Indonesia-Malaysia Relations by Marshall Clark Juliet Pietsch

Author:Marshall Clark, Juliet Pietsch [Marshall Clark, Juliet Pietsch]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317808886
Google: nEYsAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-03-26T05:56:10+00:00

Representations of polygamy in popular Islamic films

Parallel to the emergence of the heavily criticised sastra wangi literary stream, not long after the fall of Suharto enduring historical debate about sexuality, polygamy and the position of women re-emerged in Indonesia’s public discourse. There was nothing completely new about the debate, as state and Islamic discourses have long worked together in Indonesia. It can be argued that, in the reformasi era, the Islamic emphasis on the sanctity of the family and the valorisation of female domesticity have served to reinforce the patriarchal perspective on gender and sexuality which was firmly entrenched in the New Order era (Blackburn 2004; Blackwood 2005; Robinson 2008). It should not be surprising, therefore, that the deeply conservative line on gender held by many Islamic leaders and publications has caused polygamy to emerge as a hot topic for debate in the post-Suharto public sphere.

In spite of its acceptance among Malaysia’s Muslim majority, especially in conservative states such as Kelantan, polygamy is seldom discussed in Malaysia, where the conversation appears to be limited to formal pieces in online publications (for example, Ding 2010; Malaysia to Reward 2011; Othman 2012). This might have something to do with the fact that Islam in Malaysia is generally perceived as more conservative than in Indonesia, which has given rise to a more widespread tradition of polygamy, or more specifically polygyny. Malaysia’s relatively superior economic standing has also allowed greater opportunity for some Malaysian men to take more than one wife. As Khoo (2010) observes, after several decades of Muslim proselytising under the banner of the conservative dakwah movement, a public discourse on polygyny emerged at the height of the 1990s, when the economy was thriving and more wealthy Muslim men could consequently afford a polygamous lifestyle.

When considering the rise of a polygamy discourse in Indonesia, we also need to consider the reality of unprecedented growth in the Indonesian economy in recent years. Is it the case that, quite apart from the liberalisation of the mass media and political discourse nowadays, Indonesian men also now have greater financial capacity to support a polygamous lifestyle? It is difficult to quantify exactly how widely polygamy is practised in Indonesia. We can say with some confidence, however, that in the decade following the fall of Suharto the simmering discourse relating to polygamy and the related question of the position of women in Islam bubbled to the surface after several highprofile cases. Yet, even though the discourse surfaced in the public sphere, it appears to have failed Indonesian women, many of whom are as eager for change as the students leading the protest movement were in 1998. The double discourse on polygamy and women in Islam seems to have simply reinforced Indonesia’s long-standing patriarchal gender hegemony. According to Sonja van Wichelen, in her observations of pro-polygamy campaigns in Indonesia, the pro-polygamy discourse ‘does not seek less patriarchal or less conservative definitions of Indonesian manhood. Instead, discourses of hypermasculinity and (Javanese) paternalism are reaffirmed – albeit enveloped in an Islamic framework’ (van Wichelen 2009: 181–82).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.