WHY IS INDONESIAN ISLAM IMPORTANT IN THE ENTRENCHMENT OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS?

Abstract

Driven by strong political reforms in Indonesia, women's rights have become one of the nation's most prominent agendas. But Indonesia's women's equality agenda is running out of steam. The argument is that we have ignored the importance of Indonesian Islam, which informs and shapes the nation's 'habit of the heart'. So that the nation's efforts to entrench gender equality substantively, legally and culturally have been inefficient. With this argument, this paper emphasizes the importance of considering Indonesian Islam as a crystallization of local values that can strengthen women's rights in CEDAW, as has been proven. There is gender perspective in private legal products such as the Marriage Law and KHI (which intersect with culture and religion) and the development of expert opinions that use these arguments. This article presents examples of the use of Islamic customs and Indonesian culture to advance women's rights in the Indonesian context, even though in reality they are not fully CEDAW-compliant.