Draft Islamic Law Code reflects response of Muslim women

Musdah Mulia, Jakarta

From the beginning the compilation of articles under Islamic Law (KHI), which is set out in 1991 Presidential Instruction No. 1 and is the guide for judges in the religious courts, has put women's aspirations behind men's interests.

The KHI, a body of Islamic law covering marriage, inheritance and property issues, reflects the dominant view in fiqih, the study of laws pertaining to ritual obligations in Islam, that puts women in "second place" behind men. This can be seen in how the laws relate to polygamy and matrimonial bonds.

However, it is both a man and a woman that unite in a marriage and set up a family. Before Allah, they are equally hard-working and enjoy equal appreciation. He will not discriminate against either sex. And Allah will not put one sex above the other.

The facts show, however, that cases of domestic abuse are causing great concern. Take, for example, the 2001 report from the minister for women's empowerment, which says that 11.4 percent or about 24 million women of the country's predominantly Muslim population have, in one way or another, been subjected to abuse.

Most of them have experienced several forms of what one could call domestic abuse -- physical violence, economic deprivation, rape, sexual harassment, adultery or polygamy. Most maltreatment of women goes unreported. In many cases, the victims of the abuse prefer to keep quiet about their plight. The data in the report, therefore, is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

Meanwhile, contractual marriages have taken place at an increasingly greater frequency, usually between rural women and rich expatriates. A contractual marriage is a lucrative business for the brokers, most of whom are men. This marriage usually disadvantages the woman involved. When the contract comes to an end, women do not enjoy the rights a normally married woman deserves. In polygamy, the practice of which is supported by religious arguments, a family often breaks up.

In this context, a wife is powerless to stop the man from marrying up to four other women. Women are also disadvantaged in cases related to unregistered marriages like siri marriages, marriages between a couple of different religions and the status of illegitimate children.

Nowadays, the state pays great attention to the interests of women, as the ratification of a convention on women's rights, and the recent law on the abolition of domestic violence prove. The underlying spirit is that fighting for human rights also means fighting for women's rights.

Recently, many religious communities, for example, those representing Islamic boarding schools and religious organizations, have actively been fighting for women's rights. Muslim women are nowadays more often educated and consciously involved in the movement to promote women's interests.

Given this encouraging development, will the old KHI simply become irrelevant to women's rights? Isn't it time now to review it in response to new challenges? More importantly, should the old Islamic laws be left behind because they are no longer relevant to the needs of Muslims and this pluralistic nation?

The emergence of the new KHI reflects the response from Muslim women. They are aware the majority of victims in cases of violence are Muslim women. The new KHI, therefore, reflects Muslim women's efforts to bring about justice and gender equality, from the perspective of Islam.

Muslim women are fully aware that Islam is a religion that is not solely intended to favor men's interests. Islam is a religion intended for all mankind, regardless of their sex, racial or social background and religion. The spirit of Islam lies in its liberating ethics, as reflected in its concept of tauhid, or the unity of Allah, which may be taken as a sincere confession of human equality and unity. All people are equal and come from only a single source of origin, Allah. What distinguishes one person from another is only their achievements and the quality of their devotion to Allah.

What about divine inspiration? During the launch of the draft amendment to the KHI in Jakarta some time ago, some people commented the new KHI was "heretical", "secular" and "deviated from the concept of religious divine inspiration."

Celestial inspiration is meaningless unless it is construed as the participation of a religious community thanks to Allah's intimacy. As two great sufis, Ibn Arabi and Rabiah al-Adawiyah, have pointed out, women, with their femininity, can better feel the intimacy and warmth a divine inspiration transmits. A divine inspiration is the vital elan of life, a trail-blazer towards peace and harmony in nature. It is in this context of intimacy with a divine inspiration that Muslim women have taken the initiative to act as the pioneers of peace, rehabilitation, reform and reconciliation.

Does this activity belong to heresy or secularism? In the 1930s and 1970s, there was a difference in opinion between "the older generation" and "the younger generation." The former generation always used the terms "heresy" and "secularism" to muffle Muslims' creative differences and individual interpretations. The latter, meanwhile, accepted changes in religion along with changes in technology and social structure.

Obviously, the terms "heresy" and "secularism" are not part of scientific arguments because they are alien in the nomenclature of ushul fiqih, where ijtihad, or individual interpretation is dwelled upon.

To practice ijtihad in fiqih is a good deed: If you are right, you will be entitled to two rewards; if not, you will still deserve one. The use of these two terms -- heresy and secularism -- fails to reflect Muslims' intimacy with the ever-dynamic concept of divine inspiration.

Muslims need to be refreshed in their lives. Muslim women respond to this need by the attention they pay to improving the well-being of Indonesian women. The new KHI reflects the ijtihad of Muslim women in promoting Islam as a religion that is not only friendly to women but also blesses the entire universe.

The writer is the director of religious research and social affairs at the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Her team has recently completed a draft amendment to the body of Islamic Law. The draft has triggered strong controversy and the ministry has withdrawn it.