Abstract
In Indonesia, as in many other Muslim countries, the late twentieth–early twenty-first centuries have brought democratization and Islamic revival. Along with the growth of a middle class, in which women have access to secondary education and engage in labor force participation, these developments have proven to be fertile ground for the emergence of a vibrant field of women’s political activism. Mobilizing Piety takes us into this field, offering us a fascinating glimpse into the multilayered political landscape of Indonesia and how women, especially middle-class women, assert themselves as political actors within it. The author, who is fluent in the national language of Indonesia, engaged in fieldwork for a total of 18 months. She conducted over 40 interviews with a diverse cross section of women activists along with participant-observations in the organizations in which these women were involved.
The central issue that animates Mobilizing Piety is feminism, specifically that of how feminism can integrate and express itself within a Muslim majority society (Indonesia is the largest one in the world) that is deeply shaped by movements of Islamic revival. Since the 1980s, Islam has assumed a more prominent role in Indonesian public life. Along with a growth in Islamic schools and study groups, many young Indonesian women have adopted the Muslim headscarf – a global symbol of Islamic piety. With rich accounts of the lives of pious and politically engaged Indonesian women, Rinaldo contests the notion that these trends signify a turn away from feminism and incompatibility between feminism and Islam. However, much to her credit, even as she disputes the common understanding of feminism and Islam as incompatible, she does not simplify or overlook the complexity of women’s locations within contemporary Islamic movements.
If the relationship of Islam and feminism in Indonesia is an overarching theme of this book, it is questions of women’s agency that actually drive much of it. Rinaldo studied three types of women’s groups that were distinguished from each other in their politics and philosophies as well as the worldviews of members. The first was represented by Solidaritas Perempuan (SP or “Women’s Solidarity”), an NGO that aligned itself with global feminism and a progressive political agenda of human rights and environmental justice. Rinaldo finds the women of SP to express “feminist agency.” They proudly declared themselves as feminists and were of the opinion that piety was an individual responsibility rather than a matter for the state. Concurrently, as the author emphasizes, many of these women identified as pious Muslims and were supportive of the presence of Islam in Indonesian public life.
The notion of piety takes center stage in the other types of women’s groups that are described. Here, Rinaldo extends the work of Saba Mahmood in The Politics of Piety (2005) on women in the Egyptian mosque movement by noting that “pious agency” can take different forms—“pious critical agency” and “pious activating agency.” The Muslim women’s organizations she studied offered a context for the exercise of “pious critical agency” in which assertions of piety are integrated into a contextual approach to Islam. These women engaged in critical readings and interpretations of Islamic texts, drawing on them to legitimate their support for women’s rights and gender equality. In contrast, women leaders in a popular Muslim political party were found to exercise “pious activating agency.” Reflecting the stance of the party to which they belonged, the women in this case were in favor of the greater role of Islam in guiding national legislation and policy. They had a textual approach to Islam, which framed how they advocated on behalf of women. In short, whenever possible, they activated or deployed religious doctrine to advance the position of women. In both of these cases (of the Muslim women’s organizations and Muslim political party), I found myself wanting more information about the possible role of transnational networks and activities in their development. The role of global feminism in shaping feminist NGOs (such as SP) is acknowledged, but there is little discussion of the impact of cross-national Islamic networks and movements on women’s political activism in Indonesia.
Mobilizing Piety is an excellent study—clearly written and full of insights about gender, politics, and Islam. At a time when Muslim societies are too often seen and portrayed in homogeneous terms, this book highlights their rich, vibrant, and fluid diversity. I recommend it highly, not only to those who are interested in feminism and Islam in Indonesia but also to feminist scholars who are grappling with questions of agency in women’s lives.