Indonesian Muslims' discourse of husband-wife relationship

Abstract

Islam as the majority religion in Indonesia has important influence on its adherents, including in the metter of husband-wife relationship. This paper aims at discussing Indonesian Muslims' discourse of husband-wife relationship. In Indonesia, Muslim women are mainly accustomed to stay at home, to respect and to obey their husbands. This construction of women's domestication and subordination is usually based on the two most frequently quoted h{dot below}adīths: (1) on the curse of angel for women who refuse to have sex with their husband; and (2) on the woman whose parent enters paradise because of the woman's obedience to her husband. The two traditions are commonly used to justify this construction of husband-wife relationship. However, since the coming influence of global Muslim feminism in Indonesia in the early 1990s, this traditional construction of husband-wife relationship has been criticized by the emerging Indonesian Muslim feminist scholars whose works have provided new perspective on the discourse of husband-wife relationship. Different from the mainstream perspective which tends to domesticate and subordinate women, the new perspective gives position to women and should be treated as equal partner of their husband.