Gender issue overshadows Muhammadiyah congress
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Malang
The gender issue could become a serious problem for Muhammadiyah, which claims to be a modern Islamic organization, with all of the 39 nominees selected as eligible candidates to vie for its top posts in the organization being men.
The 39 nominees were chosen during a plenary meeting on Friday of Muhammadiyah, the nation's second biggest Muslim organization, which is currently holding a national congress in Malang, East Java.
However, all of them are male after seven women candidates were rejected. Din Syamsuddin, Haedar Nashir and Abdul Rosyad Sholeh garnered the most votes during the meeting.
This sparked a strong reaction on Monday from the Muhammadiyah-affiliated Aisyiah women's organization, which accused Muhammadiyah of failing to promote gender equality.
Aisyiah leader Siti Chamamah, who had been considered a strong candidate, was among the seven women activists who lost in the early stages of the selection race.
She said her failure to get through to the next round showed that Muhammadiyah was not aware of gender issues.
"The exclusion of women from the selection of leadership candidates in Muhammadiyah worries us," Chamamah said, pointing out that women have long played vital roles in the organization's education and charitable activities.
"Women are already empowered, but why are they still discriminated against at the leadership level," she asked.
Chamamah said that Muhammadiyah had many women members who had all the qualities required to lead the organization, but they were nevertheless denied access to key positions in the organization.
Under the organization's statutes, the 39 selected nominees will now be allowed to press ahead with their bids to secure the organization's top post.
On Tuesday, the congress is scheduled to elect 13 central board members from among the 39 nominees, and whoever of the 13 elected candidates wins the most votes will be declared the new chairman of Muhammadiyah.
Similar criticism was also raised by another Muhammadiyah women's activist, Farida Burhan from tsunami-ravaged Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, who said the exclusion of female candidates during the early rounds of the selection process would make it even more difficult to reduce the marginalization of women in Indonesia.
"If a woman were to serve as a central board member of the organization, she would be able to seriously fight to help women," she said.
Ismiatun Daromi, who chairs Aisyiah's Yogyakarta provincial branch, said that the desire for gender equality was merely rhetoric within Muhammadiyah, as evidenced by the exclusion of women candidates.
"I wonder why so many people in Muhammadiyah still don't understand what gender equality means," she said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari officially opened Aisyiah's national congress at the Muhammadiyah University, Malang, the same venue where the Islamic organization's six-day conference ending on July 8 is being held.