Koran reciting competition

The Jakarta Post should be congratulated for its coverage of the first international Koran recitation competition from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8 in Jakarta.

The Post neglected to note, however, that first place for the finest woman reciter went to Indonesian Nazirah Hasan. Indonesian women reciters are known internationally and nationally in Koran competitions, and contestants in all categories, from calligraphy to memorization, are evenly divided along gender lines.

The Indonesian Muslim community is surely the only Muslim community in which gender equality, at least in terms of participation, is so firmly institutionalized. In fact, the Jakarta organizers of the international event altered the structure and rules of the competition to downplay the importance of women and their roles in Indonesian Islam in order not to offend guests from Arab and Middle Eastern nations, where women are not included among either contestants or on the panel of judges.

While this is the first international Koranic event held in Indonesia, it should be noted that Indonesia has had a dynamic culture of Koranic arts competitions that officially began in the 1960s.

ANNE K. RASMUSSEN Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology The College of William and Mary Williamsburg, Virginia