippel’s plea for the improvement of the civil status of women in eighteenth-century Germany. Hippel argues that men and women are equal and that this equality should lead to similar civil status. On these grounds, he shows that the Enlightenment is bound to be self-defeating if women are excluded from the public sphere. In doing so, he proposes a feminist appropriation of some of Kant’s ideas—in particular by revisiting the categorical imperative. Hippel’s proposals thus provide support to the idea that the legal subordination of women is a problem for the enactment of the Enlightenment broadly construed, and even more so in a Kantian perspective.


2019 ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Anat Pershitz

In the past decade, the Israeli Army (IDF) has been undergoing simultane-ously two ‘social revolutions’: a ‘feminist revolution’ and a “religious revolution”. The two revolutions have different and conflicting ideologies causing a clash of values. Feminist values demand the integration of women in the army without gender separation, whereas religious principles require modesty and gender separation. At the moment, in practice, religious values which under-mine women’s equal opportunities in the army outweigh democratic values. If the secular women and men in Israeli society will not act to deprive the IDF of its unofficial and unauthorized role of balancing conflicting values in society, the status and roles of women in the army will be downgraded, directly im-pacting gender inequality in the employment market.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Magdalena Bogusławska

The subject of the article is the characteristics of modern forms of memory institutionalization – the kind of commemorative practices and the related production and dissemination of knowledge in the public space. This topic seems especially important but also controversial in post-socialist countries, in which a major process of revision of the past is continues. This process becomes a part of the political pluralization of the public sphere and the expression of the emancipation of various previously marginalized groups. Using the example of the three museum:Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Sovereignty and Independence, War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo and „Polin” Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the author discusses: – the articulation and afirmation of subjectivity by means of museum as an institution– the mechanism for shaping the authority of institutions so as to legimitize the interpretation of the past– the relationship between the particular, often fragmented registers of the memory and the dominant power discourses.


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