Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to explore the challenges for Indonesian Muslim women's organizations in the context of women's empowerment in Islam, male authority, and the increasing importance of Islamism.

Paper long abstract:

Since democratisation in 1998 the debate about the re-definition of gender roles has become more prominent in Indonesia. Whereas liberals are voting for gender justice and have implemented programs for women's empowerment in religious institutions, conservative Muslim preachers and politicians are calling for restrictive gender norms and implementation of Islamic law. In this strained situation secular and Muslim women's organisations try to develop emancipatory counter-movements and to enforce ideas about gender justice.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork from April until August 2008 in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, this paper proposes to analyze, how young Muslim women encounter the increasing importance of Islamism in Indonesia, how they position themselves vis a vis the fact that male religious authorities still have the prerogative of interpreting religious sources and which mutual local strategies and instruments, for instance shared religious rituals, values, symbols and programs, they use to promote women's empowerment.