WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IN THE FRAMEWORK OF MODERNIST MUSLIMS IN INDONESIA: AISYIYAH AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Abstract

As a women’s wing organization of Muhammadiyah, Aisyiyah has been facing dilemma in reconciling its multiple identities as a woman, Muslim modernist and Indonesian organization. As part of the biggest Indonesian Muslim modernist movement with its ideology of progressive Islam, Aisyiyah has taken active parts in developing its socio-religious enterprises and economic empowerment of ummat/community at the grass-roots level. Aiming to critically analyze Aisyiyah’s economic empowerment programs using gender perspective, this paper will address a question to some extent Aisyiyah’s economic empowerment seek to accommodate and reconcile their multiple womanhood, modernist Muslim and Indonesian identities and interests. Using three indicators of women’s empowerment of resources, agency and achievements, it is argued that `Aisyiyah’s women economic empowerment has benefited from its resources as the oldest Muslim women’s organisations having vast networks and resulted in various economic empowerment institutions. Such great achievements cannot be detached from the ideological framework of modernist Muslims in Indonesia that is undergoing an evolution from the theology of tajdid/renewal movement with the emphasis on the development of socio-religious enterprises towards the theology of al-Ma`un seeking to make alignment and empowerment of the disadvantaged groups of the society, including the poor and women. However, in terms of agency, such Aisyiyah’s economic empowerment has been forced to serve the gender ideology of modernist Muslims that subordinates gender interests of women under the interests of ummat/community. However, such option is taken by Aisyiyah as a strategy to strike a balance of its identities and interests as a woman, a modernist Muslim, and Indonesian organization and a strategy to respond to its surrounding political contexts in Indonesia.