Gender, Progressive Islam, and Islamism in Indonesia: Analysing the Political Attitudes of PKB and PKS
Date
2013
Authors
Nurjanah, Nunik
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This thesis investigates the attitudes of two of Indonesia’s main Islamic parties,
National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), towards
gender and women’s issues. There has been an assumption that PKB is more liberal
than PKS due to the progressive religious backgrounds of many of its parliamentarians
and leaders. While PKB has strong roots in the reform-minded Cultural Islam
movement, which tended to support gender equality, PKS has its origins in the Tarbiyah
movement, which was heavily influenced by the thinking of Egypt’s Muslim
Brotherhoodand was socially conservative and Islamist. This study examines whether
the contrasting backgrounds of these parties produces markedly different policies and
actions on gender and women’s issues. It analyses the two parties’ attitudes during
deliberations in parliament on two controversial items of draft legislation: the Anti-
Domestic Violence and the Anti-Pornography bill. This thesis argues that despite their
differing doctrinal and intellectual origins, PKB and PKS had similar views on these
bills. I contend that the interaction with non-Islamists and activists from women’s
NGOs enabled PKS to moderate its attitude on gender and women’s issues. PKB
supported the Anti-Pornography bill though in some ways, the party failed to serve as a
champion of gender equality in parliament, belying its reputation for pro-women’s
activism.
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gender, women's issues, Islamic parties, Indonesia, Islamist, progressive Islam, the anti-domestic violence bill, the anti-pornography bill
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