Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Women Shaping Islam: Reading the Qur''an in Indonesia
ISBN: 9780252092718
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Illinois Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Islam -- Indonesia; Women and religion -- Indonesia; Women in Islam -- Indonesia; Women -- Religious life -- Indonesia;

In the United States, precious little is known about the active role Muslim women have played for nearly a century in the religious culture of Indonesia, the largest majority-Muslim country in the world. While much of the Muslim world excludes women from the domain of religious authority, the country's two leading Muslim organizations--Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)--have created enormous networks led by women who interpret sacred texts and exercise powerful religious influence.
In Women Shaping Islam, Pieternella van Doorn-Harder explores the work of these contemporary women leaders, examining their attitudes toward the rise of radical Islamists; the actions of the authoritarian Soeharto regime; women's education and employment; birth control and family planning; and sexual morality. Ultimately, van Doorn-Harder reveals the many ways in which Muslim women leaders understand and utilize Islam as a significant force for societal chan≥ one that ultimately improves the economic, social, and psychological condition of women in Indonesian society.

Pieternella van Doorn-Harder is an associate professor of Islam and world religions at Valparaiso University. She is the author of Contemporary Coptic Nuns and the editor of Between Desert and City: the Coptic Orthodox Church Today.