Gender issue overshadows Muhammadiyah congress
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.